I don’t mean to criticize just to be a jerk. But this company sure does things in a haphazard and disorganized fashion.

They opened up a bakery cafe about 6 months ago, with plans to open up a few more restaurants. They hired dozens of managers for the four or five different eateries before they all opened. So from the very beginning at her new job in the bakery, at least a dozen or more managers are all arguing over how things should be done, though most won’t even be staying at the bakery but are waiting for their restuaraunt to open. Employees have come and gone. The menu has been changed a few times. Prices have been raised. It’s very chaotic.

Just last week, the second restaurant opened. And while the food was mostly good, it was mass confusion. There’s a wok station. A pizza station. A salad station, and the regular menu. It was overwhelming. They are trying to offer too many varieties of food, like a cafeteria, but more upscale. Is it a restaurant or a cafeteria or a Whole Foods? Can good pizza and good noodles be made in the same place? How do you order your food? I am sure they have a few kinks to work out since this place just opened.

But when it comes to running a business, it really is better to be a master than a jack-of-all-trades. Focus your energies and efforts. Find your niche. Be a Master in your trade. You will develop a stronger business sense and avoid unnecessary confusion and wasted time and money. Be the best at what you do in your particular craft, not some handyman who does a little of this and a little of that.

Then after you are established and things are running smoothly, then consider expanding into other areas or even another business. But trying to do too much too soon will only serve to overwhelm you.

Build momentum. Focus. Succeed.

And when we got back, I started dabbling in real estate investing. So it’s been about 6 months and I’ve made a few bucks here and there. At first, I read a book called “Earning Without Owning” and I did what the authors described and IT WORKED! Yeah, I made a few dollars.

But I wanted to make more money with each deal and I was also a little apprehensive about making huge financial mistakes. Lo and behold, a solution came. I had joined my local REIA and gone to a few meetings. I am a novice and know I need all the help I can get. I availed myself of the e-mail “Circle of Support” (where people can ask questions and get answers from other real local investors) and through that met a seasoned investor who asked me to partner with him. Why did he ask me???? He said it was because he saw that I was out there pounding the pavement and actively looking for deals. It benefits both of us because he is my money partner and an experienced investor who is my mentor; and I find deals that make us both money. This arrangement suits us both. And you will find that no matter what field you are in, many of those who have made it already are happy to help the new kid on the block.

It’s always a good idea to find someone else who has been-there-done-that when you are starting out in a new enterprise. You’ll avoid costly mistakes. You’ll make valuable contacts. You’ll have the benefit of knowledge and experience when making decisions. You’ll be in the fast lane to success.

Just make sure when you’ve “made it,” that you return the favor.

For years I have been extremely interested in real estate. Since we bought our first home over 5 years ago, I became somewhat obsessed with houses. Back then, we were on a budget and so many homes we looked at we fixer-uppers. But that didn’t bother me at all- I looked and saw the potential, both in the house and in the EQUITY! Ever since then, wherever I go, I always end up looking at properties. I can’t help myself.

Before Hurricane Katrina, we were looking to buy a rental. Then we had to relocate and things came up and I had other things to deal with (like a new baby, etc.). When we wanted to move back, I called a guy who advertised in the Minneapolis Craig’s List site in the real estate services section. I wanted to sell our house fast and wanted to see what he could do. His ad said he bought houses. To put it shortly, he assisted us in selling our house very quickly through a lease option agreement. (More about that in another post.) But I remember when I first met him I was very surprised to see that he was so young (mid 20s). It was then that I was compelled to get into real estate investing as soon as we moved.

And that’s what I did. As soon as we moved back, I started going to my local REIA meetings (mostly for the networking). I read some real estate investing books. I started advertising that I buy houses for cash. I lined up a hard money lender. Within one week of my first ad, I had a call. Then another. Of course, they did not all turn into deals. And I am still new and have so much to learn. But within two months of starting out, I signed my first real deal for $4000. And here’s how I did it.

1. I saw an ad for a house for sale that had major fire damage. I got the details.

2. I drove by and looked at it. I estimated what I thought it would cost to fix it, considering that I wasn’t going to do any of the work myself.

3. The house was originally advertised for $40,000 OBO. I offered $19,000. They accepted.

4. We got together and I signed the contract.

5. As soon as I got to my computer, I advertised the house for $25,000. Within one week, I had a list of 6 potential buyers.

6. The following week I assigned the contract to another buyer for $23,000.

It sounds easy. And I guess it is. BUT, I do not want to oversimplify. What would have happened if I couldn’t find a buyer? I was on a short time frame since the original contract I signed specified closing within one month. It was a bit daunting to have signed a contract to buy that house though I did not really want to be involved in a major rehab project at that time.

But that’s what I did. I got a house under contract and then turned around and immediately assigned it. And two weeks later, I did it again.

