Unemployed Dads

October 29, 2009

• Work At Home: 10 Tips To Create Your Business and Save Your Sanity!

  

  How To Set Up Your Business From Home

  So you're thinking of leaving the security and comfort of your day job and voyaging into the world of the self-employed OR you recently started working at home and aren’t sure what steps to take first.

  Congratulations! Nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment you get from growing your own business from scratch, from taking on the world with nothing but wits and a lot of hard work. I've been working at home since 1983 and haven't regretted it for a moment.

  Here are ten tips I've learned along the way to help make your journey a little easier.

  Tip Number One: Set a schedule.

  Time management can be problematic when you're self-employed.

  It's easy to get sidetracked when you're working from home and before you know it, the morning is gone. You probably had to be at your old job at a certain time so do the same thing with your business. Resolve to be at the computer, on the jobsite, or with a client by 7:30 AM (or earlier) and stick to it.

  For me, no matter what time I go to sleep the night before, I’m “at it” by 7:30 the next day. Some days I’m walking with my voice recorder creating WalkAbout Marketing podcasts and some days I’m at my desk. But it’s important to get started as soon as you can.

  And turn off your email: don’t let it beep every time you get a new message. I literally average 837 emails every day. Most should never see the light of day, though some are important. But nothing is so important that I have to be interrupted twelve times an hour to reply to it. In fact, I only download emails to my computer ever half hour and only look at them a few times each day (when I can reply to several emails in one short stretch of time, and then back to finishing my goals for the day).

  Tip Number Two: Tailor your workspace to your personality.

  How do you work best? Do you like to work with music in the background or do you like it perfectly quiet? Do you like pictures of family to remind you of your goals (and the reasons you work so hard), or do you prefer motivational posters and superhero action figures to spur you on to greatness? Find out how you work best and set up your space around your preferences.

  And speaking of space, I use a spare bedroom for my home office. When we bought this house in 1998, I picked out this space for my office. I can see the driveway when FedEx and UPS show up and it’s at the other end of the hallway from our bedroom. OK, so a 20-foot walk to work isn’t bad, I admit it!

  However, when the door is closed, the office is closed and I don't think about work (well, usually – I admit that I work at the kitchen table when Pam and I “watch” TV together. I can always look up for the replay or when a news report catches my ear).

  If you aren't able to have a separate space for an office, a room divider or curtains could do the trick. Just find some way to separate your space from the rest of the house and family and to hide your workspace from view so you don't have to look at it all the time (and be reminded of all the work you should be doing).

  And let your phone go to messages rather than letting every caller interrupt your work when they have the whim to call you. Batch the messages together, find time twice a day to return calls and make all of them then. AND, better yet, if someone wants to chat with you by phone, SET AN APPOINTMENT – I don’t take phone calls that aren’t prearranged – believe me, your clients will get used to it when you help them see the importance.

  Tip Number Three: Market yourself.

  Now I don't mean paying for advertising, creating glossy brochures, or doing weekly direct-mail piece.

  This website is FILLED with ideas for you so read my blog!

  Also, do you have a Facebook account? Keep it up to date and post often. (You can friend me at http://facebook.com/CharlesSeymourJr – be sure to send a note when you friend me: you should ALWAYS send a note, and this way I’ll know why you are asking to friend me.)

  Start a blog and use it like a diary. Think of all the things you are doing that clients and customers might be interested in. I post lots of videos to my blog (and to my Facebook profile, which acts like a mini blog for me).

  Keep friends and family informed of what you're doing. Word of mouth can be the best advertising and it's free (but you have to give them something to talk about!).

  Tip Number Four: Show that professionalism counts.
  Read more on Work At Home: 10 Tips To Create Your Business and Save Your Sanity!…

April 27, 2009

• Unemployment And The Bad Economy – Charlie Seymour Jr Remembers

  

  You never forget that time you've been fired – but I HOPE you can make things easier for someone else

  
  

  The Philadelphia Inquirer is probably like a lot of newspapers in the world – understaffed, losing money, trying to stay afloat.

  And as it does, it features a series of articles about Being Fired. Well, that's not what THEY call it; their title is Jobs At A Loss – Upheaval in the Region's Job Market but believe me, those PEOPLE who are listed as statistics know what it is: they've been fired.

  The Headline is:

  The ax falls, and then what?

  The article by Inquirer Staff Writer Alfred Lubrano is filled with statistics and anecdotes. And it's filled with one more thing: pain.

  Human pain.

  Human suffering when 13.2 million people in the USA are unemployed (that only counts those still looking for work – those who have given up don't count, it seems) and 210,000 in our immediate 8-county area.

  "But while the Philadelphia region is papered with pink slips, a layout can still hit with the potent surprise of an unforeseen meteor."

  It has been known for a long time by psychologists that being fired is as difficult on the individual as a death in the family, divorce, or other traumatic, stress-producing situation.

  And what goes deeper is what happens to the individual, and it's repercussions are long-lasting.

  "Shame, fear, and panic can barge into a person's head after the initial trauma."

  People have pointed out that in this Great Recession people who thought they were recession-proof are now

  Read more on Unemployment And The Bad Economy – Charlie Seymour Jr Remembers…