The number of Americans working from home is on the rise

Steve Cichon left a radio job to start his own company and work from home. He’s at his computer by 5:15 a.m

At 7:30 on a sunny weekday morning, as commuters begin to fill the Thruway on their way to the office, Steve Cichon pours himself a cup of coffee and takes a seat at his dining room table. The longtime Buffalo media man recently walked away from the grind of the office and joined a growing number of people opting to work from home.
Indeed, a report by Global Workplace Analytics found that more than 3.1 million Americans work from home.
Cichon is taking it a step further He left his post as news director of radio station WBEN-930 to start his own company, Buffalo Stories LLC. He said he now faces the challenges and opportunities that confront every former office dweller.
“For me, I feel like I’m still new to this and still getting settled in (to working from home). But right now, the challenge is getting into a routine and a flow,” he said.
Don’t be fooled by the image of him sipping coffee and playing with his dog Willow — who he jokes is his office manager and has her own LinkedIn page. Cichon is up and at his computer most mornngs by 5:15 and said he often works into the night.
One of the knocks against working from home is the potential for a drop in productivity. But he and others say it’s not true. The freedom and flexibility that come from working outside a traditional office are driving forces that lead to greater productivity, they say.
“At 5 o’clock, you shut down your computer, lock your office and go home for the day,” he said. “For me, I have that flexibility working at home, but that also means there are nights that it is 10 o’clock and I’m still working.”
For Cichon, being a business owner provides plenty of motivation — after all, he needs to generate business if he wants to continue eating and paying his mortgage. But what about employees whose boss works in a brick-and-mortar office while they telecommute from home?
John Cimperman is a principal at Cenergy, an East Aurora marketing business in which five of his 32 employees work remotely. So how difficult is it to motivate an employee living 1,500 miles away in Denver?
“With our employees, motivation is never an issue, but connectivity is,” he said. “We are in the business of generating ideas, and ideas are generated in brainstorming sessions around a white board, around the water cooler, at a happy hour. So for remote employees, we need to work harder to make sure they remain connected.”
Remote employees of Cenergy have home-based offices, he said, and in his field it makes sense, given that most are out on the road and meeting with clients every day. The company currently has remote employees in Boston, Atlanta, Denver and Chicago, he said.
“There are two reasons why we have folks work remotely,” he said. “Most importantly, we put account managers in the places where our clients are located. The other reason is, in the case of our event manager, he is probably on the road 200 days a year, so where he lives isn’t as relevant.”
Recruitment has a major impact on the decision to have remote employees.
“If we can’t find someone in this market that has the experience and talent that we need, then we will go find those people with national experience, wherever they may live,” Cimperman said. “And the fact is, there is more of the specific type of talent we need in those larger markets.”
Once seen as a non-traditional perk for employees, working from home has evolved into a strategy that many employers utilize to control office-related costs and other expenses.
But even with happy employees and a stronger bottom line, are there potential legal pitfalls to having employees working from home?
Yes, according to Michael Schiavone, an employment attorney and partner in Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria. He said the risks must be carefully weighed before an employer decides to let someone work remotely.
“The first concern that comes to mind (for the employer) is, how do you deal with the nuances of employment law in an ever-changing climate where technology may be outpacing the laws dealing with this issue,” he said.
He advises employers to have a strong policy set in advance.
“It is obviously easy today for many employees to work from home,” Schiavone said. “But employers need to be concerned about the criteria they set for eligibility.”
He has seen numerous cases in which an employee request is granted without the employer stopping to consider the pitfalls involved in setting a precedent.
“Do you wind up having different standards based on who it is that does what for the company? And once you permit people to work from home, how do you regulate what is going on in comparison to what you could do if the employee were physically present in the office?” he said.
Schiavone said another example where an employer could run afoul of the law is in dealing with the Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs employee hours and wages.
“Assuming that a workweek is 40 hours, how do you know that an employee isn’t working more than 40 hours from home?” he said. “What if the employee then makes a claim down the road that he has been working more than 40 hours and hasn’t been properly compensated?”
He said he doesn’t discourage clients from offering telecommuting as an employee option, but he does suggest that businesses of all sizes do their homework.
Example: If an employee slips and falls in the office and is injured, it is a clear-cut workers’ compensation claim. But what happens when an employee working from home slips on the kitchen floor on the way from the bathroom to his home office during so-called work hours?
“Well, (employers) need to talk with their insurance people who provide their workers’ comp policy to see where people are covered,” the attorney said. “Whether or not a workers’ comp policy would extend to the worker’s home is probably an endorsement that would need to be applied for by the individual employer.”
According to Schiavone, larger companies are typically well-versed in such rules and nuances, but there’s concern when it comes to smaller organizations in which the decision to allow telecommuting is more informal. “Small companies that may view this as a way to save on office space or other related expenses and elect to have people start working from home, (they) need to start thinking about the ramifications of those decisions,” he said. “And they need to consider whether they have the proper policies in place to protect the company.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/buffalo-law-journal/2013/08/the-number-of-americans-working-from.html?page=4

Boomers with Home-Based Businesses Learn to Prioritize Tasks

Just ask any Baby Boomer running a home-based business – after a while, one of the most difficult aspects is to decide “What to do next?” Everyday presents new challenges. Hence, it is imperative to also maintain a prioritized list of tasks that will directly benefit your business. This is how home-based businesses survive and grow.
I like to keep a spreadsheet list for each of my businesses, one that can be easily sorted by priority. Since I’m at an age where if I don’t write down my ”brilliant” insights, they quickly vanish, I carry a notebook at all times. There, I jot down tasks, thoughts and actions that pop into my mind and then transpose them to my spreadsheet lists.
My priorities are totally subjective. Sure, there are normal business activities that must be accomplished, such as shipping products to customers or completing a consulting report to meet a deadline. These bring in money and pay the bills. And of course they typically have the highest priority.
Then there are the “fun” things. In this category, I include items that are creative or strategic in nature. For instance:

• Reviewing my website to enhance search engine optimization.
• Exploring adjacent markets for my products and services.
• Figuring out how to grow sales 20 percent this year.
• Thinking of ways to make my business run smoother.
• Determining who can I talk to get ideas for my business or to be a sounding board.

