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               A Home-Based Business Online
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      November 27,2013

                  Editor: Elena Fawkner
              Publisher: AHBBO Publishing
                
                 Contact By Email

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                     IN THIS ISSUE
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      1.   Welcome and Update from the Editor
      2.   Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Indoor
           Fountains
      3.   Article - Focus Your Light
      4.   Telecommuting Openings
      5.   Guest Article - The Internet is Kind ...
           and I Give Thanks!
      6.   Freebies
      7.   This Week's Web Site Pick
      9.   Next Week
      11.  Subscription Management
     
      13.  Contact Information

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1.  Welcome and Update from the Editor
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Hello again and a warm welcome to all new subscribers!

By now you should have received an AHBBO Special
Announcement about the free contest being co-sponsored
by AHBBO.  In case you missed it, the announcement is
repeated below in segment 8.

This week I am making a change to the format of the
newsletter.  Instead of separate "home" and "online"
business ideas of the week, from this week we are moving to
just one idea a week which, although it will be called the
"Home-Based Business Idea of the Week", may be EITHER an
online or an offline idea.

The reason for this change is that, as the weeks have gone
by, I have found myself including in the "Online Business
Idea of the Week" section what are essentially home-based
business ideas that also happen to lend themselves to the
online environment.  So, rather than 'force-fitting' ideas
into online and offline categories, I think it makes more
sense to just suggest one good idea a week and deal with it
more comprehensively.  Eventually, and for the same reason,
I will be consolidating the home-based and online idea
databases at the AHBBO website into a single database.

Last week I said in the "Next Week" section that I would be
writing a Thanksgiving article this week.  As things have
turned out, however, Susan Jackson happened to send me an
absolute gem that is just perfect for Thanksgiving so I'm
running that as the Guest Article this week.  Thanks once
again, Susan!

Remember, this newsletter is for YOU!  If you have comments
or suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed,
or would just like to share your experiences with other
subscribers, I want to hear from you!  Please send comments,
questions and stories to: Contact By Email

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2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Indoor Fountains
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This issue's Home-Based Business Idea of the week comes
from an AHBBO subscriber, Paris Mannion, author of "Create
Your Indoor Fountain: Expressions of the Self".

Paris contacted me the other week with an idea for an article
swap but I was so intrigued by her business concept, indoor
table-top fountains, that I invited her to write the segment
for this week's Home-Based Business Idea instead.  I'm
delighted that Paris took me up on it and hope you find her
article as fascinating as I did.  If you would like to contact
Paris to find out more, her contact details are below.

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Indoor Fountains, A Home-Based Business
By Paris Mannion, author Create Your Indoor Fountain:
Expressions of the Self

Wow, table top fountains!  They're everywhere these days,
in gift stores, garden centers, craft fairs, New Age
bookstores, healthy living catalogs.  Do fountain artists
really make money?  Can you do it as a home based business?

The answer to the first question is, yes, they do if they
plan for success and know their market.  And, yes, you can
do this as a home based business.  Indoor fountains are more
than a passing fad.

Pump manufacturers, says my supplier, are gearing up for a
20% market penetration by 2013, from the current penetration
of 4%.  That is, by 2013, 20% of the US population will have
a water feature--swimming pool, outdoor pond, aquarium,
container water gardens or indoor fountains.  Why this
attraction to moving water? And why now?

Fountains appeal because they meet so many needs, spoken and
unspoken. By bringing the natural sounds of flowing water
indoors, we reconnect with nature and create an oasis of
serenity in our fast paced world.  People are instinctively
drawn to water sounds for a refreshing pause and visual
treat.

Fountains have many health benefits:
* they clean the air and humidify dry winter air,
* they help us relax into sleep,
* they release negative ions (when water droplets are
  sheared) so we enjoy better moods and concentration,
* they are an avenue for creative play and for personal self
  expression.

You can follow several approaches for developing an indoor
fountain business.  You can:
*  sell finished fountains on consignment or at fairs,
*  sell on consignment or on Internet stores a packaged kit
   of bowl, stones, centerpiece (or fountainhead as it is
   generally called), silk plants and perhaps a small Buddha
   or turtle for accents,
*  sell fountain supplies on your own web site or at fountain
   building classes,
*  lead fountain building classes at private parties or at
   recreation, community or Adult Education centers,
*  develop a book or booklet with fountain projects and tips
   on maintenance and finding supplies.

Think about what is most convenient for you, how you'd like
to shape the business, and how much time and money you'd
want to invest at first.

