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Homeschooling or working from home could each easily be a full time job.  So how can you successfully juggle both?  Is it even possible?  Yes!  There are many moms who homeschool their children successfully while building a business.  Over the years I’ve learned a few things that have helped me succeed and stay sane.

First, keep things in perspective. Juggling homeschooling and working from home IS a challenge and it won’t always be easy, but it can be done!

Second, have a plan. You need to create a schedule for your family that blocks out hours of time for school and hours of time for working.  It doesn’t have to a down to the minute type schedule, but you need something that helps ensure everything that needs completed gets done each day.

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Support your health and a healthy world by making green choices for your home office.

It’s not difficult to be more environmentally friendly while creating a home office that will reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals, it just requires a bit of planning and thought.

Furnishing & Decorating Your Office

To furnish your office consider shopping for second-hand furniture so you can save it from a landfill. Craigs List, eBay, yard sales, moving sales, your local paper, and second-hand shops are great places to look.

If you’re purchasing new, look for furniture that will last and not need replaced quickly.

For decor you can use recycled and re-purposed items. If you repaint, use a low-VOC paint to reduce your exposure to dangerous fumes.

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When you work from home, it can be a real challenge to get your business tasks completed without repeated interruptions.

What can you do to minimize the distractions and be more productive?

There are four keys to creating a home office environment that allows you to minimize those distractions and stay focused.

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Are you making one of these mistakes in your new home based business venture?  For a successful home based business watch out for these common problems.

Mindset: Hobby vs. Business

Are you running your business like a “business” or like a “hobby”?  You’ve got to change your mindset to look at your business like a business.  Get your business license and get setup right.

Take time to organize yourself and set clear goals.  Setup an accounting system.  Write a business plan (even a short one) and include your goals.  Block out time daily to work both “on” and “in” your business.

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Looking for your next great business book to read?  Here are four of my favorite books for women in business from those I’ve recently read.  Click the image on the first three to grab a copy at Amazon (affiliate links).  The fourth isn’t an affiliate link, and it’s only $4.95 S&H.

See Jane Succeed: Five Types of Female Entrepreneurs Reveal What it Takes to Win in Business and Life by Michele DeKinder-Smith

This inspiring and validating book stays on my desk (not the bookshelf) and it’s full of highlighted passages and dog-eared pages. It offers a unique look at the different types of women in business and the challenges they face. Each “Jane” type of woman entrepreneur is explained, analyzed and an action plan presented that includes step by step help to turn their difficulties into strengths so they can break through to the next level of success in their business and live their ideal success. Read my review of this book at http://ezinearticles.com/?See-Jane-Succeed-by-Michele-DeKinder-Smith&id=4823259

I Love My Life! A Mom’s Guide to Working From Home by Kristie Tamsevicius

This is a resource-filled book that takes you from the dreaming phase all the way through a successful business. It begins by offering ideas and identifying opportunities for business you can run from your home, and in helping you identify a good match for what you enjoy doing. You’ll find help for creating a business plan, setting up your home office, building a business website and creating your marketing strategy. Kristie T. also shares tips from experience on how to balance work and life as your business grows.

Makeover Your Business in 6 Weeks or Less: Proven Techniques for the Entrepreneurial Woman by Michele Scism

Has your business growth got you feeling unsure of what your next steps should be? As your business grows your plans and mindset need to grow with it and this book lays out 6 areas of your business to review and improve from your marketing and follow up to your systems and mindsets. It’s written in a friendly, conversational style that makes it easy to read. Read my review of this book at http://ezinearticles.com/?Book-Review—Makeover-Your-Business-in-6-Weeks-Or-Less&id=4819903

The Career-at-Home Mom: Secrets for Earning a Six-Figure Income While Having Time for Your Family by Debbie LaChusa

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Guest blog alert!  I’m at CWAHM this week.  I was invited to post two guest blogs at Jill Hart’s CWAHM website this summer and they’ve just posted the first of the two so I wanted to share it with my blog readers.  I’ll share the second one once it’s posted, too.  If you’re a work at home mom, their newsletter’s full of great tips – both business and homemaking articles.

Summer time means we’re usually outside more, away from the computer, and getting some sunshine.  That can make it difficult to stick with some of the marketing plans that rely heavily on the internet.  Not sure what to do to stay active with your marketing while busy enjoying summer with your family?  Here are a few low-tech and off-line ways you can get in some business marketing while you’re off to the beach or park.

Click here to continue reading -> http://cwahm.com/wordpress/2010/articles/guest-post-simple-summer-marketing-ideas/

(P.S.  For Ultimate Blog Challenge participants, this post is 151 words, not including my PS here.  Try featuring a little blurb and link to somewhere else you’ve published an article (even Ezine Articles!) as one of your posts.  It’ll build your credibility as well as let you re-purpose your work and create a new blog post without writing a whole new article.)

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Would you like to listen to this post? CinchCast audio is just above the related posts, sharing links, and comments at the bottom. Look for the purple play button.
Ever feel like the woman on the left – biting your nails nervously when you think about running your own business?  Good thing you stopped by today, it’s a Tuesday pep talk!

Personal and business get so intertwined when you’re a solopreneur – personal progress IS business progress and growing as a person is required to grow your business…

My greatest challenge in business isn’t marketing, or my technical services, or writing… it’s doing the work to be a better, stronger, bolder version of myself and to have faith and confidence that I’ll succeed.

So if you find it challenging, too, know that you aren’t alone! And you can do it.

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This week I took the kids and flew to Anchorage (that’s the “big city” for us Alaskans) where we celebrated my Grandmother’s 80th birthday with her. She’s had a very long life and it was wonderful to spend some time together with so much of my extended family in one place.

Then I got the news yesterday that a wonderful lady I knew online had passed away. I’d known Denise Willms for years – she ghostwrote articles for me, helped me with press releases, and I did website design and hosting for her. She was a wonderful person, full of kindness and she always inspired me. I can hardly believe she’s gone.

It’s been one of those weeks where I realized that life is so unpredictable. We never know whether it’ll be 80 we make it to… or whether we’ll leave the world much sooner than seems fair.

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You may have noticed a banner on the bottom right of my blog the last few days.  Have you checked it out yet?  It’s a great giveaway of hundreds of self-improvement gifts.

How’s it work?  Hundreds of entrepreneurs have contributed free gifts so they can introduce themselves to you and get the opportunity to show you what they offer.

You’ll find ebooks, courses, mp3 audios, videos, and more.  Some do require an email address/name to receive the gift (but you can always unsubscribe if you want) and others don’t.

Check it out and you may just find something cool.  :)

Couple of gifts I liked: Lisbeth Tanz from Savvy Freelance Writers contributed a great ebook on Stress Relief, Meridith Alspektor has an ebook called Chief Executive Mommy about balancing home and work responsibilities, and there’s much more hiding in there!

After you sign up, just click the “General Downloads” link near the top right to find everything.

Collect your free gifts here: http://selfhelpgiftsgiveaway.com/giveawayevent/go/405

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This is a special guest article reprinted with permission by Sue Painter of Confident Marketer.  I came across it in her ezine and thought the five points she offered were fantastic for anyone trying to transition from working a job to creating their own home business.

I promised to answer some of the questions you gave me when you took my survey a few months ago, remember?  One question that several people asked was how they could build their own business when they were already working a full time job.  From the questions, I can tell there is a good bit of frustration, exhaustion, and worry going on about this topic.  So I decided to pull together some ways to build a business even if you are working.
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