I was talking to my sister on the phone the other day. She was telling me about working extra hours so that she would have some more money for the holidays. That got me thinking about how challenging that can be in business.

Sure, a lot of businesses do better around the holidays. People do a lot of shopping at this time of year. If you have the affiliate links to the right products or sell them yourself, it’s a great time.

But if your business doesn’t pick up on it’s own, it’s not as easy as working a little overtime to earn extra money. You have to find new ways to bring in that money.

1. Offer a special deal on your own products.

If you’re selling and people just aren’t buying enough, try a special deal. Dropping the price is popular, but you could also do a joint venture with another marketer and have a discount when people buy both products.

2. Take on some freelance work.

If you have the extra work time use it to earn extra money. You can find work on eLance, the ProBlogger job board, SheLancers and other places.

3. Make use of any private label products you’ve been neglecting.

Especially if you’ve already bought it, why aren’t you making the most of your private label library? Many online marketers have a bunch of private label stuff they just haven’t gotten around to using yet.

Need a fast way to add private label articles to a blog? ZipPoster can handle it. It’s not something I’d do on a main site, but maybe a minor one? It’s a simple WordPress plugin that takes your text private label articles and posts them over a period of time for you. Add in a plugin such as WordPress Affiliate Pro to automatically add in your affiliate links to the articles, and you have a very quick (probably low quality) site.

Better, of course, is rewriting the private label articles enough to make them more unique, but if you don’t have the time sometimes the quick way is sufficient. Just don’t plan for it to stick around forever if you aren’t putting some extra effort into it. And you may not earn anything from the site. But if you have the stuff lying around, it’s a fairly small risk to take.

4. Don’t buy any ebooks that promise you will get rich quick.

Nah, won’t earn you any money. But that’s better than wasting money.

5. Join a focus group.

While it can be a bit difficult to find a focus group you qualify for in your area, they pay pretty well for the amount of time they take and Find Focus Groups makes it a lot easier. The opportunities are listed by listing date, not by the day the focus group will take place. They appear to be finding these mostly on Craigslist.

6. Sell your photos.

There are a variety of places you can sell your photos as stock images, such as PhotoShelter and StockXpert.

Is anything guaranteed? Nope. But the more ways you try, the more chances you have.

Despite the promises some people will make you about running a home business, it’s not all rainbows and kittens. And even once you start doing well things can go awry for a time.

Just call it learning experiences.

You can take the best instruction on how to build a home business out there, follow it to the letter, and still have things not work. Or they work for a time, then someone (often Google) changes the rules and you’re in a tailspin, little to no money coming in.

I’ve gone through a few of these. That’s why I’ve been working so hard on having more than one income stream.

Some of my income peaks have come at exactly the times I’ve needed them, such as when my son needed Doc-Band helmets to reshape his head after he had craniosynostosis surgery at 3 months old. The insurance only paid for half. My income somehow jumped up just nicely enough to let us handle that.

Then it just as mysteriously dropped.

Actually, I know why it dropped, in part. Great rankings in just one search engine do leave you very subject to the whims of that search engine.

When my husband was laid off, once again I managed to drive my income up, a bit more deliberately this time. Odd thing was that the week before his new job started my rankings started back down again.

Since this was more deliberate, I’ve been able to hold onto things better. I have a broader base of traffic coming in. Still, it would have been nice to hold the peak a while longer. Say a number of years longer.

Even though the lows are frustrating, I’m keeping in mind that each low is a bit higher than the one before. That’s because I’m learning with each one.

The more you understand about why things go bad for a business, the better you can work around the problems. This isn’t something you always pick up from ebooks, especially if what the ebook taught you is what changed and caused the drop in the first place. This is what you learn from experience.

What’s the Best Way to Get Experience?

I mentioned multiple streams of income. I love multiple streams of income. But until you have some idea as to what you’re doing, they’re probably just a distraction. Doing too much slows down your learning curve, and what might have been a drizzle of trouble with your business can turn into a downpour if it all crashes at once.

It’s often smartest to start with one focus. One site. One marketing tactic. Master that first, or at least get pretty good with it.

Once you’re comfortable, start adding on.

I generally try adding in marketing tactics first. You can start with pay per click for the quickest start, then do blog commenting to start getting search engine attention, then Squidoo lenses, article marketing, Twitter… in whatever order works for you.

You Can’t Stop All the Rain

No business will ever run perfectly smoothly, no matter how many streams of income, how many types of traffic you bring to your site, things can go wrong. That’s just life.

But the more you learn, the better your chances are. The harder you work, the better your chances are.

And if the rain’s falling hard enough, maybe there’s a new opportunity. Could it be time for a bucket?

It’s been my experience that not every home business picks up a lot during the holiday season. Some slow down.

If your main focus is information, for example, it may be hard to come up with ways to bring people in for the holidays. While people may be looking for jobs during the holiday season, for example, they may have more trouble finding work as fewer companies hire, especially as you get close to Christmas.

Similarly, families may be too busy with get-togethers to be online so much. I’ve seen this particularly happen with mothers. They will look more for holiday ideas and recipes, but in other areas they just lack the spare time.

