source: miss.killer!

For years, I’ve worked with clients who’ve tried everything to organize their home offices, but then have finally given up. Either they didn’t know where to start or were overwhelmed by the process. They also started to believe the negative comments their family and friends were telling them about getting organized.

If you’ve tried to organize your home office and have given up, or have started to believe what others have told you for years about getting organized, it’s time to change your thinking. When you stop believing old organizing myths, you can move forward and get your home office organized.

Myth #1 You have to be born organized to be organized

We learn both good and bad habits at an early age and you can change any bad habit, including disorganization. When I was in the corporate world, co-workers who had organized offices told me that their homes were a mess. They focused more on their workspace because that’s where they generated their income. By the time they came home from work every day, they were too exhausted to organize anything. The bottom line is that you can learn to be organized, and it’s easier if you’re motivated to make a few changes.

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

A business owner I’ve known for over ten years has owned several businesses. He sold two of his businesses within two years of starting them.

His last (and current) business was almost a failure. Although he had a strong business idea and product, he grew his business too quickly. Each month he added a few employees and by the end of his first year in business, he wasn’t making enough money to cover his overhead.

At the beginning of the new year he cut his staff in half and reorganized his business. By making a few staffing changes, he has converted his company from pathetic to profitable.

As your business grows, and you have less time to spend on sales and marketing, filing, and accounting, you may need to add additional staff or hire freelancers. There are a few things to consider when hiring others full-time, part-time, or on a project-by-project basis.

Hire someone with experience

Someone who has been around the business block for years will not need much training. One advantage they have over someone less experienced is that they can bring ideas and systems to your business that you may not have considered. The only disadvantage to hiring a skilled person is that they may have bad habits that have to be unlearned.

Hire someone without experience

You’ll have to spend time training an unskilled employee, yet the advantage is that you’ll be able to train that person to fit your company’s work style. Also, they shouldn’t have any bad work habits that you have to break. My first boss after I graduated from college hired me because I had no sales experience. He had a certain way of running his sales department and he wanted to make sure I followed his sales systems.

Hire freelancers instead of full-time employees

If you don’t have the time or desire to train employees, consider hiring freelancers to handle certain projects. The advantage is that you won’t have to spend much time training that person and you’re not obligated to pay for his or her health insurance. Also, they can apply the experience they have through working with other clients, to your project.

Before you bring on a full-time employee or hire a freelancer, ask yourself what your time is worth. Decide whether paying someone to handle a project will cost less than the amount of money you can generate during that same amount of time.

And most of all, remember, you get what you pay for.

Has hiring employees or freelancers helped or hurt your business?

Source: Betsssssy

Someone who works in a cubicle or a corporate office can leave his or her mess at work. Yet when your business and personal life are under the same roof, it’s more difficult to keep home office chaos to a minimum. By following a few do’s and avoiding the don’ts, you can keep your home office under control.

Do

Set a schedule

When you work for yourself, it’s important to make every minute count.  Each day set a schedule, but make it flexible. If you wait for the right time to work on something, you may never get started.  Your schedule may change based on the appointments you’ve scheduled or the tasks you need to complete, so focus on the top five tasks you need to accomplish each day. Otherwise it’s easy to get sidetracked.

To read the rest of my guest post on Startup Nation, click here.

When my (now 29-year-old) nephew was four years old, I asked him if he wanted to go to the store with me. He told me that he didn’t have enough time because he was too busy.

I don’t remember much about my life at four years old, but what I do remember is that all I had was time. My nephew probably had learned that response from everyone around him.

What would you do with more time?

No matter what type of business you’re in, and whether you’re working from home full-time or part-time, time is a valuable commodity. Take the time to consider what would happen if you had more time.

• Would you take the day off, spend more time with your family, or work on your personal development?  If so, let go of tasks that don’t need your attention so you can have more time to spend on yourself or with your family.

• Would you accomplish more? Think about whether more hours in the day would give you more time to work on important tasks or leave you with more time to waste. Everyone works differently but I’ve noticed that when I have all day to work, I’m less effective than when I have only a few hours to work.

• Would you keep postponing tasks that need your attention? Either you’re going to tackle tasks on your to-do list or you’re going to keep putting them off.  Task the tasks off your list that you keep moving forward or the ones you know you’ll never try to tackle. It’s easier to let those tasks go when you consider whether or not those tasks would affect your productivity and bottom line.

Throughout the week

• Stop what you’re doing and evaluate whether you’re working too much. (I admit I’m a reformed workaholic who’ll never go back to my former schedule.) A few signs that you’re working too much are the feeling of dread you may have every morning when you get out of bed. When you work for yourself, ideally you should want to go to work most days.

• Listen to others who may be trying to tell you that your long hours are taking a toll on you and your family. Life has too much to offer to spend day after day holed up in your home office, and isolated from your friends and family.

• Even if you have all day to work on your to-do list, develop false deadlines. When you give yourself extra time to work on a project, you’re not faced with a last minute time crunch to finish a project.

