This is a guest post by Maria Palma, author at Online Business Resources and The Good Life.

Starting a business is an exciting time for any entrepreneur. It’s something new and it’s certainly another way to produce an income. However, how do you know that this is something you should be doing? If it is you want to do, then how do you stay motivated? What can you do to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes other business owners make?

Is This the Right Business For You?
I’ve seen many people start businesses, but decide to quit only a few months later because they weren’t making their expected sales goals. I’ve also witnessed people get into a business because they thought it was a business that was going to bring in the “big bucks”. They soon realized that they really had no interest in what they were selling. All they saw was the money. Money shouldn’t be the reason you start a business. You start a business because you have a vision of helping people and a passion for what you’re doing.

When the housing market was on the rise in San Diego, I wanted to become a real estate agent because I saw that it was a lucrative business. Real estate agents were making six figures a year and I wanted a piece of that pie! Well, about a year into the business I discovered that I really had no interest in helping people buy or sell a home. In fact, sometimes I wouldn’t pick up the phone when a client called! That’s when it dawned on me that I started a business for the wrong reasons.

So, before you start any type of business, ask yourself the following questions:

1) Do I have a genuine interest in helping people with this business?
2) Would I still do this even if I didn’t make money?
3) Do I have a strong belief in my abilities to make this business work?

If you answered a resounding “Yes” to all these questions, then that is the business for you!

What Can You Do To Stay Motivated?
Ok, so maybe you’re already convinced that this is the right business for you. What can you do to stay motivated and keep going when business is slow or when you start to experience burnout? There may be times when business is in a slump or you start to lose focus of your business. This has happened to me on many occasions. Here are a few things I have done to keep the energy flowing into my business:

1) Read books by other successful entrepreneurs. You’ll discover that every entrepreneur has experienced setbacks or hurdles in their business.

2) Revisit your “Big Why” - why you started your business in the first place. This will take your mind back to when things were exciting for you and you felt energized about this venture.

3) Take a break. Most entrepreneurs just keep going and going without any days off. Sometimes all you need is some time away just to give your mind some rest and to be able to reorganize your priorities.

In your excitement about building a successful business, sometimes priorities get shuffled around. Friends and family may start to feel alienated because you’ve spend a great deal of time on your business. Reconnect with loved ones and give yourself some time to re-energize so that you come back to your business refreshed and renewed with inspiration.

The main thing to keep in mind is that building a business takes time. Don’t think of it as a means to an end. A business is an ongoing process, not a race to be successful! Remember that you are already successful! Think about all the people who talk about starting a business don’t actually do it. You’ve done it!

Need help, resources, and support for your business? I invite you to join my Online Business Resources group at Yahoo!

I’ve been following the Location Independent blog by Lea Woodwards www.locationindependent.com/blog and Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Workweek blog www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/ and I’d like to share my own three resources for getting your work accomplished without you physically being there.

1) RingCentral.com. We signed up for this service more than a year ago because we wanted some freedom with phone answering. Ring Central’s monthly service offers you a toll-free number of your choice. There’s added benefits of being able to do the following:

a) An online “dashboard” to manage all your extensions, rules, and messages
b) Additional extension lines for separate phone lines, e.g. extension 1010 or extension 9
c) Saves phone calls to your “dashboard” and also e-mails the audio message to your mailbox
d) Specify the hours you want to receive calls (if you’re forwarding to your physical phone) or set to voicemail only
e) Specify the outgoing message (helpful if you want to record a message and have it playable to your customers
f) Fax by phone: send and receive faxes through your e-mail
g) Automatic additional minutes billed if you reach your monthly limit
h) Convenience and reliability: I haven’t missed any calls since we installed the service *and* I get a recording of all messages

2) EarthClassMail.com. We signed up for this service because of our continuing efforts to go “green.” The service offers a centralized PO Box for your mail. Once you receive mail at that box, they scan it and show you the mail in your “dashboard” where you may then specify if you want that specific piece opened and scanned, mailed to your physical location, shredded, or recycled. They will start adding services this year like check deposits and additional addresses.

The service is excellent if you move constantly (or want to travel a lot) but still need access to your snail mail. It also helps with identifying and reducing mail you don’t want to receive (unwanted catalogs may be reported to CatalogChoice.org or reported to the sender).

If you combine this service with online bill pay (and automatic deductions from your bank account) you’re looking at a major reduction in snail mail, stamps, standing in line, postage, and paper usage.

3) Paypal. I’ve been using this service for years now, and have set up multiple friends and clients with Paypal accounts. It’s easy to use, easy to withdraw, and easy to make payments. Use a business account to accept all major credit cards, and there are even shipping and invoicing tools. You may set up different “profile pages” if you’re selling from multiple venues, and there’s a button generator if you need to create a dues, subscriptions, donate now, or make a payment button.

When you attach your PayPal account to your bank account (a relatively straightforward process), you may easily electronically withdraw funds from PayPal directly to your account, or you may have them send you a check.

The fees are 2.6% of each transaction, which starts to add up as you accept more and more revenue online, but the ease of using this system is a great benefit.

If you have additional resources that have worked for your online business, please put them in the comments section. I particularly would love to hear from you if you’ve managed to become totally geographically free and are no longer tied to a physical office.

Nowadays there is so much information in the world. I use del.icio.us to organize all my links into one place.

Because I travel, use multiple computers, and I’m always on the internet, I’ve found that keeping my bookmarks in ONE place is more helpful then spreading them all out.

I used to have my own personal “stash” of bookmarks, but I like using del.icio.us to organize and tag my links. You may also overlay social networking onto the site, by suggesting and receiving links from those in your network.

I use the badge to export my lists of links to other places, like my own business website 10Kwebdesign.com and to my Facebook profile.

The service is helpful, free, and easy-to-use: you simply sign up for an account and install the widget into your browser. When you’re browsing, you may easily “post a link to del.icio.us” and tag it. If you want to keep it private, just mark your link as a private link.

You may also surf to the site and see what other people are visiting and saving to their own del.icio.us accounts.

If you’re looking for a way to organize all your links by subject, category or even chronologically, I recommend this service.