work at home 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!…

August 3, 2009

• Family Comes First – And Being A Successful Entrepreneur Helps

  

  Taking time to be with your family has many rewards

  Today I met my daughter, Liz, and her fiance, Chris, at a photographer's studio.

  Fascinating, interesting, curious – all describe the meeting. It's the first time I have had to help meet a photographer when it came to my daughter: Liz and Chris will be married next year and need a professional photographer since I will be busy being "just the dad" of the bride.

  Read more on Family Comes First – And Being A Successful Entrepreneur Helps…

April 13, 2009

• Work at Home: Can You Really Work at Home in Your Pajamas?

  

  How Many Of The Millions Of Unemployed In This Economy Will Begin To Work At Home?

  Are you unhappy at work? Do you find yourself daydreaming about working from home? You are certainly not alone.

  Millions of successful, professional people are finding that working at home is the answer, whether they have been downsized, rightsized, paradigm-shifted, or simply couldn’t take hearing another buzzword.

  Of course, the work at home industry is not without its own buzzwords. Like freelancing, outsourcing, virtual assistance, consulting and others which continually overlap, making the whole work at home concept very confusing for first-timers.

  Perhaps even more mind-blowing and confusing than these word games, though, is the pervasive concept that everyone who works at home does so in their pjs, coffee in one hand, sugary treat in the other, and both slipper-clad feet up on the desk.

  Enticing as this image may be, only Hugh Hefner gets away with this trick. For the rest of us, pajamas simply won’t work, and here’s why:

  Wearing pjs or gym clothes may interfere with your productivity.

  Choosing a blend of casual comfort and professionalism creates the best work at home wardrobe. Our clothes define how we feel and, to a great extent, who we are.

  Remember that time you ran a quick errand in a pair of old sweats and a slightly ripped t-shirt? Remember how you ran into Sue from across the street and avoided her like the plague?

  The same thinking applies to working at home. Sure, no one is going to see you. Sure, you’re only talking on the phone. But you can see you.

  When you dress for the job, you feel prepared to meet the day’s challenges, ready to present yourself as a competent professional. Must you put on a full suit and tie? No. But pajamas aren’t going to cut it either.

  If you’ve ever tried it, you know what I mean.

  These four tips will help you remain comfortable and productive:

  Read more on Work at Home: Can You Really Work at Home in Your Pajamas?…

March 27, 2009

• Grape Nuts: New Advertising Campaign Targets Men

  

  Wall Street Journal chronicles that finally they figure out that men have some say about the food we eat!

  The Wall Street Journal article starts with a subheading that says that the new Post Cereal campaign aimed at men marks a departure for cereal advertising campaigns.

  (Now let's make it clear: the type advertising being talked about here is what I call "Teaching Frogs How To Drink Beer." I won't go into the whole topic (you can listen to what I said before on my GetThemOffTheRaftMarketing.com site:
  [media:http://www.GetThemOffTheRaftMarketing.com/doitnow/GTOTRMvsTFHTDBM.mp3]

  This is NOT the type marketing I suggest for most entrepreneurs, but it is what car companies and even cereal companies use.)

  But we're told that to revive the crunchy Post Foods Grape Nuts, marketing geniuses have come up with cheeky commercials aimed at men.

  "That Takes Grape Nuts" is the catch phrase as if the cereal were ubiquitous and we'd all know what that meant. We don't. And I wonder how many people will be lured to a magic website where lots of 2-minute videos will show how many circumstances call for "That Takes Grape Nuts" fortitude.

  And to butch up the site to be sure that real men will feel comfortable watching videos about and talking about cereal, they pack the website with tips on restoring vintage cars and other macho topics.

  And the print campaign will run in Sports Illustrated featuring men fishing and golfing.

  HOWEVER… as silly as it all sounds, learning that this is the first time cereal isn't aimed at Mom and her kids made me wonder:

  What the heck have they been waiting for?

  The article points out that Grape Nuts is mostly eaten by men, but there has never been an advertising campaign reinforcing that – like all the other cereals, advertising has been aimed at women figuring that they do most of the grocery shopping.

  What – I can't make up my own mind about what I want to eat and either write it on the grocery list or ask my wife to shop for it when she goes weekly after church (and visiting my folks for lunch at their retirement community) each Sunday?

  And if the reason for my eating it were compelling enough, I'd stop myself to get some.
  Read more on Grape Nuts: New Advertising Campaign Targets Men…

March 24, 2009

• Welcome To Charlie Seymour Jr's Blog on Ultimate Work At Home Dads

  Friends,

  This blog is devoted to guys like me who are working at home. I'll have musings, new products, reports, quick notes, and other helpful tidbits of information to help all of use thrive in this economy as we work at home

  Read more on Welcome To Charlie Seymour Jr's Blog on Ultimate Work At Home Dads…