I just want to wish all my readers a very Happy New Year. Starting Jan. 1 (tomorrow!), I´ll be back from my holiday hiatus and ready to send some more great work at home business info your way.

It´s been a busy year for my family and I´m sure it has for you, too. This year, I added a new member to my family, baby Dante (who´s not so little anymore at a whopping 22 lbs!), built a new room onto my house and drastically expanded my writing business. As of November, 2007, I actually made my earning goals set at the beginning of the year, so I´m pretty proud of that.

Whether or not you believe in making resolutions, this is the time of year to start planning your business goals if you haven´t yet. Where are you going with your home business? How do you plan to grow it this year? Have you thought out the steps for achieving the level of success you want?

Success can mean different things to different people. Maybe you want to earn a specific amount in the coming year or perhaps you want to get a certain number of visitors to your website . . . or you might just want to expand enough to move into the garage.

I´ll leave you with some of my business goals for 2008, please feel free to share yours in the comments.

• Pick up enough paid blog jobs to pay half my monthly income goals.
• Get my blogs/websites working well enough to pay the other half.
• Build At Home Mom into a true community, with at least 1,000 daily visitors by December, 2008.
• Set up an emergency fund (not exactly a business goal, but important nonetheless!)

It is bound to happen, you get invited to a last minute party or suddenly realize you forgot to get something for your husband´s great aunt Bertha. Since work at home moms don´t have much time anyway, these last minute gift dilemmas can be a big problem! Here are a few ideas:

Cookie basket: If you have time to bake (or already have a supply of Christmas cookies) lay a pretty napkin in a basket and fill it with cookies. Homemade treats are always well-received.

Gift in a Jar: Whip up a last minute gift really fast by just layering ingredients in a jar. They can be for cookies (alternate flour, raisins and chocolate chips, etc.) or for a soup (lentils, beans, dried veggies and consomme). Print off a little label with instructions and cut a square of fabric to top the jar, screw on the ring and tie a ribbon around it. Fast and easy and really a nice gift to receive.

 Relaxation basket: This is ideal for any women you need a gift for and can be a good generic gift for parties. Take a basket and add a mug, some packets of hot chocolate and/or tea, a package of tea biscuits (or cookies you´ve made) a couple of crosswords or word searches (print off from online sites) and wrap in cellophane.

 Christmas ornament: These are the perfect gift for someone you don´t really know. If you´re really desperate, just grab one off your own tree:

This is the season of peace, joy, and stress, but being prepared helps, so for next year, try picking up a few things ahead of time for those last minute gifts and tuck them away in your closet . . . just in case.

Christmas in general tends to be a stressful time. Though we are supposed to enjoy family time, peace and joy, it all gets lost in the rush to get gifts, cooking holiday specialties, rushing from one Christmas party to another and getting the house decorated. Work at home moms have it even worse . . . kids bouncing off the walls and screaming “Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!” at the top of their lungs while you try to get yet another order ready to go out.

So, how can you relax during the busy holiday season if you are a work at home mom? With all the stress and pressure to have the perfect Christmas . . . it isn´t easy. Here are a few ideas to help you survive this time of year.

• Go for a walk. Ignore the dishes for ten minutes while you stride around the block. The fresh air will help clear your mind and if you take the kids, they can run off some energy.

• Don´t put the gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve. This is a trick my mother had. She knew that as soon as we saw those presents sitting there, we would just go bonkers and be hyperactive until the 25th. They may be decorative, but if you keep the presents in your closet, your kids will probably be a bit calmer.

• Order online. Many online stores offer rush delivery for this season and you´ll save a LOT of time by not battling holiday crowds for hours on end, just to discover that your child´s coveted toy is not in stock.

• Buy your food. There´s no reason why you have to make everything from scratch, even if you have every other year. Work at home moms are entitled to a little cheating now and then, so buy a fruitcake at the supermarket and put it on a plate, add a sprinkle of icing sugar and take that to the church party instead of making your own. Pre-cooked turkeys are ideal for Christmas dinner, too, if you´re hosting, and you won´t be forced to wake up super early to cook on the 25th.

