wurk»home {Your career. Your say.}

Many people dream for years and years about working from home either in a telecommuting job or owning their own business. When you finally take the leap, you may be the only one happy for you.

I hear from people, mostly women, all the time who encounter a lot of negativity toward their working from home. This negativity comes from spouses, family members, former co-workers, friends, and neighbors. These attitudes are often generated from misunderstanding, jealousy, and fear. If you are to gain the support you need and want, it is vitally important to understand the other person’s point of view.

Those who misunderstand what you are doing will probably be the easiest to win over. Often when people think of work at home jobs the think of one of two things. Either they think you are not really working at all, and just being lazy, or they think you have been take by a scam artist. So simply sit down with these individuals and fully explain what it is you will be doing with your time, why it is legitimate, and how you and your family will benefit from it.

There is little you can do with someone who is jealous unless there is an opportunity for them to do the same thing you are doing. Even then, most often they will not take advantage of the opportunity due to their own fears and insecurities and will simply continue to be jealous of you. In this case, you will have to come to terms with it and realize it is their loss not yours.

Fear can be a very difficult emotion to overcome, but not impossible. Knowledge is the first step. People, especially spouses, may be fearful that you will fail and that you will succeed, imagine! The fear of your failure is pretty self evident and can only be overcome with time and planning. Fear of your failure will generally center around financial concerns. If you are working a telecommute job, you simply need to explain that you are still a true employee, working a real job that will pay you X number of dollars for X hours of work on a specific schedule. If you do not get paid on time, address this issue swiftly and decisively. If you are starting a business, this is where planning is crucial. You must have a back up plan. Know your finances, understand how much money you can and need to invest, how long you can commit to running your new business without receiving pay, and what will happen when time is up. Getting a new business setup and successful takes time and money. You must be in it for the long haul. So have a back up plan and exit strategy if you do not earn enough money. The fear of your success is a little trickier. A spouse may fear that you will become too successful and leave them when you no longer need their income. They may also worry that it will take over your life and home. If you become too involved in your business, will you still have enough time for the kids and your spouse? Will you need to carry inventory and take up space in the house that might currently be used for other purposes? The best way to overcome these fears is to talk them out, offer reassurances, and set up ground rules such as space allotment, “business hours”, and family time/date night.

Working from home can be a dream come true. It is exciting and challenging. You will need support from those who are closest to you. So work with their preconceived notions, fears and opinions in a kind and understanding manner and you will be able to help them understand and support what you are trying to do.

I used to love the school holidays when I was a kid. But now that I work from home and have kids, it’s a completely different story.

During term time, my kids (ages 6 and 3) are out all day at school and my time is my own, save for school runs and the like. I can get stuff done. It’s fantastic. But during holidays - like the two weeks starting from today here in the UK, for example - trying to work with any great deal of success is like wading through a vat of treacle.

It’s all… "Dad, can I have some juice", "dad, I’m huuungry", "dad, where’s my pen?", "dad, can you find my gloves so I can go outside", "dad, what time’s dinner?", "dad, I’m huuuuuuuungry"… and on and on and on…

And that’s when they’re getting on with each other. When they’re fighting it’s ten times as bad. At least.

I know I should have planned a little better for this, but I wasn’t expecting the weather to be so bad. Normally, they’d be playing outside for the two weeks and wearing themselves out, or we’d be off doing stuff together. But with the snow we had this morning (it’s April, for crying out loud!) and my current workload, that’s not happening today - and probably not tomorrow, either.

So, with that in mind, we’re spending today thinking of stuff we can do for the next couple of weeks, should the weather stay like it is. I’m thinking lots of Play Doh, paper, pipe cleaners, glue, paints, etc, etc… the messier the better. In fact - the cleaner an activity, the less likely it is to hold their attention.

So, with all that in mind, does anyone have any other ideas on how to get any work done with two housebound - and very restless - kids crashing about the place?

How do you mix your work with your kids - especially during school holidays? Let me know in the comments…

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked whether there were really real work at home jobs. There’s no easy answer to that question, but, in a nutshell, the more skills you have the better chance you’ll have of being able to find work you can do at home or of building a freelance business. You will also need a high speed internet connection, a decent computer, and good computer skills - regardless of what you’re doing.

And, if you think you’re going to get rich, the chances of that are even slimmer - don’t believe the ads you see or the forum posts you read that promise you lots of money for a few hours a day. That’s not going to happen. Carefully investigate all the job listings you find and check out companies before you apply. Here’s more information on work at home jobs and how to find them.

