I have people ask me, usually men, how do you do it all?  How do you take care of the family, and your business, and be so management oriented?  Did you study business management in college, get an MBA?  No sir, I did not even finish high school.  I even worked at McDonalds as the French fry girl 10 years ago, now I run a multi-million dollar company.

Shhh, my Secret!  I had to work really hard, re-train myself, be willing to admit failure, be willing to change what was not working, and develop skills that I never knew I had.

It is not easy!  Let me tell you, however, once you have the skill set, anything is possible.  Here are my 5 tips and secrets that I use EVERYDAY, to do it!

1) Make sure you have a very clear to do list. I cannot function without it jotted down, even on a scrap paper.

2) Enlist people to can help you do these items, or that can do them for you.

3) Do not overload your schedule. I know that after I drop my kids at school, I have from 9 AM to 3:30 PM to get my things done. Because as you know, once the kids get home there is a host of activities going down i.e. dinner, homework, chores, and don’t forget you and daddy time! That is a whole other blog to write about. I have been successfully married for 20+ years, so I guess I can claim to be an authority on how to make it all work.

Get the next two tips

If you have an extra room that you can make your office, that’s great. If you don’t, you will have to find a space in your home where you can create a home office. This can be any room – even a large closet.

Liven Up Your Space

It is a proven fact that your office affects your productivity. So yours should be lively, not dull. The walls should be colors that inspire you, not simply grey or white.

You should have colorful artwork on the walls and area rugs on the floors. Have a sofa or chair in your office with throw pillows on it. If your office is white or beige and has no life, you will want to spend less time there – and therefore you won’t be very productive.

Save Space

If you are forced to make your closet your office, you need to save space in every way possible. Leave the legs off of your desk and mount the desk top to the wall.

You can use the area underneath the desk as a place for your computer tower, a trashcan, or even a few storage boxes. You can also have a closet system installed with several different shelves so you can stack files, or even stack plastic boxes.

If you are working in a small space, you want to keep the things you use everyday close to your fingertips. You want to make sure it is organized. If you have to waste time looking for something that you can’t find because your office is cluttered, you are not being very productive.

If you have everything organized and you are looking for a certain file, you know exactly where it is – and you can spend the time you would have spent searching for the file working. This will make you more productive and more successful.

Keep Only What You Need

Keeping only the things you need is very important. If you keep all of your files, even after you have finished using them, you may want to consider moving them to a storage shed or attic.

When you are in a small office, you want to maximize as much room as possible. If you are not using something, find another place to put it.

Having a small space takes a bit of creativity but in the end, you will have a functional office that you can be productive in. Begin by learning how to determine what is really needed and what is not.

That will carry throughout the rest of the house – and you can get rid of things that you may have been hanging onto for years but are not using.

You can either do this via calling health insurance providers in your local area, or for more options use a search engine like Google to find online providers. An excellent resource to use is Health Insurance Info , which offers details on what health insurance plans are available in your particular state. Additionally, it also informs you of potential high-risk industries, as well as the providers that specialize in different areas.

Other options available to you include the Small Business Service Bureau , or SBSB, which not only offers advice on health insurance cover for the self-employed, but also general business tips for running your own business. Having a site that combines all this information onto one dedicated portal can make running your business a lot easier.

Perhaps one of the best websites for dedicated advice on where to arrange your self-employed health insurance is eHealth Insurance . Here you can compare up to 70 health insurance providers, with policies to suit your particular needs. If there’s any drawback to this site, though, it’s that it doesn’t cover all US states – if your business is in Rhode Island, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont, you won’t be able to take out insurance.

Additionally, the policies are only for one person – so, if you’re running a business yourself you’ll be fine, but if you employ people they won’t be covered. You can get round this by only employing sub-contractors, who would then have to take care of their own health plans and taxes, etc.

If you’re unsure, the best option is to speak to your local Chamber of Commerce. These can advise what options are available in your state, and you may even be able to receive self-employed health insurance cover via a Municipal Employees Health Insurance Program. Although traditionally for employed workers, some states will allow this to cover small business owners as well, so make sure you find out if it’s applicable where your business is.

While staying home and having a home office may seem ideal to you, believe it or not there can be some issues when working from your home. Distractions are more prevalent at home although the argument can be made that there are plenty of distractions when working on-site as well. Losing your internet can be a real drag and also the fact that you lose social interaction in the workplace is an important factor.