• Limit the parties. There are probably three or four parties that you feel you really must attend, such as your husband´s office party or your best friend´s fiesta. But just say no to the rest. You probably get more invitations than moms who work in an office, since people will figure you are free, so gently remind them that this is your busy season and you have to work extra these days.

• Get some good music. If the sound of chintzy sleigh bells is setting your teeth on edge and the chorus of off-key kids singing “O Christmas Tree” makes you nauseous, get some real Christmas music. Boney M has a beautiful Christmas album, or you might like something without words, just instrumental Christmas tunes. Listening to this type of holiday music can actually relax you rather than drive you nuts.

• Hire some help. If you are having people over and there are packing peanuts and tape laying around all over the place, why not hire a maid, just for one day? It takes the pressure off and you can focus on either working or preparing the feast.

If your home business is particularly busy this time of year, it´s worth getting some help and cutting back on your expectations. Even super organized work at home moms have troubles during the holiday season! So, relax, say no to a couple of parties and listen to some great music while you send off that last round of holiday orders.

This week marks the last of our Motivational Monday interviews of 2007, and it´s a good one! I´m very impressed that Alice Seba was willing to do an interview for At Home Mom, being that she is extremely busy (we even communicated via her virtual assistant!) and very successful, offering an alternative to hardcore, sneaky internet marketing with her website, Internet Marketing Sweetie. She was kind enough to answer my questions and here are her answers to inspire you!

What is your business? 

We provide a variety of services and courses to help people build profitable online business online business. At InternetMarketingSweetie.com we focus on educating people and show them how they can create online business that are financially and personally rewarding. We teach them everything from getting started, to building traffic, keeping that balance between life and work and more. As a service provider, we provide writing services, pre-written website content, website building tools and more.

How did you get started?

After the birth of my first baby, I started my hunt for something I could do from home. I began by working with a direct sales company, but found it didn’t fit well my need for freedom and to actually be able to do all my work from home. While working in direct sales, I turned to the Internet for ideas and support and came to know a great community of work at home moms who also wanted to run their businesses online. At the time, there were few moms in the community doing it full time. I decided to take it upon myself to figure out how to run a full-time online business and share those discoveries with other moms.

3. What mistakes did you make when you were starting out? What did you learn from them?

I’ve made so many, it’s hard to remember them all. But that is actually a good thing! I think the important thing is to get out there and do something and its okay if you make mistakes along the way – because they are LEARNING experiences.

In my time with working other work at home moms, one of the biggest mistakes they often make is not taking action. They think they know what they want to do, but aren’t sure if they have it figured out yet…so they do nothing in order to avoid failing. You won’t learn what works if you don’t try something. And the really nice thing about making mistakes with an online business is that they are often inexpensive and easy-to-fix. That is one of the pluses of working in cyberspace.

But back to the original question about my mistakes, I really do find it hard to answer. Of course, I’ve made plenty of silly blunders like deleting my home page, accidentally allowing spam to go to my mailing list (long story!), spending time on ridiculous traffic-building programs, putting too much work on my plate, trying to sell products that were total duds and the list goes on. The end result is a more focused me that has come to understand my limitations, what works and what doesn’t. If I hadn’t made those mistakes, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

4. How long have you been working from home? (was this your first business or have you had others where you worked from home?)

It will be 6 years in March 2008. As I mentioned, I did start out in direct sales and then quickly moved to trying to help myself and other moms start online businesses too. Although, I have owned a variety of different websites (and on a variety of different topics) since coming online, the main focus has been on providing information, selling products as an affiliate and developing my own informational products as well.

5. What are your tricks for balancing work, kids and household chores?

There are two very important keys: 1. Don’t expect too much from yourself and 2. Get help.

