Hi. I’m Nicole Dean and I’m here as a Guest Expert this week, to talk about 5 of the biggest mistakes people make when first starting to work from home. Why am I here? Well, I am doing a Summer Blog World Tour where I hop from blog to blog as a guest expert all summer long. It gives me the chance to reach new people and it brings blog owners like Leslie the opportunity to add even more great information to her blog. Both Leslie and I will be promoting this blog tour, so she’ll have new viewers stopping by and I’ll get to meet her readers, too. She wins. I win. And, most importantly you’ll win, too.

Each blog owner along the way got to choose their topic for the week. I’ve got to say that I was very excited to see the topic that I received from Leslie about “Common Mistakes People Make When Working from Home”.

Last week, I taught about productivity when working from home at Lexi Rodrigo’s blog, and had a great response so I anticipate that this topic is one that people can relate to, as well. In fact, when I started to draft my list of big mistakes that people make, I ended up with more than 10, so it looks like I’ll start this series here on Leslie’s blog and finish it on anther blog. How fun is that?!

ok. Let’s get crackin’.

I’ll start with my biggest frustration. And, that is when I see people who’ve invested thousands of dollars into learning about internet marketing and are still not making even $100/month in their online business. I see it all the time.

Mistake #1: Investing without Taking Action

If you find an ebook that you think will help your business, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I ready for this information?
• Will I take action on this information?

If the answer is yes, go ahead and buy it. BUT – only if you can afford and will actually take action on what you learn. If not, pass. Don’t buy it.

Did you hear the two important pieces of that? You’ve got to be both READY and WILLING to take action before getting out your credit card.

The exception is at the end of the year if you’re trying to run up expenses to lower your tax burden. Here’s a post on my blog that explains more about that:

End of Year and Panicking about Taxes? Read this.

What do I mean by READY and WILLING?

Well, if you see a great offer for an ebook all about starting a membership site, but you’re in the process of setting up your podcast, then hold off on the new course until you’ve successful completed the one that you’re working on.

FOCUS = Follow One Course Until Successful

You’ll hear me mention that a lot and I’d love to give credit where due, but I have no idea who first said that. I know many have said it since then. Let me know if you know who originally came up with that phrase.

The other part – Willing to Implement – means just what it says. Please do not buy my courses unless you’re going to take the information and use it. Seriously, I’d love to have you as a customer, but only if you’ll read my courses, apply them and benefit from them – and then you’ll be a fan for life! I don’t want my courses or those of my client, Jimmy D. Brown, to sit on your hard drive collecting virtual dust bunnies after you buy them.

Side note: If you’ve never heard of Jimmy D. Brown, click on his name and check out his blog. I’ve got one word to describe him: Inspiring.

So today’s mistake is investing in product after product without taking action on what you’re learning.

Learning is wonderful and I endorse it 100%. BUT – don’t become an infoproduct junky while letting your business (or business ideas) sit.

It’s story-time…

I have a friend. Let’s call him George. Everyone say “Hi George!”

He is a gifted writer. And, he’s a top-notch SEO expert. I’m talkin’ WOW! He’s that good.

Yet, he doesn’t have his first website up yet, making him money. I beg and plead and gamble with him as his coach and friend and he keeps coming up with reasons why he isn’t ready.

“I don’t know enough about that yet” he’ll say.

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO! You can change it later!” I’ll say.

And, the next time we speak… he’ll tell me about another course he’s bought. I kinda want to smack him a little.

I just wish he could see him through my eyes. He’s smart. He’s talented. And, he’s a gold mine waiting to happen. ((sigh))

You’ll never know everything – and you don’t have to. Just work on what you’ve got on your plate and move ahead. Dust off the courses on your shelves that you haven’t read yet before buying more.

And, I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Follow Nicole on Twitter| Follow Leslie on Twitter | Nicole’s Blog & Podcast

PS. If you are ready and willing to learn how to get more done during the day and earn more money, I highly recommend Homepreneur Habits, a course by my mentor and friend, Jimmy D. Brown.

This week listen to Expo interview with Joan Jesion on the Benefits and Pitfalls of Working At Home.


You can listen online here:

Or Download here:



You can also subscribe through iTunes.

Resources provided in the podcast:

Work At Home Success
Work-At-Home Success Connect

Now that summer is here, I’m having to managing my work with parenting my kids simultaneously. One of the perks of working at home, is being available to the kids, but working at home with the kids is no easy feat. I recently posted an article about this over at Sparkplugging WAHM2.0.  In it I give tips on how to work-at-home and keep the busy (and happy) at the same time!

This week’s Work-At-Home Success News and Reviews Podcast I interview Tamara Hancock of Work-At-Home Professional Mom who explains how to manage work and family under one roof.

