I recently attended the Blogalicious Weekend in Atlanta which was the first blogging conference for women of color. And as with any major conference in the last few years, Twitter is all the rage as the tool of choice to document an event and send and receive short messages from attendees.

It occurred to me while at a conference where the tech savvy ranged from expert to total newbie that those of us who use Twitter regularly take for granted that it is there and ready for us to use. Anyone who hasn’t yet tried Twitter often can’t get past the “what the heck is it?” question as well as “how in the world would I use it?”

So I wanted to compile a list of 10 tips for starting to use Twitter for your business and your life because Twitter is flexible that way. But until you can understand - and communicate - the benefits and best practices, it is hard to convince anyone (including yourself) that Twitter has any value at all.

On with the tips.

1. Get a smart Twitter handle. When it comes to business, the best Twitter handle you can get is your own name or maybe even your company name. But whatever name you choose, make sure you have a strategic reason for using it. How do you want to be recognized and remembered in business circles? If you’re thinking you’ll only use Twitter for personal reasons, think again. The lines continue to blur between anything you do in social networks professionally and personally so choose your Twitter handle with care.

2. Choose a clear icon. Most people use a photo of themselves as their Twitter icon or avatar and that’s great because people want to interact with people. However, there it is also acceptable to use your company logo as your Twitter icon if you are speaking “as the brand” instead of more personally as yourself. In many small businesses, you the business owner are the brand. Choosing the right image to use is important to make a good first impression and to build a recognizable Twitter presence.

3. Brand your page. You have the ability to change the background on your Twitter page. Take advantage of that otherwise blank space to better brand your page with your logo, relevant photos, and even additional text and links. While the background image is not “clickable,” just spelling out your web site URL or including graphics to show you are also on Facebook can give your followers more information than the 160 character bio and single link Twitter offers you.

4. Follow selectively. While it may be tempting to follow as many people as you can in hopes that they follow you back, you should really have strategic reasons for following other people. Some good business reasons to follow someone include: they are a luminary in your industry; they act as a human filter and post links to relevant articles often; you do business with them; or they are someone you’d like to network with such as a member of the media. Follow a few people at a time, then listen and engage them in dialogue or retweet them. Then add a few more. Keep your following to follower ratio in balance, that is, you want to make sure you have more followers than the number of people you are following. Otherwise, you look like a Twitter spammer or at the very least, desperate.

5. Listen before you tweet. Like with any community, listen first by following along the conversations you see in your Twitterstream based on who you are following. Don’t pipe up until you know you have something of value to share. Value can range from a link to an interesting and relevant article to a useful tip to someone who is asking for advice to a retweet of someone’s great quote or giving kudos to someone you follow on Twitter for something they’ve done.

6. Pick your tool. There are many desktop-based, Web-based and mobile-device based applications to post to Twitter. Pick the mode that is most comfortable for you and the tool that makes the most sense to you. For desktop, many people love TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop. For the Web, I still use my Twitter home page but also use Splitweet to post to different Twitter accounts. For my iPhone, I love Tweetie but have also tried Twittelator and TweetDeck. And there’s Twitterberry for the Blackberry among others. Most of these tools are free or cheap so don’t be afraid to try out a few until you find the right one.

7. Pay attention to what matters. It is easy to get swept up into the Twitterstream and get off topic. Keep your goals in mind when you are using Twitter. Are you ultimately trying to sell product? Don’t get so caught up in the tweet flurry that you forget to occasionally tweet links to your products. Are you looking for clients? Use Twitter to network and then be careful how else you Tweet because people are watching including potential clients.

8. Tweet regularly. While you can blog once a week at the very minimum and still keep some momentum going with your blog, Twitter is a much more immediate and constant stream of interaction. Expect to tweet at least daily, but you’ll be much more effective if you tweet several times a day. Don’t plan out every single tweet - spontaneity is a good thing on Twitter.

9. Reference and retweet. Be generous on Twitter and you will be rewarded. While it may be tempting to use Twitter to broadcast about yourself and your company all the time, you should balance self-referencial tweets with those that give kudos to others. Retweets are always appreciated by others - just make sure they are on message for your own followers.