The way you run your business, and how you work from home, will change throughout the years. But the need to manage your time and control everything you face each day, will always stay the same.

Would more hours in the day make you more productive?

If you like this post, check out my new book, Organize Your Home Office for Success.

A good friend of mine used to use a paper-based planner to write her to-do lists.

As her business grew, she quit using her planner and switched to sticky notes that she plastered all over her monitor. Her system broke down when she started covering older notes with newer ones. She tried to improve her sticky note system by using different colored notes, but that didn’t help.

Now, instead of using her new smartphone to record tasks, she writes her top to-do’s on her hand. She admits that her “organic” way of tracking tasks is a little unreliable, especially by the middle of the day when she’s washed her hands a few times, but she’s out of ideas.

Whether you’re like my friend and you’ve exhausted all of your options, or you’ve used the same planning system for years, take a close look at how you’re planning your days. There are a few ways you can make your system more effective.

Be willing to change what isn’t working

Decide whether or not your planning system is still working. If not, decide whether you want to use a paper-based list within a daily planner, a program on your computer or an app on your smartphone. Whatever system you pick, make sure it’s easy to use and that it fits your needs. A program that has more features than you need or more than you’ll ever use, will help you waste time, not save it. In this case, less is more.

Keep your list readily available

Your to-do list will be easier to use if you’re able to find it when you need it. You shouldn’t have to dig through layers of paper to find your list or search through your computer to find a planning program you use often. As with anything in your home office, including equipment you may have had for years, if you can see it, there’s more of a chance that you’ll use it.

Break your list down into “calls” and “tasks”

A long list of tasks and calls can be overwhelming. If you want to combine your personal and business to-do lists, use the headings “personal calls,” “personal to-do’s,” “business calls” and “business to-do’s.” You could also label each task according to the type of task. When you break a long list down into smaller lists, it’s easier to manage.

Move it forward

At the end of the day, look at your list and either move uncompleted tasks forward or delete them. This will give you a head start on the next day’s tasks. Realize that you can’t do everything, and at the end of the day if you’ve accomplished even five or six items on your list, give yourself a pat on the back.

A final tip is to keep your list manageable. Most of the time, quality matters more than quantity.

What type of planning system do you use, and why? Share your comments below.

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, receive requests from others for your books, mail your books and get points, and then use your points to get books from others.

2. Designate certain places for magazines, reference materials and anything else you want to read

Stacking bins work well for magazines and papers to file (they’re larger than stacking trays). Keep them next to or under your desk and label them “to read” and “to file.”

3. Reduce your reading stacks

Start by getting rid of the newspapers and magazines you haven’t read for the past year. If you haven’t read them by now, chances are you won’t read them anytime soon. Consider switching to online subscriptions.

4. Read e-books

One of the best ways to organize books and save space storing books is by trading traditional books for e-books. Think about the number of e-books you could take with you when you leave your home office.

The best way to get your reading under control is to realize that you can’t read everything. But by taking a few simple steps, you can get your reading under control.

How do you get through your reading wish list? Please share your comments below.

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.

I have the privilege of being a contributor for Success…Your Way. To read the rest of this blog post, please click here.

Most of us who are self-employed agree that we’re unemployable. How could we ever take orders from a boss again, after we’ve enjoyed the freedom of being our own boss?

Whether you free yourself from the corporate world by choice, or by your (former) employer’s choice, you need to figure out the best place to set up a home office. The F-R-E-E-D-O-M plan (as in freedom from the corporate world) will get you started on the right track.

F=Find a good place for your home office

My philosophy is that no matter what size home you have, there’s always room for a home office. Try to avoid setting up a home office in your kitchen, because it tends to be a high-traffic area. Your bedroom is also a bad choice since it should be a place to relax and get away from your business.

Instead, find a place that’s not in a high traffic area, but not too isolated. A dining room or a living room is a good option for a home office, especially if it is rarely used.

I have the privilege of being a contributor for Success…Your Way. To read the rest of this blog post, please click here.

On a show that my sons and I were watching a few nights ago, one of the characters walked in and said, “I’m late because I’m very important.”

Can you relate to that line?

Think about the last time you were sitting in a coffee shop waiting to meet with someone. You were clear about the time and place to meet, yet you have to wait at least 15 minutes until that person shows up. How frustrating is that?

All of us know someone who’s time-challenged. They’re not trying to be disrespectful of our time…it just seems that way. There are a few ways, though, to help people in your business life and personal life be on time.

Give an earlier time

When you schedule an appointment with the always-late person, give him or her a time that’s 30 minutes earlier. When that person shows up late, they’ll actually be on time. That worked with a former boss of mine. When she had to do a live television interview, I told her to show up at the studio 30 minutes earlier than she was supposed to be there. It worked every time.

Start meetings on time

Even if it’s at Starbucks, a meeting is a meeting. When the always-late person (who’s a staff member, not a client) shows up, don’t bring him or her up to speed. Instead, go on with the meeting and let that person catch up later. I know this sounds harsh, but if you let the late person make a big production when he or she walks into the meeting, you’re rewarding that person’s lack of respect for everyone else’s time.

