Although I''ve learned the futility of making New Year's Resolutions, at this time of year I can't help but reflect on the passage of time.

I took this photo a year ago this evening. I remember sitting on the bank overlooking the ocean thinking about what the coming year might bring. Well, now 2006 is just about over and 2007 is on the way.

Since I don't do resolutions, let's call these New Year's Intentions instead.

New Year's Intention #1: Higher standards regarding work-life balance.

You know, if I was single this would not be an issue for me. I see nothing wrong with working on business till all hours of the night. I find it fun and as long as it's not harming anyone, who cares?

As long as it's not harming anyone...that's the catch. I'm married and my husband is semi-retired, and he'd like to spend time with his wife once in a while. Not too much to ask.

And yet, I know myself. I get distracted up in my office and hours can go by. This will be a hard one for me to change. Really hard.

So here's my first baby-step towards this goal: I will tell my husband how long I'll be up in the office, and I will honor that time. So if I say, "I'll be right back" then I'll do that. If he says "dinner's ready in 10 minutes" I'll make sure to be there with time to spare.

I had such a great response (read: more traffic and inbound links) from the first time I participated in a blog carnival, I've decided to do it on a regular basis.

In the past two weeks, the Carnival of Money Stories published my article Top 5 Food Business Trends for 2007.

My article Entrepreneurial Self-Assessment was published in the Carnival of Entrepreneurs and the Working at Home Blog Carnival.

The Carnival of Credit Card and Carnival of Personal Finance also published my article How to Get Your Free Credit Reports.

1. Chocolate

Enreprenuer.com reports that trend-watching firm Datamonitor named chocolate "the new coffee" in a list of the top trends to watch in 2007. A big part of the surge in appeal for all things chocolate is the apparent health benefits. Studies have shown dark chocolate contains flavanoids that are actually good for us, so now we can indulge guilt-free (or so we like to believe).

2. Organics

From organic coffee to organic beer, consumers are demanding certified organic food products. Think about specialty products for niche groups such as kids, pets and seniors. How about organic pet treats? Or organic cooking classes for kids? Keep in mind that there are regulations regarding the use of the term certified organic. More information is available the Organic Trade Association's website at www.ota.com.

3. Healthy food
Beyond organics, healthy food in general is a huge trend for 2007. With the aging of the Baby Boomers, the interest in food that promotes longevity is booming (no pun intended). Entrepreneur.com says "even candy is being loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, healthy extracts and vitamin C."

4. Wine

What's your target market's age demographic? Forget that question, wine is a hot product for a wide range of age groups, from 20-somethings interested in budget quality to affluent baby boomers wanting to impress their friends with something a little different. And with the new laws legalizing online wine sales, there are lots of opportunities for savvy entrepreneurs.

5. Decadent Desserts

After today's health conscious consumer has eaten their organic meal loaded with vitamins and omega-3 oils, a nice decadent dessert is the reward. Ahhh...we are creatures of contradiction, no?

A word to the wise

Remember that anytime your business involves food, there will be regulations involved. Big or little, your business has to be aware of the regulations and follow the rules.

After 17 years running my home-based business out of a cramped spare bedroom, I now have the luxury of a 500 square foot loft home office. Best of all, it's at home but not in my house! My new office is in the loft area above the separate garage. To get there, I walk out the front door of my house, cross the cobblestone terrace and go up the stairs to my home office hideaway. Ahhh...

I've been in my "new" dream home office for three years now and the novelty still hasn't worn off. I love the space, the windows looking out into the forest, and the warm fir floors.

Another thing I like is the wall of closets on the right. I have all my supplies and filing cabinets behind those white bifold doors, which helps to keep my working area free from clutter.

The part of the office that you can't see is the sitting area. I've got a cozy area with a sofa, area rug, coffee table, bookshelves and good lighting for when I want to read or meet with clients. You can't beat the sofa for those long conference calls either!

Do you think I have enough desk space? Yeah, maybe I did overdo it...the result of being cramped for space in my former home office. The desktop is blue laminate with bevelled fir edging. Altogether I have 23 feet of desk with three work stations.

The desk was custom made by a local cabinet company. The drawer units are stock cabinets, which act as pedestals to hold up the expanses of desktop.

As you can see, I still haven't found a good solution for the tangle of cables under my desk. And if you think that my home office is normally as neat as it appears in the photo above, well all I can say is HA!

Shortly after starting HomeBusinessWiz, another blog stole my article How to Outsmart Credit Card Companies at Their Own Game and published it without permission.

I'm surprised how angry I felt. I'm a pretty easy-going person and I wouldn't have predicted that copyright infringment would bother me as much as it did. What I most resented was that I had spent several hours researching and writing that article, and then in a flick of "copy and paste" someone claimed my work as their own.

Someone stole my content. So what did I do?

First, I looked for some contact info to write to the blog owner. Alas, there was none. But there was a comments section so I left a pointed comment demanding that they remove the offending material immediately or else I would consider taking legal action.