10. Step away. It is easy to get sucked into Twitter for hours, but it really only takes 15 minutes a day to do good things on Twitter. Spend more time only if you have strategic business reasons to do so, otherwise, you can find yourself wasting time instead.

Overall, be yourself, be real, be engaged in your tweet community. The value of Twitter comes from the value you put into it.

What are some tips you’ve learned as you’ve incorporated Twitter into your communications tool kit?

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Manage Twitter (chrisbrogan.com)
• PROJECT RETWEET: Twitter’s Plan to Officially Support Retweeting (mashable.com)
• Five Best Twitter Clients [Hive Five] (lifehacker.com)
• The power of tweets (guardian.co.uk)

In the constant quest for work/life balance tips, problogger Gina Blitstein spoke with Michelle Riggen-Ransom and Pamela O’Hara of BatchBlue Software for their take on priorities and running a business AND family.

It’s no revelation to say that having a business requires a complete commitment. The same can be said of motherhood. When you wear both of these hats, the demands can seem overwhelming! How do you reconcile the amount you give of yourself to your business with the amount of yourself that you devote to your personal and family life? How do you make sure there’s enough of you to go around to remain happy and effective in both arenas?

The answer depends on your priorities.

I recently interviewed two accomplished mothers (who just happen to run the same company) about how they manage their roles as businesswomen and moms. Both women are emotionally invested in their business and fiercely dedicated to its success. They are equally passionate as mothers, committed to spending quality time with their families, despite their busy work life. Their answers, however, were surprisingly different.

Pamela O’Hara, President of BatchBlue Software, routinely works a 60-hour week. A

s a mother of 3 children aged 2, 5 and 7, Pamela appreciates the flexibility her schedule allows. While sometimes business is the focus, at other times the needs of her family come first.

Pamela explains, “The challenge with work/life balance is in all the grey areas.” As far as maintaining a clear delineation between what is ‘work’ time and what is ‘personal/family’ time, she admits that it’s a daily challenge. As for designating certain hours ‘for work’ or ‘for family,’ Pamela says any schedule is, “more of a guideline than a rule.”

According to Pamela, communication between work and family is key. “I try to communicate each to the other. I talk to my kids and husband about my work. So when I do have to take an afternoon to work they understand better why I have to do it. And same with the work environment. At BatchBlue we very much respect each other’s personal lives. We share what is happening professionally and personally in staff meetings and in the daily “status” e-mails we send to each other. We maintain flexible schedules so that everyone does have the ability to work family obligations into their workday as needed. In the end we all want the same thing - a healthy family and a successful business so as long as all is being communicated (which is not always easy, but something to keep working towards) they should be able to live together harmoniously.”

Pamela reassures women trying to balance the demands of a professional life with their personal life by revealing, “It doesn’t ever balance. Sometimes it swings one way, sometimes the other. Take it one day at a time and enjoy both. If you do you will be a better worker and family member.”

Michelle Riggen-Ransom is Director of Communications at BatchBlue Software where she averages 50 hours weekly. In contrast to her business partner, this mother of a 6 and a 2 year old says that she and her family are best served by a more structured approach. “I have to have a pretty strict schedule to make it all work for me,” Michelle says. She finds that compartmentalizing work and personal/family life is the best approach for her. She believes that, ideally, “when you are at work you think about work, when you are with the kids, you should fully be with them.” As far as maintaining the delineation between work and family time, Michelle says, “I’m pretty good at it, actually.”

While Michelle says that her personal and professional life are pretty integrated, she admits, “Family trumps work.” Ultimately what helps Michelle maintain separation of work and family is, “having a schedule that works, which I try very hard to stick to. That said, the slightest thing can throw it off (sick sitter or kid, unexpected travel etc.) so the line does invariably get blurred. You need to have a contingency plan in place for those times.”

Michelle advises women to cut themselves some slack when attempting to balance their work and life. “There is no perfect solution, no “having it all,” she says, “so don’t put pressure on yourself to try to create it.”

