With the popularity of home based online businesses skyrocketing, more and more couples are finding themselves working together from home! And based on the feedback we get - a lot of couples are having some problems making this situation work out!

Working at home is fun - my hubby and I enjoy our lifestyle a great deal - but you also have to be very flexible to make it work. These are some simple guidelines to make sure that you have some "divided" time between home-work and home-play.

1) "Special" nights or "Date" nights are important for all couples - but vitally important when you work together at home. Find time to enjoy each other without discussing business!

2) Exercise needs to be scheduled in as part of the daily routine. This is especially important if you are running an online business - it's easy for the hours to fly by while sitting in front of the computer - exercising brain cells IS important but you need to keep the rest of the body in motion as well!

3) Share household duties. Working at home means that you are BOTH there and should both be able to dive in and do laundry or cook a meal. As trivial as it may sound, I am constantly amazed at the number of couples that cannot agree over who should vacuum...get over it! You are now working from home - it's untraditional.....get over the rest of the "traditions" and share ALL of the responsibilities!

4) You don't have to both be involved in the same home based business - some work at home ideas for women will not necessarily be especially appealing to the men in their lives, and vice versa...and that is okay! Work at home couples do not have to be joined at the hip - you can still work at home together but separately - each on your own project!

5) Keep each updated on the business. Either half of a couple should be at least knowledgeable enough about the what the other is doing that you can at least "cover" for a bit if needed, due to illness, other commitments, etc. being able to "cover" does not mean that you need to be able to perform your partner's specific duties just as well as he/she does - but you should have at least enough knowledge that you can temporarily either take over these tasks or outsource them until the situation is back to normal.

These may seem like 'simple' rules - but they are deceptively difficult to actually follow if you are working at home with your spouse. But the extra work will be good for both your business AND your marriage!