Unlocking Your Future – the Key to Working from Home
Guest Post by James Martell
In my dad’s day, a businessman commuted from the suburbs to the office for hours each week, often traveling on business trips to meet with clients or suppliers, and spent more time away from home than he ever did with his family. Those days are disappearing, and it’s time to embrace a new normal.
Blast from the past
Back in 1998, when I first started understanding how the internet would be the future of business, everyone was a bit leery of it. When I did my first promotion for a company in the United States, everybody thought it was crazy for a Canadian like me to do business with someone from another country, not to mention someone I had never even met. I must admit I had my own doubts about it, but they were all laid to rest when the first check cleared the bank.
Today’s Information Age
Flash forward twelve years and the internet is the way we all do business, so why are so many of us still leaving our homes and families to punch a time clock in an office? Working from home is the key to your freedom and happiness; you just have to follow some simple guidelines and success can be yours.
Create your own space
Start by creating your own work space. Working from home is great, because it allows you the freedom to manage your own time and do with it what matters most, but you can’t treat your work time like home time. Creating a separate space to be your work area is essential, and allows you to mentally focus on your work, as well as keep things organized.
Some people I’ve talked to prefer to create their own office, complete with a nice home office computer desk and filing cabinets. Others prefer to make a section in their garage or a corner of the bedroom their work area. However much space you need, or the tools you require, just make sure it is a space that is all your own, and dedicated solely to your work. No setting up on half the kitchen the table and pretending you can eat dinner around it or the kids won’t scatter it. It just doesn’t work!
Social marketing
Use the internet to work for you. It’s important to realize that there’s a lot of competition out there these days, and you’ll need more going for you than just a well written landing page if you’re going to be a success. You’re going to have to make what you’re offering look appealing to the consumer and convince them that others think it has value too. Whatever you’re selling, whether it’s a product or a service, one of the best ways to sell it is with social marketing.
Just as our parents turned to the yellow pages or watched ads on TV, today everybody goes to search engines like Google when they want or need something. It’s the first place many of us get our information now.
When we want to know if the information we gathered from the web is credible, we rely on people we know for endorsements. The power of word of mouth has grown immeasurably since the advent of Facebook and Twitter. Millions of consumers are turning to these resources before making purchases and more and more of us are doing the actual buying or ordering on the internet as well. I’m sure you’ve found this to be true in your own life just as I have. These are great tools that you can use to your advantage. By getting people to talk about your product or service and consumers will seek you out.
Tools of tomorrow, here today
If all this sounds like a lot of work, just remember, you don’t have to do it all alone. Working from home isn’t for hermits or the antisocial. Thanks to today’s technology, it is as vibrant and active and social as you want to make it.
- Increase knowledge and education with webinars.
- Bring the boardroom right into your home by holding meetings and networking with them through business video conferencing or Skype.
- Utilize smart phone apps or laptops to access everything you need anywhere you go.
Do all the things you want to do with your life, and still have the access to handle all your business needs and communicate with the people you need to accomplish it all. Social networking is first and foremost about keeping social as much as you can.
Follow these guidelines and you’ll be on the path to success, and free to enjoy it when you achieve it. Your future is just waiting for you.
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James Martell, author of the Affiliate Marketers Handbook works from his home office computer desk teaching others how to make money with affiliate programs utilizing powerful tools like business video conferencing.
Read MoreTales of a Home Office Worker Dad
Guest Post by Joe Magennis.
Just over a year ago we completed a restructuring of the agency that would allow us to eliminate the massive overhead of an office. My biggest hesitation for disbursing to home locations was what to do about the phone system. I did not want to go through the hassle of notifying clients of a bunch of new and unique phone numbers. When our local CLEC service provider informed me that we could have a virtual system that allowed me to have the same number right down to the same extension, I pulled the trigger.
This is the second time that I have worked from home. In the late nineties I converted the upstairs bedroom into an office and established a diligent work routine. I function much better within some structure, so I complete the typical morning rituals, grab a cup of coffee and head upstairs to start the workday. I derive a great sense of productivity from this new work from home operation since it saves me an hours commute on each end of the day. It also means I can get to the daycare to pick up my toddler earlier than ever before.
On November 3rd of this past year things changed drastically. My wife and I decided that due to the enormous cost of placing a second child into daycare, she would head to work while I would keep our three month old daughter Lily with me during the day. This new arrangement was certainly made easier by having a home office work environment, but has greatly extended the length of time that I spend in the office each day.
It’s not realistic to attempt to give work full attention during the typical work day and attend to all of Lily’s needs. Her feeding requirements every three hours with interspersed diaper changes, play time, and prep for the next round of feeding limits my day time functionality to short bursts of tasks while she is napping. When my wife comes home at the end of the day we share dinner time with both of the girls and I retreat to the office to focus on the greater tasks of the day.
However, I still attempt to arrive at the desk by 9:00 am with a coffee in hand and a bottle for Lily. It’s typically a good time to catch some podcasts since my hands are tied up. I still have numerous standing Skype appointments throughout the week and so far there have not been any huge conflicts due to Daddy Daycare. It is a work arrangement that is completely manageable with the right determination, the right technology and the right home office set up …. for how long is the big question.
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Joe Magennis is the founder and principal of Fluid Media Inc. an online marketing and brand development company in Atlanta Ga.
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