OK, so I’m going to let you in on a little secret. When Naomi first mentioned that she wanted to start a home buziness, I thought she was crazy. This was a little more than just beyond anything I was used to. But she talked a good game and convinced me (maybe a sure sign she should be in marketing?), and what follows are some things I’ve had to learn while I got used to the whole fluctuating income thing.

Get ready to talk about it. A lot.

If your spouse is thinking about quitting the day job and working from home instead, it better be because they love what they are going to be doing. And what do we as humans do with the things we love? We talk about them constantly. If your partner doesn’t want to talk about their business constantly, this may be a sign that they are not into it enough. Either that or the business isn’t going as well as they’d hoped. When Naomi started talking to me about marketing (not exactly my favourite subject) I quickly realized that she didn’t necessarily need marketing to become my passion too, she just needed me to listen. Read More

Do you remember that old saying, “The cobbler’s children wear no shoes”?

The basic idea is that the dude who makes the shoes kicks ass for his customers and lets his own kids walk around in holey flip-flops. Whether it’s his kids or his wife or himself, he looks around and realize that he’s the professional and his dirty-ass toes are hanging out for all the world to see.

Today, I am that cobbler. (Not the peach kind. That would be far cooler.)

Here is a sampling of some of the customer contact I’ve received today:

1. “Hey lady. I’m just writing to say thanks for being awesome. I’ve hit 400 subscribers and I never could have done it without you.” (This person was a total unknown just 7 weeks ago. Seriously, his mama couldn’t find his blog with two hands.) Read More

It has come to my attention that many home business bloggers are discussing their comment policies. Specifically, they want to know which comments they should delete. (Jonathan Fields at Awake at the Wheel discussed this recently, and very well.)

I’ve previously heard people say, both in business and in blogging, that they will accept criticism as long as it’s constructive. Personally, I don’t have a whole lot of time for constructive criticism because I don’t have a lot of time for criticism in general. But if you have to criticize, I guess it may as well be constructive.

What I notice, though, is that what gets packaged as constructive criticism tends to be a thinly veiled form of assbaggery. Someone says something is constructive and then they proceed to be a total prick for no good reason. (You get this when you go into freelancing a lot.) Kind of like prefacing something with “With all due respect.” Cause what they’re about to say is just SO respectful, I’m sure. Read More

Good holy Lord, I am busy. I have about 93 posts in the pipeline, 91 of which I swore on the life of my cat to someone or other that I would write. (Note: If I ever promise you this, I am lying. I SO don’t have a cat.) I’m going to hammer out a few in one shot cause I’m lazy like that.

1. I have a secret. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t broadcast it all over the internet. (Whoops.)

I hate ebooks.

I recognize that ebooks are a vital communication tool and I plan to write a few home business ebooks myself. (Speaking of which… my KINGDOM for a graphic designer. Help? Anyone? Must be cheap, fun, and not take yourself too seriously. Email me. Please.) Read More

Hi everyone, Jamie from IttyBiz here. It’s about 5 am here on Tuesday morning, Jack is as asleep as he’ll ever be and Naomi is sleeping blissfully unaware that I have hijacked her little home business blog for this one post. Believe me, when she realizes it I’m sure there will be more than a few computer passwords changed around our house.

Before I get started with the real reason I called you all here, let me take care of a few administrative things that may help minimize the amount of damage I sustain when Naomi finds out about this. First – please read her post Home Business Mistakes: What Would You Do Differently?. By doing so you will ensure I will not have to hear about how I knocked her most recent post off the front page of her blog. Secondly, please do not let her know about this on Twitter. We all know how often she is on Twitter and I need the time to come up with a good alibi proving that this could not possibly be me writing this right now. Thanks for your support. Read More