Begin researching what is out there:
1. At the library check out books on how to build indoor
   fountains:
   * Tabletop Fountains by Dawn Cusick (40 projects)
   * Water Gardening in Containers by Nash & Speichert
   * Container Water Gardens by Philip Swindells
   * Do It Yourself Fountains published by Leisure Arts
     (20 projects)
   * Create Your Indoor Fountain by Paris Mannion (11
     projects plus fountain Feng Shui and history of
     fountains).

2. Get your retail seller's license so you can purchase
   fountain supplies at a discount.  Some suppliers have
   a minimum purchase requirement ($50-$400), so you might
   want to go in with a friend on an order.

3. Using the Internet, look at maybe 30 of the 500 or so
   fountain sites (more going up every day).  Type in
   "indoor fountains" or "table top fountains"  to eliminate
   drinking fountains and large ornamental fountains from
   your results.  Order 3 or 4 different pump models to see
   what you like best.

   Or visit an aquarium or hardware store to see what they
   carry.  I've found the Hagen Aquapump 1, an aquarium
   pump, best suits my needs for a quiet, small, durable
   pump with water flow regulator and secure positioning in
   the bottom of the bowl.

4. Scan the Garden and Lifestyle sections of your paper to
   see if someone is holding fountain classes or being
   interviewed. If you can during the day, watch HGTV or the
   Discovery channel for fountain building projects.

   Kitty Bartholomew at HGTV's You're Home says, "You're
   seeing a lot of water fountains and natural scents. The
   more scents you use while decorating, the more powerful
   the experience."  JoAnne Liebeler at Discovery's Home
   Savvy says, "Fountains are becoming popular both inside
   and outside the home."

5. Join the 2 online support groups I know about, a
   discussion list at ttfountains@onelist.com (go to
   http://www.onelist.com and type in "tabletop fountains"
   under interests) and the Yahoo Club at Water Fountain
   Central http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/waterfountaincentral .
   Some members are hobbyists, some are business people, and
   all are willing to share their encouragement and
   experience.

6. Think about strategic partners to help promote your
   business:
   * a massage therapist or chiropractor who might showcase
     your work,
   * a garden center that might host your fountain building
     demonstration or
   * a hospital that might want a soothing fountain for the
     ICU waiting room (positive press release)
   * an interior decorator might want to include your
     fountains at a trade show.

Indoor fountains are the Wave of the Future, on the verge
of breaking into mass consciousness. A customer wrote that
she's afraid there will be so many fountain makers that
fountains will be hard to sell.  I think the fears are
unfounded.

Most of my 4600 subscribers to Design on Tap, the indoor
fountain monthly Ezine, come from California. Fountain
awareness is gradually spreading across the country.  It
will be years before the demand is sated.  In fact, my first
teleclass (on a conference line) on How to Lead Fountain
Building Classes just finished. Nine enthusiastic fountain
pioneers are out there now showing others how to build
satisfying, lovely indoor water gardens.  Don't miss the
boat!
-----

Article by Paris Mannion, author of Create Your Indoor
Fountain, How to Lead Fountain Building Classes and
publisher of Design on Tap. To subscribe, send a blank
e-mail with the words "subscribe design" as the subject to .
Visit http://www.buildfountains.com for further inspiration!

-----

There are many more ideas like this in AHBBO's Home Business
Ideas page at and
Online Business Ideas page at
with more being added
all the time.

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3. Article - Focus Your Light
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By Elena Fawkner

Remember when you were a kid how you could make paper catch
fire by focusing the sun's rays with a magnifying glass?
You'd look over your shoulder at the sun, get the angle of
the rays just right, and move the magnifying glass until
you could see a small circle of bright light on the piece
of paper in front of you.  Gradually, that circle began to
turn brown and the paper began to smoulder until its edges
began to curl under as the flame took hold.

How did that humble magnifying glass start something as
powerful and elemental as a fire?  The answer, of course, is
concentration.  Concentration of the sun's rays into a tiny,
intense circle of heat.  In a word, FOCUS.

We work the same way.  If we truly focus our energy,
concentration and creativity, we bring an intensity to the
task that we just can't generate if these things are
scattered amongst several projects at once.

Now, to simply say to you, "focus your energy and you will
achieve greater results" is all very well.  It's quite
another matter entirely to be able to do it, especially when
there are umpteen different priorities constantly tugging
away at you, each demanding at least some of your attention
and NOW DAMMIT!

To bring focus to your various activities, you need to break
the cycle of allowing yourself to be distracted from the
task at hand.

-> Identify Priority Tasks

To start with, you should allocate your time proportionately
to all of the various tasks you need to do.  Notice I said
NEED to do.  The first step is to decide what truly needs to
be done and what doesn't.  If you categorize a task as
something that needs to be done, ask yourself why it is
necessary.  Another way of asking the same question is to
ask yourself, "what will happen if I don't do this today?".
If the ultimate consequence is that nothing will happen, why
do it?