Along the way, I talked to many other investors and most have been fairly helpful. I built up a buyers list so that I have contacts for the next time I have a property to sell. I’ve met a few others who prefer to be money partners. And I am still looking at properties- still looking for the next deal. And still learning along the way.

You want it in the form of at least $100 per day, so you can quit your job and have enough to live on. (Once you reach $100 per day, of course, it’s time to start getting rich. But first you need to get to $100 a day.)

So I’m going to tell you how to get there in five steps. (I had to compress 28 steps into five just so it makes a catchy title. But keep reading anyway.) These aren’t independent steps, and they aren’t all “in-order” and they’re not simple steps either. (But if you really want $100 a day you shouldn’t care. You hopefully will just do them and worry about how hard it is later after you’ve started earning $100 per day.)

1. Read and listen. Input a lot of information. Get audiobooks, get ebooks, go to online forums, and read blogs about online marketing and affiliate marketing. But don’t just be a sponge; learn terminology and basic concepts and start the habit of throwing out the garbage info so you don’t waste time. Become adept at filtering information so that you don’t just become an ebook junkie who never actually tries the techniques they read about.
2. Implement and experiment with ideas. When you learn a new way to make money, try it out. See if it works, and if it works keep doing it and improving it. If you try it and can see it doesn’t work and why it cannot work, drop it. (Again, don’t just quit things at the drop of a hat – but be wise.) My favorite ancient ninja proverb is “I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand.”
3. Learn a scripting language. If you are going to be heavily involved in online marketing, you need to learn a scripting language (preferably PHP simply due to the amount of scripts written in this language). As you do steps one and two (above) the reasons and benefits for learning a scripting language will become evident.
4. Make your first dollar in a day. Do this first, and new vistas of understanding and motivation will open up to you. When you make your first dollar online, the potential for making two, five, ten, fifty, and finally one hundred dollars will be obvious. If you can make $1 in one day, you can double or triple the causes that got you that dollar and likely multiply the effects – your earnings. Thus…
5. Build something each day. If you run PPC campaigns in an attempt to sell a product, make a new one today. If you build websites using YACG in order to get AdSense clicks, make a new one today. If you rely on blogs to sell affiliate products, make a new blog (or blog post) today. Do something each and every day.

These five steps are the basis for making serious money online, especially as you grow within each step and make it part of a regular routine.

Yeah, working from your own home office is an awesome privilege that not everyone has. So consider yourself lucky.

But the home office carries with it a curse. It is not unlike a two-edged sword. On one hand, it offers freedom. On the other hand, it can bring pitfalls and distractions.

To help you avoid the pitfalls, I’ve made a nice list of things to do and not to do. If you follow my suggestions, you’ll get more done working from home.

1. Don’t work in your underwear. You’ve heard people talk about this before. They say that if you work at home you can stay in your pajamas or underwear. I say: don’t. Get dressed, and put on shoes. Act like you’re going to work – because you are. Not only will it put you in the right frame of mind and allow you to get more work done, but staying in your underwear all day in kind of disgusting.
2. Have a regular routine. Don’t allow yourself to sleep late some days and get up early other days. Just decide on a schedule and work according to that schedule. Remember – working at home allows you to pretty much set your own schedule, so you don’t have to give up any of your freedom. Just stick to a schedule of some kind to give yourself a rhythm and a routine for the sake of productivity.
3. Write lists. You don’t have a boss when you’re at home, so make sure you have something to tell you what to do. I suggest two things: a notebook that you write lists on, and cross out items on the list.
4. Take breaks. Yeah, the extreme of not getting ANYTHING done is overworking yourself to the point that you can’t get anything worthwhile done. So remember to take breaks. You need reminders? Here’s a nice program to help you do that.
5. Eat meals. It might seem like an obvious piece of advice to most of you, but some people don’t eat breakfast. Well, you should. Your brain will work better. Same thing for lunch – you probably need to eat something even if you don’t feel hungry.
6. Have a comfortable chair. It makes a ton of difference! I worked for about five days on a terrible kitchen chair. It’s a great chair for sitting down and eating my Cheerios, but an awful chair for doing 8-10 hours of computer work. Now I have a pretty nice office chair. No more aching back.
7. Have a nice desk. My desk is awesome; it has two slide-out flat things so I can work on those if I need to, it has a drawer in the center and three drawers on each side, and it’s huge and flat. I set my monitor on top and it’s perfect. I don’t know what I’d do without this exact desk – I love it because it allows me to work better. That’s my point: have a desk that actually assists you in working. Make sure you have enough room and it functions well for you.
8. Don’t allow others to disturb you. How you implement this may be hard if you don’t have a separate office with a door, but you have simply got to enforce the rule of “STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME” if you expect to get things done. Do not allow wives, husbands, or children in the room during work hours or you may find your time being taken up with everyday stuff. Remember – you are at work.

How’s that for a list of essentials? I think those eight items take care of almost anything you can think of as far as working at home is concerned, but if you think of anything else please add it in the comments!