Home Life Archives - Page 9 of 24

Getting an Organizer for Your Home Business

: Image via Wikipedia

I had never thought about a business organizer, until I read about it over at Home Biz Notes. Mary Emma Allen points out that there are people out there who are experts at organizing businesses, and aspects of businesses. And, while it makes a good home business idea for someone who wants to work from home, it can also be a helpful service to employ from someone else. Here is what Mary Emma points out about home business organizers:

The areas where you might get help in organizing are your home, office, business space, time, family, and finances. Make sure you check out the service before investing any money or signing an agreement. Get references from satisfied customers, particularly if it allows letting people into your home or receiving personal and financial information.

While I don’t need a lot of organizational help with my freelancing home business, there are plenty of others who would find such services immensely helpful. And even I could use a little help organizing my time (especially as it concerns my family). Sometimes you really need an outside observer to help you get things together.

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Handling Family and Friends When You Work from Home

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

When people know that you have a home business, they often become interested in getting “sweet hook ups” from you. I know that family and friends often want to use my editing or writing services on certain projects. If it’s only occasionally, I don’t mind looking over a school paper for my siblings or helping my mom with a bit of writing. With friends, I often ask that they watch my son for an hour or two in exchange for doing a little work for them. Overall, this works out. My family and friends are pretty used to the idea that my time is money, and that my home business is, in fact, a business.

But what if my acquaintances weren’t so understanding? Laura Spencer at Freelance Folder offers this insight into how you can make sure that your friends and family understand that you are running a business when you work from home:

When talking about your business with friends and family, make sure to occasionally include some of these more mundane topics in the conversation along with the more exciting aspects of your business.

For example, when asked how the business is going instead of just talking about the exciting new logo design project you’ve been assigned to work on you could also mention the overdue invoice that you’re having trouble collecting.

This sets the stage for making sure your relatives and friends understand that you have work obligations and other time commitments. As long as you are consistent, you should be able to say “no” if someone tries to take advantage your relationship to get discount services as you work from home. When you do help, make sure that you make it clear that this is not something that can be regular. Make it clear that you are only helping out because you have the time to do so at the moment, and let them know that next time, you might not be available.

How do you handle requests from family and friends?

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Dressing Up to Work From Home

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

One of the benefits of working from home is that you can work in your pajamas if you want. But when you have a home business, it is not always advisable to spend most of the day in your PJs, ungroomed and messy. Freelance Switch offers this interesting insight about personal grooming when you work from home:

Many people make the mistake of working in their pajamas, unwashed and loving it. However, as comfortable as that may seem, I know from experience that you will feel more productive, more energetic, and more on top of your game if you take a shower, get fully (but comfortably) dressed, and otherwise groom yourself as if you were going to work.

Now, I like being in my PJs as much as the next person. In fact, when I first get up, I spend an hour or two working in my pajamas and robe. I’m in my PJs right now. But when my son wakes up and is getting ready for the day, I sigh, get out of my chair, and go get dressed. And I really do feel as though I am more ready to work.

Besides, the way technology is moving, sometimes you have online video “meetings”. I was interviewed for a TV news segment in Texas via video chat. Imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t been ready for such an event — I only had five minutes’ notice! In the end, while staying in your pajamas seems tempting when you work from home, it is a good idea to remember that your home business is, in fact, a business.

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Working from Home and “FU Money”

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

While I was completing my M.A. in journalism, I had a professor who was talking to us about ethics. He said that it was important to have “FU money” saved up so that if we were asked to do something we felt was wrong, we could say no. The thinking was this: While you won’t always be fired for something you refuse to do, the chance is there, and you need to be prepared to walk. You can’t walk if you don’t have anything saved up.

This can apply when you are working from home. It can apply when you are negotiating a freelance project or when you refuse to do something you find questionable. The idea is that you should work up to a position where you don’t “need” any one client or project. You should save up some money (in something like an emergency fund) so that you can get by. You should also have some diversity in your projects, clients and income streams so that the loss of one does not result in a devastating situation.

In the end, it’s about the freedom to turn down projects or orders that don’t pay what you’re worth, cause you an ethical dilemma, or that you just don’t have time for. Build up your resources over time so that you have the ability to do what you want to do, rather than always being at someone else’s mercy.

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Happy Canada Day!

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

It’s a good week for sovereignty from British colonial rule. Today is Canada Day, a commemoration of the day that Britain granted Canada dominion over its own affairs (and why it was once called Dominion Day). The name was changed to Canada Day in 1982, when the Constitution Act patriated the Canadian constitution, effectively removing the last bit of British political control over Canada.

No, I am not Canadian. But I have a lot of Canadian friends, and I “know” a lot of Canadians through my online work. So I wanted to wish my Canadian buddies a happy Canada Day. Hopefully, later this week, they will return the favor and wish me a happy 4th of July!

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4 Cost-Cutting Measures for Your Home Business

by Miranda Marquit 2 Comments

: Image by angrykeyboarder via Flickr

Many small businesses and home business ventures are looking for ways to cut costs. And that is understandable. We are in a recession. Happily, there are a few things that you can do to save money for your home business. You may even be able to save enough that you won’t have to fire anyone. Here are 4 things, from TheStreet.com, that you can do in your home business to cut costs:

1. Reduce your meetings. Whether it is meeting a potential client in the coffee shop or traveling to a conference, you can reduce your meetings. Technology has provided a number of tools, from video conferencing from your computer to arranging cheap phone calls using Skype.

2. Renegotiate. You can renegotiate your contracts with suppliers and service providers. Look at the last time you negotiated your deals, and see if you can do better.

3. Give up some luxuries. Even the home business has some perks. I used to buy lunch a couple times a week, just to “get out” of the home office. Now, I brown bag it and take my lunch to a local park and just sit and eat. For larger businesses, there are bound to be other luxuries that you can give up.