If you find yourself reluctantly concluding, well, I don't
NEED to do this, I WANT to, then put it into the "need to
do" category.  Doing things for yourself, for your own
enjoyment or satisfaction, should be a priority.  Focus is
not only about doing the things you should do, it is doing
the things you want to do as well.  By including in your
need to do list things that are for your own personal
pleasure and enjoyment, you replenish yourself and this in
turn allows you to bring even greater focus, awareness and
creativity to your other activities.  So, give yourself
permission to enjoy yourself.

->Allocate Time to Priority Tasks

Now that you have identified your 'need to do' activities,
decide when you are going to do them and estimate how long
you think they will take.  Then add 40%.  One of the
immutable laws of the universe is that everything takes
longer than you think it will.  Save yourself the stress of
running to keep up with the clock.

When thinking about when you will do a specific task, work
with your body.  Are you a morning person, a night-owl, a
late-afternoon person or something else entirely?  Whichever
you are, schedule for that time your most intellectually
demanding tasks.  If you're a morning person, for example,
and one of your 'need to do' activities is to write a sales
page for your website, allocate this task to your prime time.
Then allocate your less intellectually demanding activities,
such as reading and responding to email, to your off-peak
time.

Similarly, don't schedule your personal time for your prime
time.  Again, if you're a morning person, schedule your hour
lying out in the sun for mid-afternoon, your 'off-peak'
time.

By making strategic use of your time in this way you will be
making the most efficient use of your prime time while STILL
being able to do the things that YOU enjoy, and on a daily
basis!

Compare this approach with a fragmented one.  You're a
morning person.  You need to write a sales page for your web
site.  You also need to read and respond to email today and
you also want to schedule time, just an hour or so, to get
some sun.

It's morning but, instead of starting your sales page, you
decide to read and respond to your email first, to kind of
ease into the day.  That's a breeze because reading and
responding to email is not an intellectually demanding task
and you're at your peak anyway.  You finish reading and
responding to your mail two hours later.

Now you think about writing your sales page.  But you've
used your peak concentration time on email and you've lost
that sharp edge you always have first thing in the morning.
That makes writing sales copy, an already intellectually
demanding task, even more difficult.  You really don't feel
like it right now.  So you put it off.  You look for
something easier to do.

Maybe you could take that hour off now and use the time
while you're lying out in the sun to get your head together.
But no, you can't relax if you know you have work
uncompleted.  So you decide to force yourself to make a
start on your sales copy.  You write your copy but it just
doesn't flow.  It feels stilted and contrived.

You begin to get frustrated and annoyed with yourself.  If
only I'd got it over and done with first thing I'd be
dealing with my email right now looking forward to lying out
in the sun for a while later on.  That's what I should be
doing!  So, you get annoyed with yourself, and become
generally irritable.  Which, of course, just blocks the
creative flow even more.  Lunchtime rolls around and you feel
like you've wasted half a day.

What a waste of energy, concentration and creativity!  What
a lack of FOCUS.  Just look at the energy you've wasted
feeling annoyed and irritable with yourself.  Just think
what you could have accomplished if you'd put that energy to
good use and focused!

Save yourself the angst.  Identify priority tasks,
strategically allocate times of the day to each task
depending on how intellectually demanding they are, and
exercise personal DISCIPLINE to do the right thing right and
at the right time.

-> Concentrate on One Thing at a Time

When you're doing the right thing at the right time,
dedicate yourself to that one thing and nothing else.  Don't
let your mind wander to what else you could be doing.  You
don't need to worry about that because "what else" has been
allocated its own time and that time will come.

Remember, the whole point of focusing is to make maximum use
of your time, energy, concentration and creativity.  If you
can do this, you will give yourself the gift of more time
for yourself and your family.  So remember to turn it off
too.  Give 100% of yourself to the task at hand during the
time allocated to that task and then let it go.

Take care of business but always remember, life is for
living!

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4. Telecommuting Openings
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In the interests of keeping the length of AHBBO down, all
telecommuting job listings are now posted at the AHBBO
website at

This week's positions include:

-> Travel - Sales/Management
-> SBT Account Software Developer
-> Market Manager - Amtrak
-> PC Help Desk Support
-> Project Manager - IBM
-> Writers/Reviewers
-> Advertising Account Executive
-> Freelance Copy Editors
-> Real Estate Listing Service Associates

-----
Source: Outsource 2013
If you want to work from home, you will not find a more
complete source of telecommuting job listings.  For access
to thousands of job listings just like those above, visit

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5. Guest Article - The Internet is Kind ... and I Give
   Thanks!
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By Susan Jackson

Doing biz on the net.  Ya know, we're all struggling,
learning, trying our best. Juggling our time to fit our
online biz in with our "other" life.  So what happens?  We
screw up!  And that's exactly what happened to me.