I use Paypal for all my online invoicing and payments. Paypal is secure, reliable and most important of all - easy to use.

Here's how to set up a Paypal account for your business.

1. print out these instructions

2. click here to Set Up Paypal Business Account

3. scroll down and click where it says: "sign up today"

4. choose whether you want a personal, premier or business account

If this account is for your business, you should choose Premier Account or Business Account

Here's the only difference: a Paypal Business Account allows you to set up the account under your business name. But you need to have a business bank account and wait for your Paypal Business Account to be approved.

If you don't have a business bank account but you want your Paypal account under your business name, here's how to get around it: sign up for a Premier Account, but instead of putting your name in the name field, put your business name. For example, if your business name is Acme Consulting, put "Acme" in the "first name" box and "Consulting" in the surname box.

5. choose your country

6. click Continue

7. fill in all your info (see note above about business name)

8. click Continue

After your account is set up you can pay someone by Paypal, or request payment (send an invoice) just by going to www.paypal.com and logging in to your account. It's very obvious how to do it.

The above article is intended as general information only and should not be construed as financial or legal advice.

Have you ever participated in a "blog carnival"? I did it this week for the first time. I was curious to know if blog carnivals are easy to participate in and if they would drive new traffic to HomeBusinessWiz.

The answer is yes and yes.

Participating is as easy as going to a website such as BlogCarnival that lists upcoming blog carnivals, browsing through to find a carnival or two that fit the theme of your blog, and typing in the title and URL of the blog post (article) that you wish to submit. It took me only 20 minutes to submit to six different Blog Carnivals.

In terms of traffic, HomeBusinessWiz received an average 40% increase in visitors on each day my posts appeared in a BlogCarnival.

Definitely worth the effort.

If you'd like to see which carnivals I participated in, here's a sampling:

My article How to Outsmart Credit Card Companies was published in several carnivals this week, including the Carnival of Finance, Internet Money Makers, Carnival of Shopping and Carnival of Entrepreneurs

How to Write a Professional Bio fit in well with the Carnival of HomeBusiness theme of setting up your online presence.

And I'm pleased the Carnival of Customer Service and Carnival of Hope and BalancedLife included Compassion and Business: Not Mutually Exclusive, which has been one of my most popular posts ever.

And finally, How to Build a Life You Want kindly included my article How to Write an Action Plan in their blog carnival.

If you have a blog and you want to increase your traffic, while at the same time developing relationships with other bloggers in your subject area, consider participating in Blog Carnivals. There's no cost beyond your time. A courtesy link back to the host blog is appreciated but not mandatory.

I'm pleased with the results and plan to make participating in blog carnivals a regular part of my blogging.

As I explained in this article, an autoresponder is an automatic email reply. Once you get it set up, the reply gets sent when someone sends an email to a specific address or fills out a form on your website.

How do you get started with autoresponders?

Autoresponders are a powerful tool and can do lots of things. You can customize them for marketing purposes and collect statistics on your leads and messages. To get started, there are four basic steps.

First, subscribe to an autoresponder service.

Second, set up your initial autoresponder.

Third, create your messages.

Finally, let people know how to get your mailings.

I'll go through each of these four steps below.

Step 1: Subscribe to an autoresponder service such as Aweber (affiliate)

There are dozens of Autoresponder companies advertising on the Internet. I've researched and tried out many of them, and have concluded that the best one for ease of use, reliability and customer support is AWeber (pronounced "A-webber").

I'm not alone in my recommendation of AWeber - it's considered by many in the industry to be the "gold standard".

One of the reasons that Aweber comes so highly recommended is that it has a high "deliverability" rate. What that means is because Aweber has a good reputation for not allowing spam, the Internet Service Providers tend to trust email originating from Aweber and will deliver it. This is a really important factor these days.

An Aweber subscription costs $19.95 USD a month (or if you pay for a year at a time the cost is discounted to about $15 a month). You get unlimited autoresponders plus client database management (e.g. your newsletter mailing list). I've had a subscription for several years and am very happy with the service.

The process for Aweber account setup can be alittle daunting the first time, but I've provided step-by-step instructions below. They also have a very responsive help desk.

Click here to try AWeber

Step 2: Set up your initial autoresponder

· log in to your AWeber account

· Click on the LIST SETTINGS tab

Paperwork is a big pain in the butt. However, as the organizational experts continually remind us - doing paperwork is a necessary evil.

If you're anything like me, your desk sometimes looks like a disaster zone. Piles of paper everywhere, not to mention those little yellow sticky reminders. I'd be embarassed to let anyone see my office this week, except for the fact that I know others can relate.

The paperwork solution

An important part of the paperwork solution is having standard forms to accomplish standard tasks. For example, instead of typing out an invoice from scratch each time around, you have a template. Rather than have your various computer passwords scribbled down in multiple places, you have one master sheet.

