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Guest Blogging Contest from JobMob

: Image by dave_apple via Flickr

If you are interested in sharing your expertise, you can win some cool prizes from JobMob. JobMob is holding a guest blogging contest. You write a post, submit it, and then, if your post receives the most traffic for a certain amount of time, you win. There are a number of prizes that will be given out, many of them exceptionally helpful for those with a home business. Some of the prizes include:

* 20 hours of outsourcing time.

* Personal Branding Magazine.

* Cash.

* 15 minute coaching session.

These are actually pretty cool prizes. You can find out more about this guest blogging contest, and how to enter, at JobMob.

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Pre-Posting: Keeping Your Blog Active While You Are Away

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

I am going camping tomorrow. I will be in the woods of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. I am pretty nervous about this, since I will be unplugged for three days. I honestly can’t remember a time when I was unplugged for so long. I know it existed, but since I started freelancing, I probably haven’t gone more than a day without checking my email and at least making sure that everything is okay. After all, when you are visiting relatives or taking a trip to a major city, it is usually possible to take 15 minutes to touch base.

But, I suppose, the Internet will have to get along without me for a little while 😉

One of the great tools available to bloggers and to business people who have blogs is the pre-post. I will be employing this method on my blogs while I am away. Basically, all you have to do is do your posts ahead of time, and then post them with a “time stamp”. Many blogging platforms allow you to schedule posts for the future, so that they appear automatically. This is a great way to keep your blog active while you are gone.

If you are going to be absent for longer periods, you can ask trusted colleagues for guest posts, so that you are not swamped with trying to do so many extra blog posts. Then, of course, you can schedule those in advance as well before you leave.

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Friday Fun Video: Credit Report Ad from the FTC

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

The freecreditreport.com commercials are funny, but many feel that the catches are no laughing matter. Which is why the FTC spoofed those commercials with ads for annualcreditreport.com.

Happy Friday!

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Getting an Organizer for Your Home Business

by Miranda Marquit 3 Comments

: 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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Should You Switch to VoIP?

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

When I make international phone calls, I use Skype. It’s much less expensive than using a land line. This type of service is called VoIP — voice over IP. It means that you use the Internet as your medium to make phone calls. Using VoIP for your home business can be a very smart move. Small Biz Bee offers 5 reasons that switching to VoIP is a good idea:

1. Scalability: It is easy to add more lines, allowing your VoIP system to grow along with you.

2. Functionality: Instead of being based on hardware, VoIP is often based on software. Which means you can upgrade more easily — without having to by new equipment.

3. Professionalism: It is possible to easily program your VoIP system with an auto-attendant feature that can route callers to the proper place. It allows your work from home operation to seem as professional as a bigger business.

4. Portability: You can connect in from anywhere, which means your phone number is not tied to specific location. It allows you to continue with your home business even when you are on the road.

5. Cost: VoIP is much cheaper than a traditional land line — or even that digital service you get from your cable provider. Plus, if you use VoIP, you don’t have to pay for extra lines and usage. You just use your Internet connection.

I can see the attraction to having VoIP, and if I didn’t have to make international calls, I’d do it. But what happens if my Internet service is down and I can’t access Skype? Then what do I do? My cell phone doesn’t do international calling, so in a pinch, I still need my land line. At some point, though, one hopes that Internet service can be treated as other utilities — as a necessity.

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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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Are You Satisfied with Your Work from Home Job?

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

As Americans, we work a lot. I’m out of town visiting friends, but I am still up this morning, trying to do some posting, before we pack up and head back home. Sure, I reduced the amount of work I had to do while away, but working has still been a part of this trip nevertheless. Because we work so much, it is important to consider whether or not the work we do is satisfying.

My Money Blog offers some insight into three characteristics of a satisfying job:

1. Autonomy: We like to have a certain amount of control over what we are doing in our work. As a freelancer, or a home business owner, this can be a big part of increased job satisfaction.

2. Complexity: Most people like some degree of stimulation on the job. Whether intellectually stimulating or physically challenging, the chance to solve problems or find creative ways of doing things contributes to job satisfaction.

3. Connection between effort and reward: The feeling that you are making what you are worth — or at least are recognized by others for doing a good job — is an important one to to job satisfaction.

No matter what kind of job you are doing, if you feel satisfied about it, it probably has all three of the above characteristics. If one of these is missing, you might have a lower amount of job satisfaction. And, if all three are missing, you might consider updating your resume and skills so that you can start looking for a new job when the recession ends.

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Friday Fun Video: Ben Stein Gets His Credit Score

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

You know how important it is to know your credit score. Ben Stein offers a little bit of education on credit scores, while shilling for FreeCreditScore.com. Of course, it is important to note that this is not a truly free credit score. Rather, you have to sign up for a credit monitoring service in order to get access. So be very careful. You can still enjoy the commercial, though.

Happy Friday!

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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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