One of the biggest challenges facing you as a home-based business owner is to achieve a balance between work and the rest of life. One of the best solutions is to have an office with a door that closes.

That door defines the boundary between your personal life and your work life: Not only can you shut the door and walk away at the end of the day, but you can better shut off those after-hours work calls that you'll be tempted to answer. “Out of sight, out of mind” may be a cliché, but it's accurate. If you're still having trouble leaving your work behind, imagine that the door is locked and won't re-open until tomorrow morning. Your spouse and your children will thank you.

The door also helps you manage the rest of your family: When you're in the office and the door is closed, you're at work. That means that the situation needs to be serious before they knock on the door and interrupt you. If it helps, provide age-appropriate examples of “serious” situations to help your children understand what you mean. Whether the child can have a snack before dinner is not serious. Setting the kitchen on fire is serious.

Which outlines another point: Trying to work while also trying to care for your children is an even bigger challenge. This situation will get easier as they grow older and can play more independently, but as any home-based business parent will tell you, the crying will always start just after you call your client. You've been warned.