Archive | April, 2015

All Things in Moderation – Even Work at Home

By Lowell on April 21, 2015 in Blog

Too much of a good thing is still too much! We need a balance in whatever we do. Even with food that is considered fattening or unhealthy, if you eat healthy most of the time you can get away with one time eating something bad. The same principle if you just limit your portions on both good and bad foods, and get some exercise in your daily routine, nobody will know you have been naughty.

Just as you can literally shorten your life or risk your life by exercising too much, the same is true for work. We do need to work as part of our life and at times, like for example when starting a new business that we may work extended hours. We may be working more than 8-hours a day, working on our days off, and worst of all not taking any breaks. You may be okay to do this a few times off and on, but on a regular basis you are abusing yourself.

There is no business that is more important than your health, both mental and physical. To have health we need balance. In fact, if you collapse or get sick who is going to do your work then? Doesn’t it make more sense to take care of yourself so you will be there? Pace yourself – eat enough, sleep enough, relax enough and work enough – but not too much of anything!

It’s ironic or maybe not that when we work at a job we watch the clock to make sure we don’t work more than the time we are paid for; however people who are really loving what they are doing working at home, will sometimes completely forget to stop working at regular intervals. Most people with their own business it seems work many hours without pay.

Balance – we have the freedom to work too much and the other side where we don’t work enough and hence our business will eventually fail through our neglect. Being sure that you do your work and actually devote enough time to it to make it work, is one of the disciplines we must have if we are going to be self-employed from home.

It may seem silly to you but you may need to make some checklists and outline exactly what you need to do (including taking regular breaks) throughout your day. You should really take it seriously even if your home business is only at this point part-time, if you ever expect to earn any decent money. Ideally before too long you may be able to quit your day job. This will free up quite a bit of time where you are not commuting and tying up 8-10 hours of your day, which will give you a nice relaxed feeling of freedom and well-being!

Your New Home Business – Get It Together

By Lowell on April 20, 2015 in Blog

Organization and planning are key to functioning efficiently. Think of a piece of paper – how does it make you feel when it is blank – like you need to do something? Now what does it make you feel when it is all scribbled up, crossed out, notated, or even stained with coffee mug ring – like you want to escape?

This piece of paper analogy can be seen as your mind. You need to find a starting point in which you can logically plan and organize your business activities. So start with your office space itself – whether that is a whole room or just a desk or table where you have your PC.

Clear out all the things that do not relate to the business at hand – if you have a lot of little junk then find a box, jar or bowl to put things in. For papers either throw them out or find a folder or box for them if you don’t have a cabinet or drawer.

Using this same principle, consider your email account. Is your inbox total chaos? For things you want to keep, you can create folders or ‘labels’ – whether you like alphabetical – for example A-D, E-J, K-P, etc; or to name them by function, ‘List Builders’, ‘Marketing’, ‘Invoices’, ‘Legal’, etc; or by name of organization, ‘ABC Co’, ‘Acme Widgets’, etc. Then just check the little boxes on the inbox index to name a group of emails at once, label them or send them to the folders (archive). Voila! ‘Out of sight, out of mind’. Clear sailing ahead.

Obviously if there are actual things you do need to read or respond to maybe you can make a ‘pending’ folder so that you don’t forget something. You will find however that the vast majority of your mail does not need to clutter up your inbox and your mind. No need to become aversive to your mail because it is such a burden to deal with every day. It will seem less so if you have a mechanism to get it out of your face.

Now that you have cleared some space for yourself, you can think with a clear mind. This will make you much more likely to comprehend what you are reading and follow up with things where it is necessary than it is when you have the feeling that you are drowning or smothering. If your email is too cumbersome it will create a feeling in you that you do not want to deal with something that is unpleasant every day.

The same principle should be applied to your documents – You may save them in each application or you may also make folders for those within the ‘My documents’ folder so that you can find important information without an archaeology dig. Make folders with somewhat broad classifications as you don’t want to do overkill and make it too tedious.