What, ultimately, is the payoff for making the balance work for you? Pamela says, “I think it is important to feel a sense of accomplishment outside of my family responsibilities. For me, that gives me the confidence and challenge I need to appreciate my own self worth. I think I make a much better parent understanding that I am an accomplished adult.” As for the flipside of the coin, regarding her family, she says, “They remind me daily why I want to be accomplished.” Michelle adds that while her house could use some straightening, “Hopefully my children will remember that they were loved and listened to and adored by parents who worked hard at their interesting jobs.”

Every woman will confront the challenges of divvying herself up among her various roles. Take into consideration your own priorities, whether you strive for a great amount of freedom or a high degree of structure - or somewhere in between. You can find an individual, workable balance between your work and personal life that will satisfy each and most importantly - you.

Where do your priorities lie when balancing your work and family?

Problogger Gina Blitstein offers methods she’s developed that can help you teach your children to embrace a wider variety of foods, and consequently eat more healthily.

By Gina Blitstein

Adults are well aware of the food pyramid. Most of us try to eat with its guidelines in mind so as to stay healthy and at an appropriate weight. While the food pyramid is a helpful guide toward nutritious eating, children know nothing about its principles - unless we adults make certain to teach them, that is. Children start early making judgments on what they like and don’t like to eat. No child is going to eat something just because we tell them that it is “good for you.” When children’s options are limited, their preferences are equally limited. That’s why it is vital that we as adults provide every opportunity for youngsters to experience a variety of foods in a variety of ways.

What can we do as the ones responsible for children’s health and physical development to broaden their food horizons? Having fed hundreds of children at all stages of development as a childcare provider for over 20 years, I’ve accumulated some knowledge and techniques pertaining to children’s nutrition and eating habits. With the right attitude, I know we can make a difference.

Children’s taste buds grow and mature along with the rest of their bodies. Just because a child shuns a particular food today doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it tomorrow - or next year. Don’t let one dismissal of a food banish it from the child’s realm of existence. Broccoli exists, whether a child wants to eat it or not. Making broccoli disappear only makes the child feel she has more power over food choices than she rightfully should.

Of course you can’t make a child eat broccoli (or any food she chooses to boycott) but it should still be regularly offered in a variety of ways. I’ve found it effective to sometimes ‘camouflage’ a food and other times offer it outright. That way, even if the child chooses not to eat something this time, he is still receiving adequate nutrition.

Here are some methods I’ve developed over the years that have helped me teach children to embrace a wider variety of foods, and consequently eat more healthily:

• Your food processor is your friend. Whether you are a “from scratch” cook or you are opening a jar of spaghetti sauce or a can of soup, add some pureed vegetables to bump up the nutritional content. Adding pureed veggies to homemade meatloaf or meatballs is a great way not only to increase nutrition but flavor and moisture. Puree some peppers, onion and mushrooms and stir them into tomato sauce when making homemade pizza…kids will learn what tastes good on a pizza and not pick off the veggies. Pureed veggies can be mixed into lots of things…sloppy joe filling, taco meat, casseroles…Be sure to match appropriate vegetables with the food…I’m not proposing pureed broccoli in the tacos!

• Sauces and dips are also your friend. Let a child choose what she would like to dip her celery or fish stick in…ketchup on a carrot stick?! - while it may seem revolting to you, your kid is eating a carrot, right?

• Seasoning is your friend, too. A little touch of salt, chicken bouillon, even sugar on cooked veggies will make them much more palatable to children.

Of course it’s not just vegetables children don’t eat enough of. Meatloaf or meatballs is a good place to add some wheat germ or oatmeal for additional whole grains. Try this compromise to get a child to eat whole grain bread…use one slice of whole wheat and one slice of white in a sandwich. If you serve it white side up, he may not even notice, especially if it’s toasted. Cinnamon, peanut butter or jelly also make good camouflage for whole grain bread. If the kids aren’t fans of brown rice, try mixing it half and half with white rice.

As for encouraging children to eat more protein, pair it with something they already like. Try stirring extra cheese, ground beef, chicken, hot dogs or ham into macaroni and cheese.