Alison Doyle
About.com Job Searching: http://jobsearch.about.com
Internet Your Way to a New Job: http://www.happyabout.info/InternetYourWaytoaNewJob.php
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alisondoyle

Working from home has its benefits, make no mistake. But unless you have an entire room (or most of a room) that you can dedicate to your home business, space will become an issue.

Trust me, it will. I work from home, and it has for me. I’ve outgrown my laptop on my knee, the kitchen table, the cupboard under the stairs - and it won’t be long before I’ve outgrown the entire living room. And it’s not as if I need the space for working. I’m a writer for crying out loud.. I shouldn’t need the space!

But I do. Because in addition to my computer and space to spread out some documents occasionally, I need room for printers and scanners, storage for books, storage for CDs, storage for client paperwork, storage for accounting paperwork, storage for… well, stuff.

So… enter my new home office. Or rather, my future new home office.

Yes, I know, it’s a shed. But over the next few weeks months I’m planning to transform it into a lot more than that. It actually makes a lot of sense - it’ll get all of my work stuff out of the house, it’ll give me somewhere quiet to get my head down which will definitely increase productivity, and it’ll mean I don’t lose out on the benefits of working from home (more on that to follow!).

Best of all, it’s not going to cost the earth. Why? Because I’ve already got the shed, and I’m also checking ebay daily for all kinds of insulation and security materials, including new windows and doors.

So, keep following this series of posts if you want to know the outcome - or if you just want to know how much time I end up spending down at the hospital through DIY accidents. Heh.

The work begins tomorrow…

If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea. David Belasco

Before you launch your new business, you have to do all of the work in your head until it is completely clear in your mind. You have to know where you are going and where you aren’t going to go.

**Where you aren’t going to go is the hardest part.

Have you been holding back on the samples because you think that they are a waste of money? Well, check this out, you might want to change your mind.

Vicki Wolak of East Bethany, NY sells a lot of bras from Avon Foundations. What’s her secret? The prices? The quality merchandise? Actually, it’s the fit:”

Actually, it’s because Vicki is quite clever. She included a special little something that she thought that her customers could use.

So, what samples would work for your business?? And this is something that you are going to want to spend some time thinking about. Useless samples get thrown away in a blink of an eye.

More

So you want to start a home business and work at home. Millions of people do. Unfortunately, there are also millions of people working at work at home scams.

You’ve seen the ads – they’re in your newspapers, plastered across the ‘Net, in your email. “Work at home! Make $3000 a week!” But the only ones who make money off these supposed work at home or home business opportunities are the scamsters. All you get is a dent in your pocketbook and disappointment.

And if you have fallen into one of them don’t feel bad. I have clipped newspaper articles and stuffed envelopes before I clued in to what was happening.

Details

This is one area that you should devote a great deal of time to… for obvious reasons.

Understanding one’s customers is so important that large corporations spend hundreds of millions annually on market research. Although such formal research is important, a small firm can usually avoid this expense. Typically, the owner or manager of a small concern knows the customers personally. From this foundation, understanding of your customers can be built by a systematic effort. A comprehensive system for understanding is what Rudyard Kipling called his six honest serving men. “Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.”

If you can understand where your customers are literally coming from, selling to them will be a lot easier. Most of the time, we tend to try to use our own reasons and they won’t always work. For example, why Mrs. A will buy a jar of hand cream will probably not the be reason Mrs. B will buy it.

Read more..

Does this sound familiar? You have about a zillion books on every topic imaginable and can’t help but pick up at least a couple of magazines each week? The problem is… what do you do with all of the material that you have gathered?

I’m working on this issue right now. I also have a filing cabinet full of clippings that I have accumulated over the years, but all of it is completely useless if I can’t figure out a way to organize what I have.

Well, actually I did come up with a method of retrieving what I want at a seconds notice. We will just have to see if it works. Sometimes you have to play around with a few methods until you find something that works

If you have a home office, chances are you are like the rest of us. You sit at your desk and the time just gets away from you. The next time you look up, several hours have passed. That is what prompted me to get a kitchen timer, set it for an hour and then when it goes off, I stop what I am doing and stretch. It also helps to get rid of any tension that has accumulated!!

Even better than just stopping to stretch, take the opportunity to go to the kitchen, fill up a bottle of water and then walk back to the office. We don’t drink half enough water as it is and if it is sitting on the desk, we are more likely to pick it up.

And yes, that’s a rooster!