Haven't had a chance to watch the video, but have to say that I love it that you used the word "precipice". That's fun to say!

Hehe, cute video. I had no idea Tyrant was so versatile.

I like the recent videos and don't mind that they're sponsored; we all know this is how you make a living!
Please tell me you've been doing some of your own SNL skits too.

@juliemewood this is a real life story and my spin on it.

@schmeidel I agree, I haven't ever worked harder than I have at this job. It's always on my mind, always in the air around me. It also requires a part of my brain I'm not used to using in that I haven't ever had to manage people before, and I had to get comfortable with delegating. Not sure how to make a video of how hard I work except one long ten-hour sequence of me sitting in front of my computer.

I think the most important think of owning your own business with a spouse of any sort is therapy. At the least, find a mediator you can trust that will tell you when you've screwed up and need to go apologize to your business partner for threatening to hold out on sex if he doesn't let you buy that third computer monitor that really isn't in the budget. :)

I work from home running a business I've had for ten years which has been great in terms of being able to raise my kids. I like to say I've sacrificed regular cash flow for flexibility! (I've also sacrificed housework dammit, but that's another story)

My 3 tips are:

1. Persist, persist, persist. Even when things seem too hard, if you believe in your business concept and it's backed by solid research of your market and realistic financials, just try to keep going. We tried to get our product into a certain national bank for at around 5 years before it finally got accepted. We just had to wait for the right person to come along in the role - someone who actually 'got' the idea. Now they're rolling out our in-branch play solution around the country and I really hope the first guy we spoke to who rejected our idea kicks himself in the pants daily. Although I doubt it. He's probably sitting in his cubicle with a calculator adding stuff up.

2. Make a to-do list every day before leaving your 'office'. Working from home can be full of interruptions, like having to answer your own phones and stopping to pick up the kids from school (sometimes even on time!) When you do hit your desk, you need to hit it running so it helps to have a list that you compiled the day before when you were in a work head space, that you can refer to immediately and get going on.

3. Share your successes with your children and family. It will give them a better understanding of your daily working life and may have a positive effect on their own future, teaching them about determination, goal-setting and not being afraid to be passionate and take a risk.

Loving your videos Heather. Keep them coming :)

It appears that your accountant was using a Nintendo DS to calculate you finances.

Am I correct?

Hm, who was inside the body bag, if not coco?

I can't believe the number of people you have to pay to get a business off the ground. Thanks for including the therapist in there too as a necessary part of this! Good idea in the comment up above for people to look into the small business administration for a place to start. Where did you find your banker/accountant/lawyer?

Side note: I didn't remember hearing about the publisher lawsuit, and I did some googling and all I want to say about that is right or wrong, it really seems like the way the publishing system works is stacked up against writers.

Looking at these comments... I see there was a nasty one! Incidentally, today I came across something Friedrich Nietzsche said that I want to share with you.

I don't agree with the dude's entire philosophy, but I'm on his side with this one:

"Insects sting, not in malice, but because they want to live. It is the same with critics: They desire our blood, not our pain."

He was talking about literary and philosophy critics, I'm pretty sure, but I think it can translate to mutterings of The Trolls, too: It ain't about you.

Love the videos, love to see a minture of your day, and a great sense of humor. Agree with the above comment about Tyrant. He is very versatile!

I second the vote for using the SBA and Score. I had a great lawyer, learned my own accounting, but had a CPA for a sanity check. Make a habit of keeping records! The paper trail is so important if you ever get audited. My husband and I had very little overlap in what we did for the company, and trusted that the other one knew what they were doing (or would talk about it if they didn't). Neither of us was apt to "ask" for equipment, software or personnel that we did not really need, and we talked the big decisions over until the answer felt like a no brainer. Trust, however, was the really, really, really, huge thing that made our partnership work.

As a very long term reader, I'll agree to noticing more of your posts being sponsored, but I also don't care. Content is content, so long as its presented to me in YOUR voice, with YOUR experience. That's what I'm here for, and so far, that's what you've given me. However I have to pay for that, whether a monthly fee, viewing an ad, or seeing a Sponsored By Post...I'm game. Your voice, your work, Jon's work, Tyrant's work...you all deserve everything positive and wonderful (both monetarily and just in positive vibes.)

In an aside, that I hope you won't take as negative....my teeth are EXACTLY like yours, and...well...you just kinda made me feel like I can also be an awesome person, no matter what other people say. Shit. That sounds like I'm dissing you. I mean... I love that you are who you are, you admit faults, and you work on making yourself and your family better. Seeing you, I believe that if I work on the same things? Making myself better, more open, less angry, more...compatible....maybe someday I can be someone's Heather to their Jon. Lord knows I already have my Coco and Chuck.

To the haters:

This post was pretty much about how this website is a business. It is a business because it is one of the most popular blogs on the internet. It is popular because of the content. How this continues to upset people is baffling to me. If you think it is wrong for a blogger to make a living off his or her blog, then you should just stop visiting all blogs with even one advertisement on it. If you have ever read even one article on how to make money at blogging, one of those ways is through sponsors. In the history of this blog, I have never seen one post that was sponsored where I felt that Heather was not being herself or toning down the content. I feel fairly certain that is one of the agreements that Heather makes when deciding on sponsors.

A good accountant will be able to get you an EIN and set-up your articles of incorporation for a quarter of the price of a lawyer.