News
A moving experience
Jun 27th
Moving house is supposed to be up there amongst the most stressful events of a lifetime, and if you run a business from home, there’s even more to consider. We’ve moved our home and two businesses several times in recent years and so I’ve distilled my experiences into a short guide ‘How to move house when you work at home’ published by my pals at Enterprise Nation.
What I’ve learnt is that there’s plenty you can’t control about a house move (such as whether your utility suppliers actually provide what they’ve promised, as I described in Moving in more ways than one) but you’ll have less to worry about if you prepare as much as you possibly can and keep track of what others are doing. Often things will happen that you didn’t predict, but I find it helps to bear in mind that it will all work out in the end, even if you can’t sort it out straightaway!
Working 5 to 9
Jun 3rd
I’m also delighted that Emma has teamed up with another of my favourite entrepreneurial people, Nick Williams, and is talking about spare time business at the Inspired Entrepreneurs’ Club on 23 June. Nick recommends taking baby steps on your way to making money from something that fulfills you, so it’s the perfect match! A copy of the book is included in the ticket price and there’s literally only a handful of places left, so book now for an inspirational evening. I just wish I was able to go!
News, news!
Jun 2nd
Those of you who are self-employed will know that there are many milestones when you’re working for yourself – collecting your new business cards, your first meeting, the first client, first invoice (whoo hoo). I’ve just achieved a milestone by sending out my first newsletter. (And you can sign up by clicking on the little green house at the top of the right-hand column).
I’ll be sending it out from time to time to tell subscribers the latest and best news about working from home and to offer special deals on my growing range of products and services. This month – or until 14 June – subscribers can get a 60 minute Work from Home Audit for the price of 30 minutes.
I’ve been amazed and delighted by the leaps made by the people who have done the Audit so far. They’ve confirmed that losing a sense of perspective really is one of the chief dangers of working from home, but that talking to someone who both understands and can be entirely objective can rapidly lead to renewed enthusiasm and surprising progress.
So don’t stay stuck, give me a call and get moving!
Excuse me, I’m having a #jellymoment
May 19th
Today was Jelly day once again at The Old Church School in Frome, and having discovered Jelly was happening at the same time in both Cardiff and Coalport, I racked my brains for a way of connecting us all.
It was A who came up with the brilliant idea of having a #jellymoment on Twitter like the #watercoolermoment Enterprise Nation run at 11 am every morning. We decided on 12 as the start time, and despite a few grumbling stomachs demanding lunch, got such a good response that we reached 3rd in UK trending, as you can see on the left. Not at all bad for a first attempt!
Podcast progress
May 13th
I wrote recently in Unexpected Pleasures about how wonderful it is when something good happens that you haven’t had to work or push for. It’s a salutary reminder that life doesn’t have to be a struggle!
I also love it when out of the blue an answer arrives to a question you have been puzzling over and finally let go of out of sheer exasperation of ever finding a solution. It happened today, funnily enough once again via the lovely San Sharma of Enterprise Nation. Last time he put my book about working from home on the EN Amazon wishlist. Today he has enabled us (OK, to be completely honest, my long-suffering IT helpdesk, A) to put two audio clips on the site that have been languishing unheard for months.
You can find them both on the Judy Heminsley page, but in the same spirit of effortlessness, here’s one you can play without any more clicking. It’s a chat with Nick Williams of Inspired Entrepreneur about cleaning, writing a book and the many joys and challenges of working from home. Thanks, San!
Frome Jelly 19 May
May 10th
Just a quick announcement of the next Jelly in Frome. It’s been a while due to all my recent upheavals, but finally I’ve got it together for Wednesday 19 May, from 10 am to 4 pm. We’ll be at The Old Church School again, thanks to our ultra-supportive host Gavin Eddy.
I’m looking forward to seeing old and new faces, and for the latter there’s new information on the site about what to expect when attending Jelly, plus some pointers about what you can hope to achieve. The glass-walled meeting room holds eight people, so don’t delay – booking starts 12 May.
Are you a freeformer?