What if your job requires you to meet with a client? You can’t always meet at a coffee shop, particularly if you want to be seen as a seasoned professional in your field. Where do you have the meeting? And when you work at home do you use your personal address as your business address? That works fine until the junk mail starts to pile up or you go to sell your home and the underwriter doesn’t like the fact that there was a business there previously.

When you get a little stir crazy at home you can just run out to the coffee shop right? Most have wireless internet and you can get a good cup of espresso as well. But what if the chairs aren’t all that comfortable or they turn the music up too loud? You just find a new coffee shop right? Easier said than done and there is a new alternative for people who freelance or work from home.

Shared Office Space

Shared office space is a business concept that rents office space to a host of individuals. Although offerings vary depending on your market most all of them offer a place to put your desk, several conference rooms which you can schedule for meetings, internet access, the potential for a phone line, and a business address you can use for your business.

There are different levels of membership from monthly renters that cost several hundred dollars a month to daily users who pay as much as $20 per day to use a community desk and link to the internet. You can get discounts for quarterly or annual memberships and some shared office spaces offer referral bonuses for friends and colleagues you are able to sign up.

While you can run into the same distractions you would in a regular office one advantage is you might find you are able to network with other freelance or home based businesses. You also don’t have to go into the office; you can use your home office or go in to your shared office space. Having a business address separate from your home address is a bonus and depending on the type of business you have access to a private conference room is an excellent idea.

If your city’s shared office space offers a daily rate it is recommended you try it for at least 2 months on a pay as you go arrangement and see how many days you go to “your new office”. This will allow you to evaluate if the move will be cost effective in the long run.

What type of insurance coverage is needed?

In order to make sure that you business is adequately covered, you’ll need to consider all aspects of it. Consider the following questions:

1. Will you be using a vehicle for any type of business purpose?
2. Will clients, vendors or delivery couriers come to your house for business purposes or to deliver business mail or packages?
3. Does the business store valuable products in a warehouse or inside the house?
4. Does the business manufacture or supply products?
5. What electronic equipment will be used for the business?
6. What other valuable equipment or tools will be used for the business?

The most common types of small business insurance

Property Insurance – Most home businesses should have property insurance. This protects against loss or damage to the property or equipment used in the business. For example, computers, fax machine, scanner, printer, copier, office furniture, etc. When securing property insurance, in most cases you will have the option of getting actual replacement cost coverage or cash value coverage. While replacement cost coverage will have higher premiums, it will better protect the business after a catastrophic loss.

Liability Insurance – This will protect a business when it is responsible for damages to a person or to a person’s property. This can be anything from a delivery person slipping on your driveway while making a delivery, to a tree on your property falling on a client’s car. Your homeowners’ policy won’t protect you from claims made by your business visitors, so instead of playing a game of chance with your financial future, it’s always best to have liability insurance for your business.

Product Liability Insurance – If your business manufacturers, supplies or designs a product or products, then most likely you will need product liability insurance. This type of insurance will protect the business if a claim is made due to damages that occurred as a result of your product.

Business Automobile Insurance – Since your personal automobile policy doesn’t cover the business use of your vehicle, you will need business auto insurance if you will be visiting clients or vendors, making deliveries, picking up packages, etc.

To ensure that you are getting the right coverage for your business, talk with an insurance agent that specializes in small business insurance. It’s possible that your homeowners’ or renters’ insurance company offers business insurance but, more often than not, you will end up using a separate insurance company for your business insurance needs. The most important thing to remember is to make sure that all parts of your business are covered; leaving something overlooked could end up being disastrous for both you and your business.

The key to marketing a small home-based business is knowing your target market. This sounds easy enough, but it is one of the most overlooked points by novice marketers because it requires a good amount of research to do right. If you are an established business, then chances are you already know who your target market is. But, that’s only half of the information you need. The other half is figuring out how to reach them. That may mean what keywords they search for on Google, what complimentary sites they visit, etc. A well-designed ad placed on a site that isn’t visited by your target market does you no good. Same with Google’s AdWords program. You can easily blow through hundreds of dollars a month on wasted clicks from keywords that are too broad and not used by your target market.

3 sure-fire (and inexpensive) ways to market a home-based business

Have a content-rich website – The more text you have on your website, the better its chances of showing up on the major search engines. Two increasingly-popular ways to do this is by having a blog or publishing ongoing industry-related articles. Not only will doing this add a ton of content to your site, it can also help to establish you as an expert in your industry.