You get the idea.
Prioritized lists are key to organizing time and being productive during the hours devoted to a home-based business each day. They help Boomers accomplish more while freeing up time for “play” to enjoy golf, family and social time, trips, gardening or simply reading a good book.
Every morning, I review my lists and set an agenda for the day. Based on how much time I want to work today, I decide which items on my list to pursue. Now, they may not be items of highest priority. Some days, I just feel like doing lower-priority stuff that I enjoy, BUT at least I’m accomplishing something beneficial to my business.
I’m sure none of this is new to you. Boomers have been making lists for years. This is how we became successful during our employment years. Operating a home-based business, however, takes the art of prioritized lists to a new level.

http://www.boomerhomebizadvice.com/2013/11/boomers-with-home-base-businesses-learn-to-prioritize-tasks/

 

Managing Your Time at the Home Office

In my practice, I've discovered that a majority of the people coming to me these days are working remotely from a home base. The economy, the Internet and social media have changed the way we approach work. Many welcome the opportunity to work from home to cut commuting and to be able to spend extra time in their personal life. But while the new wave of employers may be saving on desk space, are you really garnishing more free time?
Ask yourself: When do I clock in and clock out of my workday? Chances are you probably never actually do either of those things. The convenience of tablets and smart phones has changed the way the business day is structured. That 9-5 job can easily turn into working around the clock, in your pajamas, with very little patience or time for family or anything else.

I am up against this myself as I split my business between my metaphysical center and a home office. When I am at my home base, I strive to balance my days by applying some rules to arrange my time so it works for me, while I work for my paycheck. Consider the following as a different way to look at your day.
1. Keep a time chart of when you intend to start and end your actual work day and respect it.
2. Be dressed and ready to work at your desk and treat it as you would any sacred space you work in. Make those family and friends aware of when you work and provide them with the best times for socializing with you.
3. Keep your personal day separate from your business day. If you use social media, focus on business tweeting and posting until after hours.
4. Be sure to take your lunchtimes and break times and do not skip them. Make sure they take you away from the computer screens and the work environment. Instead of looking at a virtual tree, get out and up and into nature, or open a window and gaze at the energy of the real one in front of you.
5. Once you clock out of your day, use your off time by actually being away from your computer. No matter whom you are with or where you are, it's important to actually focus on that person and that place.
By structuring your work day so that you are clocking in and out, you are opening yourself up to a more productive lifestyle and, ultimately, more free time to spend the way you wish.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-lauren/working-at-home_b_4273714.html

Working from home with young children

More and more of us are working at home these days due to the restrictively high cost of childcare – and a need for more flexible hours.

Working from home is a great way to fit your career around looking after your kids, but it's a lot easier when your children are at school. So how can you manage things when they're really small?

Remember you are doing two jobs

You're working and being a mum – two important jobs – so schedule things accordingly. "If you have small children at home with you, things will take longer to complete, so set realistic deadlines to avoid disappointing your boss or letting down your team", advises Kristen Harding, childcare expert at Tinies, the UK's leading childcare company and nanny agency network.

Create a workspace

Even if you don't have a home office, set aside a corner of the room that you can use as 'your space', while still keeping an eye on what the children are up to. "Having your own space will help you feel more secure in your role, but being able to glance up frequently will help you feel more at ease," says Kristen.

Be organised

It's all about planning when you're a WAHM (Work At Home Mum). "Plan meals in advance, shop online and make it all as easy as you can" advises Personal Development Coach Cheryl Goldenberg of The Pickle Shed, who specialises in happy working mothers. "Plan the day, too – but be prepared to change the plan along the way! Think about what the kids will be doing while you're working and make sure everything they need is in the right place".

Have a working day

You might not be going to an office, but it's important to create a working day for yourself. "Dress for work so your brain knows what mode it's in", suggests Cheryl. "Then, when you're finished, leave your home office or workspace at 5pm and find a way to draw a line between work and home – get changed into 'home' clothes, go for a run, turn up the music...". Do whatever it takes to help you switch off!

Communicate with your partner

Talk to your other half and important people in your family such as grandparents. "Be open about how easy or hard you are finding it working from home", says Kristen. "Do you need help? What would help lighten the load? Remember only you know how you're managing: don't expect others to be able to read your mind."

Create a back-up plan

What will happen if your work throws you a curve ball? "Have a back-up plan in place for when you have a last minute meeting, or an urgent deadline", suggests Kristen. "Things don't always run smoothly but if you prepare for worst case scenarios, then every day is a lot less bumpy! A childcare website like Emergency Childcare is an essential for your SOS contact list."

Look after yourself

You need to be on the best possible form – physically and emotionally – to manage working from home. "If you fall apart then everything around you does the same", warns Cheryl. "Work out what it takes to keep you feeling fresh and schedule it into your diary. Connect with other mums and dads working from home, as isolation saps confidence. And find new places to work in child-free moments to refresh creativity – your local library, a coffee shop etc."

Try and prioritise

It's vital to set aside quiet time for the tasks that need greater concentration. "This might mean arranging play dates with other working parents so that you can have a few hours of total quiet, or arranging your work around nap times", Kristen says. "And remember, letting your kids have quiet times and learn to play amongst themselves are important parts of growing up – so you don't have to entertain them all the time!"

Don't be hard on yourself

Just because you do your work at home, it doesn't make it any less important, so talk about what you do to your children and partner. "Show the family what 'Mummy's Work' means – to help them to understand what you're doing and why", suggests Cheryl.

And remember, it's never going to go smoothly all the time. "If you have a bad day, accept it and start again tomorrow!"

http://www.parentdish.co.uk/family/working-from-home-with-young-children/

Does What You Wear Matter When You Work From Home

Switching from working at an office to working from home is a pretty big change. When I made the switch, I particularly missed my coworkers, the 10-6 structure, and the soda machine, but the biggest difference was definitely my wardrobe. Does it matter what you wear when you're working from home?
At first glance it seems like the answer should be a resounding, “no.” With no one to see me, whatever clothes I put on were just for me, and whatever neighbor could see me through my home-office window. As far as I could tell, there was no practical reason to put on my office drag when nobody would see me. I could stay in my pajamas all day if I wanted.
But while idea of perfect, 24-hour comfort is appealing, what a person wears can affect the way they feel, which in turn can affect job performance. Maybe I really was going to have to wear smart shoes and an uncomfortable bra to successfully monitor Twitter and conduct Skype calls. The only way to know for sure was to play Goldilocks and try all my options to see which ones worked best.

