Running an online business from your home takes careful planning, discipline and energy. When you work outside the home, it’s easy to separate work and family life. But when you bring the two together, chaos can erupt and there can be a big learning curve to getting it right. But it can be done.

You can beat that learning curve!

One way to do it is to learn from other moms who have been there and have successfully done it.  Learn from example! Luckily Just Add Sweat’s “Full Time WAHM Success Blueprint” brings you the success stories of 22 moms all earning a full time income from home.

You’ll learn exactly how they make money, the top 3 techniques they use to grow their business, their biggest mistakes (so you can avoid them!) and what finally brought them to a full time income.

Learn about these 22 amazing ladies and get your copy at: FullTime WAHM

Not only will their stories inspire you, but they’ll give you the practical advice you need to become a Full Time WAHM yourself.

I think one of the coolest businesses I’ve seen that can really give a mom a jump start to making some extra money is starting a Santa Letter Business and now is the perfect time to get started.

It’s basically an online business that, for a fee, allows people to order Letters From Santa for their kids. The business owner creates the letter based on a questionnaire, throws in some special extras and mails the letter to the child.

Even though it’s a business that is focused on Christmas, it’s also a business that can be expanded to other times of the year and childhood milestones, like Birthdays, losing teeth, new baby, etc.

The gals at Just Add Sweat just released a complete ‘how-to’ guide to starting a Santa Letter Business and for the $20 that they charge for it, it’s a neat way to dip your toe in the swimming pool of online business. They offer a guarantee so it’s a pretty good deal.

Just think, how many kids would love a personalized letter from Santa. Here take a peek at the how-to guide to starting a Santa Letter Business

Virtual Assistance:
How To Become A VA
Transcription Service

Kid Related:
Face Painting Business
Face Painting Guide
Kids Sports Photography
Santa Letter Business

Blogging/Writing:
How to Profit from a Recipe Blog
Make Money with A Craft Blog
How to Make An Income with A Review Blog

Take a minute and read more about Virtual Asssistance work and this learning product How To Become a VA.

It’s an incredible value and the perfect resource for anyone interested in creating a typing business.

Check it out for yourself, right here: How To Become a VA I did and now I’m a business owner myself, Premium Virtual Assistance. If I can do it I know you can do it too if this is where your interest lie.

1. Advertise in Ezines. There are online newsletters everywhere that accept advertising. The key here is to purchase advertising in publications that reach your target market and to create your ad to showcase your expertise. Don’t try to be everything to everyone or you won’t attract clients.

Ad Example of what Not to Do: Hire me to lighten your workload. I can do everything that you don’t want to do. Let’s talk!

Ad Example of what works: Are you ready to get more leads to your business? I will handle your ezine advertising campaign for you. No more searching for targeted ezines, no more writing and tracking your ads. I’ll handle it all. My clients experience a boost in subscribers after I complete my ezine advertising campaigns that will pay for my services. Check out my website for testimonials and free tips.

2. Write and Submit Articles. The key here is to stay on topic. Don’t write and submit articles about health or pet care. Present a problem in your article and solve it. Make sure your author bio is very compelling to attract potential clients.

3. Network where *successful* people hang out. A huge mistake that VA’s make is to hand out on forums where there are other people struggling to make money. Instead, join a membership site for your target market and you’ll find yourself in the “inner circle”.

4. Advertise at Shelancers.com. One of the easiest ways to get your name in front of business owners looking for help is to advertise on Shelancers.com. Again, it is crucial that you list your specialty in order to stand out from the other providers. But, if you can find a problem that business owners face, and offer to handle it for them, you’ll attract loyal clients who will continue to work with you.

What if you’re little toddler, who wasn’t talking yet, told you he was thirsty and would like some juice? Another scenario…you’re toddler, who isn’t talking yet is crying and screaming and throwing a fit and you have no idea what they want. You get frustrated, wonder again why it was you wanted to become a parent and almost start to cry.

Which scenario would you rather be in?

Believe it or not, that first scenario can happen and is happening around the country. Teaching sign language to hearing babies is getting more and more media attention. Because of this there is a need for instructors who can teach parents this new form of communication.

Have you ever thought about starting a business where you could work with babies and or parents? Can you imagine how rewarding a business teaching sign language classes to parents would be? You could have parents calling you up the first time their little one signed to them, thanking you for providing such an incredible service. Word of mouth is a wonderful way to get the word out about your business. You have one or two very satisfied customers and they will tell a lot of future customers to sign up for your classes.