Although we moms are pretty amazing people and can get a whole lot more done than the average human being…we are not superhuman. There is only so much time in the day and you’ve got to sleep into there. When scheduling tasks, I always give myself more time than I need – because it always takes longer than I thought it might, there are always interruptions or something else comes up. I make sure my planning is flexible enough to allow for all those unexpected things.

And most importantly, I always ensure there is plenty of time for me and my family – and even some time for me on my own. Work and household chores can wait if needed.

One of the easiest ways to expect less of yourself is to get help. Whether it is childcare, help around the house or in your business – you need help. We have to get rid of the silly notion that “I can do it better myself”. Sure, you might be very good at a lot of things, but you can’t be good at everything all at one time…and when you’re trying to balance business, household, family and everything else, things to tend to pile up quickly.

Whether you are outsourcing some of your workload, hiring a housekeeper or using a trusted daycare service…start getting some help. If you’re on a budget, find other moms to partner with on projects and share the work. Get the kids and Dad involved in the chores. Alternate playdates with a friend and get stuff done while the kids are playing at your friend’s house.

It really is a myth that working at home is easier than working outside the home. When you work out of the home, your day is compartmentalized.  Your kids don’t (usually) interrupt you at work and your clients (again, usually) don’t interrupt you while you’re changing a diaper. It’s all about finding the balance to get everything done, dealing with the interruptions and getting the help you need to fill in the blanks.

6. How many children do you have? How old are they?

I have two boys, aged 4 and 6.

7. When do you usually work?

It actually varies. I am a firm believer in scheduling (although in my pre-business and pre-baby life I despised scheduling), but I don’t think that as work at home moms, we can take canned advice that goes, “Set your work hours and stick with them.”

(And blush – I have probably given out that canned advice in the past, but I know better now!)

Not every day is the same. Sometimes I have more errands to run. Sometimes I have a yoga class. Sometimes I volunteer at my kids’ schools. Sometimes my kids are sick. You just never know what’s going to happen.

I take the time to carefully plan my whole day the night before. I figure out everything I need to do – business and personal – and then schedule in the most efficient way possible. Sometimes that means I work a couple hours in the morning and then a couple more after the kids go to bed. Sometimes that means I work a few hours mid-day and then take the rest of the day off. It really does vary based on what’s going on that particular day, but it is still very well planned.

8. What is the best part of being a mompreneur? And the worst?

The best part is the freedom. I love being able to create the schedule I want and I don’t have to fit in a block of 8 hours at the office and another hour for commuting.

The worst part can also be the freedom. You have to be disciplined, but you also need to be flexible. It’s not always easy to achieve, but it is possible.

9. What are your plans for the future of your business?

I plan to continue to do a lot of the same. There is plenty more to be done to help people create businesses that are financially and personally rewarding. There are a number of courses and programs in the works to help complete that picture for my clients.

10. What advice would you give new work at home moms?

I think the advice has already come up in this interview (you ask good questions!), but to sum up:

Take action and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
Set definite goals, but don’t expect too much of yourself in terms of the time you can dedicate to everything.
Get help. It is not mom’s job to do everything.

It´s Sunday again, (is it just me or does time speed up as you get closer to Christmas?) and it´s time for a roundup of posts I feel are worthy of reading. Here they are:

Freelance writers might enjoy participating in the Writer´s Cafe that is held every weekend over at Grow Your Writing Business. It´s a must-stop for me each and every weekend and the topics are always interesting.

Interested in making the world a better place? If you have a blog, check out the newest December Challenge over at Bloggers Unite.

Naomi has an interesting post on reacting to negative feedback over at IttyBiz. If you are adverse to strong language, stay away, though.

How about a quick look at the new SuperMom Doll over at The 36-Hour Day? This one will make you laugh, which I´m sure we can all use at the end of a weekend.

Don´t forget to check back on Monday, we´ve got an interview with Alice Seba coming up!