Office ClothesMy experiment began with the full Office Lady outfit, which was a complete non-starter. I made it about 10 minutes before realizing high heels do not work at a standing desk and kicked them off. (That’s also right about when I realized that standing on my yoga mat made my standing desk experience much more pleasant.) Pantyhose and a pencil skirt always seemed perfectly comfortable at the office, but in my apartment they suddenly felt distractingly uncomfortable. That outfit was supposed to get a week of testing, but I gave it up after a day and a half.

PajamasWorking in pajamas was much more fun, but it did make me wish I had more sets of cute, matching pajamas like Zooey Deschanel on The New Girl. As long as I was clean and tidy, I did not notice an appreciable decrease in productivity between wearing pajamas and wearing my office garb. Personally, I think I was more productive because I wasn't fussing with tights or wandering skirts all day.
I didn't like wearing the pajamas I had slept in, though; that was just a step too far into sloppiness for me. Getting up and putting on a new set of pajamas for work was much better. I highly recommend it.

Casual ClothesBetween those two is the middle option of wearing comfortable, casual clothes like jeans and a comfy sweater. That was pretty much as comfortable and productive as wearing pajamas, with the added benefit of not being embarrassing on the rare occasions someone dropped by.
Having committed myself to wearing either regular house clothes or clean pajamas during work, I asked some other work-from-home types about their preferred options. I expected the answers to run the gamut, but of the eight home-office workers who responded, all but two said they wore pajamas or pajama-type clothes to work unless they expected to have to meet people. Of the two holdouts, one wore jeans and a hoodie, and the other said he started the day in pajamas and changed to jeans and a T-shirt around lunchtime. Nobody wore shoes.
When you do your job from home, do you find that what you wear makes a difference in your work?

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/does-what-you-wear-matter-when-you-work-from-home-197194

The other side of working from home

"You are so lucky," grumbled an acquaintance at a party. "No commute, no boss, no office politics. I would love to lounge around in pyjamas and work when I want and how I want." "It is not that easy," I protested but he was carried away by his own misery and refused to believe me. I work from home. The key word is WORK but what seems to stand out is home. It seems enviable to many, especially the men who are denizens of the corporate world. Working from home conjures up images of leisure, freedom and flexibility. You don't have to get up to an alarm and rush around getting ready, gobble up a hurried breakfast and brace yourself for the traffic. Instead, you can take your morning breath to the computer which will not complain about your hygiene or dress sense. Shower in the afternoon, if you feel like a shower at all. And when you need a break, just shout out to the spouse/servant who brings a hot cup of tea made just the way you like, along with some fresh pakodas. What's not to like? When I decided to quit a full time job and become a consultant and a writer, I believed that working from home would be a blessing- the ideal solution that would let me work at my time, be with my daughter and keep a gentle eye on the goings on in the household. I saw myself deftly juggling a rolling pin and rolodex, seamlessly switching from the key board to the blackboard. Ours is a small household of 4 including my full time help who is the cook and housekeeper. I could easily manage. I don't cook or clean. I do have some flexibility and freedom. Yet working from home requires truckloads of discipline, oodles of self motivation and nerves of steel. I can recall a day last week when I thought I would have a productive day at work. A typical day when I am not in a workshop or client site begins at 6.30 in the morning when I get up to send my daughter off to school. The husband and I have a brief chat on the plan for the day and he leaves for office. I do my yoga and/or walk, breakfast, shower and move to the study which doubles up as my place of work. I have plans for this day. I need to complete a proposal to a client, attend a conference call , send a couple of emails and write at least 500 words for an article. So far, so good. At 10.30 a.m,I switch on my laptop and start with the proposal." Didi, Colin nahin hai." my cleaning maid pokes her head in. I make a note in my list of Things to Do. I remember that she had not dusted the sideboard. I notice a stray cobweb. Instructions are given.Back to proposal. The intercom rings. I rush to the phone and pick it up only to have it disconnected. Where is the maid and why is she not picking up the phone. Just as I settle down again, it rings again. I ignore it.My housekeeper announces that someone is coming with a parcel. Turns out to be a courier with my husband's credit card. I am asked to produce identification to receive the credit card. I manage to get type up something on the design of a workshop that I am proposing. My mobile pings. It is already the time for my call."Didi, gas khatam hua," says the help. 5 minutes to the call. I tell her to change the cylinder. It is stuck she says. We push and pull and fix the thing togetherI get on the conference call. In the middle of the call, the maid enters and gesticulates wildly. She holds her nose and makes some gagging sounds. Something is not right. I can't focus on the call. Finally, I am done.I rush out to discover that there is a leakage of some sort from the gas cylinder. The kitchen smells of LPG. There is a defect in the new cylinder. She is in the middle of cooking and we are out of fuel. I call some neighbours and someone kindly offers me her spare cylinder. I call the Gas agency but no one picks up. I make a note in my Things to do.The cleaning maid comes in to tell me that she is leaving. She wants a day off. No, I almost shout. You take too many holidays. It is my son's school meeting she says. They have called the parents. Her husband is quite useless in this matter. I negotiate for a late arrival. She will try, she says , making no promises. I relent, one working mom to another. Back to proposal. Is it already lunch time?I get into my wannabe Multitasking avatar. I am halfway through lunch and The Lowland. The Lindt chocolate in my fridge beckons. I ignore it until it becomes an insistent shrill summon. The book is interesting. I continue with a few chapters after lunch. Surely, I deserve a break of half an hour. I promise to myself that I will finish my proposal today. I still have time.2.30 p.m. I go to the bus stop to pick up my daughter. We discuss what happened in school. We have Bio test tomorrow she says. And there is some Hindi project. Something needs to be researched and written about Chanakya. I think school is a great institution but I have my reservations about homework. Especially the kind that makes the parent work at home.Start reading Bio. I will finish my work and we will revise. I check my mails and see that there are two new ones that need to be answered.My daughter comes in to negotiate. I will study Bio and you can research my project, she starts. No way. I have too much work to do. We discuss what she can write about Chanakya. One thing at a time, I insist. Finish Bio and then we will do Hindi. I need to finish the proposal. I notice an email reminder for my credit card payment .I add it to my Things to do.I get an unexpected call from a client. She wants to discuss the dates for a workshop that had been planned for the month. They may need to change it. As we discuss options, my daughter mouths something to me. I shoo her away and try to shut the door. She glares at me and marches off. The maid shouts from the kitchen- something about jeera or Kheera . I ignore her. Finally I finish my call and step out- Can't I even talk for a few minutes in peace, I say but no one cares to respond.My daughter looks at me accusingly. You forgot. I told you the light in my room wasn't working. Now I can't study. Damn. Didn't I put it in my Things to Do. I call the electrician.I reconfirm dinner menu and give the maid money to buy cucumber for the salad from the shop in our condominium complex. I check on the state of bread and eggs and find we need to replenish that too. Why does she tell me these things at the last moment?Is it evening already? I have to make the last page of the proposal. I have to check the research on Chanakya. Why do 12 year olds need to write about Chanakya in Hindi? Why do they also need a printout of a picture which can be seen anytime on Google Images? I open up the Google Hindi website on Chanakya and toggle between that and my proposal. In the meantime, I am also giving my daughter some questions to answer in Bio. My husband calls and asks if I have paid the electricity bill due three days back. Pay it yourself, I want to shout. I make a mental note to make an actual note in my Things to Do.Is it dinner time already? My husband is home. Horrible day, Terrible traffic he says. You are so lucky you don't have to go out to work everyday! I glare at him. We do dinner. I am almost done with the proposal. I tuck my daughter into bed. It is only 10.15 p.m and I feel terribly sleepy. I drag myself back to the computer and send off the proposal. I still have the article to write but my brain has gone into deep freeze. I can't get a word out. I read a few pending emails.I shut down the machine and decide to go to bed. My husband is checking Facebook. Other people seem to have interesting things to do and say. What did you do today? He asks. I rack my brain. I finally sent off that proposal to ABC, I say. That's it? That's all you did the whole day, his look says but he wisely restricts it to a 'Uh uh.'Another day of work has gone by. My Things to Do list has grown exponentially. I shouldn't complain. I know I have to be more disciplined, more assertive, more focused, more tenacious. Some day, I will get there. Someday I will also get myself a little office-away from home.

