Spring is the traditional time to deep clean the home. Unfortunately, most people equate clean with dangerous chemicals. If the house doesn’t smell like bleach or ammonia, it must be harboring dirt and germs. At least that is what advertisers would have us to believe.

This spring — don’t wage war on your home! Don’t clean with chemicals that are essentially poisoning both family members and the outside environment. If you need ventilation and heavy gloves to clean your house, isn’t that reason for concern?

It is entirely possible to effectively clean and even to disinfect your home with safer cleaning products. There are environmentally-friendly cleaning products on the market that don’t require child safety caps. There are environmentally-friendly cleaning products on the market that can be used together with absolutely no worries about producing dangerous gas.

So as the weather improves, insist on spring greening your home! Your family will thank you.

Every Sunday evening I submit my upcoming Weekly To-Do List to my accountability buddy. I have found it essential to have someone out there who knows what I am suppose to be doing in a given week and to hold me accountable for accomplishing everything on the list. Otherwise it is just too easy to procrastinate.

My accountability buddy happens to be a good friend who is also working from home. She submits her list to me as well. We reward ourselves with lunch out each time we each accomplish our respective goals for a total of six weeks. That way we are each keenly aware that procrastination will have a consequence for the both of us — the delayed gratification of a wonderful lunch out!

If you are working from home I strongly suggest finding an accountability buddy. The next step is to figure out a way to periodically reward yourselves for accomplishing weekly goals.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of accountability — especially when working from home. The secret is to team up with someone else in the same boat, even if they happen to work in another zip code.

Now more than ever, it is vitally important to continue networking. Perhaps consider new avenues for keeping yourself in circulation. Think outside the box and make a list of ways to stand out from the crowd. Here are three simple suggestions:

1. Have a truly interesting business card.

2. Have a “shovel ready” educational presentation that you can offer for free to organizations of interest to you.

3. Consider volunteering with your current networking groups. Are there tasks to be done that will earn you special recognition for helping out the group?

Pay close attention to the Cotton Industry these days and you’ll see plenty of ads showing people lounging around in their comfy cotton digs. The ads give cotton credit for being “green” way before it was cool.

The problem is the only truly green cotton on the market will carry the Organic Cotton label. Anything else is full of dangerous pesticides.

As a matter-of-fact, the Cotton Industry uses approximately 25% of the world’s insecticides and more than 10% of pesticides. All these chemicals contribute to serous health problems from asthma to cancer.

According to the EPA, 7 out of the top 15 pesticides used in traditional cotton production in 2000 as described as “possible,” “likely,” “probable,” or “known” human carcinogens.

Whenever possible I buy organic cotton products for my family. And, of course, when buying a baby gift, I won’t settle for anything but certified organic cotton baby clothes.

According to the government, the next few years should bring continued growth in two major areas: green jobs and self employment.

Like many Americans, I’ve been thrilled by Obama’s focus on strengthening the green economy. I think it’s good for the country on many levels.

What I didn’t realize until recently was that the number of self-employed Americans is going through the roof. In 2006, 19% of Americans were self employed. By last year that number had risen to 26%!

Among the self employed are contractors, artists, small business owners and consultants. It’s a very long list and includes many of your friends and relatives, once you really stop to think about it.

If you’ve ever thought about being your own boss, there is a very green home business you need to look into as soon as possible. It just might be the answer to your financial worries whether you seek full or part time income.

Jump on the current employment trend: Join the green economy!

1. Never pick up the phone to call a lead when you are in a bad mood! Even though your prospect can’t see you he or she can sense if you are “off” in any way. Make sure you feel rested, confident and in a cheerful mood before picking up the phone. It is estimated that 75% of closing the sale has to do with your initial attitude over the phone.

2. It helps tremendously to make calls while standing up. I am not sure why, but it’s true. Maybe it has to do with feeling too comfortable in a chair. When you stand up you project more enthusiasm and more of a sense of urgency about your business opportunity.

3. Coffee, coffee, coffee!

4. Develop a script for your sales calls and never make a call without that script in front of you! You will, of course, improvise with each prospect but having the main points you wish to make in front of you in black and white is of immeasurable value.

5. Stay in control. The one who asks the most questions wins. If you allow your prospect to ask too many questions, you’ve lost control of the call. The best way to maintain control when making a sales call is to stick to the script, assure the prospect that all their questions will be answered the day of the actual appointment, and then to be ready with a polite reason why you must end the call.

Think about it!

Fast forward to the other day when I was reading an article about the pitfalls of Multi-Level Marketing Companies, commonly known as MLMs. It occurred to me that the article might have been more memorable if it had been written in the Jeff Foxworthy format. For example, you might be involved in a MLM if… those hyped-up promises aren’t really coming true!

Of all the home businesses out there, old-fashioned MLMs are the most problematic. If you get sucked into one, you risk losing lots of time and money. Of course, someone is always making money in one of these operations but usually those few souls at the top of the organization rely on a fresh supply of people willing to invest time and money in the business.

You might be involved in a MLM if … you feel pressured to increase your own personal volume in order to qualify yourself or your team for bonuses. In other words, are you buying more stuff than you need or want?

You might be involved in a MLM if… you feel pressured to attend meetings that spend more time on cultish team building activities than teaching sound business strategies.

You might be involved in a MLM if…you must carry inventory.

You might be involved in a MLM if…you are ashamed to show anyone your earnings.

You might be involved in a MLM if…you feel guilty about getting people you care about involved in your business.

What should you do if you realize you’re stuck in a MLM?

1. Appreciate that it is never too late to change horses!

2. Understand that your sales background and contacts are worth a fortune.

3. Recognize that there is a home business out there that will compensate you on introducing real products to real people who have a real need. No fluff. No hype. No empty promises.

It’s true — by making the simple switch to 100% wind power in my home, I will be joining the thousands of people in my area who are taking a big step towards lowering our carbon foot print!

Yesterday I received an invitation to make the switch from my utility company, Washington Gas and Energy Services. Montgomery county has set up an easy program to allow qualified electricity suppliers to to pass on a 0.5 cent per kilowatt-hour credit to customers for the purchase of wind power.

I estimate my additional monthly cost to be between $16 and $20 per month — a small price to pay for such a massive green dividend!

Effective almost immediately, my home and business will no longer be spewing sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, or carbon dioxide into the environment! And all I had to do was go to a web site and make a few clicks!

By supporting renewable energy by purchasing wind power I am also supporting something dear to my heart — job growth in the “green” industry!