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.

Popularity: 30% [?]

You have probably heard about the benefits of outsourcing some of your business tasks. Maybe you would like to, but you just feel you do not have the money to hire anyone. It may seem backwards, but paying others to handle some of your business tasks will actually make you money in the long run.

Take a look at the number of hours you are working on your business and figure out which tasks are actually helping you to earn money and which tasks are taking away from the time you could be spending on more important things.

Think about how much more money you could be earning if you spent all of your working hours on the tasks that make you money. The truth is you cannot afford to not start outsourcing. The following are tips for outsourcing your tasks when you do not have a lot of extra money to spend on hiring others.

Start outsourcing your tasks slowly. Maybe you can hire a ghostwriter to write a couple articles for you. That may not seem like much, but those articles can be used on your website and distributed to article directories, which can help bring in a lot of traffic to your site. You can hire a virtual assistant to write and distribute a press release for you. Which, again, can help bring in a lot of traffic for you.

Another option is to barter with service providers. If you sell Tupperware and are looking for someone to help you create a newsletter, ask if they will accept some of your product instead of cash. Or, if you are a ghostwriter in need of a website, ask a web designer if she will trade her services for articles.

If you visit a service-providers’ website and you notice that they charge $15 per hour but you can only afford to pay $10 per hour, send them an email and let them know your situation. If they know that you plan on being a steady client, they may be willing to offer you a reduced rate.

You can also contact your local high school or college and offer an internship in your business. An intern is a student who is willing to work for free in exchange for the experience. Depending on what the student is studying, he or she may be able to handle administrative tasks such as answering email and returning phone calls or highly technical tasks such as web design.

As your profits increase, you can slowly start adding to the list of items you outsource. Even if you add one thing per month, within a year you will have gained a lot of time and maximized your profits.

Popularity: 28% [?]

If you spend much time researching successful home business strategies, you will come across the term “outsourcing”. This term refers to the act of paying a service provider to complete a task.

Outsourcing some of your tasks allows you to spend more time on tasks that earn you money. Chances are you do not earn money by answering your emails or updating your website. You more than likely earn money by marketing your website and promoting your product.

If you currently spend 10 hours per week answering emails and another 10 hours per week writing and distributing articles and press releases, imagine what you could do with those 20 hours if you hired someone else to complete those tasks.

Many types of tasks can be outsourced. Some of them include:

• Answering emails
• Returning phone calls
• Research
• Writing and distributing articles
• Writing and distributing press releases
• Bookkeeping
• Recruiting and managing affiliates
• Finding people to be interviewed for your podcast
• Finding joint venture partners
• Editing audio
• Transcription

Not only can outsourcing allow you to earn more money, it can also allow you to save your sanity. You are one person. You cannot handle every aspect of your business and have a personal life at the same time. If you try to control everything, you will end up being over stressed. Your business will no longer be something you enjoy. And you may end up losing interest in it all together.

By outsourcing some of your tasks, you will be able to have more leisure time and will be able to take a break from your business. If you and your family decide to go on vacation, you can leave your business behind for a few days without worrying. Your assistant will still be attending to your emails, your marketing efforts will not suffer, and you won’t need to carry your laptop with you at all times.

Start outsourcing one or two tasks at a time. As you have more money to use toward hiring others, you can increase the number of tasks you outsource.

You may also find that outsourcing will help you with your motivation. Some people procrastinate when they have tasks to do that they do not enjoy. By having someone else do these tasks, you will find that you will be making more money, you will have less stress, and you will have more passion for your business.

If you’d like to learn more about outsourcing, try my friend Alice Seba’s new guide, Outsourcing Sweetie.

Are you ready to outsource? My assistant, Stephanie, is trained on the Shop Kit Plus, answering helpdesk tickets and updating a Wordpress weblog. You can contact her at www.buckeyeva.com.

Popularity: 21% [?]

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.

Popularity: 31% [?]

If you’ve never heard of a virtual assistant, you’re in for a treat!

A virtual assistant, also known as a VA, takes some of the load off you, so you can work on the important things in your business, your family and your life. She works on a contract basis, so you don’t have to worry about employing someone. And best of all, she works with you via phone and internet, so you don’t have to worry that you won’t find a VA in your area.

Have you wished someone else could deal with all the email you receive? Or maybe you need someone to do some product updates to your website that you’ve been putting off. You may need to have some letters written, website pages updated or articles submitted to directories.

A VA will be able to handle some or all of these tasks. You can hire her for as long as you need to, or on a project-only basis.

Best of all, my friend and VA, Arika Liddiard, is offering a Christmas special for my clients: If you have a Shop Kit Plus site with Watersweb, just contact Arika at her virtual assistance site for five hours of service at the incredibly low rate of $50.

Make sure you contact Arika before Dec. 31, as this deal is for a limited time only. (Just contact Arika by Dec. 31. Actual work on the project can start after the holidays, if you wish).

Popularity: 23% [?]