The change in lifestyle that comes with a home business requires adaptation from entrepreneur as well as his or her spouse and children. So before you jump into world of home business, have a frank discussion with your family about issues such as:

__How Will You Separate Business and Family?

Home businesses are particularly difficult to manage because they're just steps away from family life. You need to be able to concentrate fully on your business, yet when you spend time with family you shouldn't be distracted by business matters -- or worse, tempted to go do 'just a little work.' Some things you can do to help keep business and family separate include:

* Set 'office hours'. This is time where you focus on your business without having to worry about family.

* Take time out for yourself. No one can work all time, and you'll burn out if you try. Set aside some 'personal time' to exercise, read, or do something else you love.

* Take a guilt-free day off with family. Yes, an entire day away from business! You'll feel more refreshed and better able to concentrate on business afterwards.

* Get organized and stay focused! The less time you have to spend searching for email, papers, etc., more time you'll have to actually perform productive work. This will free up time so that you can do other things.

__Will Family Members Contribute to Business?

Come to a clear understanding about what your spouse will or will not do. For example, you may ask for help during unexpected busy periods but not on a regular basis. Or you might agree that it's okay for your spouse to send or read business mail, but that you are only one who answers phone.

It's best to set this straight from beginning. Don't assume that your spouse is willing to help out. Likewise, don't assume that you'll have complete independence because "it's YOUR business". Come to an agreement -- it will help to lessen stress for everyone.

__How Will You Handle Financing of Your Business?

Money is almost always a big issue with families. A home business, particularly in startup phase, is going to require funding. Your family may have become accustomed to a certain level of 'comfort' when it comes to luxuries such as dining out, recreation, spending money, and so on. Will any of this need to change, and if so, what?

There are many ways to finance a home business, including:

* Use income earned from your 'day job'. Many people continue to work their regular jobs in order to fund their home businesses. It is only until their home businesses are producing a reasonable income that they have option to quit their jobs.

* Finance your business with savings. If your savings were to be used for another purpose (for example, a family vacation or buying a home), how much of it are you willing to 'sacrifice' for your business, even if it's meant to be a 'temporary' loan?

You may NOT use this article in any form of spam.

I only ask that you:

1. do not add or delete anything from article 2. include resource box at end 3. notify me (csmith@auctionrookie.com) you are using it

Synopsis --------

A good auction listing must not only read well, but must look professional. Here’s a quick, easy template anyone to make their listing more professional

Word count according to Microsoft Word: 728 including title, byline, and contact info.

Thanks,

Chuck www.auctionrookie.com mailto:csmith@auctionrookie.com

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AUCTION TIP: A Basic eBay Listing Template

by Chuck Smith

Do you know what drives me nuts on eBay? When I view an item up for auction and listing has no style whatsoever. There’s just a long scroll of text that gives only briefest explanation of what product is and why I should buy it.

Writing a good auction listing is a topic for another article, but I can help those of you who want to spice up look of your auction listings with a simple template that will work in eBay “Sell an Item” system.

First, I want to go over a couple of HTML “tags” so you know what all funky little letters in brackets (< >) are for. But don’t worry – I’m not going to try and teach you HTML. I just want to show you a little to keep you from messing up your listing.

First, an HTML TAG is just a quick way for you to let a Web browser know how you want your web page to look like when it is displayed in your Web browser. That’s it.

======================== HTML TAGS =========================

HEADING TAG: This tag designates that text is a heading and should be larger than page text. You can designate different sizes of headings (I use heading2 below -

).

FORMAT: Starts with

and ends with

PARAGRAPH TAG: This tag lets you format a block of text, complete with a break in between paragraphs. The break is always there, and you cannot start a new paragraph on very next line.

FORMAT: Starts with

and ends with

LINE BREAK TAG: This tag is like a carriage return on your word processor or typewriter. This tag will allow you to start on very next line. NOTE: You cannot use more than one Line Break Tag in a row – HTML ignores them.

FORMAT: Put a at end of line

BULLETTED LIST: This will allow you to create a nice list of items with bullets in front. Great for showing off some features, since people tend to skim pages.

FORMAT: Start list with

and end with