You can of course combat this somewhat by having content relevant to the upcoming holidays. Share tips on saving money on holiday shopping. Suggest fun things to do. Share recipes.

You can also prepare for the post-holiday season.

Employers start hiring again in the new year, for example. Anyone who has overspent during the holidays is looking for ways to pay down those credit card bills. People are generally ready for life to get back to normal.

If you weren’t able to pick up holiday traffic, perhaps some of this will be more accessible to you. Think about what your target market will be doing after the holiday rush. Life and business shouldn’t stop after the holidays.

The holiday season is fast approaching. I’m seeing stores with Christmas decorations up already and hearing reports that people are hearing Christmas music in stores. And it’s not even Halloween yet.

Hopefully you’ve done some work on gearing up for the holidays. If you haven’t, now is not the time to procrastinate. Poor economy aside, people are shopping already.

What you need to get done depends on the kind of business you’re running. Some will need more preparation, others less.

This is the time to spend more on your advertising, for example. You want to get those shoppers who are already buying for the holidays. Shopping early is an easy way to spread out the expenses of holiday gifts for many families.

You should also make sure that any holiday themed merchandise is easily found. This is the time of year it will get moving.

If you write about products, now is the time to start thinking about what products will sell well for you through your articles. What do people need to know in order to buy through your links? What’s going to capture their attention?

What else do you do to get ready? How early do you start planning?

Making progress with your home business can be a frustrating experience. Sometimes it all goes so smoothly, but other times you’re just stuck. Why is that?

I believe that one of the big reasons is that it’s so easy to let the past rule what you’re doing now and what you plan for the future. Just think about it. All those habits you’ve built. Are they all still productive?

Sometimes what worked in the past will hold you back later on. It just isn’t good enough anymore. If you’re still relying on the tried and true, even as it becomes less effective, you’re going to work yourself into a rut.

For example, I just rewrote my work schedule the other day. It’s a pretty lightweight schedule, focusing on general tasks I want to work on each day. I had long since quit following the old one, but hadn’t done anything about a new schedule.

Having a good schedule does amazing things for productivity, though.

Similarly, you may find a particular marketing tactic just isn’t working anymore. You can’t let your pay per click ads just stay the same forever, for example. You’ll often get better click through rates and quality scores if you keep on testing. You can let an ad that is converting well sit for a time, but then it’s time to check things over and try something new.

Your past failures can also hold you back. Maybe something didn’t work for you, and you’ve just never gone back and tried it again. You may have struggled with pay per click advertising, article marketing, commenting on blogs or forums, and gotten poor results.

If you haven’t looked at why you failed at one of these, perhaps it’s time. Take a look and figure out what you can do to make it work this time around. Maybe this time the whole thing will click and you’ll have a new source of traffic and leads.

Don’t try more than one new thing, or retry more than one thing you’ve done before, at a time. Most people get overwhelmed by trying to do too many new things at once, and you increase your odds of failure. Give yourself a chance to focus on picking up that skill while still working with the old ones that work for you.

One of the big mistakes many home business owners make is that they try to do it all themselves. Product creation, product selection, website creation, marketing, blogging, managing the finances and so forth.

Trouble is, there’s only so much you can do, and most of us aren’t good at every single little thing that is needed to really run a successful home business.

I know I have a lot of weak areas in my marketing, for example. I’m just fine with article marketing, but I really need to learn more pay per click, for example. And don’t even get me started on the time crunch that makes getting things done so very difficult in the first place.

Doing it all just doesn’t work for most of us. So what should you do?

1. Figure out your weaknesses.

It could be focus, as you have too many ideas to focus on one for long enough to succeed. It could be a particular kind of marketing you’d like to do. It could be keeping up with paperwork.

Anything that is holding back your success you need to take a good look at. If you can figure out where you’re going wrong you might just be able to make it right.

2. Decide what to do about it.

Some things are very much worth outsourcing. Hate the paperwork involved in keeping up your business finances? It might be time to hire a bookkeeper. Hate to write? What about private label articles or a ghostwriter? Maybe even a guest poster if you blog and just need a little extra time.

The point is to not ignore your problems. Depending on how you want to do things you can either learn to handle them yourself or find another way to get them done. Think about what will be most cost effective for you in the long run.

3. Do it.

Figuring out the problems and what needs to be done means nothing if you don’t actually do anything. Get moving and put your solutions into action. Without that all of this is a waste of time.

4. Keep an eye on your progress.

Don’t just assume you’re doing better. Keep track. Figure out what’s working and what isn’t.

You probably won’t get everything right, right off the bat. Some things will work and some won’t. You may hire the wrong person for the job, whether it’s their skills, your ability to communicate what you want or some other problem.

Improving your business by acknowledging and working on your weaknesses is tough and time consuming, but worthwhile in the long run. It’s amazing what a few changes can do.

The economy in the United States is in a pretty serious downward spiral right now. Too many major companies are needing bailouts or having to close down. It’s not a pretty sight.

Does that make now too risky to start your own business?

