Today I had to print out several important emails for a client meeting this evening and received the dreaded message from my Canon inkjet printer: toner cartridge empty.  Now I was stressed I wouldn’t be prepared for a meeting and didn’t have a printer available for the rest of the day.  Having two children that would accompany my trip to Staples for the inkjet toner was not exactly my plan for the day.  Instead of getting frustrated an irritated I decided to turn this office supply shopping trip into a learning experience for the kids.  Take the time to involve your children in your home business and educate them in what you do throughout the day.

Here was my plan for our shopping adventure:

1.  Kids love going to new places and can be part of your shopping experience.

2.  Have your child hold the item (toner cartridge) and have them help you find the replacement.  This is a fun game and they can’t break the old one, because it’s already used.  Have your children look for numbers and letters if they can’t spell yet.

3.  If you need assistance, have your child ask the staff and encourage them to ask questions.  This has been wonderful in teaching my daughter confidence while speaking.

4.  Cash or Credit.  Take this opportunity to teach your children about money and how much an item costs.  Tell them them the difference between cash and credit cards.  Describe the process with them.

5.  Get a catalog from Staples your local office supply store and turn it into a game.  My daughter likes to find items that we have at home in the catalog.  You can have your children cut out the items or circle them and make a game out of it.  Better yet, you can use this game to help you organize and reorder office supplies.

Next time your home office ink jet printer decides to dry up, grab your kids and have some fun at your local office supply store.  Just make sure to give yourself a few extra minutes and your kids will remember your shopping experience and might even help you too.  Just think, you might have a new office assistant right in your own house.

Are you considering taking your passion to the next level?  If you’re thinking about turning your hobby into a business there are several important things to consider.

• START SMALL-Decide on just a few products to start with and test the market.  Open an Etsy shop or Ebay shop and rent a booth at local fairs, etc.  This will give you a much better idea of which products customers are most interested in.  Don’t overwhelm yourself in the beginning.  It’s better to start with a few products that work and then expand as needed.
• FIND YOUR NICHE-Once you’ve discovered what products move the quickest, perfect those products.  Figure out what/if you can do to make them even better and do it.
• SET GOALS-Create a budget planner and a projected income sheet.  Calculate how much you would need to bring in per week/month, etc to be able to commit yourself to your business full time.  Give yourself something to reach for but remember to be realistic.  If you’re going to take this all the way you need to prepare yourself to work around the clock and be ready to handle the ups and downs of beginning a new business.
• GET SUPPORT-You need both the physical and emotional support of the people around you.  Recruit family members, neighbors and anyone else who is reliable and willing to help.  Learn to delegate the responsibilities.  Get the whole family involved; older children can file paperwork, younger ones can sort products and be sure to involve your spouse in all of this.  It’s no fun watching you embark on a new adventure while they stand on the dock and watch.
• GET ONLINE-Don’t underestimate the power of the www.  It’s worth investing in an eye-catching and informative website.  Tell a little about yourself and your products and list an e-mail address or telephone number so customers can contact you with any questions or orders.  By having your own site you increase your potential customers indefinitely.  Be sure to use keywords and phrases to increase your search engine results.
• NETWORK-Get out there and network!  Meet other people with common businesses, products and interests.  If you have a product that is targeted towards stay-at-home moms bring samples to your kids’ schools, games, etc.  Get online and find a yahoo! group that is for moms, join groups such as Mom Bloggers Club, MySpace, Facebook, etc.  Give free samples if possible.  Every woman loves getting something for free!  Give your products as teacher gifts, appreciation awards and whatever else you can!
• BELIEVE IN YOURSELF-Through the roller coaster of ups and downs that you will surely experience with beginning a new business, you mustn’t give up.  If you believed in yourself enough to get this started then you need to believe in it enough to see it through.  Like the old saying goes, “if you think you can, you will.  If you think you can’t, you won’t.”  If something doesn’t work find another way.   And most importantly, have fun!

Working online requires you to be able to learn new things and grasp new concepts quickly. If you’re a blogger being versatile is often the name of the game. You may have to switch blogging platforms, learn a new social media outlet capabilities, a new plugin or a new company’s rules for paid reviews.

It is easy to get stuck in a rut when you’ve been doing the same thing for a long time. You blog every day, write about the same topic, blog hop on the same blogs and follow the same pattern each day. If you sell online, you list your items the same way, promote them in the same places and communicate with your customers in the same manner.

