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.

As you go about reading up on ways to build your business, you probably have found there are a lot of theories about how to get a good audience. Many tactics naturally value the search engines, without which you’re hard to find in the first place.

Over time you become more established, and hopefully start to build a good audience. If you’re writing a blog, tracking your audience can be pretty easy with tools such as Feedburner. You can find out just how many people are subscribed to your blog, and even share that information on a chicklet if you like.

The trouble comes in if you start to get too obsessed with search engine traffic, and forget about the audience you’ve been building for. Or you start aiming for the Digg front page or wanting a huge number of Stumbles to your site.

You forget your audience and write for someone or something else instead.

All these sources of traffic can be very nice, but trying too hard for them can alienate the readers you really want. Digg and Stumble traffic may not convert well. Search engine traffic is better, but it only helps if you’re writing for the people reading your site rather than the bots.

Truth be told, success is not to be had strictly in a large number of visitors or subscribers. Both are nice, but what are they doing to help you earn a living? If you’re trying to earn money and they aren’t interested in buying, you aren’t doing yourself any good just going for the numbers.

Show your audience that you value it by providing good value to them. Write interesting, relevant content. Point out solid products and services that they may enjoy using. Build trust. Be responsive.

If you’re open to what your visitors and subscribers have to say, they may well tell you what they’d like to see on your site. You can get some idea of this just by tracking where people go the most on your site (aside from the home page!), or you can ask. Start a poll or write a post asking people what they would like to see more of from you.

Providing good value is not the only step you’ll have to take if you want to succeed online. No matter how good your site is, if no one can find it no one will care about it. But it is a major portion of what it takes to maintain your success.

According to this article in Business Week, eBay is eying the fixed price model more than the auction model now. They’re trying to make it easier to use the “Buy It Now” option rather than use auctions. Sellers will pay less upfront, and more when a sale occurs. They’ll still have auctions, of course.

I can see good and bad to this. Certainly it’s nice to be able to find something I like, and just buy it rather than hope I win the auction. Snipers are a pain. But at the same time, that’s not what people come to eBay for, and I can’t help but wonder if they’re risking their business model on this.

Then again, they say the auction model has been slipping for them, so they might just have it right.

But if you look at the comments on the article, the general feeling is that it is the sniper that has made the auction model work so poorly. eBay has never managed to fix that problem, which is a challenging one indeed. Combine that with the insane shipping charges some sellers had, and it’s no wonder buyers became disillusioned with them.

This is the kind of thing you need to address in your own business. You need to know what people dislike about your business as well as what they truly loathe about it. It’s rarely easy to solve business problems, but if you know what they are you can at least make the effort.

Or if you’re trying to get into a business, see what mistakes your competition is making. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see other auction sites trying to make a move on this. If a site can establish itself as a better auction experience for both buyers and sellers than what eBay offers, they might have a shot.

I’m not expecting that too soon, or anything; it’s just that I can see the opening.

Making mistakes as you start out with a home business is easy. You should make mistakes, in fact. But some mistakes you are better off taking the time to learn about before you make them, rather than after someone catches you making them.

Mistake #1: Faking it until you make it to excess.

Lots of people suggest that you “fake it until you make it,” that is, do your best to sound like an expert even when you aren’t. The trouble with this kind of advice is that it’s very easy to get caught with this kind of a philosophy.

There are the people posting faked Clickbank stats. The ones posting on forums asking for beginning advice on the very topic they’re claiming expert status on elsewhere.

I personally don’t believe in faking it, but if you must, at least do it on a topic where you can keep up the facade. When you get caught faking it the reputation can follow you for years, especially online where people can accidentally or on purpose find out things that happened years ago. And be prepared to take the consequences if you blow it.

Mistake #2: Trying to do everything on just one site.

If you’re a beginner, don’t try to take on the big sites that cover thousands of topics. Pick a niche. Sure, you can start a blog about your life, your take on finances, your favorite new electronics, what your pet did yesterday, funny pictures you’ve found online, books and movies you recommend, career advice, camping tips and more, but unless you have a serious gift you aren’t going to get a very interested audience.

People like knowing what to expect from a site to at least a degree. If you’re trying to cover everything, it comes down to the old saying about “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Mistake #3: Spam of any kind.

Some people spam forums claiming that only email can be spam. Unfortunately for such “marketers,” just about everyone else disagrees.

Forums generally have very clear rules about advertising on them. If not, you can read them and quickly figure out the general etiquette that is accepted on that forum.

Odds are that flat out ads as posts will not be accepted, and will be deleted as soon as a moderator passes by. You may or may not be able to have business links in your signature. It’s your responsibility to figure out what’s allowed and to follow the rules. Otherwise you will never gain any respect for yourself or your business.

Similarly, skip buying an email list. If you can afford one early on, it’s probably not a legitimate list. You really don’t want to get shut down for spamming, and you certainly don’t want to deal with the fines if things get serious.

