Get a Grip! 5 tips to make your homebased startup journey a smooth one

Starting any business can be difficult, but starting yourbusiness from home can be seriously overwhelming. From establishingyour business to setting work/life parameters, there's a lot todo and very little time to relax. Carol Anne Carroll, author ofStart Your Own Home Business . . . In NoTime, provides tips on how to stay sane-and profit,too.

• Make a plan. "If you have a road map in front ofyou saying, 'Here's what I want to do in my firstyear,' that really relieves a lot of the [feeling of being]overwhelmed," says Carroll.

• Prioritize your tasks. For example, notes Carroll,"You always have things in your house you could work on, butyou can't do it all at once. [Likewise,] in business, you haveto understand there are a lot of things you want to do, but youdon't have to do them all at once." You can't, forinstance, go to 20 networking events in one week--you need tonarrow it down to the top four or five where you're likely tomake the biggest impact.