I am one of those people. One of those annoying people who start playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I love the look, smell and feel of Christmas. The anticipation of all that will come absolutely delights me. I enjoy the lights, wrapping of the presents and all of the festivities between November and January.

But this year I find myself a little stuck. Christmas is over, the New Year is here and I’m focused on the year that’s passed. What I could have done differently, where did I go wrong, why didn’t I drop those last 10 pounds? But I must remind myself of what the New Year is for.

The New Year is full of opportunities. I really enjoy setting goals-so that’s what I will do, like another online Mom. I will make no resolutions-but will make strides toward larger goals with smaller goals and work on those. I’ll do this with my business as well.

My home based business has grown this year, maybe I’ll fixate on that. I will, but in a progressive way. I’ll look at where I’ve been and move forward to where I want to go. The end of the year tends to hold regrets for me, even though it may not be completely logical. In just day two of 2009 I anticipate great changes for myself, my family, my business and more. Whatare you looking forward to in 2009? Change can come in any form-how will you make it happen this year?

As cheesy as it sounds, at a time like now, with gas prices uncertain-although I’m quite thankful for the $1.79 gas I bought a few days ago, and my young children so dependent on a full-time stay at home parent, I’m beyond thrilled to be working at home. My daughter attends half day kindergarten but working from home has allowed me to stay pretty active with her classroom festivities. I’ll be helping and attending her first Thanksgiving feast next week and will also be there for all of the Christmas activities coming in the next month.   

I’m not passing judgment on any parents who choose not to stay home or can’t stay home. Everyone’s circumstances are different, as are mine. I’m grateful for having a flexible job that allows me the luxury of spending most of my children’s waking hours with them.   

Granted, like many home based business owners and parents, like Sarah Bray of S. Joy Studios, it’s not always an easy schedule. I work many early morning hours and late evenings, but having the option is a freedom in itself.   

If you’re interested in working from home yourself or just want some information about your options, peruse the site to get a few ideas.  And I’m always looking for new ideas to pass along to others. If you have a sweet work at home setup, I’d love to hear about it.

My sister-in-law was afraid to learn how to swim for 35 years.   She had the desire to learn how to swim, but was afraid of so many unknowns: what if someone laughed at her? What if no one would be able to teach her?  Finally, this past summer she enrolled in a swimming class for adults and four months later, swims comfortably.  She regrets waiting so long to learn and that she allowed her fear of the unknown to prevent her from doing something that she now absolutely enjoys.

The same holds true with starting a home based business. Fear is what often holds us back from pursing our dreams.  A friend of mine has always had dreams about owning her own bakery, but because of her fear of the unknown, she has been talking about this dream for 10 years with no progress.   Ivan Widjaya states in his blog, “Fear suppress your productivity, decision making ability, creativity, and - believe it or not - success itself”   So even though you may have an amazing product, the fear that has taken over your thoughts could actually lessen the quality of what you have to offer!

I really enjoyed the title to Caroline Middlebrook’s inspirational blog title “The Unknown Does Not Exist“  Everything we fear either happens or it does not, so why spend valuable time dwelling on the ‘what ifs’ when that time could be spent taking action?  It’s quite possible that the answer to the ‘what if’ question could be an amazingly successful business!

I found a real work at home job on the internet. All I do is hang out on my computer all the time. You would think that might get old after awhile, but I have always loved the computer. I can remember back in my freshman year of high school when I discovered AIM – AOL Instant Messenger. I was an instant addict. I was up until 4 every morning chatting with friends and surfing the net. That probably makes my parents look pretty bad, but to their credit I did have a bedtime – I just got back up after they were in bed! Anyhow, my addiction to the internet has really served me well in my job. I literally work off of my computer to earn a living – and I do it from home. It has been great for me. It is something I enjoy doing and can see myself doing for as long as is financially necessary, and with gas prices being a ridiculous $4.10/gal, I foresee myself doing it for a very, very long time.

I was searching the internet one day just looking around and ran across some websites that spoke of women who put their hobbies to good use.  I mean, they came up with ideas to work from home by selling what they do best and above all, doing something they really loved.  I had never thought of an internet home base business before.  I guess if I had, it was more out of the idea that someone was sick and was working from home that day by connecting to the internet for their jobs.  These jobs I read about were not only legit; they were fun to read about.  My head just ran with ideas.  Since then I have put some things that I do to good use and went online with those ideas.  I can’t say I am making ‘loads’ of money but I am liking the fact that I am working from home and being able to do some things that I never had time for before.

I am thrilled to have found an internet based work at home business opportunity. I have wanted to do something from home but was just not able to figure out exactly how to do that. Here is how I did it: I made sure that I had support at home first then I began to talk with others about what they were doing to make money. Then I found that that internet really gave me a wonderful selection and ideas about working from home.

There was so much to choose from and I knew I could find work that I enjoyed doing and could build a business upon. It took some research and I tried out several jobs until I found the one I liked the best. I have discovered, though, that I constantly need to stay on top of new software and technology that is changing so fast. I have to be flexible and really adapt to the changes. I hope you find what you are best at and build up your business too.

Home Based Business - Business Home Opportunity

 I love the idea that pretty much anyone can work from home. It has really helped me and my family to excel financially. When I reached out and decided to take the chance at starting my own type of home based business - business home opportunity I was amazed at the endless possibilities. So, I picked one and became a type of freelance writer. Just like the guy in the story in no time at all I had work coming in at a steady pace and money, too. Since then I have been able to know that we aren’t living from paycheck to paycheck anymore and that there is money in the bank - not just in the checking account, but in a savings account, too! I think the best example of how having my own home based business is that we were just looking for a house out of state where we are moving and for once we had all the money we needed for a down payment in the bank. It was a great feeling of freedom.