2009

Is It Time to Quit Working From Home?

December 8, 2009 By Lisa

Time to quit Do you ever get the urge to quit your business? I do.

It’s not that I don’t love what I do, it’s just that sometimes I feel like I’m spinning my wheels and my hard work isn’t always paying off. Then I get a new client or I’m interviewed by a magazine or a Web site and my enthusiasm comes back. The last time I felt like quitting, I reinvented my business and I haven’t wanted to quit in a long time.

The Web Worker Daily post “Know when to fold ‘em” gives some excellent clues to help you figure out if it’s time to quit and move on, or stick it out until your business clicks. Several of the tips are right on target. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: home business, working from home

Making Bucks From E-Booklets

December 7, 2009 By Lisa

Brochures Let’s say you’re an expert on e-bay sales or public relations. Why not write a downloadable or electronically delivered tips e-booklet about it and make some dough along with it?

Long before any of us figured out what an easy and practical way e-booklets are to make money, Paulette Ensign , the Booklet Queen, was writing, selling and profiting from book sales. She’s sold well over a million copies of a tips booklet called “110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life.”

Ensign’s reasoning is simple: Everyone has something they want the world to know about. You can write a full-length e-book, but who has the time? Instead write one or a series of e-booklets that you can eventually turn into an e-book. That makes sense and eventually cents. Ensign offers 15 questions to instantly help you write a downloadable tips e-booklet. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: e-booklets, Home office, Paulette Ensign, Working at home

Stop Competing With Your Competitors

December 4, 2009 By Lisa

#217-Competition There’s something wrong with helping your competitor, right? I used to think so until I read the Small Business Trends blog post “Build your business by promoting competitors.” In some situations and in certain crummy economic times, it makes sense to work with, rather than against competitors. Some of the better tips in the post are:

Realize you’re more powerful in numbers. Numbers give you street cred and the ability to do more than you could on your own. Keeping friendly relationships with competitors means that when things get slow, you can rely on one another to come up with a plan to help things pick up. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Working at home Tagged With: Competitors, Home office, Referrals, Small business trends, Working at home

Crap! Where Did My Search Engine Rankings Go?

December 2, 2009 By Lisa

Let’s say that you’re blogging away, generating income from your words of wisdom and then suddenly your Google ranking drops. What’s that all about? There are several factors that contribute to your ranking going haywire and a post on ProBlogger gives some good insight into the whole ego-deflating deal. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home office technology, Working at home Tagged With: Home office, Improving your web site, ProBlogger, Working at home

Is it Really the Thought That Counts?

November 23, 2009 By Lisa

#211-customergifts Finding the right holiday gifts for clients can be tricky. I’ve given clients everything from baskets filled with yummy chocolate, to Mrs. Prindable’s apples, to donations to charity. If you spend too much, the gift may come across as a bribe or worse, a kickback. But if you spend too little, you give the impression of being cheap. What’s a working naked professional supposed to do…stop giving gifts?

In her post “Customer gifts shouldn’t be economic casualties,” Joyce Rosenberg makes a good point for continuing to give clients gifts. According to Rosenberg, “Gifts selected with care convey to customers how important they are, and how much an owner will continue to value their relationship going forward.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Working with clients Tagged With: Client gifts, Home office, Mrs. Prindables, Working at home

Picking a Planner

November 20, 2009 By Lisa

I’ve tried most of the planning systems out there so I’d know which ones to recommend to my clients. It’s hard to recommend something if you haven’t tried it. After using Day-Timers, Franklin, Time Design, Day Runner, Filofax and a few other systems, I figured out which systems were effective and which ones were duds. paper

Sue Shellenbarger, author, writer and the Wall Street Journal’s Work & Family columnist did the near-impossible…she tried three systems in three weeks. She made some interesting discoveries. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home office organizing, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home Tagged With: FranklinCovey, Getting Things Done, Pomodoro, Sue Shellenbarger, The Wall Street Journal, Working at home

Working Naked Gift Ideas

November 17, 2009 By Lisa

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Working Naked Day—you’ll learn more about that last holiday in a few months—are just around the corner. Are you worried about what to buy for someone in your life who’s working naked? Worry no more and check out CIO’s slide show “Cool Home Office Gear.” From futuristic chairs to ingenious desktop accessories, you’ll find hot, new gift ideas for that special working naked someone who’d probably be happy with a pair of underwear.

There are several have-to-have products in the slide show but two of my favorites are: home_cabledrop_6

• Generation chair by Knoll. This sleek, awesome chair looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. No matter which way you move, the chair moves with you.

• CableDrop clips. These colorful clips are a simple way to keep cords from dropping behind your desk. They’re functional and cool at the same time. Another one of those “why didn’t I think of that” products.

Filed Under: Working at home Tagged With: CableDrop clips, CIO, Generation chair by Knoll, Holiday gift ideas, Home office, Working at home

Starting Out On The Right Business Foot

November 11, 2009 By Lisa

#205-Best resources Lately I’ve met a few home office folks who’ve come up with great business ideas and products, but they don’t know much about business. More importantly, they don’t know what their next steps should be so they can grow their business.

You don’t need to have a business adviser in your back pocket when you start a business—although it doesn’t hurt to have one—but you can take advantage of the many resources out there to get your business started. The post “20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground” lists a range of sites to help you start a business. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: About.com, Business startups, Entrepreneur, Growing your business, Home office, Vator.tv, Working at home

Hooking Up With LinkedIn

November 10, 2009 By Lisa

I use Twitter and FaceBook to stay in contact with clients and associates. LinkedIn is another tool in my social media toolbox, but honestly I don’t use it much. The Small Business Trends post “6 Ways To Create Opportunities on LinkedIn“ changed my mind. From now on I’m going to embrace LinkedIn or at least give it more of a try. The post offers a few good tips.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Home office technology, Working at home Tagged With: Facebook, Home office, LinkedIn, Twitter

How Guy Kawasaki Tweets

November 9, 2009 By Lisa

Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and the author of nine books including Reality Check, has over 180,000 Twitter followers. He’s often asked how he uses Twitter and on the American Express Open Forum he answered questions about his Twitter strategy.

Kawasaki follows everyone who follows him because he feels it’s common courtesy and he wants people to be able to send direct messages to him. He considers Twitter a marketing tool and not a social activity. His goal is to drive readers to his site.

Something I found interesting is that Kawasaki repeats his tweets. He rationalizes that not everyone is on Twitter 24×7 and they don’t always scroll back to see what has already been tweeted. He compares repeating tweets to CNN repeating news stories throughout the day.

Filed Under: Home office technology, Working at home Tagged With: American Express Open Forum, CNN, Guy Kawasaki, Twitter