From the Desk of Janet Barclay

Today marks the end of Home-Based Business Week for this year. Since it falls on the tails of our Canadian Thanksgiving, it seems an appropriate moment to reflect on why I am thankful that I own and operate a home-based business.

1. No set schedule - for me, this doesn’t mean taking time off whenever I don’t feel like working, but starting work as soon as I jump out of bed if I feel like it. I’m truly a morning person, so spending the first couple of hours of the day rushing around to go out and then driving to a job does very little for my mood or my productivity.
2. No dress code - I’ve never really seen getting dressed up as being conducive to doing good work. Sure, it’s important to look your best when you’re meeting with clients or other external contacts, but for working at my desk, jeans are just fine for me.
3. Few interruptions - I rarely see clients in my home office, and when I do, it’s for a scheduled appointment, so if I sit down to work on something, I know I will not be interrupted by drop-ins or co-workers. Sure, the phone rings occasionally, but if I’m really involved in a project - that’s what voice mail is for!
4. No commuting time/expense - when I finish this entry, I will shut down my computer and go and make soup, and I know I won’t have to face any traffic or bad weather on my way to the kitchen.

I arrived home at 8:30 last night and was in my office bright and early this morning. At least the sun was bright, I am still a little slow, after two long days on the road. In the future I will need to remember to book one more day off at the end of a trip.

I decided to take my laptop, and was glad I did. One of my current projects is the redesign of a website for my favourite client, who happens to also be my sister, with whom I was vacationing. Having the computer allowed us to spend a morning going over and trying out some of our ideas in a way that would have been more complicated via email, telephone, or instant messenger. I’m happy to say this is the only work I did and I didn’t check my email, even on the two occasions when I was in a place with Internet access. However, bringing my laptop along also allowed me to download my digital photos from my camera every day or two and share them with my family members, and to keep a personal journal throughout the week.

While I was away, I was quoted in The Globe and Mail in an article entitled Too busy organizing to be productive.

This should be an interesting week, as I catch up on emails and work and prepare for a busy month ahead.

This will be my last entry until October, because I’m actually taking my own advice and taking a long overdue vacation - my first since before I started my business. I’ll be leaving in about 24 hours for the lovely spot pictured here, and all I have left to do is get the car washed and filled with gas, and pack my stuff.

I also need to decide whether to take my laptop. There is no Internet access where I’m going, so I don’t have to worry about being sucked into checking email or work-related websites, and there are a couple of projects that don’t require online access which I could work on if I feel like it. On one hand, it seems to contradict the point of being on vacation, but on the other hand, September has been a really busy month and it looks like October will be too, so it might actually be less stressful coming home if some of those things are out of the way. I’ll let you know what I decide and how it turns out when I get back.

Tim McKee, Senior Partner at Pathways Business Associates, says that when assessing someone’s strengths for starting and operating a home based business, time management is one of the first skills he looks at. He states that "Time management is something that MUST become an integral part of your nature; it is not only how you conduct your day, but also how you maximize the best of yourself to achieve your full potential every day."

He recommends keeping a log of your activities for a two week period in order to identify areas where you may be wasting time. For his full article, read, Time Management In Your Home Based Business - The Key.

We often don’t realize how much time we spend on activities that have low or no priority. Although it’s true that "all work and no play make Jack a dull boy (or girl!)" it’s important to differentiate between work time and break time. If our breaks are buried in amongst our working hours, we’re apt to end the day feeling as if we had no breaks at all!

I find it helpful to set limits on the amount of time I spend on social networking sites and message boards, and to schedule these activities before or after my lunch break, or at the end of the day. Occasionally I spend time on these activities first thing in the morning because I’m an early riser and sometimes need to ease slowly into my day, but it’s crucial that I keep a close eye on the clock, as it’s very easy to lose track of the time, thereby also losing the benefits of getting up so early in the first place.

A few months ago, I wrote enthusiastically about a networking event I had attended, called The Beehive Game, where each person had the opportunity to anonymously ask questions of the other members of the "hive" in order to collect leads for his or her business, names of suppliers for needed services, or other valuable contacts.

Since I work with clients all over Canada and the US, I was very excited to learn that Neworld Coaching has developed an online version of The Beehive Game, which will be launched on August 20th. For a yearly fee, each participant will be allowed to post one question per week (that’s 52 questions!) and the questions will be sent to all members on a daily basis. Since the questions are of the nature "Do you know someone who…" you need only click "yes"  and the person who posted the question will get in touch with you for the contact information.

The opportunity to engage in this level of networking without having to leave home is very enticing - and will be even more so with the onset of winter. For more information about the Beehive Game Online as well as upcoming live events, visit the Neworld Coaching website.