May 5th
It’s been a busy week, what with making ourselves at home in the new house and firing up the brain cells, which have got rather too used to operating on Spanish time. Fortunately we got broadband in time for me to hear through Twitter – where I seem to hear all the best stuff – about a talk last night at Bath University by James Alexander, one of the founders of Zopa.
Zopa isn’t a bank, it’s an ‘online place where people can lend and borrow money’ and was established following extensive research that showed the emergence of a new category of people known as freeformers. Freeformers have lost faith in the old systems to look after them, believe in self-reliance and collaboration, and value community and transparency. The kind of people who tend to be freelancers and home workers, in other words.
I came home feeling uplifted that there are people creating businesses like this, even when the ‘experts’ say it’s not possible. And feeling much more hopeful having heard James’ advice to ask for help and you will be surprised by how much you get.
I know the isolation of the home worker has become a bit of a cliche, but that’s because it’s so true, and it applies to me as much as anyone. Working by yourself at home can make you spiral further and further into yourself and your own resources without even realising what’s happening. I’m now intent on reaching out to find more likeminded people and I’d love to hear if you’ve had any good results from doing so.
Moving in more ways than one
Apr 29th
It’s been a long haul, but I’m now established in another home office, complete with broadband – yay! When I think about moving house ( which I hope I won’t have to do for a while now) I always think about packing up all our stuff and moving the furniture. If only that was the extent of it. As my Twitter friend @HeatherBestel has pointed out, it’s getting all the systems sorted out that takes up so much time and energy.
A dealt with the broadband provision, as an ex-BT man who speaks the lingo. In the end we got connected a day before their estimate, but by that time he felt like he’d crawled up the road dragging the cable himself.
A smooth-talking individual at Southern Electric persuaded me they would organise a flawless transfer of services at the new property. In fact they have messed up everything they were supposed to do and now are ignoring my repeated requests to call me back with a courtesy update. I might as well stand and shout into a big pit until I’m hoarse for all the impact my many phone calls have had.
And you have to learn about so many new things – which keys fit which doors, where to put everything, how to set the timer for the boiler when there’s no manual (and you’re not yet online). Have you noticed your body has a memory? In a familiar house you sleepwalk downstairs in the morning and your body automatically carries out the regular breakfast-making tasks, reaching for the bowls, cereal, coffee and spoons. In a new house it wants to continue the same actions, but everything’s in a different place, so it lurches around and jolts me into grumpiness, never a good start.
But the good news is that now we’re into our second week here and so the newness is wearing off and I’m starting to pick up the threads of working life and make contact with people again, via email and on Twitter. And it’s people who make all the difference, regardless of how well your household systems are working.
I’ll be back…w/c 19 April
Apr 7th
It’s unlikely I’ll be posting here until I’ve moved into my new home office, so apologies in advance for the disruption to normal home working service. In the meantime you might like to visit a few of my online friends to fill the gap:
San Sharma is the friendly host of #watercoolermoment every weekday at 11 am. Home workers meet on Twitter for an online coffee break to chew over home business issues of the highest importance, such as if you had a Tardis, where would you go?
Emily Cagle’s blog offers thoughtful, well-written posts on marketing and communications, as well as guest posts from other experts, including, ahem, me in the near future if I’m not mistaken.
David Wike has a dry sense of humour that makes me laugh out loud and his new blog The Watercooler (yes, not entirely unrelated to the above) is a collection of snippets of his (very) random thoughts. Give him a try and please tell him I sent you.
Well, that’s all I’ve got time for before A pulls the plug and packs up the computer, so bye for now and see you soo
R.Day-1
Apr 7th
Tomorrow’s the day we move out of this house…and become temporarily homeless and home office-less until the next house is available. We are unfortunately becoming accustomed to moving, but one’s mind mercifully blanks out between times the relentlesss grind of clearing, emptying cupboards and packing. Every time I am amazed that we have so much ‘stuff’ despite constant clutter clearing and neither of us having much of a shopping habit.
Almost there now though, just a few last bits and pieces to stuff into corners and the computers to disconnect. I hope that next time this happens we can get someone else to pack. I like to say that 12 years of running a cleaning business took me well over the threshold of my cleaning allowance for this lifetime. Well, I think I’m reaching the packing threshold now as well!
