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This past spring, I attended a satellite feed in Austin of Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership one-day seminar. I left feeling jazzed about my work, stoked about the ideas percolating in my head, and motivated to get long-awaited ideas finally moving.

You may not agree with everything Dave says about money, but you’ve got to admit—he’s one heck of an entrepreneur. He built something major out of negative personal circumstances, and his business is growing like wildfire. He’s also an amazing leader, and knows how to motivate, encourage, and serve well.

Today, his new book of the same name releases. EntreLeadership is for anyone working, whether you’re employed by a Fortune 500 company or you’re setting up a cottage industry from your dining room table.

We’ve talked a lot on Simple Mom about working from home. If this is even an inkling of an interest for you, then you’ll need this book. EntreLeadership is his seminar on business leadership in book form.

Want to win one? Dave is giving 10 Simple Mom readers a copy of his new book!
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This is a guest post from Jeannett Gibson of Life Rearranged.

Back when I first signed up for that free Blogspot account, I hardly knew what a blog was. Our pastor had one, and then a dear friend started journaling her adoption process with one. I knew of no other blogs, or how to find more of them if I wanted to. When I found myself pregnant with our first child, I knew that grandmas were going to want to see belly pictures and plenty more of the little bean whenever he showed up.

So I started a blog.

It was super exciting. “Today I had a doctor appointment and I gained 12 pounds.”

Over the course of a few months, things like “Henry had green poop today” made the bloggy rounds.

My intended audience was family and a handful of friends… none of whom had any idea what a blog was to begin with, but whom also graciously humored me and clicked over every few days. And then, I started getting comments from unrecognizable names. I would call my husband in an excited panic “Do you have family in North Carolina? This woman commented on my blog and I have no idea who she is!”
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Written by work-at-home contributor Heather Allard of The Mogul Mom.

In my last post, I gave you five great ideas for starting a home business. Maybe you took the plunge and grabbed one of those ideas for yourself. Or, maybe you already had a business in the making and are well on your way.

Now you’re ready to fling open your business doors (virtual or otherwise) and welcome customers. But wait… How do customers even know you and your business exist?

The truth is, no one will know about your business until you shout it from the rooftops. In other words, you’ve gotta promote. No, promote isn’t a four-letter word, trust me. It’s a manageable, learnable, affordable way for you to drum up the attention (and customers) you need to reach business success. And it’s not hard. Really!

Here are six easy ways to promote your home business.
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I‘ll just say it: my email inbox is out of control. As someone who feels rather “with it” in several arenas of life, I’ll publicly admit that my inbox is not one of those places. Above is a screenshot of just a portion of my inbox — obviously I’m behind.

A few months ago, I managed to fully process my inbox. I went to bed with zero email.

The next morning, a few hours later, I had 38.

I’ve written posts about how to successfully handle email, but that was before my inbox became something of an untamable beast. I’ve read plenty other posts about how to best handle email — classic productivity gurus have espoused their solution with confidence.

Short of declaring total email bankruptcy (which believe me, is tempting), I’ve decided to make peace with my inbox in my own way. Because otherwise, it’ll do me in, mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Here’s how.
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Written by organizing contributor Mandi Ehman of Life…Your Way.

What if I told you that there was one principle that would have the biggest impact on whether or not you’re successful as a work-at-home mom?

Hint: It’s not the industry or niche you choose. It’s not the structure of your business or what trade organizations you join. It’s not even the people you network with or your customer service.

All of those things are important, of course, but the number one reason many work-at-home moms give up is not because their businesses aren’t doing well, but because they’re not doing well. They’re tired, stressed and frazzled, pulled in a million directions and feeling like they’re not giving their best to their families or to their businesses.

So what’s the key to success? Simply put: Get it done early.

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