Category Archives: Working Smarter

How To Balance Work And Family And Still Remain Sane

eBiz Parents know how hard it can be to balance work and family. Whether you are building your online business (in every spare moment possible) after your full time job or whether you work online from home it can be a huge struggle to make sure that neither work nor family are neglected. It’s a total juggling act, in fact. Sometimes we just have to sit back, take a breather, and read a post like this. 🙂

Here are some tips on how you can make it all work without losing your sanity.

Set clear work and family times. Define when you will work and when it is family time and stick to it.
Plan ahead. Make sure things you are working on are taken care of AND completed before you go out on that Saturday afternoon picnic (ah, can’t wait for summer) with the family. If you let work hang over your head you’re less likely to enjoy yourself out with the family.
Time management. We all struggle with this on a daily (sometimes minute) basis. Manage your time so that you are as productive as possible. Ask yourself if – is what I’m doing right now leading me to my goals or away from my goals?
Setting goals and realistic expectations. We only have 24 hours in a day. If you only have two hours to devote to your online work then just get done what you have to get done – and be done with it. Set daily, weekly, and monthly realistic goals. Plan out how you will achieve them and then do it. Just be realistic and know that you cannot work 24/7.

Here are more resources on finding balance between work and family:

Balancing Work & Family

Alan Johnson On Work Life Balance

Side Note: Sometimes balance can mean work/family integration. Recruit the family for business purposes! Think of something the kids can do for you to help you in your business. Or maybe there is task the whole family can do together. If anything at all the kids will start to learn entrepreneurialism – and that’s priceless.

If you have any tips please post them below in the comment section!

My PPC Affiliate Marketing Challenge

I’m at a point where I’m getting involved in a lot of challenges. This challenge is a bit different then becoming a better blogger. This is about pure cash, baby!

The idea of working smarter is to create a business that will generate money 24/7. In other words you don’t get paid only when you are working but when you are spending time with family, when you are on vacation, when you are grocery shopping, even while you are sleeping.

This means harnessing the power of the Internet to make a living online.

One of the ideas I’ve been entertaining lately is PPC affiliate marketing. Well, actually I’ve done a little more than entertaining the idea – I’ve been experimenting. Out of all the online business models this one is one where you can really make money online and you can make money a lot faster than other models. Afterall, isn’t it all about ROI? BUT (of course, there’s always a BUT) you can also lose a lot of money if you don’t take the time to study, experiment, and tweek. Continue reading →

2008 Blogging Goals

Well, 2007 is basically only a memory now. The new year is approaching speedily. This is a great time to sit and plan out what you want to accomplish in 2008. I recently came in contact with a very inspiring post that has me thinking a lot about my future and my goals. You see we are in control of what we do…and what we DO determines where we will be in the future.

Setting goals is so very crucial to our success. I am learning this the hard way. If you are having trouble with setting goals and sticking to them here’s a short pdf on setting-goals (right click, save link as, to read it later) that should help you! Also, here’s a great post on How to Achieve Ridiculous Goals written by a Self Made Chick who knows!

That said, Daily Blog Tips is having a Group Writing Project on Blogging Goals in which we are challenged to write out our 2008 blogging goals (duh!). So, I’ve had to think about my 2008 goals. I know that I’m unhappy in my current working situation so I must do things differently this year to change my future.

This blog is a journal of what it takes for a full time working Mom to transition from employee to entrepreneur all via online business. What can I do to make this happen in 2008? There are a lot of things I have to do before I can quit my job but one thing I can do right now is write out my blogging goals. This blog was just started last month so with that in mind here they are:

Add a consistent 100 new RSS subscribers a month
Write 5 value added posts a week
7K unique visitors a day
90K Alexa rank
$2500/mo consistently
Get very involved in social networking

Now that I have some goals written the next step is to map out a DETAILED plan of action to reach these goals. And I’m sure as I think more about this I will add more blogging goals but this is a start anyway.

What are your 2008 blogging goals?