As an owner of a home-based business, you will have to learn to stay focused on your goals/reasons why you originally chose this direction. It is so easy to become distracted when you are working from home; since there are always a hundred other things that need your attention. Think about all those days when you were at your j.o.b. and you would think if I were home I could be getting so much done. Training yourself to stay focused on your home-based business can prove to be a challenge.

The most common distraction many of us face on a daily basis are; children/family, friends stopping by to visit, laundry/house cleaning, interruption from the phone, mail/email, television (your soap operas can wait) and many more.

As a home-based business owner, always remember what your goals/reasons were for bringing your work home. Was your goal to own a home-based business so you could avoid day care raising your children? Was your goal to become debt free? Was your goal to work at your own convenience and having the freedom that comes along with it? Was your goal to make money for yourself instead of that demanding boss?

Here are a few tips to help you stay focused when starting out with your home-based business:

#1: Always keep reminding yourself of the reason why you started your home-based business! If you forget about your why you will loose focus and you will be returning to your j.o.b. very quickly. It is far too easy to get distracted from initial reasons why you wanted to be home and when this happens then end results are sure to prove negative.

#2: Act as if you are punching a time card; keep your day as if you were reporting to a regular j.o.b. Some go to work for the social aspect or to get out of the house; while others go to work to make money. Usually those earning a commission have a stronger work ethic and stay focus attitude even when they are working for someone else. They are not usually the type that report to work to socialize. When working for yourself, your salary is directed by productivity. No productivity – no positive results = no income. Focus, focus, focus this is the only way to see positive results and usually these results can be met working a shorter day.

#3: Scheduling around the families activities is very important and is usually a juggling act. However it is workable; as long as you dedicate a minimum number of hours each day. It’s a good idea to block out this time on a calender so everyone involved knows this is when you will be working. With small children this could be done during nap time or in the evening after the children are in bed. When the children are older, it becomes much easier to tell them that you will be working between certain hours. Your family and friends must realize that there are certain hours of every day that you focus on your home-based business so unless it is an emergency you are not to be interrupted.

#4: The biggest challenge you will run into is from your friends and family who misunderstand what working from home really means. Many misinterpret it or forget that you actually have to do work to see the end results. Therefore you might be constantly targeted to babysit or have constant visitors for that cup of coffee, early morning chat session. Family can be your toughest critique always trying to offer you advice on finding a j.o.b.

You must stand your ground on this one. Don’t try to argue the point that you do have a real j.o.b just make them understand that during specific hours you are to be treated as if you are at that j.o.b. even though you are at home. Remind others how important this is to you and if they wish to have that cup of coffee to call first so you can work it around your work schedule. It is up to you to make sure everyone close to you understands how important your work is to you; this is the only way you will get their respect.

#5: To keep yourself productive, especially if your time is limited; dedicate a certain time of the day to answering emails. The best time for this would be first thing in the morning and just before leaving the home office for the day. Give yourself about two hours a day to complete this task. Answering email can consume your business and cause a negative result in your productivity.

#6: Don’t get side tracked by the meaningless daily activities. For example, if you find yourself focusing on the book work instead of the important tasks that are needed to keep you business running like advertising or returning phone calls then it may be time to out source. Maybe find yourself an assistant to take care of the book work so you can keep your focus on the needed daily tasks.

At the end of the day your results are completely dependent upon you and the decisions you make everyday in running your home-based business. Remember your goals/reasons for starting your home-based business and always keep these reasons as your focus. The only way to see success is by staying dedicated and true to your home-based business; without it your business will not survive.

Stay focused on your goals/reasons with strong work ethics along the discipline necessary to reach your success and dreams. It will be a reality as long as you stay true to those goals!

By Lisa Burkhardt Editor of http://www.work-home-today.com; great resource for work at home ideas and opportunities.

Have you heard the phrase fake it until you make it? It’s something which is increasingly common among business owners, especially on the internet or in direct mail. The basic idea is someone sells you a program or course teaching you how they made millions- only they haven’t yet made the millions, they hope to do so by selling thousands of copies of the course they sold you. They were lying about being rich to begin with, but if all goes to plan they’ll get rich in the end. Odd huh? These tactics are on the rise, so we’re going to try and explode some of the myths in this area.

What’s The Point?
What is the point of this kind of business? After all would you take flying lessons from someone who couldn’t fly a plane? In one word, the point is laziness! The ‘fake it until you make it’ guys are typically internet or direct marketers who are possibly new to the whole thing, or just the more experienced kind that are plain lazy. They find a web page or direct mail ad that is very convincing, promising millions of dollars just by following these few simple steps, working just a few hours each day from home. Is there anyone that wouldn’t want that lifestyle?

So they part with their money, and are sent a course explaining how to set up a very similar website, selling an almost identical product. They will make money if they can make some sales from this site, the end result hopefully being that they make enough money to take care of the ‘make it’ part. And then the cycle repeats and repeats, until there are thousands of people selling products, making a few hundred dollars, but claiming to make millions from it on their web pages. A truly strange phenomena, but somewhat of a self fulfilling prophecy.

