It’s very common for people to be full of energetic passion for their home business when first starting out. It’s new and fun and full of hope. As time passes, it starts to become routine, maybe even boring. Disappointment can set in if things haven’t gone the way you’d hoped fiscally, tarnishing that once bright, shiny outlook. On top of that, when you work long hours like I do, you can lose sight of balance and forget that there is life away from the computer. Everyone can benefit from knowing how to stay balanced and motivated, especially when you work from home. Try any or all of the following and see if it helps you.

• Rejuvenate Your Business Objectives. Summer is over and the last quarter is upon us. Refuel your work passion and excitement by making some very specific goals and strategies to finish out the year, and then work them. Try replacing outdated or unsuccessful techniques with new or different methods.

• Expand Your Office. You don’t have to move walls, move yourself instead. On bright, sunny days, I write out on the deck. If it’s a cloudy day or dusk (too much glare in sunlight), I can even take my laptop out as I have wireless internet. If there’s a park or café nearby where you live, try those. Ever heard that old saying, “a change is as good as a rest”?

• Shake Things Up. Throw open the windows, draw back the curtains to let the light in and put your favourite peppy music on. Keep the energy moving and light. You’ll feel happier and be more productive.

• Establish Regular Hours. Determine your best start and stop times and stick to them. Get away from the computer and make time for your family and friends. Everyone will be happier and more relaxed.

• Laugh. That’s right, have fun and laugh often. It reduces stress, builds warm feelings, keeps you light and just makes life worth living.

Just in case you haven’t noticed, nothing in the above costs money. Not knowing How to Stay Balanced and Motivated When You Work From Home can cost you plenty, though. Your health, relationships and business are at risk. Use the start of autumn to mark your new routine, and put more joy and balance into your life.

This is a guest post by Shirley Anderson.

Do you advertise your home business? It’s commonplace for brick and mortar businesses to advertise their products and services. We’ve all seen or heard those ads on TV, radio or in print publications such as newspapers and magazines. By doing this, they are building brand and company recognition, which is an essential step in business growth. Few home business owners feel the need to go to such lengths, but guess which type of company typically writes up more sales in a year.

If you hope to expand your enterprise, you must spread the word and advertise your home business as much and as best as you can. Never mind the low or no budget argument. There are ways to advertise that don’t cost you anything but your time.

Free classifieds are great example of that. When you use free classifieds, your ad is reaching a huge area. They are also terrific because they are FREE. That price tag fits everybody’s advertising budget.

The following sites are good ones to start on. You may notice that Craig’s List is missing. While it’s a good resource, everyone already knows about it. These are lesser known, and will save you the time as you won’t have to hunt for them. *The site names are linked, so just click on them to visit the websites and check them out.

USFreeads – Contrary to what the name would have you believe, USFreeads services many countries around globe. Placing an ad is free, but if you’d like to ad a photo, there is a charge. It’s worthwhile to check out the tips offered on the site. They are meant to help you write compelling ads that result in higher conversion rates.

Free4uclassifieds – Free4uclassifieds is free to post an ad, and also to upload a photo. If you’d like to call more attention to your ad, there is a $2.00 fee for highlighting. There are links to resources on this site, as well. So far though, this site is only for Canadians and Americans.

Highland Classifieds – This one is easy to use, and remains free as long as you just want to place a text ad. Highland Classifieds will send you regular reports of the activity for your ad, letting you know how many hits you got, how many times it was displayed, and when it is due to expire. Renewing is super easy, you just click the ‘repost’ link in the email they send you.

*If you’d like to see a few more options, you can check out my HubPage on this topic.

As you can see by the above examples, there really are places for you to advertise your home business that don’t have to cost you anything. Try them, even if only for a few months, although the longer the better. You may have to hone your copywriting skills to really grab a reader’s attention, but there are resources available to help you, or you can hire a writer to do it, but that takes the ‘free’ out of it. Besides, you can do it.

Advertise your home business, and watch your sales climb!

This is a guest post by Shirley Anderson.

It can be hard when your office is a room in the family home. In my case it’s the room next to our bedroom, so sometimes it can be so tempting to just head to the right and dive under the covers. Working from home is NOT as easy as you’d think. Besides having the ability to work alone, you must have drive.

Make your space more friendly and less like work!

A couple weeks back Caron came home with about 3 or 4 bunches of flowers (must be a popular girl ), so I asked her if I could have a bunch to put on my desk. After-all the desk in the kitchen was a bit crowded and I hate overcrowded spaces. The male readers are probably saying, how sissy of you to want flowers on your desk. But get this… I love gardening and flowers so why not bring it into my space? The beauty, the colors and the reminder of my garden… those flowers added a sense of peace on hectic days.

Over the years I’ve come to realize that it’s very comforting when I surround myself with things that make me happy. Things that brings out emotions or memories of happy times. I’ve even gone as far as to put up images of things I’d like to have, so I can see what my goals are. Kinda materialistic? Who cares, I work hard and I deserve some material stuff

Most of us usually have pictures of our children, wife etc on our desk or desktop background and that’s great,  but I’ve gone a bit further.

