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August 22, 2005

What's a sick day?

I have been sick for about 10 days now. Not just the "I'm not feeling very good" kind of sick, but the "I need to be in bed" kinf of sick. And needless to say, it stinks! It is bad enough being sick and trying to keep up with regular mom and family duties, but throw in the fact that you have a home business to run and that is enough to make your head spin.

So, what exactly do you do when you find yourself under the weather and business deadlines still need to be met? First of all, you need to listen to your body and take care of yourself. If you don't, you will just prolong your sickness and become even more backlogged with your business. If you know that you are going to be missing deadlines, send a quick note off to your clients letting them know that you are ill and that you will take care of them as soon as you can AND if that is ok for them.

If they are in dire need to stick to their deadline, you may need to line up that extra helping hand to take care of anything that absolutely cannot wait OR attempt to spend just a small amount of time working at projects that are essential to keep on track with.

Ask your family to help out where they can. Kids and hubby can help out with mailings or reading email for you for any emergencies.

Hopefully you won't be down for the count too long, your work and business WILL still be there when you are better. Try and do the very few things that have to get done, and then try to shut down your mind from working at home and take care of you. You can then mend faster and be stronger when you do get back to business.

Posted by Cyndi at 10:13 AM | Comments (3)

August 12, 2005

TGIF? What is That?

It's Friday. Most people who hold down a job are proclaiming the "TGIF" (Thank God It's Friday) acronym. Funny thing is.... for many of us work at home moms, "TGIF" doesn't mean much as far as a sense of "relief" goes. Most work at home moms find that they need to also put in some hours on the weekend for their business. At least that is how it goes around here.

We all try and plug away during the week to get done what we need to, but when juggling children, household duties, volunteer obligations along with running a business... sometimes 24 hours in a day just isn't enough.

The weekend can bring a bit of extra help when dad is home and can take on some of the responsibilities, which in turn can give you some extra time to catch up on the weekly tasks that slipped through the cracks.  Many work at home moms who are involved in direct sales are holding parties, open houses or making deliveries.  As work at home moms, many times we need to fit our business responsibilities in where we can. I use the weekend to answer emails that weren't "urgent" during the week and to catch up on paperwork along with website changes that weren't critical.

So even though most of the working world is singing the "TGIF" tune, myself, along with many other work at home moms are saying.."it's just another day."

Posted by Cyndi at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2005

Being Taken Advantage of...

When working at home, one of the hard things to do is to make it clear to others that you are actually working. This can be extremely frustrating while you are attempting to keep on task and get work done.

I know many work at home moms who let themselves get taken advantage of by people wanting them to drop what they are doing and come to the need of their problem or come "play" just on a whim. Whether it be watching their kids, driving them to a destination or even just wanting to run to shop or have lunch. This is when a work at home mom needs to put her foot down, if she is serious about tyring to take care of her business and being a real business owner.

Don't get me wrong, working at home DOES give you flexibility, and that is one of the perks. But you also need to have the discipline to be able to follow through and commit to your own goals and have the commitment to your business. Not everyone CAN work at home. Some people have a really hard time being able to stay focused and keeping on top of the deadlines they have created for themselves. There have been many times that I have had to do this with people, and over a period of time, they have "gotten" it. If someone calls and wants to take 3 hours to go shopping that day, most likely I can't.

 But that doesn't mean I can't the following week. Being able to plan ahead with people, and getting them to understand that you need to plan ahead, causes less stress and misunderstandings.

If you are a work at home mom who is being serious about working at home and needing that income flow, then you may need to regroup and let the people in your life know that they need to understand that you are "at your job" during certain hours of the day. Let them know that while you'd love to be able to drop and run, sometimes you just can't. Just think of it, if you were working in a regular job, would these same people call you there and expect you can just leave or come to their aid anytime you wanted to? No, they wouldn't think that, and work at home moms sometimes need to retrain their own thought process along with gently retraining those in their lives and letting them know that they have a schedule that they need to stick to.

Posted by Cyndi at 09:52 AM | Comments (1)