Be direct

Some people never change, while others are willing to change, especially when they have a good reason. Talk to your clients, staff, spouse or anyone else who doesn’t understand why you come unglued when he or she is always late. When they have a clear idea of what’s bothering you and why, they may try to be on time more often.

You can’t control the number of hours you have in each day, but you can control how you spend those hours. Waiting for someone who is always late is a waste of time and energy, even if that person is very, very important.

What strategies do you use to make sure someone is on time? Please share them in the comments section below.

Guest post by Michelle Shaeffer

Sometimes we’ve only got a few minutes here and there to work on our home-based businesses.  Don’t let this stop you from marketing and building your business network!

If you’ve got just 10 minutes, you can take positive actions that will help you move forward.

If I had to write a 50-page marketing plan and spend 4 hours a day implementing it… well, either it’d never happen… or I’d never get anything else done and never have time to complete the services I need to for my clients and create the products I offer. Or, I’d never get to play with my kiddos and my house would look like a hurricane hit it. There just aren’t that many hours in the day.

Always remember the reason you started your business – I’m pretty sure that “So I can test out how much stress a human body can handle, then end up in therapy!” wasn’t on your top ten list of reasons, right? Yeah, it wasn’t on mine either.

My strategy is more of a one-page style marketing plan.  Beyond the big things on the plan,  the rest of my marketing revolves around QUICK things I can do in between everything else that’s going on in my world. So I’ve made it a point to know what I get done in 5 or 10 minutes.

Anyone can squeeze in 10 minutes at least a few times a day, right?

Remember that done is better than perfect!  To get these done in 10 minutes each you need to focus on fast action and getting it great, but not perfect, or any of them can easily end up taking an hour instead of 10 minutes.

Here are some ideas:

1. Write a quick blog post and promote it.

Jot down some random thoughts about something helpful for your readers.  Try a top 10 list or top 5 list.  You can polish it later and use it as an article, in your newsletter, for a podcast, in a video, etc.  Take time to tweet your post and add it to your Facebook status.  If you’re using Networked Blogs or a similar plugin or service, it will tweet/update for you.If you feel overwhelmed at the thought of posting in 10 minutes, here are some tips to help you blog better, faster.

2. Write a few thank you cards or emails.

It only takes a few minutes to write out a card, but it’s so nice to receive a thank you in the mail.  If you don’t have thank you cards or aren’t a handwritten card person, try Send Out Cards, which lets you pick a card to send and personalize it, and then they mail it snail mail for you.  Or, send out a couple of quick emails or ecards.

3. Pick 2 or 3 blogs to comment on and leave a thoughtful comment.

Choose blogs that either you want to connect with and get known by the authors, or that reach your target market.  Leave a comment to let them know you appreciate their content, or that it sparked ideas for you or helped you in some way.

4. Hop on Facebook and do a super fast like/comment spree and update your status.

In 10 minutes you can hit like and leave short comments on a lot of posts.  Update your status, and your fan page status while you’re there.

5. Use HootSuite to schedule tweets and status updates for the next couple of days.

With HootSuite you can schedule your tweets and status updates and set what time you want them to post.  Very cool way to stay visible on the social networks without being chained to your computer.

6. Send a short note to your email list recommending a great resource.

What have you found lately (especially free or low-cost) that would be helpful to your mailing list?  Write up a quick review with how it’s saved you time, money, frustration or energy and share it with them.  People love being connected to helpful tools and services.

7. Pick one person you’d like to get to know and send a short, professional email introducing yourself.

No need to ask for anything or have a specific project in mind.  Just a note to let them know you appreciate their information, blog, articles, whatever you like, and send it.

8. Connect people.

Think of someone you know who could help someone else you know and introduce them to each other.  In 10 minutes you could come up with several sets of people to connect.

9. Go answer questions on a niche forum or a website.

There are always people looking for help on forums or sites like Yahoo! Answers and Quora.  Go find some that have questions you can answer and help with.  Save those answers – you can re-purpose them into articles, blog posts, etc. later.

10. Take action on something to build your business.

Find a blog post, article, ezine or something else you’ve got filed or bookmarked that had a great idea you meant to implement but kept forgetting.  Implement it!  Most little tweaks and action steps take very little time, we’ve just got to focus and get them done. Fast action!

Ready… set… go! Take 10 minutes and go implement one of these ideas, then come comment and tell us which you did.  You’ll feel great when it’s done — positive action in our businesses always feels fantastic!

P.S.  Don’t forget to bookmark this blog post so next time you’ve got a few minutes you can use that time to take smart action to move your business forward.

Michelle Shaeffer’s Twitter profile describes her as: “Caffeine powered, Libertarian gal enjoying life with my kids and husband. Empowering entrepreneurs.”  That sums it up nicely.  You can find her helping to simplify online business at MichelleShaeffer or serving up ideas for bloggers at DailyBloggingIdeas.com.