After Caron and Tehya’s recent trip to the Mexican Riviera, they brought back a mini version of one of those local blanket things. Though I didn’t go with them, it still reminded me of what they did. I saw the beaches, the ruins at Tulum, the resort they stayed at, the food they ate, the street scenes in Playa del Carmen. Amazing pictures. That blanket now sits on my chair…

I drink tea in a different exotic Caribbean destination every day. Nothing beats daydreaming if not for just a couple minutes on a cold winter day about lounging on Darkwood beach In Antigua. Caron collects mugs whenever we travel (she just started collecting shot glasses, since we’re running out of room in the kitchen for mugs) so I’ve decided to put them to use. As I enjoy my tea, I glimpse at the cup and it takes me back to the location where they were purchased… St Lucia, St Maarten, USVI, Aruba..etc.

This morning I felt like reliving our trip to Barbados last year, so I grabbed the Barbados mug and enjoyed a wonderful cup of tea. An excellent way to start a gloomy, rainy and humid day.

Besides the blanket, mugs and pictures of what I’d like to enjoy… I also have a stuff from my trip to the world cup in Germany, Tehya’s trip to NY city and for the longest while I had the girls soccer book/schedule on my desk, since it reminded me of our weekly games during the summer. I looked forward to going to the games with a  cup of Tim Hortons in hand and 4 beautiful girls at my side (when we could convince Kieana to join us).

Surround yourself with things that brings out happy emotions and you’ll beat any work at home stress or boredom.

People assume that if you work from home it automatically means you save on having to buy gas as often as someone who commutes daily. That’s usually one of the benefits of telecommuting and you’re quite right in assuming so. But in my specific case, we have 3 girls who are all involved in one thing or the other and Caron works outside the home. This means constantly having to drive someone somewhere.

Last night as I was about to shut down my computer and call it a day, I scanned the local news website since I don’t usually have time to watch the news on tv. Big bold letters caught my eyes.. Gas will jump overnight to $137 L. Caron had mentioned seeing gas priced at $1.21 earlier in the day, so that would mean a 16 cents increase.

16 friggin cents increase. WTF? (Yea, I’m pissed) Supposedly it’s all about “Ike”. The last time we had a gas price increase for a hurricane, it was Katrina and the price NEVER went down. It’s as if they were just sitting, lurking in the bushes.. for an excuse to come along to jack-up the prices at the pump.

Here’s my little gripe. When oil prices fell the past few weeks, we were told (news) that it will take a couple months to actually see a drop at the pumps. However, every frigging hurricane that shows up on the map causes gas prices to jump immediately. Ike is supposed to hit land sometime Saturday if the reports are correct. I fully understand about cutting production etc… but what about all the gas that’s in depots, trucks, at the friggin gas stations itself. How can a hurricane affect that gas price? Did they not already pay for that gas at the pre-hurricane price to sell to us? Can you say BIG PROFITS?

Speaking about Ike… if you’re reading this post at home in an area marked for evacuation, GET OUT! Forget any reason or excuse to stick it out. Please try to get out.

High gas prices, Ike’s on his way and it’s a wet and gloomy Friday morning… let’s brighten up the day with one of the flower pics from my garden collection

It can be as simple as holding a door for a stranger, yet for some reason even that polite gesture no longer seems to happen in today’s society. I don’t know if that is because people are so into themselves that they don’t pay attention to anyone around them or if it is a total lack of respect for the people around us because we don’t believe they deserve it. In either situation, it makes me sad because that is how we are raising our children to think and treat their peers as well as their elders.

I was raised to “do unto others as I would have others do unto me.” This, in essence, means, treat everyone you meet the way that you want to be treated. Not only does this show that you respect those around you, it shows that you have good manners and good manners are essential to getting anything you want out of life…personally or professionally.

These are some basic “good manner” guidelines to follow for every aspect of your life.

Always respect older people…listen to them and learn, their knowledge is invaluable. This applies to all elders and not just parents or grandparents.

Use the terms ‘Thank You’, ‘Please‘, and ‘You are Welcome‘ as this shows that you appreciate what someone has done for you.

Pay attention to how you carry yourself. In other words, act like you have some class, which goes hand in hand with manners. Don’t slouch. Have a neat appearance, shake hands firmly, be clean and smell clean (use deodorant! Don’t overdo the perfume or cologne!), hold your head high and don’t hide behind dark sunglasses inside or wear other “trying to be cool” looks at the “wrong” time…it gives the impression of arrogance and immaturity.

Do not swear. It’s unprofessional. People who do this are usually very immature and have no self-control or respect for themselves or others. Eventually, you’ll see that bad words are not appropriate and you will begin to feel more comfortable avoiding them altogether. Profanity is a sign of an angry person and it puts people off you immediately as its very distasteful and offensive. Using a good decent vocabulary gives the impression of intelligence, self-respect and character.

Try to show that you are more interested in the person you are speaking to by asking them questions about themselves. Be a listener. Don’t steal their spotlight by just talking about yourself. You don’t want to come off as selfish.

Don’t put other people down. Never openly criticize someone in an attempt to put them down or to make yourself look better. If you don’t like people speaking about you in that way then don’t do it yourself! Be complimentary and positive. Something to remember is that good manners are based on your consideration for the people around you and the principle of not making them uncomfortable. Having an opinion is one thing, but being insulting is nothing more than bad manners.

These are just a few suggestions of how to treat people in any given situation, but if a situation would arise and you are unsure what to do, always remember…Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

This is a guest post by Michelle Noe