You can listen online here:

Or Download here:

You can also subscribe through iTunes.

Resources provided in the podcast:

Work-At-Home Professional Mom
Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Mom
FlyLady – Personal Coach to Manage House and Home
Sink Reflections

I’ve recently joined with Kelly McCausey at her WAHM 2.0 blog at Sparkplugging. You can check out my first post, Working At Home is Like Dieting here.

Its been a long time coming but now its finally available! The guide that shows you everything you need to know to design the home-based career of your dreams!

The Work-At-Home Success Bible is now available through local bookstores and online through Amazon.com and other major book retailers.  Think this is just another work-at-home book? Think again! The Work-At-Home Success Bible offers:

• Three chapters on Telecommuting including how to turn your job into a work-at-home postion AND how to find and get a work-at-home job online or off!
• How to find the best, most profitable business for you!
• How to decide if you want to start a business from scratch or buy an exisiting business, business opportunity, franchise or direct sales.
• How to make money online using eBay, Amazon, Affiliate Programs, and
• Information products.
• How to find the time, money and energy to find or create a successful
• home-based career.
• How to get your family on board with your plans!
• How balance working and living under one roof.
• 100′s of work-at-home job resources, home business tools and more!
• And much, much more!

One of our favorite activities on Christmas Eve is to watch NORAD’s tracking of Santa on his worldwide trip. NORAD has been tracking Santa for over 50 years.

“The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.”

As of this writing, he’s in Japan. By the time he gets to Nova Scotia, its time for my kids to get to bed because we know that Santa won’t come if the they are awake. Visit NoradSanta.org to watch Santa’s trip by video and/or Google Earth, learn about Santa and NORAD, and find fund activities.


Here’s a clip of Santa’s departure this morning.

There are many reasons that I work at home. One of them is having a birthday today. My daughter Hannah was born 11 years ago to day (at about 3:00 pm). I was fortunate to have 3 months leave before returning to my social work job. But when I did return to work, it was very hard. Part of it was leaving my baby and pre-schooler with someone else. But another part of it was that Hannah was a challenging baby. She didn’t sleep well unless held and in fact pretty much cried most the time unless she was held. She was four … years not months… old before she slept through the night. Her dad and I were tired a lot.

Finding a way to work at home didn’t change her temperament, but it did allow our family to function much better. I could nap during the day to catch up on sleep lost during the night when she’d wake. I was able to give time and attention to both my kids because I didn’t feel drained after a days job and household duties. I would have to say that the flexibility that comes from working at home is the single greatest benefit…at least for me.

So Happy Birthday Hannah and thank you for being a catalyst in my work-at-home career!

Luis Suarez is free. In a recent article in the New York Times website he shared his story of how he cut down on his email dependency. Instead of email, he now uses tools offered by his company (IBM) and RSS feeds to connect with colleagues. He does have a point. Here are some interesting email stats that show just how pervasive email has become:

According to the EmailStatCenter:

• 274 is the average number of personal emails people receive weekly. – David Daniels, Vice President JupiterResearch (Dec. 2007)
• 304 is the average number of business emails received weekly. – David Daniels, Vice President JupiterResearch (Dec. 2007)
• 74% of email uses have 2 email accounts. – David Daniels, Vice President JupiterResearch (Dec. 2007)
• 87% of consumers’ online time is spent reading their emails. – David Daniels, Vice President JupiterResearch (Dec. 2007)

I advocate scheduling email time and limiting it to 2-3 times a day, but I don’t always take my own advice. Email is a compulsion. If you’re not quite sure what to work on, you can check your email. If you don’t want to tackle a task, you can put it off by checking your email.

But I would like to manage email better and I’m intrigued by Luis’ solution. Part of it is that I’m tired of handling old email. Some email just can’t be sorted. But in order for his ideas to work, others have to buy into it. In my case, I’d use instant messaging and Twitter. That means that other people I work with need to have the same IM service and sign up for Twitter.

The advantage that Luis has is that IBM has its own in-house networking system similar to Facebook. But even that becomes cumbersome for me because I have multiple “jobs”. As it is I belong to more social networks than I can handle. I don’t think I can manage joining several work-related networks as well.

Still, I think I’m going to figure out a way to make it work. But first I’m going to check my email.

Okay, so I’m already social networked out, but I recently joined Work It Mom and really like the type of community set up there. Working moms can not only network, but they can list their goals (to get support), share their expertise through articles, and even share your wares or services through a marketplace. Networking opportunities exist through building a network, joining groups, participating in Q&A, or by writing and responding to people’s notes.

Come visit my page at Work It Mom and consider joining my group Better Living Through the Web.