Children must learn that the word chicken is not automatically followed by the word nugget. I not only cook a variety of foods but familiar foods in different ways. The best way to teach food’s many different incarnations is to allow children to observe the preparation. Giving them “face time” with food de-mystifies it, taking away the mystery of what ends up on their plate and ultimately in their mouth.

Finally, I offer these suggestions for encouraging a pleasant dining experience and a healthy relationship with food for all:

• Cook one meal for everyone. You are not a short order cook! Provide at least one representative from all the food groups, and you have accomplished your mission as the cook. Special orders encourage pickyness for pickyness’ sake.

• For anyone under the age of 5, prepare a plate with a little of everything. Once everything has been at least tasted, more of something may be taken. We don’t want to teach a child to “gorge” on one particular food to the exclusion of everything else.

• Even babies eat what the family eats…in most cases there is no reason for buying expensive jars of baby food! With very few exceptions, a baby can have a pureed version of what the rest of the family is eating. Before a baby begins eating proteins (around 8 months) you can reserve some vegetables from the family meal and puree or mash them to an appropriate texture. After starting proteins, a baby can eat a pureed version of the same meal. This is a fantastic way to gradually teach their taste buds to get used to flavors and textures.

Hopefully these suggestions will help the children you cook for learn to enjoy eating lots of healthy foods, and enjoy the lovely experience of eating!

What changes can you make toward teaching your children to eat nutritiously?

No matter how efficiently you get things done in the office or at home, when you become a Freelancer, you face a whole different challenge where time management is concerned. Suddenly, the only person breathing down your neck about bringing in clients and looming deadlines is you. On the one hand, it sounds very appealing to be in charge of your own destiny…and job satisfaction. On the other hand however, you are now solely in charge of your destiny and job satisfaction! Your entire work life has undergone an upheaval in location, context and priorities. Everything is different, including the people sharing your work space and the distractions that can keep you from getting and staying down to business. What practices can you adopt early on as a Freelancer to take command of the time that is now all your own? Let’s explore some ideas for keeping you focused and on track as you travel the road to success alone.

Leslie Shreve, Founder and Productivity Expert at Focus Consulting, gives these tips to optimize the Freelancer’s time management:

Keep track of tasks electronically. Capture all you need to do, have to do, want to do, and dream of doing all in one electronic task list that allows you to easily plan, prioritize and be proactive. To do lists are great because they provide a place to get everything out of your head, but if the to-dos are written on paper (and usually they’re on multiple papers), they are easily misplaced or lost. Not only this, but it’s actually impossible to effectively prioritize ALL of your responsibilities (tasks from e-mail, voice mail, snail mail, papers, files, post-it notes, meeting notes and more) every day without using an electronic task list, such as the one in Outlook, where you can quickly capture and reprioritize in a second.

Don’t let your time be lost, stolen or given away. Be sure to use only one calendar, also recommended to be electronic. Keep an eye on your calendar so that you allow enough time to process email, work your task list, work on projects, work on client work and still have time for personal tasks. If you are overcommitted and don’t have time for all you want to do, it’s time to start over and write down the most important things you must do personally and professionally, and then add to the list the things you’d like to do and then after that, those activities which would be nice to do. Compare this list with your calendar and block time for the “must dos” first. Fit in the rest of the list as time permits. Don’t say ‘yes’ to everything you’re invited to do. Something may have to give in order to fit in what you value the most. To determine what goes, you have to be aware of where your time goes now. Document everything and then choose what to cut, either temporarily or permanently.

Be selective and decisive. Watch out for subscribing to too much: magazines, newspapers, blogs, e-zines, newsletters, e-courses… and then there’s social media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Plaxo, LinkedIn, MySpace and the list goes on and on. You could spend your whole day involved in all of these, but you need to budget your time. Be selective. Choose only those pieces of information which will serve you the most in growing you or your business - those things which could impact your bottom line the most - and unsubscribe to the rest. Limit your time to any one or a combination of these and if time permits after a few weeks or months, you can gradually add more into your schedule if there is value and time permits.