The Legal Standpoint
Is it legal for advertisers to work on a ‘fake it until you make it’ basis? I don’t know what the FTA would make of it, but I would guess it’s some kind of grey area, as it’s very difficult to prove how much anyone is or isn’t earning from their website. Most often they will provide screenshots of proof of earnings etc on the sites that they sell their courses from. They can look pretty convincing, but these days it’s pretty easy to swipe such images from another site, or just create them yourself with Photoshop or some similar program.

Do Any Of Them Make it?
Very few if any. You can make millions from the internet and other direct marketing methods, but it takes consistent effort and skills that are built up over time. If the ‘fake it until you make it’ guys are too lazy to find their own manner of working and too dishonest to be bothered about telling lies, the chances are most of them are not going to apply the consistent efforts required to learn the ropes or make any money at all. Those new to internet marketing are pretty susceptible to these schemes, and many people do start there before getting their own (better) ideas and becoming successful doing something else.

Is It On The Increase?
Yes, unfortunately so. Modern web technology makes it possible for complete amateurs to create or acquire tremendously impressive websites, sites which can really snare and captivate a viewer. The casual web browser has no way of knowing how old the site is or if the proof of incomes are real or fake or even just stolen from another site. The only remedy is to be extra vigilant.

How To Tell?
It’s very tough to tell if any person is being honest about the claims of their product. Thankfully there are a few tricks we can keep up our sleeve.
Visit whois.net – This site will give you details of any website, the name of the owner, when it was first registered etc etc. Very useful, as it’s unlikely that a website registered 6 weeks ago is making millions for its owner!
Visit Alexa.com – This site keeps traffic stats for virtually every page on the web. A profitable webpage will usually have hundreds or thousands of daily visitors, especially if the site is making the owner millions. It’s very easy to see if this is true by using the graphs here.
Google the site owner’s name. You can find out many useful things with a simple Google search, and if there are bad reports or reports of the site being a scam, you can usually find them with some smart searching.
Look for a guarantee – Many online payment processors, Clickbank.com for example, will have a guarantee, so that if you aren’t happy with your purchase you can get an instant refund.

Hopefully you’ve found this useful. Remember, if you avoid ‘faking it’ you’ll have a better chance of ‘making it!’

Dave Origano runs seven successful businesses, all doing at least 6 figures per year. Learn from this successful serial-entrepreneur how he does it, what marketing secrets he has and what strategies he uses at his website www.MrOrigano.com

There are millions of drivers on the American roads and each has an individual story about how the unprecedented price of gasoline affects their own personal lives.
Consider how many people will be stuck in traffic this morning across America because somebody tried to get to work with their gas tank on empty
How many additional cars will be left stranded by the roadside, burnt out and gutted because the driver could not keep up with the price of insurance and gasoline?
How does one quantify or measure the number of ruined days, accidents, arguments brought on by rapidly climbing gas prices?
Once an honest individual starts to influence people outside of their immediate sphere they realize that their actions have ripples.
I was selling an ebook online which shared secret shortcuts to avoiding the legendary traffic in Los Angeles. It sold a few copies. Too few! lol
I sometimes amused myself by wondering if I had sent anyone off their usual path to some unforeseen event, good or bad.
So extrapolate that into the society at large being affected by something as widespread and dark as the price of gasoline skyrocketing across the nation
Life is a series of probabilities, causes which cause other things which lead us in directions that hold happy and scary encounters. That is the plus and the minus.
So, again, what really is the price to society of the skyrocketing gas prices?
And more importantly what actions do we have to take as individuals to stop being ripped off by large corporations and their deceitful money games?
There are those who reject that they have self determinism or that their self determinism is sufficient to make any great changes in their fate.
But such people might as well be dead and they are just waiting for someone to come along with a shovel.
Just as there are cures for cancer to be found if one does some research, just as there solutions to global warming, the environmental waste of New Orleans and the health problems of the 911 first responders if one doesn’t take no for an answer and the solutions applied, a solution exists also to emancipate us from slavery to the gas pump.
Did you know you can lower the gas consumption of a car or truck with water? A hybrid engine using both gas and water can be installed quite easily. A fully hydrogen based system can be implemented with just a bit of knowledge, resourcefulness and effort.
It is worth it in terms of more money in your pocket, a cleaner environment, a smoother operating car or truck and in so many unforeseen ways that could have rewarding ramifications that it really is wise to make the small investment of time and caring to get your car or truck running on a hydrogen system.

Songwriter, activist, consumer advocate and activist, GARKO, advises that presently you cannot buy a car that runs on water but that the ones coming on the market in the next five years are planning to charge too much for the conversion.
But he can show you how to use water instead of gasoline which is the best
engine modification to save gas

For a list of current gasoline prices in your neighborhood email garko@startlingdiscoveries.info