If you have a home-based business, it can be difficult to draw the line between “working hours” and “time off”. It can be especially difficult during your family’s vacation. While you may be ready for a vacation and a break, you may also feel guilty for not working. Here are some arguments for both sides of the equation. They may help you decide if you should or should not work during your vacation.

It is true that everyone deserves a break now and then. You have worked hard all year, and it is okay to put your business aside and enjoy a vacation for a week or two. However, it can be hard to get back to work if you lose your motivation. Your two-week vacation may turn into a six-week vacation, which can severely hurt your profits for months to come.

Before you take any time off, create an action plan of the tasks you wish to complete when you get back. If you come back to a set list of goals, it will be easier to get back in the swing of things.

When deciding if you should work during your vacation, take a look at the type of business you have. People with service-based businesses will have a harder time taking a break than someone with a more passive income. If you provide a service to others, let your clients know well in advance when you will be taking time off. Complete all of your pending projects before you leave. And make sure you give your regular clients the name of someone who can perform the same type of services as you, in case they need emergency help.

If you do not currently outsource any of your work, start doing so as soon as possible. This will free up your time considerably and make taking a vacation a lot easier. You will be able to enjoy your time off, and your business will still be “running”. Hire a virtual assistant to handle some of your email or other administrative tasks, hire a ghostwriter to write your blog posts for you while you are on vacation, etc.

If you do not currently have any passive sources of income, such as affiliate marketing links or your own digital information products, you may want to consider creating some. You can load your information products into a shopping cart system that will automatically deliver the download links to your customers. You can step away from your business for a short time and still earn an income.

Of course, you will need to continue marketing your business once you get back from vacation. Creating a passive income source will allow you to earn residual income on work you have completed in the past. But you still need to put time and effort into growing your business.

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When it comes to the success or failure of your business, being organized and staying motivated can be two deciding factors. In fact, these two topics can go hand in hand. Here are some reasons why being organized can help you stay motivated and, therefore, lead to business success.

When you are disorganized, you can feel frustrated and easily lose the motivation to work your business. You may lose data such as when projects are due or even your client’s email address. If your office is messy, it can be anxiety inducing to even set foot in it. Seeing the clutter and chaos can remind you of everything you need to do but keep putting off. Eventually, you may stop working all together.

In fact, being unorganized is one of the leading causes of procrastination. When you procrastinate, you are intentionally putting off a task that you know needs to be done. This can lead to stress, ill-health, and financial despair.

However, there is a flipside to all of these problems.

Finding an organization system that works for you will help you stay on top of your tasks and keep you motivated. You will know when projects are due. This alone can help you stay motivated. When you are organized, you will easily be able to find your client’s contact information. You will no longer feel defeated when you enter your organized office. Instead, you will feel refreshed and ready to work.

There are two basic ways to stay motivated. One is through traditional paper planners and the other is through digital or electronic planners. It doesn’t matter which type of system you use. The important thing is to find one that you enjoy enough to keep using.

If you prefer paper methods, you may want to consider a planner that showcases the week on two pages. That way, when you open up the planner you can see your whole week at a glance. You can use highlighters to highlight various types of tasks.

For instance, all of your family obligations can be highlighted in blue, administrative tasks can be highlighted in pink, and sales and marketing tasks can be highlighted in orange. Using a method such as this will allow you to instantly see the types of tasks you will be working. Depending on the type of digital planner you use, you can color code activities in a similar manner.

The paper methods I recommend are created by Susie Glennon of The Busy Woman. While I am an electronically organized person, I have heard great reviews of her products from my friends and colleagues. She truly has the home business woman at heart.

If you decide to buy a digital planner, you may want to consider an all-in-one smart phone. These devices combine a cell phone with a digital planner. You can make and receive phone calls, read and send email, and keep track of your schedule.

I also recommend Google Calendar if you are going the digital route. This is what I use — and it’s wonderful because my assistant in Ohio can update my calendar for me.

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If you thrive on challenges and hate to be outdone, you may want to find some “friendly competition.” By nature, “friendly competition” is not meant to hurt anyone’s feelings. It is there to create motivation and to help people reach goals.