 http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/nirupamasubramanian/3585/64908/the-other-side-of-working-from-home.html

If you are wondering why you are struggling to succeed with your online business, this article by David DiSalvo gives some insight into how your brain might be working against you ...

"Luke: I can’t believe it.

Yoda: That is why you fail."

My research into the traits of influencers and achievers continues, and as I turn more pieces of this puzzle around to fit the whole, more ideas appear to me as a fit for this space.  In this edition, reflections on falling short — more precisely, why we fail despite ourselves.

1. Like Yoda said, you just don’t believe it. 

The crucial part of Yoda’s dialogue with Luke is “believe.”  The human brain is a powerful problem-solving and prediction making machine, and it operates via a multitude of feedback loops. What matters most in the feedback loop dynamic is input — what goes into the loop that begins the analysis-evaluation-action process, which ultimately results in an outcome. Here’s the kicker: if your input shuttle for achieving a goal lacks the critical, emotionally relevant component of belief, then the feedback loop is drained of octane from the start.  Another way to say that is — why would you expect a convincingly successful outcome when you haven’t convinced yourself that it’s possible?

2.  Other people have convinced you of your “station.”

I’ve always thought the “know your station in life” idea to be among the most pernicious we humans have ever come up with.  The only version of it I like is Tennessee Williams’:   “A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.”  Love that Tennessee Williams.  What’s more pernicious than the idea itself is that it’s often heaved upon us by other people, and they convince us that we are what we are and we’d better just live with it because, well, that’s what we’ll always be.  Really? Says who? Show me the chapter on predetermined stations in the cosmic rule book, please. This also gets back to the feedback loop dynamic, because if this external “station” scripting is part of your input, you can expect sub-par outcomes all the time.

3. You don’t want to be a distrupter.

The word “disrupter” has taken on such a heavy, mixed bag of meanings in the last few years.  Reading both popular psychology and business books, I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing to be.   One thing seems certain — the notion of disrupting anything–of being the water that breaks the rock–is scary to most of us.  Reason being, disruption is perceived as a threat to our threat-sensitive brains. Disruption means that consistency, stability and certainty might get jettisoned for a time, and that puts our hard-wired internal defense system on high alert. Sometimes, though, you have to override the alarms and move ahead anyway.  If you never do, you’ll never know what could happen.

4. You think, “what if I die tomorrow?”

We all think this from time to time.  And you know what, sure, any of us might die tomorrow — all the more reason not to waste time thinking about it and hamstringing yourself from going after what you want to achieve.  Would you rather die as a monument to mediocrity or as someone who never quit striving?  Which leads to the next one…

5.  You wonder how you will be remembered.

The rub here is simply that, if you “die tomorrow,” will people remember you as someone who clung to stability like an existential life preserver — and is that what you really want?  I know for a fact that many people do want exactly that, because it’s a comfortable niche to occupy on the obituary page.  ”She/he was a good person, good friend, good….”  Good is fine, but it ain’t great. You can’t strive for great achievements by dropping anchor in Goodville.  My take on this is: it’s OK to wonder how you’ll be remembered, but don’t let thoughts of “good and nice and stable” effect that all important feedback loop, because if you do your brain will be happy to oblige with lots of good and little else.

