However one of the first mistakes many people make in their home businesses is to fall into the learning trap. This is where you spend so much time learning about how to start and run your home business that you never get around to actually running it!

Now, early on it is very important to do a lot of research on running a home business. There are a variety of legal requirements you will need to fulfill, depending on the kind of business you are starting and where you live. Most places require some sort of business license, for example, but these are generally easily obtained and quite affordable.

It's when you start to study marketing and advertising that many people fall into the learning trap, especially in online businesses. There are so many sources of information out there, and they all seem to have yet another great secret for building your home business. So what do you do?

First of all, do take some time to learn. What you need to know is when to stop learning and start working.

Try picking a tactic you would like to learn. Study it and then try to apply it. It generally won't kill your business if you don't get things right the first time, and you really won't learn that much by studying; it is far more effective to start doing than to keep reading about it. Trust me, if you read about tactic after tactic for growing your business you WILL forget about most of them. This is not a good use of your time.

This does not mean you should quit learning in order to grow your business. Instead, find a healthy balance. Decide how much time each day or week you can afford to spend on self-education and how much you would like to spend actually growing your business. Do your best to stick to this.

Next take a look at all the newsletters coming into your inbox. Are they all worth your time? Really worth your time or are some of them little more than constant ads for the latest product from the newest gurus? I give most newsletters a few issues before I decide to continue the subscription or unsubscribe. I don't need to hear about each and every product that comes down the line, especially if the sender can't be bothered to write their own review and just sends a stock email.

Most likely you will find just a few newsletters that really meet your needs, and that's fine. You do need to keep up with the changes that are happening in the home business world.

Do the same for forums. There are wonderful, informative forums out there. There are forums that are just perfect for finding new customers and networking. Then there are forums that are a waste of time, but are an awful lot of fun. There's nothing wrong with allowing yourself a certain amount of time to have fun in forums, but remember that such time could possibly be better spent. This is where you decide what balance you are willing to strike between fun time and working on your home business.

Spending a good amount of time learning how to run your business is important, but it is even more important to actually run your business. The perfect balance will vary by person, so experiment and find the perfect balance that allows you to make the progress with your business that you need.