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What is Clutter Costing You?

December 15, 2011 By 16 Comments

The show Hoarders is an extreme example of clutter gone wild. I’ve watched only a few episodes, but I’ve seen enough to know that there’s more to the stacks of stuff, and rooms filled with fast-food boxes, newspapers and items that the owners can’t possibly throw away, than just the inability to get organized.

Your home office may not resemble anything close to the homes on Hoarders, but consider how much you own, how much you need, and why you’re still holding on to things you no longer use. Even if you didn’t pay for anything in your home office, the clutter may be costing you more than you realize.

The mental cost [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office organizing Tagged With: ,

Drawing the Line Between Your Business and Personal Relationships

November 28, 2011 By 2 Comments

In my first job out of college, I sold commercial time for an AM talk radio station. Our station owned a suite at the football stadium, and during one of the games one of my co-workers was a little nervous. His biggest client was going to be there so several bottles of beer and a few too many shots of Tequila later, he needed to make a quick exit. He didn’t embarrass himself, but he could have.

He blamed it on the chicken nachos.

While it’s important to build rapport with a client, you need to make sure you keep your business relationship in line, starting with these tips.

Remember that you always represent your business

If you’re out with a friend and you do something reckless, a friend may laugh it off. But if you’re with a client, he or she may wonder whether you’re handling his or her account the same way. They may even lose faith in your ability to make good decisions on their behalf. There’s nothing wrong with having fun. Being out of control is beyond wrong. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Working at home, Working with clients Tagged With: ,

3 Ways to Change Your Organizing Habits

November 23, 2011 By

source: balanced.crafts

A good friend of mine refuses to see a doctor (she hasn’t seen one in years) because she’s afraid that a doctor will find something wrong with her. What she doesn’t understand is that if she never gets a checkup, she may not discover a medical problem until it’s well advanced (and too late).

Change isn’t easy, and some people can’t get motivated to change their habits until they’ve had a bad experience. Or they may hear about something bad happening to someone else, which finally triggers them to make a change.

When you work for yourself, a bad experience could be losing an account, missing an important deadline, or double-booking appointments with two important clients. Bad days are part of life, but you’re a lot less likely to experience these types of setbacks if you take steps to get organized.

To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office organizing, Time mgmt./Productivity Tagged With: ,

Plan Ahead Before You Leave Town

October 10, 2011 By 4 Comments

When I was in the corporate world and traveled for business, my assistant booked my travel, handled my calls while I was away and dealt with client requests.

Now that I run my own business, when I leave town it’s up to me to stay in touch with my clients, handle any issues with my business and book my own travel. I don’t miss the corporate life, but I do miss my assistant!

Whether you’re going on vacation or traveling for business, there are few things you need to do before you go.

Don’t play hide and seek

Let your key clients know by e-mail or phone, that you’ll be out of town and let them know how long you’ll be away. Tell them whether you’ll be checking your voice mail, e-mail, both, or none of the above. One of my clients, also a small business owner, decided to “check out” for a week. She didn’t let anyone know that she wasn’t going to be available to check e-mail or voice mail. Two clients were so frustrated that she wasn’t responding to their calls and e-mails, that they [Read more...]

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4 Ways to Get Your Reading Under Control

September 26, 2011 By 8 Comments

If you had a few extra hours every day, how would you spend them? Considering that I’m a closet bookworm, I’d probably spend part of them reading.

For most of us, taking time to read seems more like a luxury than a necessity, but keeping up with the latest in your industry and knowing what your competition is doing, is an important factor in moving your business forward.

While you can’t add more hours to your day, there are a few ways to make a dent in your reading pile.

1. Sort through your books

As you look through your books, give away the ones you’ve had for years and will never look at again. You could make a few extra dollars by selling your books to bookstores that sell used books. In most cases, any books they don’t buy, they’ll donate to charity. An interesting online option, BookMooch, is a point-based bartering system. You type in the books you want to give away, [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office organizing, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home Tagged With: ,

An Inspiration Vacation Can be Good Motivation

August 22, 2011 By 11 Comments

I travel often for business and pleasure, but my last trip didn’t involve packing, booking a flight or even asking someone to water my plants while I was away.

The last trip I took was an inspiration vacation.

It wasn’t a planned trip. It started one morning when my alarm clock went off and I didn’t want to go to work. That can be a big issue when you work for yourself.

When I had a corporate job, I used to dread going to work. Now that I work for myself and set my own hours, I don’t have a good reason to feel that way. But sometimes, I do.

So instead of feeling stressed, which was going to further destroy any enthusiasm I had for working, I quit pushing myself. I decided to soak in as much information as I could.

I knew that no one was going to answer emails for me, finish the guest posts I committed to write or work on the next seminar I was giving in two weeks, so I took care of what needed my immediate [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home Tagged With: ,

Don’t Judge a Business Owner By the Pajamas She Wears

July 11, 2011 By 3 Comments

Lately there’s been some home office bashing on the Internet. Some writers claim that you can’t be a serious business professional if you’re working from home, and especially if you’re working in your pajamas.

Does the suit define the man (or woman)?

Would Mark Zuckerberg be a few billion dollars richer if when he started Facebook, he wore a business suit every day and worked in a corporate office, instead of working in a dorm room wearing a t-shirt and jeans?

Working in a business suit or anything other than pajamas, or um, nothing at all, doesn’t determine how well you run your business. Instead, your business skills, leadership abilities, and your staff (or the freelancers you work with) can make the difference between your business stalling or succeeding. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home Tagged With: ,

10 Great At-Home Careers

June 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

How many times have you thought about starting a business, expanding your current business or starting a second business? The question isn’t whether you’re ready to work for yourself, but what type of business you should start.

Whether you have an eye for fashion, a knack for organizing, or enjoy shopping (with other people’s money), there’s a business out there for you. These ten businesses should spark your creative juices and help you discover skills you may not realize you have. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Working at home, Working with clients

No Use Crying Over Spilled Drinks

May 9, 2011 By 5 Comments

A few days ago when I was finally on a roll and tearing through my To Do list, I reached over to grab something on my desk and knocked a full glass of Crystal Light grape drink into my laptop.

Crap!

A long list of “non-family-friendly” words flew out of my mouth as I grabbed my laptop and turned it on its side. The drink didn’t drip out, it gushed out. For the record, cussing does nothing to dry out your computer, but it may ease the pain a bit.

The next thing I did was to call my Mac guru, Chelanie Israel (“Miss Mac”). She gave me ideas for drying out my computer and told me to call in a few hours if it still didn’t turn on. A few hours later my computer was officially dead, so I scheduled an appointment to meet with Chelanie [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office organizing, Home office technology, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: , ,

The Right Goals Can Keep You on Target

April 25, 2011 By 2 Comments

Last week I e-mailed a few home-based business owners and clients about goals and whether or not they set them. I found out that half of them do and half of them think goals are a waste of time.

Truth be told, I stopped setting goals at the end of last year and finally started setting them again two months ago.

Why? Because they work.

In my “Need to move your business forward?“ blog post, I focused on the fact that if your business gets off track, it’s a good idea to look back and figure out what worked before. I needed to kick my business up a notch and realized that what had always worked before was to set goals. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office organizing, Working at home Tagged With: , ,
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