6. You think there must be a pre-established role for your life, and you might be screwing with  it.

This one also touches on the “station” idea discussed above, but it goes deeper than that. We humans are prone to believing in something psychologists call “agency.”  We want to believe there’s a reason for everything, and that everything has a prime mover — an agent, whether human or otherwise. So, we think, what if there’s a reason we are what we are — what if celestial agency has determined it so?  Should we be messing with that?  The error in thinking here is clear — agency is a figment our brains rely on to manage difficulty with as little trauma as possible. The first thing to do is recognize that, and then recognize that the role for your life has only one true agent — You.

7. Your career appears to be well-established and that’s good…right?

Well, maybe that’s good, sure.  The question becomes, is “established” what you really want?  Maybe it is, and that’s cool. But if “established” means you can’t reach beyond certain imposed parameters to achieve anything else that you truly want, then maybe it isn’t so useful after all.  Like most things, this is a personal choice and it doesn’t have a right or wrong answer.  But it’s worth acknowledging that you may very well be “establishing” yourself out of greater achievements.

8.  You are afraid of losing what you have built.

A totally legitimate fear, and one we should kick out of our perspectives as quickly as possible.  Here’s one example why:  Remember this little thing we’ve been suffering through for sometime now called a recession?  Remember how many people lost all or nearly all they’d “built” during these last few years of economic erosion? The reality is, you can lose everything in a heartbeat through no fault of your own, so why allow that fear to stop you from reaching out for what you really want?  This goes in the same basket as “I could die tomorrow.”  Yes, true, we can lose, we can die. So what? Push forward.

9. You think, “maybe I’ve hit my ceiling.” 

The proverbial “ceiling” — so long have ye been with us, and yet so little have ye given us.  I side with the late great Peter Drucker who said (paraphrasing from this classic article on Managing Oneself) if you reach a point in your career where you think you won’t progress any further, then start focusing on the next part of your life.  Actually, he added, you should start thinking about the next part of your life well before you begin it.  The point is, forget about ceilings and focus on achievement. When you start using the cultural shibboleth of the ceiling as an excuse, you are achieving nothing and will continue to do just that.

 1o. Confusion about where to go.

Of all of these 10 ideas, this one is to me the most difficult because it plagues me almost constantly. Gearing up the cerebral feedback loop for achievement is one thing, but without a sense of focus and direction, all of that energy isn’t going to yield very much in the end.  My experience has been that sometimes you have to let the energy flow for a while without too firm a sense of direction and see if focus emerges organically. Once it does, you can then nurture it into a more structured method for getting where you want to go.

 

http://startinganonlinebusinessfast.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-10-reasons-why-we-fail.html

9 Ebooks Internet Marketers Must Read in 2013

As a professional dedicated to marketing on the internet, you know how important it is to hone your skills and stay up-to-date with the latest information. Internet marketing is constantly changing, and we’re on a constant quest to keep up with the latest strategies and tactics.
To help you with this task we’ve compiled a list of our top ten must-read eBooks from some of the best sources for Internet marketing.

1. An Introductory Guide to Content Marketing

Content Marketing has become the latest catch-phrase. Everybody seems to be talking about it. But so many  people that are talking about content marketing get it wrong. Content marketing is not advertising, it’s  not the marketing of content, and it’s not social media. Circle S Studio has developed a great beginner’s guide  with An Introductory Guide to Content Marketing.

---

2. 26 Ways to Generate More Inbound Customers in 2013

A lot has been written about inbound marketing, but how exactly can you generate customers with it? In  this eBook John Bonini from Impact Branding & Design discusses 26 ways to generate customers using  inbound marketing in 2013.

---

3. Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

SEO is one of the most misused and misunderstood aspects of internet marketing, yet probably the most  important. Black hat, white hat, Penguin updates, Panda updates. The acronyms abound, and we don’t  know who to trust to tell us. So why not go straight to the source? Google has written a great little guide,    their Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, to help you begin to navigate your SEO journey.

---

4. The Beginners Guide to SEO

As if an eBook from Google wasn’t enough, we thought we’d include a second authoritative resource on SEO –  this time from SEOMoz, the company many consider to be the best source for SEO knowledge available today.  You can read their Beginners Guide to SEO either as a series of articles, or you can download a PDF version of  their eBook.

---

5. Market Like the Ultimate Marketers

Infusionsoft has taken the marketing world by storm, with their combination CRM, e-commerce,  social media and email marketing tool for small and mid-sized businesses. Every year they hold a  contest to see which one of their customers are using the most innovative and effective marketing strategies.  In this eBook you’ll learn how The Rocket Company used Lifecycle Marketing to grow their business.

---

6. 58 Social Media Ideas to Inspire your Content Marketing

So you’ve created a great content strategy, your editorial calendar is set for the next six months, and you’ve  written some great thought leadership articles, eBooks and blog posts. Now what? The Content Marketing  Institute has an answer to your content distribution problems with their eBook 58 Social Media Ideas to  Inspire your Content Marketing.

---

7. A Guide to Creating Content for Demand Generation

The term ‘Content Marketing’ contains two words. Unfortunately, many marketers have focused on only one  word: the ‘content’ piece, while neglecting the ‘marketing’ piece. Thanksfully Marketo has come to the rescue  in their eBook A Guide to Creating Content for Demand Generation.

---

8. Best Practices Guide to Landing Pages

Being a landing page company ourselves we kind of took a shine to this eBook. Pardot takes a unique approach  to landing page best practices by discussing content on branded landing pages, sending download links in  auto-responder emails, progressive profiling and A/B testing.

---

9. Landing Pages: The Ultimate Guide

Finally, we’d be remiss not to include our own eBook. We provide tips on how to create a landing page, how to  improve your landing page, how to test your landing page, and some advanced material. Download Landing  Pages: The Ultimate Guide.

---

We also wanted to include a few more resources that didn’t make it on our top ten list, but that we think are valuable nonetheless.

• One of the most important yet neglected aspect of online marketing is customer segmentation. Get Found First does a great job explaining this with their eBook Consumer Segmentation for Online Marketers.
• In addition to our eBook on landing pages and the Pardot guide, we thought Ion Interactive’s book Landing Experiences The Visitors Love was great too.
• Pardot has a few more eBooks (they’re still calling them “white papers.” That’s so year 200!). Check out their content creation guide and 5 Steps to Double your Web Marketing Value.
• Finally, we wanted to share a link to Copyblogger’s 14 eBooks on Internet marketing, with advice on content marketing, copywriting for the web, landing pages, how to build authority, SEO, and email marketing. Check out Copyblogger’s eBooks here.

