The entrepreneur’s life… Many imagine that working from home is like being a Hollywood superstar: working leisurely in your pajamas, eating chocolate bon-bons, and cashing paychecks you write to yourself. While managing your own business can be a life long dream, your business can also take over your life if you let it. Here are some tips for how to overcome the biggest challenges of working from home.

ARE YOU A WORKAHOLIC?

When you work from home it can be hard to STOP working. Temptations such as the ringing of your business phone, the constant flow of emails, and piles of paper work can easily draw you back into work mode if you let them.

TIPS TO CONQUER WORK-A-HOLISM

1. Set a regular schedule for work and home hours. Make a deliberate effort to stop working on time. When you are done with work, shut off the computer, and mentally shut off work.
2. Locate your office in a separate area of the house. Having your office out of sight may help you forget about work.
3. Enjoy your "off" time. Pamper yourself! Schedule yourself regular vacations! Take time to relax! Spend time doing the things you love most. If you started working from home to spend more time with your family, then make sure you are actually DOING that. Schedule daytrips with your kids. Take time to visit a friend you have lost touch with.

ARE YOU EASILY DISTRACTED?

Does the sound of Nickelodeon, the allure of the cookies in the pantry, and the beautiful sunny weather distract you?

TIPS TO HELP YOU STAY FOCUSED:

1. Don’t tolerate distractions in your life. Discover sources of the distraction and remove it from your work environment. If you can’t remove it entirely, try to come up with a creative "work-a- round" that will let you function.
2. Make a daily to do list and prioritize, by placing the most important 3-5 tasks at the top. Put all other "tasks" at bottom. Try to spend your time on items which on the things which will do the most to move your business forward.

DO YOU FEEL LONELY?

Do you miss birthday lunch celebrations, water cooler talk, and co-worker friendships? Are you becoming a bear in your "work at home cave"?

TIPS TO AVOID ISOLATION:

1. Volunteer. Sign up to help with a Girl Scout troop, at church, or at the local library.
2. Join a group. There are lots of local women’s business breakfast groups. You might also be able to find a local playgroup, or church group to join.
3. Take a class. This is the perfect opportunity to learn a new business skill or indulge in a personal interest such as pottery, art, or scrapbooking.
4. Spend time with friends and family. Have lunch, call an old friend, make a date with your spouse, or send a personal email to a family member. Make time to connect with the important people in your life.
5. Build a personal support network. Whether it is a business coach, or fellow entrepreneur you’ll need someone to encourage you, listen to you, and guide you. Find a mentor who is highly successful at what you want to do and ask what their secrets are for success!
6. Participate in an online community. There are many online communities for entrepreneurs and work at home parents. Here you can network, meet friends, and promote your business.

DO YOU NEED HEALTH INSURANCE?

Insurance is a regular perk of working in the corporate world. When you go "solo" you will find yourself without the crucial coverage you need.

TIPS FOR GETTING INSURED:

1. If your spouse has a corporate job, check to see if you can be covered under their insurance plan.
2. With the costs of family insurance coverage ranging from $7000 to $10,000 per year, it really pays to shop around.
3. Here’s a few web sites where you can get free health insurance quotes from several leading carriers and easily compare many policies to choose the one that’s best for you.  http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ – http://www.InsureCom.com – http://www.USInsurance.com
4. If you recently quit your corporate job, the COBRA law will let you purchase health insurance from your old corporate employer for up to 18 months.
5. Ask your insurance agent about opening a Medical Savings Account (MSA). An MSA is a combo type account from which you can draw funds to pay for your medical expenses and the remaining funds grow like a tax deferred retirement fund.

DO YOU MISS REGULAR PAYCHECKS?

Do you have trouble making regular paychecks to yourself?

TIPS FOR REGULATING YOUR INCOME:

1. Build reserves. When you have a good month, stash it away for those slow business periods. Stock up by working more during winter, so that you can take time off in the summer.
2. Develop an "automatic" income source. Some options include writing and selling an ebook and acting as a reseller for services that complement your offerings.

DO FAMILY & FRIENDS VIOLATE YOUR BOUNDARIES?

Do your friends, family call you during your work time? Do your clients call during your family time?

