After many takes, several lighting adjustments and extensive advice from a few video pros out there, I finally taped my first Working Naked video. In this video I share three ways to figure out what you should be charging for your product or services. If your fees are too high you may lose business. But if your fees are too low and you’re working too many hours for too little money, eventually you’ll resent your clients. [Read more...]
Note to Boss: I’m Going Home
February 15, 2010 By
George Clooney’s character in the movie Up in the Air has nothing on Peter Shankman. This PR, marketing and social media guru is spending this month crossing the globe doing speaking gigs and meeting with clients. Although Shankman’s not spending much time in his home office, he’s still staying productive. You could say he’s the poster child adult for working virtually.
Are you ready to work from home and maintain your productivity but your boss isn’t on board? Consider Shankman’s tips for convincing your boss to let you go home and work. [Read more...]
Snow What? Just Work From Home
February 11, 2010 By
Winter storms are taking over the country but for those of us working naked, it’s still business as usual. For you home office virgins, here are a few tips to help you ease into the world of working naked, even if it’s for only a short time.
- If you don’t already have a home office, set up shop in a low-traffic area of your home. If your kids are home too, earplugs and headphones are a must.
- Snag a comfortable chair from another part of your home. If you’re sitting at your kitchen table, within a few hours your not-made-for-extended-use chair will cause a pain in your neck or back. [Read more...]
New Year, New Home Office
December 29, 2009 By
The new year is just around the corner and you know what that means: it’s time to make resolutions, evaluate your goals for the new year and more importantly, get organized. Start your quest for an organized new year with a few tips.
- Consider whether your home office still inspires you to work. Whether you’ve had a home office for many years or you’re ready to set up a home office for the first time, start by asking yourself a few questions: Is there enough light? Are there enough outlets? Is your home office in a high-traffic area or is it too isolated to let you accomplish anything? [Read more...]
Marketing Tips For 2010
December 18, 2009 By
There's more than one way to market your business.
Marketing a small business used to be easy with you consider there were only a few ways to spread the word about your business. The Internet and the explosion of social media have changed everything and have opened up other opportunities.
In a recent post, marketing strategist Ivana Taylor shares her “10 Must-Do Marketing Tips for 2010.” Her tips are easy to follow and if implemented the right way, could truly impact your business.
- Build and Combine Lists: You probably have some kind of customer list (or three) lying around. This is the year to combine these names into a single customer list. I like her idea of using a basic spreadsheet and then grouping customers into segments and categories. [Read more...]
Finding The Right Work From Home Job or Business
December 16, 2009 By
Google “work from home jobs” and you’ll find page after page of jobs you can do from home. But how many of them are legitimate? (Hint: stuffing envelopes isn’t a real job.) 
A new site, the WAHM Guide, provides business resources, tools, and tips for finding a job you can do from home or a homebased business you can start. The site also includes scams to watch out for, weekly home job leads, free business training and more.
Think of the WAHM Guide as a (virtual) group of people sitting around, helping you find the right work from home job or business, minus the envelopes.
Making Bucks From E-Booklets
December 7, 2009 By
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...]
Stop Competing With Your Competitors
December 4, 2009 By
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...]
Crap! Where Did My Search Engine Rankings Go?
December 2, 2009 By
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...]
Is it Really the Thought That Counts?
November 23, 2009 By
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...]