The right business forms keep your business running smoothly, saving you both time and money. In particular, financial documentation is a must for any small business to succeed. Contracts, invoices, delivery schedules and receipts should become standard for your business. Other forms, such as internal to-do memos and other office documents can be adapted with little or no fuss and be incorporated into your particular business scheme.

Free business forms online

The good news is there are free business forms online that you can use to keep track of every aspect of running your home-based business.

I've done the research and found a list of the top 10 online sites for free business forms. Check these out and see which of them provide the solution you need to organize the maze of paper cluttering up not only your mind, but also your workspace.

(Note: Be sure to read and follow all disclaimers regarding use of forms obtained on these sites.)

1. FreeBusinessForms.com

This is a pretty comprehensive site offering forms for almost any small business transaction. Also available on its pages is a wide-ranging list of how-to articles that offer a lot of information and insight directed at operating a successful small business.

The forms on this site can help any small business owner when they initially begin their operation. The forms designed in "Word" format require manual calculations. Those available in "Excel" format lend themselves to ready calculations and can offer a quick and easy ay to crunch numbers. As timesaving tools, the downloadable forms on this site can be customized to suit your business needs.

2. Legal-Forms-Kit.com

Offers a diverse selection of forms such as Agreement to Retain Services of an Accountant, Articles of Incorporations for a Business, Employment Agreement, and more. Also contains a comprehensive library of free information and resources for small business. Excellent resource site.

3. Smartbiz.com

Comprehensive information base, which addresses many small business owner concerns. Easy to navigate and download forms in both Excel and Word. A must-see for any small business owner or for those considering starting a small business.

Did you know that every person in the U.S. can get up to three free credit reports each year?

But you have to make sure that you request ONLY from AnnualCreditReport.com because it's VERY easy to be duped into using a different (scammy) website to access your free reports.

Forbes.com has a good article about how the program works:

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.To get it, go to www.AnnualCreditReport.com. This is the only site authorized by the FTC to distribute free credit reports. Spell it wrong, and you will likely end up at a fraudulent site that is trying to sell you something, or worse, collect your personal information for fraudulent purposes.

You can also link to the correct site through the FTC’s website at www.ftc.gov. You can order one from each of these reporting agencies every 12 months, or space them out over the period of a year. Credit scores are not offered as part of the free report. If you want your credit score, you will have to purchase this separately from one of the three reporting agencies.

via My Two Dollars

The Wikipedia entry on critical thinking recommends using the Socratic method to evaluate an argument.

You'd do that by asking discerning open questions such as:

* What do you mean by _______?
* Why is this significant?
* How did you come to that conclusion?
* Why do you believe that you are right?
* What is the source of your information?
* What assumption has led you to that conclusion?
* What happens if you are wrong?
* Can you give me two sources who disagree with you and explain why?
* How do I know you are telling me the truth?
* What is an alternate explanation for this phenomenon?

What strikes me about this list is how closely it resembles my list of favorite coaching questions. So can we conclude that coaching is as old as Socrates?

To open the conversation
What's happened since our last call?
Tell me what's going on right now.
What would you like to focus on today?

To explore issues
Can you say more?
What does _____ (insert clients word) mean to you?
What is your intuition telling you? (or your gut)
What do you think accounts for that?
What else? And what else?
What do you enjoy about _____ (the thing they think is a problem)
Is this something you really want, or something you think you should
do?

To share your thoughts
May I tell you what I am hearing?
How does that fit for you?

To hone in on what's most important
What's the worst/best part about this for you?
What is most significant for you about this?
And why is this a problem?
Is it possible that this is a symptom rather than a source?

To refocus
Why is that important?
Is this where you want to be putting your energy?
May I share another way of looking at this?

When the conversation is rambling
Getting back to ______, how can I help?
Are we finished talking about ______?
Earlier you mentioned ________. How does it relate?

When client indicates ready for action:
How can I help?
What do YOU want?
What have you tried already?
What has worked for you in the past?

When you’re stuck
How can I help?
Let me think about that for a minute.
May I tell you what my hunch is?

When starting a new home-based business, one of the first things you need to do is decide on a business name, and then register that name. Don't skip this step: registering a business name in your province or county at initial start-up can prove to be invaluable down the road for several reasons.

For example, registering a business name allows you to open a business account at the bank. A business bank account not only lends credibility to your venture, but also allows you to keep track of your small business transactions in a more professional manner.

Also, when you register a business name you find out if any other business is using that name. You don't want to start doing business under a name that someone else has registered, because they can force you to discontinue using that name. This can be a stressful and expensive experience, especially if you have built up a client base or reputation under that business name.

The procedure for registering your business name needs to be done in accordance with the particular business structure you choose.

For example, if you are going to run your business as a sole proprietor (the simplest form of business structure), your Social Security number will serve as your tax number and any profits or losses from your business will be included as part of your personal income tax. But if you are going to have an LLC or incorporated business, the business name registration will be done in accordance with the LLC/incorporation requirements.