4. Go paperless. You can reduce your costs by going paperless. While a paperless home office isn’t for everyone, you might be surprised at what happens when you start emailing or faxing invoices, rather than printing them out and mailing. (Saves on postage as well.)

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Is Paperless Always Right for Your Home Business?

by Miranda Marquit 5 Comments

: Image by Roger Smith via Flickr

With the digital world omni-present these days, it is little surprise that paperless is becoming a way of life. Indeed, I can’t remember the last time I sent a paper invoice to a client. I usually just send one via email. Indeed, it can save money and the planet if your go paperless with your home business. But it may not always be the best thing. Mary Emma Allen at Home Biz Notes offers some very real concerns with regard to going completely paperless in your home business:

* What happens if your computer crashes? You might be able to recover the data, but while your computer is out of commission, you don’t have access to your records.

* The same is true of information stored online. You might get to it eventually, but you don’t have immediate access.

* What if your back-up method becomes obsolete?

* What if your business is hacked?

These are very real concerns. Since I have Gmail, all of my sent invoices are automatically backed up. (Of course, this doesn’t solve the immediate access problem. Or the fact that I am relying on Google for waaaaaay too much.) For me, the immediate access factor is not much of a problem. After all, the work I do allows for me to have the time to check up on payments at my leisure. My biggest issue is the fact that my bank account information is on Quicken, on the computer, and I rarely back it up. If the computer crashes, and I can’t recover the data, I’d have to use my online bank statements to make things right through manual input.

Do you see problems with going completely paperless for your home business?

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Cutting Back on Your Home Business

by Miranda Marquit 2 Comments

If you have a home business, you probably know that it takes up a lot of time. Cutting back on the time you spend, or at least finding balance, is a good thing. There are two instances that I have seen recently that have impressed upon me the importance of balance with your home business.

Part-time work from home

Mrs. Micah is well-known for her freelance side business. She does consulting and writing part-time, in addition to a full-time job. She wrote a post today about the stresses she has been encountering with regard to working from home on top of doing her full-time job. In the end, it became apparent that it was time to cut back on her freelancing and consulting.

Full-time work from home

I’m actually being forced to cut back. Recently, a major client announced that it would be cutting my work by more than half. I’ve thought about frantically trying to replace that income with a lot of side projects, but my husband pointed out that this might be a blessing in disguise. Lately I’ve been worried about money (and feeling a little trapped) because I am the primary breadwinner with my work from home freelancing. What happens if someone else ditches? But other opportunities are coming, and it appears that I’ll be able to make as much money doing less. This major client was still paying rates charged nearly 4 years ago when I was relatively new to freelancing.

In the end, sometimes it’s time to move on and cut back a little bit. It is usually possible to adjust to the income (if you are prepared), and it can save your sanity, allowing you more time to spend with your family — and even with just yourself.

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Telecommuting: Is Your Job Task-Based or Time-Based?

by Miranda Marquit 3 Comments

One of the interesting points I ran across recently was from The Telecommuter Manifesto. A post on the productivity paradox (the more productive you are, the more work you get, meaning you work harder, but for the same amount of money) really got me thinking about an aspect of working from home that we sometimes overlook: Are you working at a task-based job, or a time-based job?

Task-based work from home

If you are doing a task-based job, you are paid by the tasks you complete. As a freelance writer, I am very familiar with this type of compensation. I am paid per word, per post or per project. If someone asked me my hourly rate, I would have to estimate by how long it takes me to complete the task I am given. The upside to this mode of pay is that I end up with a high hourly rate — and more free time — if I can complete a project quickly. The downside is that if a project takes longer than I thought, it can be a very inefficient use of my time, reducing my overall hourly rate.

Time-based work from home

As you might guess, time-based work is paid hourly. You get the same rate, for however many hours you work. For telecommuters working for someone else, this means that you are expected to be “logged in” and at your workstation between specific hours. For those with a home business (especially freelancing or consulting), it means you charge an hourly rate, and you get paid for how long your services are used. The upside is that you always get paid your rate. The downside is that if you take too long, you run the risk of having your charges disputed. For telecommuters, there is a good chance that you end up a victim of the productivity paradox.

The Telecommuter Manifesto explains the difference in productivity paradox between task-based and time-based telecommuting:

Telecommuters whose jobs are task-based, rather than time-based, are most able to avoid the productivity paradox. For them, the added productivity of telecommuting will allow tasks to be completed more efficiently and quickly, freeing up even more time for persuits that directly correlate their efforts with their earnings. Time-based telecommuters are even harder hit by the productivity paradox than office workers. Without proper monitoring of how productivity gains are exploited, such workers may quickly burn out or take actions that jeopordize the continued management support necessary to remain a telecommuter.

I think I like being task-based. It seems to give me a little more freedom overall. What about you? Do you charge by project, or by the hour? Has it affected your productivity?

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Home Business: Summer Scheduling

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

Despite my best efforts at preparation, summer is wreaking havoc on my home business schedule. I’ve had to change my regular work hours around to accomodate two facts:

1. My son is not in school as long (he is going to an educational day camp for four hours, three days a week).

2. My husband’s student assistantship doesn’t take up as much time, so he wants to do more.

The day camp idea is rendered partially useless, because #2 means that my husband is excited that we can use the time that my son is being watched by someone else to spend quality time together, just the two of us. While admirable and fun, it cuts into my work time. So I’ve been doing more in the evening, which I hate. I’m much more productive during the day.

But that is life for someone working from home. Flexibility is a must, and summer time often throws the entire schedule out the window. But I am working out a sort-of schedule that is providing me some stability and productivity.

Is summer messing with your home business work schedule?

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