Not at all! Some businesses thrive even during recessions. It may mean that you have to be cautious about the risks you take, in case your financial position turns out to be more precarious than you thought.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a chance.

What you’ll want to look at is what will continue to sell. It’s not like people quit buying things completely in a poor economy. Their priorities will shift instead.

Will Scams get worse?

One of the big problems can be that the more desperate people get to earn money, the more scams come out.

Be careful in joining any opportunity. Do your research, get opinions from other people and listen to your gut. You need to be passionate about what you do, but that doesn’t mean you should forget common sense.

I recommend finding out who is generally trusted in whichever industry you want to get into. If they have a website or blog, start reading. Find out what resources are worth paying for to shorten your learning curve. More important, find out which are a complete waste of time and money.

What Kind of Business?

There are too many possibilities to name just offhand in one post.

One possibility, of course, is to sell to the other people starting home businesses. I expect a lot of people will be starting out.

But this is not something I recommend unless you have already had some success in your own business. If you’re doing well, you may be able to help other people succeed in your industry and earn some good money doing so.

If you’re starting out, it’s probably not your best choice. Lots of people try it because they see so many ways to earn money. But too many of them end up propagating the scams that are such a problem to so many people. You’re better off earning a living doing something you can be proud of.

You may also consider starting a home business with products that people will use up and reorder. This is why so many network marketing opportunities do well in better times. Some will continue to thrive. It’s up to you to figure out which.

Know Your Limits

Not just your financial limits, although these are very important. Know your time limits. Your skill limits.

Knowing your limits doesn’t mean you can’t work your way past them. Matter of fact, it’s a good idea to stretch yourself. You just have to know when and how.

Sometimes the solution to a skill limit will be to hire help. Other times it will be to learn that skill. Still other times you may decide that you don’t need that particular skill just yet.

If you’re working hard on your home business you should be able to get past some of your financial limits over time. Make sure you reinvest in your business whenever possible. The more you can increase your budget for your business, the easier it is to build it up.

Time limits can be tough, especially for those working a regular job plus raising a family. Your time limitations can be somewhat overcome by outsourcing parts of your business. There are plenty of freelancers out there who would be glad of the work.

You will probably also have to sacrifice some of your family time, leisure time and/or sleep. You decide what is worth sacrificing for your own situation.

Don’t let a bad economy scare you off starting your own business. It’s possible to succeed despite the economy. And if you can succeed now, how much better can you do later?

People always say you should start a home business that you’re passionate about. If you don’t love it, it’s going to just be too hard to keep on going.

That doesn’t mean you’ll always enjoy what you do. Sometimes even the best home business can get you down. When your business gets harder to work, it’s time to take a look at why.

Where You Work

Maybe it’s a lack of a private workspace. I know I find it a lot harder to work when my husband is on his computer. It’s right next to mine, and even though he knows that I don’t like to have someone look over my shoulder as I work, and he tries not to, I’m still very aware of his presence. This makes it harder for me to get things done.

How You Work

It could also be the tedium of the parts of the business you don’t enjoy. You aren’t going to enjoy every aspect of your home business equally. You might love making presentations to customers if you’re in network marketing or you could dread them. You might love working on your business’s website or find it tedious. Article writing, forum participation, commenting on blogs, handing out business cards, advertising in general… you won’t enjoy all parts equally.

The key here is to figure out if you can outsource any of this. Some things you may well have to do yourself, or feel that way. But if you can pay someone to do the things that you drag your feet on or that kill your enthusiasm, why not? Focus your own energies on the parts you enjoy and that bring in more money.

How Your Family Feels About Your Home Business

Then there’s also the eternal curse of a lack of familial support. It’s incredibly rough when your family doesn’t support what you’re doing, especially in the early days when maybe you really aren’t earning that much.

Finding a way to build that support can be a real challenge, particularly if it has never been there at all. Some people won’t get it until you can show a decent income for the time you spend. Others just need to understand more about what it is, what your goals are and what you need from them.

Children can be especially challenging. They need your time and it’s easy to feel guilty when you need to do something for your business. If you can find a way to keep them happy as you work, or to work as they sleep, you may suffer less from guilt.

For some, this may mean finding daycare. Yes, it sounds contrary to running a home business, but that can be how it goes. You can also consider finding another mom to trade care with or arrange more playtime with friends for your kids. Older kids can even get involved in what you’re doing.

Overwork

Another problem can simply be that you need a break. It may be that you’ve been overworking yourself and really just need a touch of time away from your business. This could be a few hours doing something purely for fun, a full day or even a vacation.

Make sure you do this! Time away from your business can be inspiring and actually improve your progress.

Too Little Networking

Getting to know other people in your industry can also be a huge help. They’ll probably understand your frustrations. Many of them will have been there. Talking to people who know what you’re working on can be a huge help.

Even when you’re in similar businesses you can often help one another build up your businesses. Just because you’re competitors in one way doesn’t always mean you compete in everything. You can be friendly about it

The key is to not give up just because you aren’t enjoying things at the moment. Figure out where it is that you’re really struggling and try to bring back that passion.