Create systems for finding and filing. One of the worst time bandits is disorganization. Make time in your calendar to get organized in paper files, e-files, tasks, and contacts. The more you can create systems you can trust and rely on, the more time you’ll save in the future because you’ll know exactly where to look to find what you need when you need it. Being organized and taking the time to maintain organization truly supports your business and your growth. Nothing hurts a bottom line more than losing paperwork, email, e-documents, follow-ups and contact information. It could translate into lost time and lost opportunities.

Don’t fall into the “I’ve got all day” trap. Being en entrepreneur and being in business for yourself can give you the sense of having all kinds of free time. However, be prepared: working from home can pose new challenges in the form of distractions and interruptions which can easily pull you away from your work. You may think you have all day, but it could slip away quickly unless you carefully make a plan for what time of day and days of the week you can focus on your work and when you can focus on your family or home. Consider what time of day you will be sharing the house with other family members, pets and anyone else that may break your focus. Use your quietest times of day and days of the week for your most important tasks. Don’t risk combining priorities with possible interruptions or distractions.

Although as a Freelancer your time is yours to spend as you see fit, armed with these useful suggestions, you can take charge of your schedule. It takes a combination of solid prioritizing, detailed preparation and steely focus. Your time is the most valuable commodity you posses as a Freelancer so it will serve you well to spend it wisely.

What are your time-thieves as a Freelancer?

We’re in an economic crisis. Yes, I’ve heard that and felt that, and I know how it affects me and my family personally. But thinking about my company, I realized I had to rework the way I think about business spending. Here are a few things I’ve decided in order to keep more cash flowing in than out, even as the flow in slows down while everyone is tightening their belts.

1. Rethink company expenditures. I used to never think twice about putting a lunch on the company card or picking up a piece of equipment or a peripheral on the company’s dime. Instead of simply using the company card for company expenses, we’ve switched teh process so now we use our personal money for business expenses and then submit an invoice. Suddenly, what seemed easy and painless has become something that I think twice about before spending. By making your team - and yourself - dig into your own pockets for smaller expenditures and then submit receipts for reimbursement, everyone gets a quick dose of reality in terms of how they are spending. We still put larger travel expenses on the card.

2. Reassess your monthly auto-pays. Like us, you probably have at least half a dozen products and services that you’ve put on autopay and basically take for granted that money is being sucked out of the company on a regular basis so you can use those tools. Our autopays include 5pm for project management, eFax for Web-based faxing and LibSyn for podcast hosting. We recently cut monthly expenses by shifting from Freshbooks back to Quickbooks Pro (at the behest of our bookkeeper). But we had to add more expense to upgrade our 5pm account to accommodate more team members. Just make sure that you list out your auto-pays, and make sure you have the exact service plan that you need. In some cases, you can downgrade and save some money.

3. Hold off on most purchases. While we could all benefit from buying an updated version of Microsoft Word (I’m working off a 6-year-old version on my 6-year-old PowerBook that is holding onto life by a thread), we’re waiting a few more months before purchasing it and some other pricey software. I do have a newer MacBook but none of the latest software on it. I’d love an even newer, lighter-weight and faster computer but that has been put on the back burner. Weigh out productivity costs when looking at big expenditures. If you can point to real savings by making a big purchase, then go for it. But you really have to look closely at when you will actually start saving.

4. Go free where you can. When I was equipping my MacBook with all the software I needed, I went for the free open source solutions such as NeoOffice to stand in for the Microsoft suite of office tools. 99% of the time it serves me well, but it is becoming the 1% of the time that can be a real stickler in productivity. Still, go free when and where you can. Got a PC and want to avoid Microsoft? Try OpenOffice. Need PhotoShop-like functions? Try G.I.M.P. There are many open source options out there for just about any software or service you need - just do a Google search. Make sure you have at least the minimum functionality that you know you need or free will end up costing you more in the long run.

5. Justify your travel. I am traveling more and more for business but now look at each trip through the lens of “how can I make money for the company while on this trip?” This could be a short term hit like speaking engagement honorariums or a longer term infusion like a warm lead to a new client or meeting face-to-face with a potential strategic partner who can bring you in on new projects. I’m going to Izeafest in Orlando and Dreamforce in San Francisco and was able to get legitimate writing assignments for both that will help me offset the travel expenses. Not everyone is a published freelance writer, but if you have a popular, high-trafficked blog, you may be able to get into an event as media for free or at least get a nice discounted pass from the event host.