Compile an email list – Sending permission-based emails or newsletters to past and potential customers is one of the best ways to keep your target market interested in your company’s offerings while giving them something of value (content wise) in return. Having a link on your website or order form asking visitors to opt in to receive email specials or newsletters is one of the easiest ways to build your list. Another is to include a “refer a friend” link so that current subscribers can easily let their friends in on your great emails or newsletters.

Get your business seen – This means having your company information in as many places on the web as possible: business, local and industry directories, yellow pages listings, forums, blogs as well as online advertisements with Google’s AdWords or Yahoo!’s Search Marketing.

None of the above marketing strategies require a big advertising budget or a large amount of time to launch. The most important thing to remember is to keep your target market in mind at all times. Think how they think and gear your website, blog, company listings and advertisements towards them and their interests. Successful marketers know this is the secret to any good marketing plan. Good luck!

Your home office space

Choosing the right space for your office is more important than you might think. Everything from the amount of sunlight to the color of the walls can affect your productivity. An area that’s secluded, yet bright is best – like a spare room in the house, but preferably not the basement or attic. If you don’t have or need an entire room to devote to your home office, that’s fine, perhaps a corner or closet in a spare bedroom will do just fine.

For the best work atmosphere, get rid of the maroon or navy painted walls and bring in some lighter colors. Keep windows unblocked and be sure your office space is uncluttered and clean – it’s hard to get into a work mode if laundry is scattered everywhere. Also, as tempting as it may be to set up a little corner of the living room for your office, don’t – you’ll end up getting half as much work done, having to constantly deal with distractions and interruptions. Your home office should be out of the main flow of the house – a secluded spare bedroom is the perfect recluse to focus on work.

Your work tools

For your home office, you’ll most likely need a phone, fax, computer with internet service and a printer. However, there are plenty of options for each. For your office phone line you might decide to use your cellphone, a voicemail phone service or an internet phone service like Skype. For your fax, you have options such as a fax machine, a scanner with a computer fax program or an online monthly fax service. As for your computer, you have the choice of a desktop or a laptop with a docking station. If you do a great bit of traveling, you might find that having a laptop as your main computer will make life much easier. And, of course, for internet you can choose from cable, DSL, T1, etc. You may find having a wireless internet connection is convenient if you sometimes prefer to work on the couch or in your bed in the evenings – hey, why not!

In order to have a productive home office, it’s important to have all of your work tools convenient and readily accessible. That means having files, paper, pens, trade magazines and books within easy reach. Nothing disrupts a great work momentum like having to get up and look through a basement full of file boxes for your business’ EIN number.

Having your office right at home can truly make going to work fun: not having to worry about what power suit to wear or what lunch to pack, no commute and no idle chit chat with cubemates you don’t particularly care for. Yep, working from the comfort of your own home puts you in total control of your workday – which for some can be scary and temptation ridden. But, don’t worry, a productive workday begins with your home office – and as long as you keep your work space separate from your home space, you’re off to a good start!

However, there are ways that you can expand your business without taking on extra full or part-time staff; you can use contractors to carry out certain work for you. This might be printing your stationery or delivering your product further afield. Whatever the need, using contractors can make all the difference, especially as you look to open up your business to a wider audience. Yet there are some things to keep in mind when looking to use a contractor for your business.

Relevancy
Although it might seem obvious, make sure you pick the right people for the work you need done. You’d be surprised at the amount of people that use the wrong contractors, and that only reflects badly on you at the end of the day. After all, your contractors will be representing your business when working for or with clients; so the last thing you want to do is choose a contractor that ruins a business relationship before it’s even begun.

Legal Ins and Outs
When looking at using contractors for your business, you should also make sure that you’re legally covered for any eventualities. Therefore, get a contract put together that is legally binding and outlines the contractor/company responsibilities. Things to cover include:

* Tax and illness responsibility (this lies with the contractor)
* Hourly rates
* Deadlines and penalties for missing them
* Termination of contract

Quality Control Monitoring
Obviously, because a contractor is representing your company, you need to make sure that any work they carry out is up to your standards. A client won’t care whether it’s you or a contractor carrying out their work – at the end of the day, they know that it’s you who’s ultimately responsible. Therefore, make sure that all the contractor’s work is something you’d be happy to call your own.

Keep Clients Up-to-Date
Because your relationship with your clients is everything, don’t be afraid to let them know that you’ll be using a contractor for their project. If a client trusts you already and is happy to place their business needs in your hands, then they’ll also trust you to use your judgment when choosing a contractor to work for you – just make sure that they’re aware you won’t be personally handling their project.