There are a number of message boards and forums that are focused on business; you can create a post that explains your goals for the next month and ask other members to reply back with their goals. All of you can keep adding updates each week on what you have accomplished.

You may choose to put together a more formal, tight-knit group of a few selected people that correspond via a yahoo group or private chat room. You can update each other daily, if you wish. You can even take this a step further and meet weekly on a conference call; as it may be easier to discuss problems and brainstorm with each other via telephone.

If you find yourself connecting with one person more so than with the others, ask that person to be your accountability partner. You can even give each other a quick call every morning to pump each other up, or at the end of the day to talk about what you had accomplished and what you plan on doing the next day.

Aside from going over each person’s individual goals, you can also create monthly “contests.” For instance, if you are in direct sales, you can meet with other people in the industry and have a contest over who can book the most parties, sell the highest dollar amount, or recruit the most people.

If you are a physical product seller, your group can have contests such as who can write and distribute the most articles or press releases. Or you can hold a contest to see who can reach a monetary goal, in terms of monthly product sales in a given month. The possibilities are endless when it comes to creating motivating contests.

The simple fact that you are letting people know your goals, and meeting at designated times to cover your progress, can be very motivating. No one wants to admit that they haven’t done anything and that they are not even close to accomplishing their goals. This is especially true if the other people in the group have worked really hard and have accomplished several things.

Knowing that other people are going to hold you accountable for your actions and “kick you in the butt” if you need it, can drive you to work hard and accomplish your goals. However, friendly competition can take a downturn if the competition turns vicious or mean. If you are working at your best level, and attending your meetings makes you feel bad or “not good enough,” that group may not be the one for you. Look for a supportive, fun spirited group that inspires you.

If you would like to join our Product Seller’s Motivation Team, just register here and comment on this post. I’ll set you up with our group.

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Everyone has times when they lack motivation. On the other hand, you may be so motivated and full of ideas that you lose your focus because you are trying to juggle too many tasks at once. However, multi-tasking may do more harm than good. When your mind is divided by too many tasks, your productivity decreases. Here are some tips to help you stay focused and motivated on your business.

Choose a Niche
Once you know what your niche market is, you will be able to focus on tasks that will help you with that particular market. Try to narrow your market as much as possible. For instance, if you have a coaching business and want to help people work from home, perhaps you can target a certain field, such as web designers or virtual assistants. You will gain a reputation for being an expert in that field and will be able to help people create specific plans while coaching them to success.

Set Goals, and Write Them Down.
When you set goals for your business, you are defining the direction in which you want to take your business. When you write them down, you are greatly increasing the odds that you will accomplish the goals you have set.

Create a Business Plan
When someone wants to start a brick and mortar business, they need to create a business plan and submit it to a bank to secure a loan. A business plan is a summary of how a business will be organized and a listing of activities that the owner needs to complete. For instance, a business plan will explain when a business owner expects to make a profit, as well as the type of marketing they intend to do. Creating a business plan for your home business will increase your chances of success.

Stay Away From Distractions
It is easy to lose track of time when reading email, blogs, and surfing the web. Set aside a block of time in the morning and evening to take care of email. Try to limit your internet during work hours for tasks specific to work, such as research. Wait until you are done with your work to read the celebrity gossip.

Prioritize Your Tasks
When you write out your to-do list, prioritizing your tasks will keep you working on what is important. Some items may need to be accomplished as soon as possible, while other things can wait a day or two. Take a colored highlighter and highlight the things that need to be done ASAP. When you look at your to-do list, your eyes will be drawn to the items that need the most attention.

Outsource When Possible
As you look over your to-do list, do you notice items that can be handled by someone else? By delegating tasks to others, you will have more free time to work on things that require your attention.

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Do you feel blah and unmotivated on overcast, freezing cold, winter days? If so, you’re not alone. Some days, I just want to crawl under the covers and not get out of bed until June.

Apparently, my friend Kristi T. has had this problem before as well, because she blogged about it this morning.

Her question: What do you do to motivate yourself to work on your business when you’d rather be in bed?

My answer:

• Get a big cup of coffee
• A plate of something rich and chocolate
• Find someone to talk business with

So, what do you do?

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