Tightening your company’s belt should not mean loss of productivity. It simply means thinking twice - or even three times - before whipping out the company credit card to pay for something.

How are you tightening your company’s belt these days?

We had the opportunity to interview Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter about her entrepreneurial venture. Teter is leveraging her celebrity status to feed orphaned Africans in Kirindon, Kenya.

For the past three years, Hannah’s Gold has sold bottles of amber Vermont maple syrup in order to help with numerous projects including water purification, farming tools, seeds, fertilizers, sustainable farming initiatives, and much more.

Teter’s business works symbiotically with her Olympic snowboarding career: Snowboarding drives Hannah’s Gold which, in turn, drives Hannah to snowboard her best for the success of her charity.

Q: How did your business come about?

It came about after the 2006 winter Olympics in Italy. I wanted to start a nonprofit that would raise money and awareness for children in struggling areas.

Q: What was a challenge you overcame getting started and how did you overcome it?

I overcame the challenge of wanting to do something that wasn’t self focused and outside my realm of experience. I over came this by researching statistics on the areas in need, other charities in the space, and watching videos on living situations in the 3rd world.

Q: How do you “juggle” sports commitments and running a business?

I put a lot of time and effort into both! They are very important in each of their own ways. Both supplement my passion for the other. It gives me even more of a passion to do well in my snowboarding career to benefit my charity, so I try to give it all I got on both sides.

Q: How do you manage to run your business from the road?

My mom plays the biggest part on helping to manage and keep things on track. She is really the most “on it” person I know and helps keep it all together.

Q: What tools, sites, applications, and devices do you use to help you do your work especially when on the road?

Well, I try to advertise through MySpace, Facebook, and go211.com to get people stoked on the charity.

Q: What do you think being involved in sports - particularly at the Olympic level - brings to your involvement with business? i.e. how does being an Olympian affect your work as an entrepreneur or vice versa?

It provides an elevated platform that partially guarantees the fact that, if you got something to say, people are going to listen a little more than the average person. So when I realized this, I wanted to start to know everything and anything and share with people what I’ve discovered. I’ve started to talk a lot about the importance of eating organic, non-genetically modified food, and being healthy because I know a lot of sickness and disease stem from body and mind health. I want to be an information source to young people, and because I am an Olympian, people might listen to me a little more than if I was not. I’m able to raise more money for my charity because I have that platform. Without it, I don’t think it would be as successful.

How have you sweetened your success with charitable work or donations? Which is your favorite celebrity charity?

Photos Courtesy: NBC-USOC

“The economy is in the dumps. People are stressed to their limits. And the environment continues to suffer from our excesses. If those with compatible jobs worked at home just one day a week, U.S. companies, individuals, and communities could over $350 billion a year and the environment would be spared thanks to the equivalent of taking six million cars permanently off the road. What’s more, our savings in oil would total almost 80% of our annual Iraqi imports,” says author Kate Lister in a promotional email pitching her book Undress For Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home (Wiley, 2009).

The book, and the companion web site at Undress4Success.com, are places for employers, employees, freelancers, and entrepreneurs to get inspiration around working at home. I had the chance to email Kate by email about the book she co-wrote with Tom Harnish and about her theories on working from home.

Q: What was your “aha” moment about working at home?

When a mattress flew off the car in front of me as I traveled to work on the Sure-Kill Expressway one morning. Well, that was the final straw anyway. I simply could not stand the whole business suit and pantyhose scene. I grew up in a home-based business and always knew that’s where I’d wind up.

Q: What would you consider some main qualities a woman must have in order to successfully work from home?

Discipline, discipline, discipline. While there are plenty of distractions in a regular office setting—co-workers stopping by, coffee breaks, birthday parties, water cooler chit-chat—the workplace culture keeps you in check. When you start working from home, you face different kinds of distraction—household chores, the sofa—only now, there’s no one to keep you in check but yourself. You need to find a way to stay focused. And you need to train your family and friends that just because you don’t leave the house in the morning, you do have a real job and you really are working.