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/books/9-ebooks-internet-marketers-must-read-2013-0605415#iFTxyulzdWwXgpLm.99

HANDY TOWNSHIP, MICH. — Matt Blauer and Mandy Tefft are making the world a hotter place one bottle at a time.
The husband-and-wife team have been making and selling Papa Turts hot sauce since early 2011.
The seeds of the business were planted with their love of spicy foods and an abundance of peppers in the garden at their rural home near Fowlerville in Handy Township.
“We had all this land, so we planted a big garden and put in a bunch of chili peppers,” Blauer told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. “We got a lot more than we bargained for.”
The solution was for Blauer to turn the peppers into hot sauce.
“I messed around with it for a while. Everybody liked it and said I should try and market it,” Blauer said. “It took a long period of trial and error to get the recipe where I wanted it.”
Papa Turts — the name is a play off Blauer’s high school nickname, Turtle, and his becoming a father — makes two varieties of sauce: So Hot It Hurts and Smoked Peppa. The sauce is available in nearly 30 stores and restaurants, and it can be ordered online.
Tefft says the hot sauce is popular at Olden Days Cafe in Fowlerville, where diners often drizzle it over breakfast items such as eggs and potatoes.
“We put it on everything,” she said. “The So Hot It Hurts is hot, but not so hot that you can’t taste anything else. It adds to your food instead of overpowering your food. We put it on pizza. We use it in deviled eggs and Bloody Marys.
“I like the (Smoked Peppa) on lasagna and spaghetti,” she added.
Tefft says her husband is an “awesome cook,” and he often posts recipes that incorporate the sauce on Papa Turts’ Facebook page.
“We recently did a spicy tuna melt recipe online that is amazing,” Tefft said.
Creating a commercial kitchen to make the sauce in the basement of their home required a financial investment of a couple of thousand dollars and approval from the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
“We had to tear up the carpet, put in a triple sink and a hand-washing sink, and put up a curtain and epoxy the floor. We put a vent in, too,” Tefft said.
While the idea for the sauce originally grew from their own garden, the couple rely on other sources for their produce. They get most of their habanero peppers from Wilczewski Greenhouses in Oceola Township.
“It’s two local businesses helping each other,” Tefft said.
Blauer said each batch of So Hot It Hurts sauce — about 120 5-ounce bottles — requires 16 pounds of habanero peppers and nearly 2 pounds of dried arbol chiles, as well as some roasted carrots. The peppers need to cook down for about 90 minutes. Blauer later uses a wooden stick to skim off the skins and seeds.
“It’s a real hands-on process,” he said.
For the Smoked Peppa sauce, Blauer uses chipotle peppers as well as tomato paste.
After the sauce is made, it’s bottled, sealed and labeled by hand.
“We learned pretty quick that places don’t want to sell it if it doesn’t have a bar code on it,” Tefft said. “So we went to Buyabarcode.com and purchased bar codes. Some stuff we’ve just had to wing it and learn as we go along.”
Fans of the sauce can even have custom labels made for the bottles. Hometown Bicycles in Brighton created its own label and sells the hot sauce in its store. Papa Turts has also had personalized labels designed and printed for special events such as weddings and bachelor parties.
Blauer, 40, and Tefft, 37, have two children, ages 11 and 4. Tefft, a 1994 Fowlerville High School graduate, keeps busy as a stay-at-home mom while working to grow the sauce business. Blauer, who grew up in the Detroit suburb of Huntington Woods, is a FedEx driver who owns his own route.
While attending college in Kalamazoo, they met at Bell’s Brewery. The brewery recently began selling Papa Turts sauces, which Tefft called “very exciting.”
Blauer works 10- to 12-hour days, leaving only the weekends for making his namesake sauce.
“When I first started, I’d make a batch every couple of months. Now, I’m working at it one full day every weekend,” he said.
The couple think about the day when Papa Turts can become their full-time occupations and Blauer can sell his FedEx route.
“We’re not quite ready to do that just yet,” Blauer said. “Slowly, over time, I may do less FedEx and more hot sauce until one day I’ll be doing hot sauce full time.”
Tefft said they “broke a little more than even” on the sauce business in 2012, and she’s sure they will do even better this year. When her youngest child starts preschool in the fall, she hopes to have more time to dedicate to Papa Turts. She also plans to revamp the Papa Turts website, where sales currently require a PayPal account.
“We don’t take credit cards, and I think some people just don’t like PayPal,” Tefft said. “When our website gets better and we show up in more searches, we can get the credit card thing going.”
Still, they count people from as far away as California and Texas among their loyal customers.
“It’s been fun; it’s a really cool thing for Matt and I to do together,” Tefft said. “It’s something that we really like that we believe is a quality product.”

http://www.freep.com/article/20130902/NEWS06/309020080/hot-sauce-business-peppers-handy-township

Working From Home In Times Of The Global Meltdown

The recession has struck the world badly and it is going to last at least till 2010 as reports predict. Businesses are going to plummet more than they have done till now, and the ones that will bear the biggest brunt of the meltdown will be the big corporate industries. Already there have been several millions of people put out of their jobs and there will be more casualties among the service sectors of the world. What is most significant to note is that this is a global effect and very soon even the companies that seem unshakeable on the surface are going to see the effects of this worldwide phenomenon.

At the same time, analysts are putting forth several solutions to keep your daily bread and butter, so to say, in times of this great recession of the first decade of the 21st century. One of these solutions that are being spoken of very emphatically is multilevel marketing. Experts are pitching in with ideas how multilevel marketing could rise to greater prominence in these troubled times and actually be a solution to various people's financial problems.

There are many things to indicate the possible occurrence of this trend.

 

1.            Firstly, the factor that business opportunity is almost a work-at-home opportunity helps. There are no big corporate entities running the show here. The small time entrepreneurs that are hooked into most business ventures are sure to sally forth and make much more than their living.