Mistake #4: Not worrying about credibility.

Many marketers don’t seem to care at all if they’re credible. I can’t tell you how many lists I’ve unsubscribed from because the list owner promoted obvious junk just for the money, with no care for what the people on his list really wanted.

Same for on websites. If you promote a product when you really don’t know anything about it, how credible do you really think you are? Who do you think you’re fooling?

Sure you can fool some people, as there are plenty of people out there who will believe anything they read. There’s a reason why spammers keep at it, after all. But for a sustainable business model building credibility will take you much, much farther.

Mistake #5: Sitting back and expecting results.

You hear all the time about earning passive income online. Passive income is a wonderful thing. But planning on it too early on is asking to fail.

It takes work to build a passive income. That’s not a contradiction. You do the work for however long it takes to get things going. From there you will still have to do some work, but the amount can be decreased. Stop completely and even passive income is likely to fade away.

Mistake #6: Buying every new product that you think might help your business.

Lots of people make this mistake over and over again. A hot new product hits all the big internet marketing lists. People are raving about it. So you abandon your progress with one product before you’ve seen any results, and hop to the next one.

You know, there’s a reason why I don’t like to buy hyped products. They’re a distraction to my business. I don’t find them to be worth my time or money.

The occasional product, sure. I have a copy of The Super Affiliate Handbook. I use Build a Niche Store. I’ve read other books and ebooks, and I use other products. But I keep it to a minimum; that is, how much I feel I can use effectively.

Pick an ebook to read or a program to use and really get to understanding it. Follow every step. Learn it in as much detail as you can. Do your best to make a profit from it.

Once you’ve done that you can consider buying something else. But if you constantly stop in the middle of the learning process, especially if you haven’t made any money yet, you’re going to end up wondering why nothing works.

Mistake #7: Giving up.

I was not an overnight success. Heck, sometimes I still struggle with what the search engines like to do to me and the rankings of my sites. But I keep going. And since I was able to earn enough money to keep my family going despite my husband’s job loss, I’d say I do pretty decently.

Too many people start a home business expecting instant success. Don’t expect it. If you’re one of the lucky few, congratulations, but if you’re like the rest of us it will take several months to a couple years to really get things going.

It can be hard to say when giving up is the right choice. It’s not after two months of throwing up ads and wondering where the money is. But if you’re failing at every business you ever try you do need to look at how quickly you’re giving up.

This is related to Mistake #5 above, as many of the people who finally give up on home business are the ones who hopped from concept to concept, product to product, company to company without every really focusing on anything at all.

Mistake #8: Taking on too much.

You have a life outside your home business right? Most of us do, whether we’re married or not, have children or not. You might even be running your business on the side as you work a regular job.

Running yourself into the ground is a great way to burn out on any home business. Make sure you give yourself time away as necessary.

For example, I find it amazingly refreshing to just go and play with my kids for a half hour. I can come back to whatever I was working on nicely refreshed. Yet it’s just as easy to tell myself that I don’t have the time, and keep on being stressed, working less efficiently because I’m so drained.

But beyond that is trying to run more sites or a more complex site than you’re really up for. Make your life simple, especially at first, and keep things simple. Focused. Pick a target and aim at it. Learn as much as you can about your chosen market to help your business succeed.

Mistake #9: Not knowing when to outsource.

Ah, my own greatest weakness! I rarely outsource. But if you can stand to do it, outsourcing will benefit your business tremendously.

Sometimes it can be as simple as finding a quality resource for private label articles. This can be difficult, as there are more junk PLR sources than good ones. But you can save a ton of time when the research is already done for you.

But you should also consider outsourcing things such as website design, bookkeeping and any repetitive work that really doesn’t require your personal attention. The more you can focus on the things that are directly earning money for you, they better you are likely to do with them. A virtual assistant can be a huge help.

Outsourcing the wrong things can add to your work, so it’s something to be careful of. But once you find someone who does high quality work for you, try to keep him or her. It’s much easier to work with one person over and over than to have to explain yourself to every new person you try. And you’ll also know better what to expect in terms of quality.

Have I made these mistakes? Hmm… some of them. Definitely not all. #8 and #9 probably give me the most trouble still. I love what I do and I keep coming up with more ideas. Makes taking on too much really easy to do. But to let anyone else touch MY work? MINE! Except when I manage to let go just a little bit.

There are plenty of other mistakes you can make, of course. Feel free to share the ones you find to be challenging.

I meet a lot of people who really, really want to make a living online. So they say, at least. But when it comes to taking a chance on a home business, the potential for risk throws them off.

This takes many forms. Some do so much research that they never get anywhere. Some refuse to pay for any resources at all, for fear of being scammed. Some insist that everything they do to start out their home business must be free. Wouldn’t want to take a risk, after all.

The trouble with that is that running a business is a risk. Sure you can do it all free, learn it all for free and even spend months studying up on how to run a home business before taking step one. But that’s not going to do that much for your chances of success.

