Last week I wrote about un-supportive spouses/significant others/partners.  But un-supportive children are a different story.
An adult has a choice and two adults can have a meaningful, if spirited, conversation and come to some conclusion.  But can you persuade a child to be understanding and supportive?
Well, I guess you can bribe them, but I’ve found that doesn’t work for very long.  And, like all bribes, they keep escalating.  So pretty soon they own the house…and the car… and you’re in trouble.
So what do you do? How do you get your children to support you in your decision to work from home? …read more

If you were looking for places to work in your home business in your community, where would you go to check out the jobs offered?
What if you were looking for someone for a short-term job or contract work for your home business?  Would you look in the newspaper?  Online? Where?  Next time you are looking for work or for someone to do some work for you, consider Craigslist.org.
A friend said she was looking for a receptionist after her receptionist quit.  She used to put ads in the local newspaper, but she decided she would try Craistlist.  She was amazed at …read more

Yesterday’s post about aiming high got me thinking about how to stay motivated. Some days it’s difficult to get up and get going – even when your office is just around the corner (literally!) from your bedroom and the kitchen.
I know how it feels. Working at home has its own rewards – and drawbacks. The rewards are that you can work in your jammies and not have to talk to anyone. The drawback is that you are working in your jammies and not talking to anyone. For you – and me – I offer you a list …read more

Home business owners know the benefits of working from home. But those same benefits are also drawbacks. Your availability to be with your children is also the difficulty, because you are available to be with your children.

I know how it goes.  I was a work-at-home mom for several years when my children were very little.  As someone who knows, I’m here to offer some tips:
1.  Try to stick to a schedule. Notice I said, “try.”  Sometimes it’s impossible, like when children are sick.  But the more tightly you can hold to the schedule, the easier it will be …read more

In response to questions about Virtual Assisting as a home business opportunity, I am interviewing several people.  The first is Stacy Brice, founder, President and Chief Visionary Officer of AssistU.  (I can see why she is successful – what great positive enthusiasm!)  Stacy founded AssistU in March 1997 as a way to help people create the business and life they wanted.  Read more about Stacy’s journey to founding AssistU on her bio.
Questions for Stacy Brice:
1.  How did you get into the VA business?  What motivated you to start AssistU?
I got started as a VA, working for myself, because I was …read more

I haven’t participated in Blog Carnivals in the past, but I decided to try it.  Home Biz Notes got a featured (top) spot on Empowered Mom’s “Work at Home Blog Carnival.”
Lots of the other posts look interesting.  I’m going to check them out….
If you find anything interesting, let me know.

I have been in my full-time home job for less than a week and I love it!  But one cost I had not considered was the lack of exercise and the strain of sitting all day at a computer.  I decided not to bring my home phone to my desk, figuring that I needed to get up and answer those telemarketer phone calls every hour or so.  Know what I mean?
Christopher Wanjek from LifeScience talks about the costs and risks of working from home in a recent blog post.   Not taking breaks, the eyestrain of looking at the computer all …read more

I usually go right to the source when I find news articles of interest, but this time, I wanted to give credit to another “work from home” blog:  Empowering Moms.  They posted an article from CNN about “Companies that will hire you to work at home.” Many new work-at-home jobs are being created, and many companies are transitioning to home-based jobs to cut costs and keep valuable employees.
The jobs in the CNN article seem to fall into a few categories:

Call centers/Advice centers.  These require you to be on the line to receive calls, which might be difficult if you have …read more

Do you know how to claim your home office expenses as a tax deduction?  As promised a few days ago, I’ll give you the ins and outs of the process, and include some limits on home office deductions.
Here is the trick: In order for your home business expenses to be deductible, the space you use must be used (1) regularly AND (2) exclusively for your home business.
Regular Use. Regular use can be daily or weekly or monthly. But you will need to be able to prove that you use the business space regularly. If …read more

If you are just starting a home business, you probably have wondered “What about the neighbors? Will they get upset at my business?”  More than just having your neighbors mad at you, you may be violating two different types of regulations.  And you don’t want to find out if you are in violation by being hit with a lawsuit or fines/penalties.  Here is what I mean:
var iamInit = function() {try{initIamServingHandler(234,156,258868,”http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/Resources/Css/css2.css”)}catch(ex){}}()
First, before you start your home business, you need to be sure your city or town is ok with it.  Localities have zoning regulations to keep all the properties in an …read more