2.            The very concept of having your own home business is a minimum-expense proposition. While other companies are trying to cut down costs, that would never affect the home business enterprises because they don't have any costs to speak of. The whole idea works through referring other people to join the network and promote the company's products. Among the scores of other costs that are saved, the savings on advertising are immense.

3.            Then there is the fact that the Internet itself is gaining prominence because it is easily accessible to everyone. People are looking for job opportunities on the Internet like never before and certainly the home business opportunities seem much too enticing to resist, whether they are for some supplementary income or even as a main source of income.

These are some indications that your own home business is going to become a greater phenomenon than it already is during the recession. The process of this has already begun, which is clearly seen with the great number of business opportunities websites that have made their appearance on the Internet since 2006.

The rise of home working. It ends the agony of the daily commute and brings big savings for businesses – no wonder increasing numbers of us are choosing to work from home

Sarah Jessica Parker works flexibly in Sex and the City.

Photograph: c.HBO/Everett / Rex Features

 

How does your day start? Assuming you still have a job, is your commute 30, 60 or even 90 minutes of hell? Is it an unreliable bus that you take to work, or an overcrowded train? If you drive, do you wish you had cycled? If you cycle, do you wish you had walked? If you walk, do you wish your shoes were dogshit-proof? Do you arrive stressed, exhausted, ripped off, degraded, suicidal, homicidal or all of the above?

And what about the next eight hours? Do you get a headache because of the lighting, or an earache because of the telephones? Is it the decor that makes you feel queasy, or the chit-chat when you're trying to concentrate? Do you go home regretting how little you have achieved or cursing how soon you will have to return? Work stinks, doesn't it? Or, at least, going to the office. The good news is, it doesn't have to. Millions of us are doing jobs that could be carried out just as well at home.

"I can't help feeling that our descendants will look back at us and think, 'What on earth were they thinking of?' " says Shirley Borrett, who works and lives in a motor home.

Borrett is development director for the Telework Association, which promotes working from home, especially if that involves a computer and a telephone, and splits her time between Britain and Spain. Whether you call this teleworking, telecommuting or home working, it's a growing market. Banks, call centres, councils, management consultancies, software companies, law firms, PR agencies: all are increasingly allowing their staff to do it at least part-time. BT, the pioneer in Britain in the 1980s, now has 65,000 flexible workers, of whom 10,000 do not come in to the office.

We're still a long way from the dreams of 20 or 25 years ago, which imagined offices emptying of everyone who didn't operate a franking machine or wield a mop. According to the official Labour Force Survey, in the spring of 2009 there were 691,000 British home workers (working mainly in their own homes, using both a phone and a computer) versus 582,000 three years before. But Borrett and others reckon those figures are underestimated. Even in 2008, a survey for the CBI found 46% of businesses allowing their staff to work from home, up from just 11% in 2004.

Melanie Pinola, who writes about home working for About.com, says the jobs that can be done remotely range from accountancy to telemarketing, via financial analysis, translation, data entry, graphic design, illustration, insurance, media buying, speech-writing, research, sales, travel agency, stockbroking, website design, writing, editing.

"Virtually anything that used to be an office job and uses computers and telecoms can be done remotely for at least part of the week," says Borrett's colleague, Peter Thomson. "Take nurses in a hospital," he says. "They have to be physically present when they're caring for patients, but they also do a lot of paperwork. That could be done anywhere."

So how do you join the home-working masses? If you have a child under 16, or 18 if they are disabled, you have a head start. Employers are legally obliged at least to consider your request to work flexibly, which could include working from home for at least part of the week and/or changing your hours. They must also consider an application if you are caring for a friend or a family member. But even if no one loves you and you have no one to look after, you have a very strong business case – if you can persuade your company to listen.

Not only do home workers reduce the need for expensive premises, they are often vastly more productive. BT claims it gets an average of 20% more work out of its 10,000. "It works amazingly for us," says Caroline Waters, the company's director of people and policy, who herself works from home at least one day a week. "You get great productivity, reduced sick absence, high levels of performance. And we know it works for a lot of other organisations, because we help a lot of them put it in place."

When the AA based some of its call-centre staff at home, says Borrett, their productivity rose by more than a third. Some American studies show a 30-40% increase. Noel Hodson, who was one of the key figures in home working until the early 2000s, suggests that this is at least partly down to the removal of the daily commute: "What we found was that most of the time saved went back into work. These workers valued their new way of working, and to protect it they did more work."

Hodson should know what he's talking about. He has been working at home for 30 years, ever since he decided he could no longer stand the trip from Oxford to London and back five times a week. "I had two young children whom I barely saw, and I thought, 'This is ridiculous.' So I closed the office." He has had one brief spell of commuting since then, when he was advising Transport for London, and the company forced him to come into its central London offices every day for three months. It was winter; he got the flu. "It was suicidal stuff for me."

When you are mentioning productivity to your sceptical superiors, there are a few more points that you might throw in. Companies that offer flexible working find it easier to attract staff, and easier to hang on to them. At BT, Waters says that at least 97% of women who take maternity leave come back to work afterwards, against a national average of about half that. "In any one year, we're retaining an additional 500-600 women. The downtime, the recruitment, the instruction very conservatively of each person would be around £10,000. Not only are we creating a more inclusive BT, we're saving £5m-£6m on skill losses." Mind you, that's small beer compared with the computer company Cisco's savings from teleworking. A survey in 2009 put these at $277m a year.

And there are bonuses for society. Home working encourages a more diverse labour force, bringing in not just carers but those who have difficulty travelling because they are disabled or live in remote locations. Then there's the reduction in pollution and greenhouse gases. According to Cambridgeshire county council, home working in that county alone could reduce commuter travel by up to 8 million miles a year. Last month transport minister Norman Baker reminded employers that letting staff avoid the workplace just one day in 10 would have a "huge impact" on congestion.

So if home working is so great, why aren't we all doing it already? As usual, it's the boss's fault. Hodson remembers trying to sell home working to a firm of engineers 20-odd years ago. "As I went through the economics, I touched on the thought that the company car wouldn't be necessary any more – and the managing director reached across the desk and took me by the tie in a stranglehold. He didn't even know he was doing it. It was his big shiny Jaguar that was sitting in the car park for seven and three-quarter hours a day."