TIPS FOR SETTING BOUNDARIES:

1. Communicate with your clients early on letting them know your policies, your work hours, and what they can expect.
2. Let family know what your work hours are. Ask them not to call you with personal chit chat until your "home" hours begin.
3. Caller ID can help you identify calls to see if they are from family, friends, or pesky sales people.
4. The bottom line is to determine your boundaries, set them in stone, communicate them, and guard and uphold them!

== SUMMARY ==

While working from home is the new American Dream, it can present some real challenges at times. Smart business owners work hard to maintaining balance, practice extreme self-care, and regulate their income. By overcoming these obstacles you’ll experience renewed energy, focus, and stability in both your personal and business life.

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My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

Originally posted 2010-01-18 12:00:00.

Not-for-profit financial organization NACHA, which oversees an electronic payment system called the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network, recently issued an immediate release in response to spam e-mails making their way to inboxes in mass. The ACH Transaction scam is part of a phishing attack.

The release, posted to the official NACHA Web site, reads:

Random individuals and/or companies may have received a falsified e-mail with the subject title "Rejected ACH Transaction."  This e-mail appears to be from NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association telling them that there is a problem with an ACH transaction they have originated.  The e-mail includes a link which redirects the individual to a fake web page which appears like the NACHA website and contains a link which is almost certainly executable virus with malware.

Sample e-mail:

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The ACH transaction (ID: 502342166577), recently sent from your checking account (by you or any other person), was canceled by the Electronic Payments Association.

Rejected transfer Transaction ID:  502342166577

Reason of rejection See details in the report below

Transaction Report report_502342166577.doc (Microsoft Word Document)

About NACHA

By 1978, it was possible for two financial institutions located anywhere in the United States to exchange ACH payments under a common set of rules and procedures. By 1988, the number of ACH payments exceeded 1 billion annually. By 2001, the volume of ACH payments grew by more than 1 billion in a single year.

More than 18.2 billion ACH payments were made in 2008, an increase of 1.2 billion over 2007. ACH payment volume continues to double every five years. The 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study revealed ACH payments had the largest compound annual growth rate, 18.6 percent, of all U.S. non-cash payments.

13450 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 100
Herndon, VA 20171

2011 NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association

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NACHA urges consumers to ignore these e-mails and not to click the link, which it says is likely associated with a virus.

If you have the email option to mark as junk or spam, do so. As an additional measure to avoid this nasty scam, I have created a “rule” in my email options that takes any email that mentions ACH transaction right to the trash.

If I’m to receive a legitimate ACH funds transfer, it’s been arranged by me through secure measures – not by having me click on a link I receive in my email.

As a rule of thumb – if you receive emails from Paypal, eBay, your bank or other businesses linked directly to your financial profile, it’s always best to go directly TO the website and login. If you have received a real message, you will have access to it inside your account.

Thanks to Dee of What’s That Buzz for submitting this scam alert

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My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

I just received an email newsletter that I signed up for a couple of years ago.

In the beginning, the person behind the newsletter was one of my greatest mentors. But now, I see that person as having sold out to the almighty dollar.

In the newsletter, they explain why everyone should be blogging. How great it is for traffic to your site and how easy it is to generate a profit.

It goes on a bit further to say that it’s real easy when you purchase one program for $47 or the other for $139.95.

These programs are nothing more than what people like Darren over at Problogger and myself – just to name a couple are giving away for FREE!

If you’ll look through Darren’s archives, you’ll see that he is being blessed far more from the Big Guy for helping people in such a way – and he is the one that inspired me to help other mother’s who may be struggling to make an extra buck to buy her kid some cool shoes or pay for that skating party that she always had to say no to before.

Programs like the two I mentioned above (I won’t tell which ones, but they are just about as spammy and ripoffish as they can get) make me angry, make me feel sorry for everyone who buys them and makes me want to scream just a little bit louder to keep others from buying them.

Do NOT EVER purchase a program or book unless you’ve dug around through some of the more credible sites and found whether they are worth it or not first. Save yourself some money and some wasted time.

Ok, I’ve ranted enough now. It’s just that email has sent me right over the edge a bit.

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My Comment Commitment: If you leave an approved comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit.

Originally posted 2010-01-10 12:05:00.