4.Clean up your office. Now is perfect time to organize all piles of paper on your desk and file them away. You never know what you will find under there and how great it will be to see nice wood that your desk is made of again.

5.Write an article. Wild guess when I wrote this article? You guessed it… I sat in my comfortable rocking chair, watched my daughter play, and jotted down my thoughts.

6.Catch up on phone calls. You know all those quotations that you have been sending out? Now is time to follow-up on them. Or, have you been wanting to contact someone just because? Without distraction of your “you have mail” dinger going off, make that call.

7.Give your home a little spring clean. Those dust bunnies have been around long enough. It’s time to send them packing. Cleaning cannot only separate you from your daily work routine, end result is great! Until kids get back home.

8.Do something nice for yourself. Have a long soak in tub but keep that phone away from edge of tub. This may be hard to do because we always want to be there for our clients if they call. But you deserve a break every once in a while to help recharge your batteries.

These are just a few ideas to help you stay productive, in one form or another, while you are without your computer.

But, one thing to remember if you are going to be unavailable for any length of time… advise your clients and contacts of your down time. Send an email to all of them advising them that you will be out of office or just without a computer for a few days. This way, should they happen to send an email to you for whatever reason, they will know why you didn’t respond to them right away.

Although this program is only offered in Canada, there are similar programs offered in most other areas, whether you are in United States or anywhere else in world. Check your local phone book or small business magazines for more information.

For myself, decision to become self-employed was something that just felt right at time. I had spent a number of years running my father’s lawn care company from my home. During that time, I had helped friends, family and acquaintances with everything from typing projects for them to designing their marketing material. So when time came for my dad to retire, it just seemed natural to do what I had been doing for many years....providing word processing and desktop publishing services. Then, with increase in use of Internet, I learned to design websites.

So, if you are thinking of starting your own business, it is recommended that you do plenty of research. You have to see if type of business you want to start is viable in your area. Is there a need for your product or service by people or businesses in your community? Whether you will be looking for funding or not, you need to do a business plan. In process of putting it together, you will have a better understanding of what you are doing and where you are going.

If you need help with certain aspects when building your business, such as promotion or putting together influential marketing material, there are many companies that specialize in taking some of pressure off of your shoulders. Not all will be listed in phone books yet, so you need to keep your eyes and ears open for mention of these companies.

Remember that not all small businesses are overnight successes. It takes plenty of work. Long hours with very little reward in beginning. But, each time a new client or customer comes on board, you will feel butterflies in your stomach and a smile on your face. Use that feeling of exhilaration as your energy source and combine it with other relevant information that you acquire. Knowledge isn’t power...Action is!