When it's not their cars they are worried about, it's their empires. If there's no one to laugh at their jokes, how will they know they are funny? If bosses can't see what their staff are doing, how will they know that they are working? "The issues are human, not technological," says Thomson. "For the past 200 years we have been in an environment where people get together in the same place to work and a manager stands there and watches what they do. To then say, 'Right, you can't see what your workers are doing any more but trust them to get on with the job' can be a bit of a culture shock."

"The last barriers are attitudinal," agrees Waters. "But it's a real myth that you have control over what your people do just because they sit in the same location. Most managers who are worried about this kind of thing actually sit in their offices and rarely interact with their people. Presenteeism is a really poor performance indicator. It in no way gives the kind of productivity measure that you need to run a successful business."

Firms that embrace home working have to find some better gauge. Mark Thomas is chief executive of Word Association, a Midlands-based PR consultancy that employs 13 people, all working from home. There used to be an office, but Thomas closed it to go travelling in 1998, and the staff he left behind were so happy working from their spare bedrooms that when he got back to Britain he decided not to reopen it. "We've managed to come up with measures of performance that are more to do with output than with the amount of time that people spend at their desk," he says. You might think of PR as a nebulous business, but it's not impossible to monitor media coverage, or customer satisfaction. "I am able to tell whether people are performing," Thomas insists. "And the reality is that everybody who works for me puts in really good hours and does a really good job."

Wyn Matthews backs him up, and not just because he could sack her. She recently joined Word Association as a copywriter. "Some people say, 'Ooh, you can just mess around the house, can't you?'" she says. "But it works the opposite way. You're not coming away from the office thinking, 'That's it – I won't be doing any more tonight.' If you're needed, you're prepared to be on hand." In an office, she says, "some people have the ability to look really busy when they're not. That nonsense is stripped away by working at home. Your bosses see what you do."

The logical accompaniment to home working is a more relaxed attitude to working hours. "I've had managers say to me, 'But they might go to Tescos on Wednesday afternoon,'" says Shirley Borrett. "To which I reply, 'If you're truly being flexible and recognising that people are doing a job, then what does it matter, so long as you're getting whatever output it is you want?

"It all comes down to trust," she says. "Trust that people are doing what they're supposed to be doing, though not necessarily at the same time as they'd be doing it in the office."

The last thing any manager needs to worry about is idleness, says Pinola, who works at home in the US. "You tend to overwork as a remote worker because you don't want to appear to be slacking off."

Will some employers abuse this? What do you think? The same technology that makes it possible to escape the office – mobile phones, laptops, broadband – makes it that much harder to get away from your boss. First they give you a BlackBerry, then they start emailing you at 1am. But that's true even if you work in an office, nine to five. There is a certain kind of manager who insists on interrupting his underlings' evenings and weekends with "urgent" enquiries that could easily wait. Whether or not we've agreed to it, many of us are already on call 24/7.

This may actually be less disruptive for home workers than it is for the office-based. When researchers from America's Brigham Young University looked at 24,000 IBM employees, they found that those with flexible working arrangements were able to put in 57 hours a week before their personal life started to suffer, against 38 hours for those in traditional posts.

Otherwise, the advice for home workers is the same as it should be for everyone. Work when you're paid to; don't when you're not. You might remind your boss of the Department of Employment's guidelines: "Employers should seek to ensure that timetables are established which determine when employees are expected to be working, and when they should not be contacted."

And don't undermine your position by checking emails when you're supposed to be off duty, or answering work calls. "The great thing about technology is that it has an off button," says Waters. It's a cliche, but that doesn't mean it's not true. The best employers will not just expect you to use that button, but worry if you don't. Christiane Perera is head of people and development at OAC, a 24-strong firm of actuaries with home offices as far apart as Devon, Surrey, Manchester and Wales. "If you know that someone's at their desk during the day and then you keep getting emails from them at midnight, you tend to raise the subject with them," she says. "Do they need to work that late? Is there an issue? Do they need help? You need to be able to read the indicators."

While you're whipping your bosses into shape, don't forget your nearest and dearest. Let them know that when you're working, you're working. "[Home workers] must avoid a tendency to talk with friends or family or do things around the house," is the stern warning from America's Westchester County. "If an employee has a family member at home who cares for children or elders, that person may expect the employee to be more available for caregiving because they are home. Arrangements should be made that will address this potential problem."

"It's a constant re-educating process," says Pinola. "My immediate family knows that when the door to my home office is closed I am really busy. I try to have them imagine that I'm not even there, but my four-year-old doesn't really like that game. One thing that helps is having a separate phone number just for personal calls so that I can filter the non-work calls. Other than that, I just have to remind people when my working hours are. I guess you could hang a 'Do not disturb' sign on your door when you're very busy."

Is there anyone who shouldn't attempt to work from home? Well, yes: anyone who doesn't want to. For some the office is important. It provides clear lines between work from home, a break from the family, colleagues to talk to and a creative environment.

"[Home working] doesn't suit everybody," Borrett points out. "It's not for people who've got a very young family and nowhere separate to work. It usually doesn't suit people who are in their early 20s and still living with their parents. Young people also want to get a social life out of their work life." When Hodson was running teleworking trials, he found another group to worry about: the over-55s whose children had left home or whose partners had died. Many of them decided they'd be happier back in the office.

Not, of course, that home workers have to feel isolated. There's no law that says you can't call them into the office if you have one, or find some other meeting place. "At first we didn't put as much effort into communication as we should have done," admits Thomas. "Now we have regular monthly production meetings where we get together to work through every single client, every single job. All the staff attend. We also have monthly reviews of staff, various teams getting together around projects or services, management team meetings." In between, there are phone calls, emails, instant messaging. If you're all logged on to MSN, you can swap little messages with your co-workers all day long. If you've got a smartphone, you can even do it when you're at Tesco.

Where could this all end? Just imagine turning up at the office one day and being sent home with a flea in your ear: "What the hell are you doing here? We don't want you sitting around chatting and drinking coffee. You should be at home, working.

 

"http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/aug/03/rise-working-from-home