Q: What would you consider some main issues a woman must consider before working from her home?

Be sure your family and friends buy into the concept. No, you can’t run their errands, come out and play, and have dinner on the table when they get home. You have a real job!

Q: What are some common (and avoidable) pitfalls that someone working at home might fall into and how would you recommend avoiding them?

Someone once said “the nice thing about having your own business is you get to work half days; you just need to decide which twelve hours.” The same could be said about working from home. When your work is right there, it’s sometimes hard to turn it off. There’s alway one more email to read, one more phone call to make, one more text message to send. One teleworker we interviewed for Undress For Success—The Naked Truth About Working From Home told us she actually resorted to climbing in the car at 6pm, driving around the block, and returning home to mark the end of her day.

Q: What is the downside(s) of working at home?

For some, loneliness is an issue. We’re social creatures, after all. That’s why you see the coffee shops filled with people working on their laptops. One coffee shop owner we interviewed said his business has been transformed by the work at home movement. He’s actually remodeled twice to make more power outlets available.

Q: What is the one major takeaway you’d like people to get from reading your book?

There are legitimate home based jobs and business opportunities out there. If you want to work from home, we can help you make work what you do, instead of where, how, or when you do it.

How do you feel about working from home? Do you do it? Want to do it? Love it? Hate it?

As I look back over several decades of owning and running a business, I’ve come to realize the enormous differences between being a business owner in my 20s, my 30s and now my 40s. I thought I’d share some of the differences here and would love to hear your thoughts about being a business owner at different stages of your life.

Me as a Business Owner in My 20s

I started my first business in my late 20s, an Internet company in the mid-90s which made me the first female and for a while the youngest female to start a full-service Internet company (Web hosting, Web development, online content development, online marketing, Web publishing, online/offline sponsorship opportunities). How can I describe what it was like to start and run a company in my 20s? Let me spell it out for you as bluntly as I can:

• I had no idea what I was doing.
• I was insecure.
• I was idealistic and too trusting of the wrong people.
• I was too emotional about business.
• I was impatient and insensitive to how my actions affected others.

Everything I did in my 20s and early 30s for and with my business came from the heart and the gut which somehow worked and hit this zeitgeist that catapulted me into a spotlight that was both bright and glaring at the same time. My insecurities led me to trusting the wrong people and giving in to them. I was a terrible boss, so freaked out by the huge responsibilities on my shoulders that I hoarded a lot of work, redid work that others did rather than empowering and mentoring them, and isolated myself from others because I was so lost and unhappy.

Me as a Business Owner in My 30s

After a two-year stint working in a government PR and marketing job, I went back out on my own with an online consultancy. Running this business by myself and with just me as sole proprietor was like night and day to my first business.

• I was more familiar with the joys and perils of running a business so handled them more professionally.
• I was more savvy about business in general and took things slowly and deliberately.
• I had proved I could manage others well in my previous job but made a conscious choice not to do so based on my preference.
• I was able to look at my business as a business and not get too emotionally tied to it so I could make sound business decisions.

Having my own home-based business really suited me. Working alone, on my own, was what I needed at that time. I continued to hone my skills, expand my clientele, and began to actually make a good living, something that entirely eluded me in my 20s.

Me as a Business Owner in My 40s

At the end of last year, I realized that my business had the potential of being bigger than just me. I had gravitated from straight online marketing to social media marketing and felt the energy and excitement that I had felt in the 90s with my first Internet company. I brought in an incredibly talented business partner with the goal of turning my little one-person consultancy into a full-fledged business.

In my 40s, I am simply a better person, and this informs my business decisions. I realized that I could craft a business that suited the way I wanted to live my life rather than have my business rule me. And I could offer this type of opportunity to others who were seeking the same kind of reversal of the usual “live to work” and instead embrace the process of “work to live.”

In my 40s, I am

• more patient with myself and others.
• more focused on living a good life and being a good person rather than being a good worker.
• more able to delegate duties with trust and empower others to do their best.
• more selective about who I trust and more able to surround myself with good, smart people.
• more secure in admitting what I don’t know and then finding people who can take over those responsibilties.
• more excited about being wildly successful in business as a means to an end.