Getting Past the Fear of Scams

Given the huge number of work at home scams out there, being concerned that you might get scammed when you decide on a home business opportunity is a legitimate concern. But that doesn’t mean you should let that stop you.

One of the tricks to avoiding the scams is to understand what scams in general look like. If it’s not clear where the money you will be earning comes from, it’s probably a scam. If you get paid for recruiting rather than sales, it’s probably a scam. If you’re earning money all out of proportion to the work or learning curve involved, it’s probably a scam.

In other words, if it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably a scam.

Some people do make big money in online business. Even in legitimate opportunities, they’re the exception rather than the rule. You could be told exactly how they do it, and as a beginner still probably fail at it. Some things just aren’t as easy as the pros make it look. That doesn’t make a scam; it means there’s more to it than you can see right away.

Planning or Procrastination?

It’s always a good idea to have something of a plan as you prepare to launch a home business. Trouble is, planning often becomes procrastination.

Plans for your home business can be very basic. You want to know what you are trying to sell and how you want to go about it. You need to know where you’re going to find the time to work.

Overplan and it’s going to take a lot longer to get things going. You’ll also find that many of the things you plan out change over time. Planning after a certain point becomes a way to procrastinate?

What is that point? If you’ve been planning and researching and planning and researching and still haven’t started your business, you’ve probably reached it.

Eventually You Have to Take the Leap

If you want a home business, really really want a home business, eventually you are just going to have to get started. There’s no way around it.

Yes, it’s a risk. Yes you may waste tons of time and however much money you decide to risk on your home business and get little to no return. If it were a sure thing everyone would be doing it.

But if you can stick with it, push through even when you feel like you haven’t made any real progress in months and the naysayers are really getting you down, you improve your chances of success. It’s tough, but that’s what it takes.

And yet so far!

That’s the frustrating part. Financially, my family has been struggling since my husband was laid off in January. But between his unemployment payments, my earnings and his parents paying the COBRA coverage each month, we’ve been making it. But the unemployment is about to end, and the COBRA is really hitting the inlaws hard.

Rent in our area is high, but right now my earnings could cover all our regular living expenses. But what I can’t rely upon is that it would cover the COBRA too. Dratted stuff is $1200 a month.

What really drives me nuts is that by all signs I would be able to manage it all for next month with room to spare. But what about the next? And the next? I was at this level once before, and it didn’t last.

This time, at least, the income is a little more diverse. I have more sites actually bringing in money. The last time it was one that soared up high, and minimal contributions from others. I know that having a broader range of sites bringing in income increases the odds that now I will be fairly stable, but as it’s a recent phenomenon this round to be earning so well, it is hard to trust to that.

On the plus side of things, I’ve been working hard to bring my best sites up even higher, and of course getting my sites in general to do something. It’s hard work promoting a variety of sites, so it’s nice to see that I am indeed having some success at it.

The most torturous part is that one affiliate program I’m with doesn’t have online tracking. I know I’ve done well with it lately, since I just got a gift from them, but until my check comes I don’t quite know how well that is. Only the excellent pay keeps me in it.

And no, I’m not sharing it’s name!

I am looking at this as meaning that we won’t NEED financial help from family much longer, whether or not my husband finds a job soon. That, at least, is a good feeling. I almost have this thing beat on my own!

Now to bring it higher yet.

While I do much of my online work in affiliate marketing, and do pretty well at it, I do like to look at the other business options out there. I had been just considering dabbling in selling ebook on eBay when they dropped downloadable products, in fact.

I’ll admit to being a little frustrated by that timing.

But a new eCourse being offered by Brian McGregor looks quite interesting to me. He allowed me to review it and I must say it looks quite good. Actual paying students will get it a bit better, with the ability to contact Brian and ask him questions. He’ll even review auctions you run during the class. Quick feedback on if you’re understanding what you’re learning!

Hurry up and buy it during the prelaunch and you’ll save $300 off the full price. If this is your kind of business, paying $197 versus $497 should make plenty of sense. The launch is on July 7, so you do have to hurry.

Check it out now.

I find it quite amusing that my last post was about keeping your home business going while sick. A part of why I haven’t posted lately is… umm… I got sick.

And wasn’t prepared. Shoulda taken my own advice.

Really there’s a bit more to it than just me getting sick along with the kids. Lots of family stuff going on and the complete and utter drain of some seriously hot weather. But I just have to laugh at myself for being caught so off guard professionally immediately after writing about avoiding it.

But these things happen. Call it an example for why you should do as I said and make plans.

Sad part is, I did have some articles I could have posted. Just lacked the energy when I was home most of the time to bother with it. The days just kept on adding up, until I suddenly realized weeks had snuck by.

I do plan to work out a better plan for next time. Probably try something like a spare article a week until I have a good backlog on all blogs. Maybe teach my husband how to post in my place. After all, it’s not just having things ready, it’s the doing that gets you there.