It’s up to you whether you use categories for example by months, or by functions, ‘procedures’ or ‘instructions’, ‘accounts payable’, ‘accounts receivable’. Then as time goes on you may even wish to have folders with years where you can move all the other categories – this makes it a lot easier to find things you haven’t seen in a long time.

It is important that you keep your work area clear of clutter and a good rule of thumb is nothing should be there that does not pertain to work. With online business, not really very much is outside of your PC, but if you invest a few dollars in some office supplies, don’t forget the folders and maybe a crate to keep them in.

Setting Goals for Your Home Business Plan

By Lowell on April 19, 2015 in Blog

It is important to have specific goals and tasks. When you are creating your plan, don’t use vague references like ‘eat breakfast’ – make it specific: ‘eat eggs, toast and bacon for breakfast’. That way when you sit down to actually accomplish the necessary tasks to run your business, you know exactly what you need to do.

It is also when you are creating the plan that you will set your goals and make sure you are able to perform whatever you need to without being interrupted or having everything in ‘pending’. For example you can’t have eggs for breakfast unless you first go to the store to buy the eggs. So take some real time on the details to create your plan so that it will run smoothly and you can actually do what you need to do rather than to keep going back to the planning stage.

Lists are great but if you have too many things to do they can actually make it worse for you psychologically in that for one thing you may not have everything you need in place yet to accomplish something on the list. Or you may even react negatively to having a big scribbled mess with some things crossed out that are done, some things crossed out because they are cancelled, notes here and there about the status of various tasks, etc. It is just adding more chaos to your day.

The purpose of having a plan is to be organized and methodical so that you don’t miss any details. The main reason not to have a scribbley mess in your directions, however is that you may start to feel guilty or like you are falling behind when you do not accomplish what you set out to. There is so much to learn and to do that it is important to stay positive and not let any obstacles stop you from your progress to develop your business.

This is why it is best to have a couple different lists with your goals being defined between those that are needed and possible right now, (today) those that can be done in the near future, (this week or month) and then long-term goals which might cover as long as a year. Keep clear notes here about the status or things that may be pending and why – know what you need to do in the meantime to be able to eventually do what is needed.

So start with 3 pieces of paper or online documents to begin your planning. Don’t put anything on your ‘To Do’ list for today unless you are absolutely sure you can do them today. Should something happen unexpectedly that keeps you from doing it, then cross it off and start a new list for tomorrow – or add it to the near future list with exact date to be determined. Be sure to note anything that is keeping you from actually doing the task and what you need to do to eliminate that so you can finish what you need to do.

It is sometimes difficult for people to be their own boss. We are mostly used to going into a company that will tell us what our job duties are and show us what that involves, including orientation and training, etc; they will tell us what time to show up and what time to go home. So they are creating the foundation for us and we just need to go in and do it. When you are starting your own business you will have to do all of this yourself including motivating yourself to follow your own directions!

It is very easy to say ‘not now’ or ‘maybe later’ when you are in charge of yourself; however you can’t allow this to be the case. You have to somehow force yourself to treat your business just like you would a job. Of course we are free to set our own hours and etc., but if we are seriously hoping to start a business that will provide a full-time or substantial income down the line, we need to actually follow a plan and do the work on a consistent basis. Work at midnight if that is what you prefer but just be sure you get everything done, no matter what.

Take a few days off if you need to, but again, make sure everything that needs to be done, gets done before you leave or after you return. You might even want to build this in to your plan as it is very important to take breaks and have time away as in a weekend or vacation that you could expect from a regular job.

When people first start out it seems to be extreme in one way or the other; either they take it for granted and think there is some magical process that will create traffic and sales just because they joined a program, and there is no necessity to actually work it; or they will work 15-hours a day until they completely burn themselves out and can’t figure out why nothing is working for them. The truth is it takes time either way.

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Archive | April, 2015