My “end” is the desire to travel the world with my family and always discover, always learn new things.

So many changes. And I like where this life - and my work - is going.

How have you changed over the years in terms of running a business or doing your work?

Here’s something that should be on your radar…

Ernst & Young LLP is calling for nominations for its Entrepreneurial Winning Women competition, a program designed to accelerate the growth of high-potential businesses founded by women entrepreneurs.

Now in its second year, this program will provide 10 female entrepreneurs with personalized one-on-one business insights and insider access to strategic networks of established entrepreneurs, executives, advisors and investors.
Nominations and applications to the program can be submitted online at: www.ey.com/us/winningwomen

To apply for the program, applicants must fit the following criteria:

• Woman business owner who is the founder or founding partner of a US company
• Company must have reported at least one full fiscal year of $1 million in sales within the last 2 years
• Venture must be less than 5 years old
• Must be able to attend orientation/preparation session in New York City in October, and the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum, which takes place on November 11-15, in Palm Springs, CA.

The deadline to receive applications for Entrepreneurial Winning Women is September 4, 2009. All applications for the program will be reviewed by a panel of independent judges and the 10 winning entrepreneurs will be announced the week of October 19.

Each winner will receive an all expense paid trip to the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum 2009, which takes place November 11 -15 in Palm Springs, Calif. The Strategic Growth Forum, dubbed by Forbes.com as one of the “Seven Get-Ahead Executive Retreats,” is a prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.

The Forum presents a one-of-a-kind platform for Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women to introduce their companies and develop their corporate and personal brand within a community of established entrepreneurs, executives, and advisors. For more information on the Forum visit: www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum.

I’ve blogged before about the babysitter and daycare situation in the rural community in Alaska where I live. There is no organized daycare, trusted babysitters are few and far between, and I’m back to square one, looking for a new sitter as the one who said she could work for us through the winter decided to move out of town.

While we have a pretty good lead from our previous childcare provider who we trusted implicitly (she is also moving out of town), there is a window of at least a week where I’m without any viable options. If you work from home, then you have a sense of what I must be feeling. And frankly, I thought I’d be freaking out more than I am. But somehow, I have found this zen space, and I’m just going with the flow, as challenging as it is.

Yes, she was incredibly good yesterday for the entire time I was listening in on an hour and a half conference call prepping for an important client presentation.

But yes, she also began speaking to me when - and only when - I was asked to give input on the call and began speaking into the phone. It seemed to be the signal to her to start talking to me, nonstop, getting louder and louder as I tried to move into another room and ended up practically squashed behind the refrigerator in the kitchen to muffle her “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!”

My business partner said that she heard my daughter in the background. All I could do was apologize, but I couldn’t promise it wouldn’t happen later this week on the actual client call and major presentation. How can I? The only way I could would be locking said talkative daughter in her room, and going to the other side of the house so as not to hear her screams.

Tempting. But that is so un-zen.

So in my total zenness of being, I somehow calmly let my husband know of my predicament. Calmly, so as not to stir up any stress between us. And he called a little while ago to say he thinks he can come home for lunch to help with our daughter while I’m on my call.

That man deserves some sex tonight! He is currently on the top of my Hero list. Of course, if things get crazy at work for him, he might not make it over to the house, but the fact that he offered gives me hope that he is finally understanding how important my company is despite the fact that I run it from home. Score!

If the possible childcare arrangement doesn’t pan out, I am not sure how long my attitude will remain zen-like. We’re waiting to see if she gets into Head Start for the Fall (our community is considered rural and under-resourced so usually all the children in the area can go to Head Start). She’s currently on the waiting list. That will be about 3 hours a day. At least it’s something.

In the meanwhile, I’m getting very creative with art projects and outdoor activities while the weather still permits. Today was paint the toilet paper rolls, glue pasta and leaves on paper, and hopscotch and count up to the number 50. Tomorrow, I’m thinking papier-mache.

What are some of your indoor and outdoor creative activity ideas you use to keep the kids busy while you’re trying to work at home? I’m all ears!