Diane Ryan, the founder of kindersigns has over 20 years of experience in speech/language pathology, and if you choose, you can have Diane give you the one on one help to get your own Kindersigns business going. And before you think that learning sign language just sounds too hard think again. It will only take you a few hours to learn the signs you need to teach this program. You won’t be teaching babies complicated sentences…remember, they are just babies and they will just be using one or two words to get across what they need.

Kindersigns is one of the oldest and most respected baby sign language opportunity available. Click here to learn more about the Kindersigns Career Kit .

Even if you don’t think teaching sign language to parents is the way to go. I really encourage you to learn more about the benefits sign language can give your baby.

Here are a few different ways moms can creat their own businesses:

You can start from scratch, try an online business, there are hundreds of network marketing opportunites, business opportunites, affiliate marketing, etc.

“But with a little creativity and brainstorming, you’ll be able to come up with an idea that suits you. And be sure to remember this: No matter what type of business you decide to start, make sure you have a passion for it, as it will undoubtedly become a big part of your life as you travel the road to business success.”–Entrepreneur.com, July 17, 2006

Know the steps you need to get started with:
Create a business plan.
Get a business license (if your state requires one)
Get a seller’s permit
Find out if you need a zoing permit
Get a tax ID number
File for a dba (doing business as) name
Find a mentor (that’s an easy one, check out Mom Masterminds, that’s where I found my mentor(s). (Moms just like you and me!)

The above information was taken from Launching Your Mompreneur Business, Entreprenuer.com, July 17, 2006. The entire article can be found here at Entrepreneur.com

Lend Assistance
If you’ve got word processing, transcription, bookkeeping, public relations or website design skills, you may want to try life as a virtual assistant. That broad title refers to people with expertise in a range of services, including administrative support and legal and medical transcription, says Diana Ennen, co-author of Virtual Assistant — The Series. “There is so much work for VAs,” Ennen says. “The field is thriving, absolutely booming.”

Though some work might require daytime hours, much of it can be done at night or on the weekend. Hourly rates range from $35 for basic transcribing to up to $100 for Web design.

Online forums and websites can be good places to gather how-to information from experienced assistants. Try the Virtual Assistant Networking Association (vanetworking.com), the International Association of Virtual Office Assistants (iavoa.com) or the International Virtual Assistants Association (ivaa.org).

Great little article I thought. You can see this is going to be a work at home opportunity for a long time to come. Get in on the ground floor and learn how to become a VA.

It can be anything from doing transcription work to starting a cleaning service to offering virtual assistant services – any business where you provide a necessary service.

The service business is easy to start. You can usually start it with one person (you) and build it up as you go along. If you’re really smart you’ll think BIG and do what many other great entrepreneurs have done and build a mega-service business where you simply manage and delegate.

Here’s how it works:

Say you offer transcription services to online marketers – You can start by doing the transcribing yourself while you build trust with your clients and start getting repeat business. Once you see there’s more work coming in than you can handle or you simply decide it’s time you stopped typing and started marketing, then you can hire other transcriptionists to work you.

And it’s easy! You hire them as subcontractors which means they’re responsible for their own taxes and all you do is outsource work to them at a lower rate than you make. You are ultimately responsible for the work, which is why you’ll take a cut of the service fee.

You can start by outsourcing to one transcriptionist, then two, three and eventually you can end up with a huge team of trained quality transcriptionists. You can then hire a few editors (also as subcontractors) to edit the work and help relieve your work load even further.

You then can concentrate on marketing, training, and keeping the team morale high.

Let’s take another example:

You decided to start a ghost writing service. You start with a few clients you write for and find it fairly easy… but eventually those clients start recommending your fantastic services to all their colleagues! Well at this point you can politely decline and say you’re booked OR you can do the smart thing and hire other writers to help you out.

You pay them a reduced fee so that you still make a profit. Hey after all it is your name on the line and ultimately you are responsible.

By thinking big you can take what was originally a one-woman (or man) service and turn it into a huge success. The trick is to thing BIG and realize that a service business doesn’t necessarily mean you’re “trading your time for money”. By putting a few smart systems into place you can have your cake AND eat it too.

To learn how to make it BIG with your own service Business, Take a Look Here for a range of fun and profitable at-home business ideas.

I had never seen them before and they just love them. For weeks, they wouldn’t leave the house without them. So, when I came across an ebook that shows you how to make them I thought I’d share it with you.

Just take a look:

I’m not much of a seamstress so anything that takes no sewing is a great idea if you ask me. They are so soft. Snugglies is the best word for them. What a great baby shower gift idea that would be.

My son has grown so much since he received his, I’m going to have to make him a bigger one and my daughter still carries her with her, always wants her “big hearts” blankie.