Don’t do MySpace and Facebook, Plurk and Twitter, too many forums - don’t overdo it. You’ll be perceived as having too much time on your hands. Figure out the right balance for you. Don’t jump on the bandwagon right away. Wait it out a little to see how the latest thing to hit the web is working then take the plunge.

Staying aware of new social media outlets, new ways of promoting yourself, new SEO tactics, etc. keeps you and your work at home business up to date. It allows you to be work better than your competition and to keep your profile known. Don’t fear change, embrace it and see how far your business can go.

There are so many wonderful advantages to working at home. We have the flexibility of making our own schedules to suit our needs. However, some of the disadvantages, such as maintaining your own invoicing, filing, and correspondence, can lead to extra clutter. Work-at-home parents have enough to manage without the threat of being overtaken by out-of-control office piles.  But what can we do? Here are five tips to give you a jump start at tackling your office nightmare.

1. Break it down. Start with small projects like clearing the top of your desk or downsizing your bookshelf. Small steps will soon increase in momentum, leading to big changes in both the look of your office space and in your productivity. It may help to take on your most dreaded area first; you’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment when you’ve completed such a daunting task!

2. Put things away right away! Once you’ve cleaned and organized, you’ll want to keep your office neat. We always strive to maintain organization, but it’s so easy to fall back into old habits. Break these habits by putting things in their place and filing papers on a regular basis.

3. Maintain a routine. We all know that working at home is most effective when keep a regular schedule and avoid distractions, such as the television or laundry. That routine should extend to your office organization. Pick a fixed time each month or each quarter, depending on the needs of your business, to sort through files, maintain invoices, and check the progress of ongoing projects. Add these to-do’s to your calendar to be certain to keep them under control.

4. Create an inbox. Use a desk tray or basket designated to hold incoming paperwork. This will keep things neatly in one place, rather than strewn across the room. The most important part of such a system, however, is to process it daily. It is imperative that you pare down your paperwork by sorting through, filing, and discarding what is not needed in order to avoid the mess that you started with!

5. Don’t use so much paper! Cut down on your use of paper by saving items of interest to online bookmarks or in e-mail folders, rather than printing them out. You’ll save ink, trees, and effort by streamlining your paper usage.

These are just a few tips to get you started on your quest toward an organized office. For further resources, check out the productivity and organization pages at Zen Habits, a site dedicated to improving your life through better habits. You may also want to spend some time at Sparkplugging, which provides “work at home resources & community for the Web 2.0 generation.” Finally, a very handy online tool that is bound to save you time and clutter is 30 Boxes, where you can keep track of things like your to-do list, calendar, and important dates all in one place. The site also lets you share your information with “Buddies”, import information from other accounts like Twitter and Facebook, and gives you customizable reminders. We hope these tips and resources will be helpful to you in organizing your home office.

I really enjoy a good workout, but on certain days time is at a premium and I can’t get out of the house. On these days, I like to involve the kids in exercise around my office. I can easily grab a phone call and can get a good 15 minute workout under my belt. If you don’t have children, you’ll probably be able to do a little more intense workouts as you won’t have to worry about the short attention span from your little trainers.

Here are 5 fast and easy desk exercise ideas for your home office:

1. Push-ups: Great upper body workout and if your back is in good shape you can have your little get on too.

2. Sit-ups: Have your kids hold your feet. You can also push your feet together so you can both do a sit-up.

3. Jumping jacks: These were fun when you were a kid and they still are great for cardio. Challenge yourself until you are short of breath. You’ll be surprised how many your kids can do.

4. Touch your toes: Sounds easy, but try doing it with one foot slightly off the ground. Your body and muscles will have to adjust for the balance and give you a great workout. Your kids can count with you.

5. Stretching: You can start this before your desk exercise or after. Involve your children and show them all the fun stretching exercises you learned in school. This is a great opportunity to tell them about the various muscle groups and even challenge them to spell out the words. Can you spell hamstring?

A good workout routine can help alleviate stress at any job, but if you are working from home you might only have time for 15 minutes of desk exercise. Turn off your computer or close your laptop and enjoy this time to workout. 15 minutes will give you mental time away from work and get a good burn for your muscles.