Keep Your Contractor(s) Happy
With all the problems you might encounter when looking for a contractor to use – reliability, quality, cost, etc – it’s even more important to keep good ones when you find them. Make sure that you pay fairly and on time, and that your contractor is the first company you call when you need help. This will show them how much you value their services, which in turn will make them more loyal to you and happy to carry out their best work for you.

Set boundaries – If you’re going to work out of your house, you’ll need to let family and friends know that even though you’ll be home, you won’t always have time to talk on the phone or over coffee. If you don’t set clear boundaries in the beginning, you might find that your day is consumed with chit chat and pop ins. The same goes for your kids and husband too. If you’re making a business call, they can’t interrupt you like they usually do, or call loudly to someone else in the background. “Work time” at home needs to be respected as such, or else what should only take you two hours to do will end up taking five hours.

Create a workspace – It’s hard get into work mode if you’re typing on a laptop at the kitchen counter. There are just too many distractions to pull your attention away from the task at hand. To make the most of your work time, between taking the kids to the park and going to the grocery store, set up an office space for yourself. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have an entire room to devote to your business (yet), for now a desk in the corner of the guest bedroom will do just fine. Have everything on the desk that you’ll need to squeeze in some work during naps or in the evening.

Plan a rough schedule – Face it, being a mom and a business owner means it will be nearly impossible to have a fixed work schedule every day. Kids will need a shoulder to cry on, or an afternoon snack, whatever. So, instead of trying to force a regimented schedule into your day, be flexible with a schedule that moves with your day. Plan out when you think you can realistically get some work done, maybe 6am-7am (before the kids wake up), then 1pm-3pm (during naps) and then 6pm-9pm (after dinner). Of course, the kids may wake up earlier or sleep later, a nap may not happen and dinner out takes up the night shift. But, don’t fret, with a flexible schedule you can make up the time: maybe you’ll wake up at 5am or work until 10pm the next day, perhaps you’ll work during naps on the weekends. The point is, be flexible with your work schedule, because trying to stick to specific work hours will end up making you frustrated and stressed.

Make weekly task lists – What can be helpful to moms who own a business is having a weekly work “to do” list. It not only brings structure to your week, but it also gives you an incentive to work more efficiently (so you can clock out early and take everyone out for ice cream)! You can also use it to your advantage when trying to get some work done: “As soon as I finish everything on my list, I’ll be done working and we can have some fun”!

Enlist help – Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it, either for your business, or running the household. An overwhelmed mom is bound to be less productive, both at home and at work. So, make a list of babysitters, housekeepers, and temporary office helpers that you can rely upon with short notice.

According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, there are 10.6 million women business owners in the United States, earning $2.5 trillion in annual revenue. So, what are you waiting for, claim your share and become a mompreneur today!

Being productive means getting the most amount of work done in the shortest amount of time. While the reward for that as an office employee just means more work, the reward for a productive day at the home office could mean increased profits for the week by as much as 15% – and that’s money that goes right into your bottom line!

How to get productive in 3 easy steps:

Schedule work hours – It’s nice to fantasize about waking up in the morning at your leisure and walking twenty paces in your pajamas to the office. But, in reality, a productive day means a scheduled day. It not only gives you structure for a working mindset, it lets friends and family know when you are working (and not available to socialize). Of course, working from home allows you to set your hours whenever you want. You can choose to work the hours that suit you best, say 6am-11am and then 7pm-9pm, or stick with the usual 9am-5pm workday. Then let your clients, friends and family know your schedule and add your office hours to your business’ voicemail and website.

Limit internet networking and e-mails – Online business socializing sites, business blogs and email can be crucial for making contacts, solidifying relationships and building your business; but if you’re not careful, they can easily overtake your workday. Answering emails could take up 2-3 hours of your day if you’re not careful. Try to limit emails and internet networking to a specific amount of time per day or per week. If you keep your email program closed all but during your specified “checking times”, you will be amazed at how much your productivity will increase during the day.

Plan out your day/week/month – With a schedule of tasks already laid out for you, you’ll have trouble convincing yourself that “there’s nothing to do”. Each day you should have a list of things to get done. You should also have longer-term goals laid out for each week and for the month. The best way to do this is with a dry erase board for your office wall. That makes the jobs easy to see and you’ll feel productive as you cross each one off the list.

Now that you have the tools necessary to make the most out of your stay-at-home workday, you just need to put them into action. Remember why you wanted to work at home in the first place – being productive will help you to achieve those goals even faster.