Home office expert's guide to working from home/home office tips
Working from a home office never felt so cool
Some people think that if you’re creative, you can’t be organized. Watercolor artist Laura Trevey proves them wrong.
Her perfectly organized yet creative art studio/home office includes a custom island designed by Laura, with shelves wide enough to store 26” x 40” watercolor paper. Most of the time the island is in the center of the room, but casters on the bottom of the island make it easy for Laura to move it anywhere. [Read more...]
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.
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...]
In my last corporate job before I started my first business, I represented cartoonists and negotiated licensing deals for them. The first mistake I made was that I didn’t have an employment contract.
The second mistake was that I trusted my boss to have my best interests in mind. He didn’t.
For every deal I negotiated, I was supposed to earn 15% of the final price of the contract. When my boss realized how much money I was going to make on my first deal, he changed the rules and paid me a percentage of the amount the company made, not a percentage of the whole deal.
I quit shortly after that.
When friends asked me why I quit, and I explained what happened, they asked me why I didn’t have a contract. Ummm…I didn’t think I needed one? Obviously, I did.
The purpose of a contract is to make sure that you and your client understand what services you’re going to provide and at what cost. Otherwise, your client’s perception of what you’ve agreed to provide may be different from yours. With a contract, no one has to second guess what the deal involves and who is responsible for what. When you create a standard contract that you can use for most clients, consider having an attorney review it.
It’s important to build rapport with your clients and offer to help them as much as possible, yet you need to set limitations. When a client asks you to perform duties not included in your contract, let them know ahead of time that they’ll be billed for the extra time. No one likes surprises, especially when they involve money. Your clients will receive the services they request and you’ll be compensated for your time.
Stay in touch with your client throughout the project. It’s up to you to let them know the status of the project, so make sure you know whether they want you to call them or communicate via e-mail.
Work to fulfill all of the terms of the contract and to meet the agreed upon deadline. Don’t assume anything. If you’re unclear about any aspect of the project, contact your client.
A contract doesn’t ensure that everything will run smoothly, but it’s a good start.
Have you ever had a problem with a contract or the lack of a contract? Please share your comments below.
Have you ever quit a job, quit working with certain clients, or quit a sport or hobby because it took too much time and was no longer fun? If so, does that make you a quitter?
Not necessarily.
There’s a difference between quitting and being a quitter.
When you quit, you give up because you’ve exhausted all of your options and you realize it’s time to go in a different direction.
You’ve spent time, money and emotion trying to succeed, yet you keep running up against a brick wall. At some point, enough is enough, and you quit.
When you’re a quitter, you don’t ask for, or listen to, anyone’s advice. You’re stubborn and won’t try to do things any other way. Although friends, colleagues and maybe even clients try to help you, you’ve checked out and moved on to something else. That’s being a quitter.
Great job! Way to go! You did it!
How many times a day, or even a week, do you hear that?
When you’re holed up in your home office, working by yourself, and keeping in touch with your clients through e-mail or the phone, how often does someone give you a pat on the back, either in person or virtually?
Chances are, the answer to both questions is never.
If there’s no one around to give you a pat on the back when you’ve closed the deal of a lifetime, or finally set up an appointment with a prospect who has eluded you for months, congratulate yourself. Whether you celebrate by calling your friends and sharing the good news, or by taking the rest of the day off, take time to acknowledge that you’ve accomplished something important.
Some entrepreneurs pay coaches and consultants to help them discover they already have the skills they were trying to learn. Sometimes it’s better to discover your talents on your own, but if you aren’t there yet, a coach can help you believe in your talents and teach you how to focus on your goals.
Motivational speakers tell you to “believe in yourself” and “what you believe, you can achieve.” For some of you, that may be enough to make you spring out of bed each morning and welcome the day with open arms. For others, it may be enough to make you sick, pull the covers over your head, and wait for the day to end. You don’t have to go to extremes to believe in yourself, but eventually you’ll realize the benefit of believing in what you can do.
Sometime today, give yourself credit for what you’ve accomplished, no matter how small, and realize you have more skills than you thought. Then go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back.
You deserve it.
What do you do to make it easier to believe in yourself? How do you celebrate your accomplishments?
Technology is supposed to help you save time and make it easier to keep your business on track. For most of us, it does, but the reality is that anything with a screen or a power cord is only as effective as the person using it.
Of all of the equipment in my home office, my laptop is the one piece that makes it easier for me to run my business. While the only problems I’ve had with my laptop have been self-imposed, a computer can offer a few challenges that are easy to overcome.
You can store more data on your computer than in your file cabinets…great. But that doesn’t mean that your hard drive won’t fill up as quickly as your cabinets, which makes it difficult to find the files you [Read more...]
Over the years, I’ve seen good home office design plans and I’ve seen others that had disaster written all over them. Laying out your home office is easier when you take the time to plan out your space and figure out how big your furniture can (and should) be.
Have you ever noticed that filing a piece of paper is easy, but finding it later is a bit more challenging? If so, you’re not alone. Several of my clients tell me that they have no trouble tossing papers into files, but waste time trying to find the piece of paper again when they need it.
Does that sound familiar?
There’s always the option of having a completely paperless home office, but that may take time considering old habits are hard to break. Until you’re ready to go paperless, consider these common filing mistakes along with a few simple solutions:
Give your files names that you’ll remember by using word association. Whatever word will help you find a piece of paper when you need it is what you should name a file. Considering that you’re probably the only one [Read more...]
For the past few weeks, I’ve put off finishing a seminar that’s scheduled for next month. I know the material, and I know what I want to say, but putting the information into a PowerPoint hasn’t been at the top of my to-do list.
A few days ago, I realized that enough was enough. I was tired of thinking about the presentation first thing each morning and last thing before I went to bed, so I set aside the entire afternoon to finalize it.
While I had to answer some important e-mails and return a few calls in the morning, I was proud of myself for staying focused and finishing my presentation by dinnertime.
Getting started on a task or a big project is difficult, especially when you really don’t want to handle it. It’s easier to make excuses and avoid taking the first step.
If you find yourself procrastinating on an important project, use one of these five methods to help you get started.
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