However, through this "screw-up" I actually made a positive
impact!  How?  Read on.

I planned, prepared, wrote copy. I re-read my special page
over and over again. I was ready. I blasted my "Special
Holiday Offer" to over 1,000 mailboxes.

Immediately I discovered I have mistyped the URL. Okay, no
problem, I instantly send out a 'correction'.

And once again ... I sent the wrong URL! I wanted to crawl
under a rock right there and then.  I knew my credibility as
an internet businesswoman was destroyed.  My face burned
red, and I kicked myself. "How could you be so stupid?" I
asked myself. What a waste! I awaited the flames.  What came
surprised me.

I want to share with you some of the comments I received. I
wish I could share them all.

"My sympathies. I do it - again and again, despite my best
intentions."

"My sympathies Susan, Get out from under the rock.  That was
the first time in 3 weeks that I've had a chuckle. You're
forgiven, You're forgiven, (Twice over).  I've been sick
with the Flu, feeling sorry for myself, but your message
picked up my spirits, thanks."

"Susan,
After getting ALL those Emails, you reminded me of ME.
Send me a photo of yourself; I must make sure that I'm NOT
communicating with myself."

"Ha ha ha...i'm sorry ..laughing my head off.  Just glad to
see someone else goofs up sometime. That's what can make life
more interesting! You haven't lost credibility here.  Have a
happy red faced Thanksgiving!"

"Susan,
Please don`t feel so bad about that. It`s so refreshing to
get somebody else making mistakes on the Net as I do so
often!"

"Hi Susan,
You've just made my day!!  I'm glad to see that I am not the
only one who has these SNAFU things. Those of us who never
make mistakes, are the ones who never try anything! Hope the
rest of your day goes wonderful."

I believe this message is especially for "newbies" entering
the world of internet marketing.  Don't be afraid to make
mistakes or sound "stupid".  We all had to start somewhere.

And the universal message?  We're all in this together, and
more often than not, you'll find the internet a kind place
where we're all willing to help each other out. God bless!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Susan Jackson

The "infamous" URL for my "HOLIDAY SPECIAL"

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6. Freebies
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-> Last week I made available a listing of 450 companies
that offer work-from-home opportunities.  Here's another 150
available from autoresponder at:

-> E-book - Starting and Managing a Business From Your Home
(463k) - DOS format.  Note: file will be downloaded in
.zip format so you need an unzipper.  If you don't already
have one, I recommend Winzip which you can download for free
(the evaluation version) at http://www.winzip.com .

-----

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7. This Week's Web Site Pick - Business @ Home
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Business @ Home - Making a Life While Making a Living
http://www.gohome.com/

They say it best themselves ...

Welcome to the Business At Home website, your online
gathering spot and information resource for the working-from
-home community.

What you will find here is news-to-use and how-to
information that helps you and your family survive in
today's fast-changing business world. There is a "workquake"
under way in our society that will forever change the way we
do business. This site exists to help you thrive in this
time of structural change.

We have cutting-edge information of interest and value to
people who work from condos or country cottages, as well as
for those making the transition from the corporate world to
a work-at-home environment.

We welcome professional home-based business owners,
telecommuters and corporate after-hours homeworkers to take
advantage of our widely networked experience supporting the
nationwide return to traditional ways of work, often (but
not always) supported by more powerful and more accessible
technology.

Business At Home provides more than valuable business
information. Because the desire to balance our work life
with our personal life is a major force driving this "sea-
change" toward working from home, this site has extensive
resources that help you navigate the waves for smoother
sailing into your professional future. We offer (and
encourage) thoughtful, engaging comment on how to make a
life while making a living.

John Knowlton
Editor

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9.  Next Issue
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That's it for this week, everyone.  Here's what's in store
for the next issue:

-> Home-Based Business Idea of the Week: Freelance Writer
-> Feature Article: Year in Review
-> Telecommuting Job Openings
-> Guest Article: It could be yours!  Please send original
   article submissions to
   Contact By Email
-> More great Freebies

Thanks for being with us and have a great week everyone!

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11. Subscription Management
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To SUBSCRIBE to this Newsletter:
http://www.ahbbo.com/ezine.html

To UNSUBSCRIBE from this Newsletter:

If you are receiving MULTIPLE MAILINGS, to stop duplicates:

If you find this newsletter valuable, please forward it
in its entirety to your friends, family and associates!

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13. Contact Information
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Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email

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