Resources
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!
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!
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.
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
Unexpected pleasures
Mar 31st
A and I have noticed before that it’s amazing what can happen when you let go of trying hard, and go off and do something else entirely. I’ve been doing a lot of work lately on content for the site and articles for other websites and blogs. But with the move coming up next week, like it or not, I’ve now got no choice but to spend time on packing and getting organised.
We were busy with this yesterday morning and part of the afternoon, but when I arrived home and looked at my Twitter account, I discovered that in my absence Work from Home had been recommended by Enterprise Nation members and put on their Amazon Wish List! Quite made my day, if not my whole week.
And a welcome reminder right now that good things happen all by themselves without planning, strategising or my direct involvement. Phew, long exhale, shoulders down…
It’s good to talk
Mar 16th
One of the major problems of working from home is that being in the same place all the time makes it very difficult to get any perspective on challenging issues and you can end up tearing your hair out. I speak from experience!
So I’ve been trialling the Work from Home Audit, which is a phone or Skype conversation with me to talk about your sticking points and come up with creative ways to get round or through them. The results have been far better than I ever dreamed and I’m thrilled that Kate and Fiona have made so much progress on their home businesses – and are having fun in the process! You can read what they say about our chats on the new Work from Home Audit page.
Can’t see the home working wood for the trees? Get in touch and we’ll chat. You’ll feel much more positive afterwards!
Go Freelance
Mar 5th
Having mentioned my podcast with Freelance Advisor, I mustn’t forget to tell you about their comprehensive and very readable guide to freelancing, Go Freelance, which has just been revised and updated for 2010. It covers everything you’d ever ask about going it alone, from getting started and understanding the legalities, to getting paid – and what to do if clients aren’t paying – to staying motivated when things get tough. All completely free and almost 2000 people have downloaded it already, which says a lot.
Inspiration and entrepreneurs
Mar 1st
I’m always going on about the necessity of getting out frequently when you work from home and I’m really looking forward to Sunday, when I’ll be attending an Inspired Entrepreneur event in London with Nick Williams and Judy Piatkus.
Nick’s expertise is in helping people to overcome the conditioning many of us have received that work is something you have to do to pay the bills and fund the things you like doing in your time off. He helps people to identify their unique combination of skills and talents and find ways of earning money while using these and enjoying themselves. I have known Nick for 10 years, since I sold my cleaning business, and over the last couple of years he has helped me enormously in shaping the vague ideas I had about building a business related to home working.
I find I benefit from his events in several ways – because the quality of the information is topnotch, coming as it does from Nick’s own experience, because there are always interesting and supportive people there, and just because it’s so refreshing to get out of my normal environment and spend a day in the big city!
This time Nick is talking about making the often scary move from employee to Inspired Entrepreneur and in the ticket price you also get a workbook and 12 interviews on CD – and do you know, one of them is of me! Oops, just noticed there are only two places left, so if it sounds interesting, you’d better book quickly!
In the afternoon Judy Piatkus (who founded Piatkus Books from her back bedroom) will reveal the six biggest trends of the next two years, and how you and your business can take advantage of them. I am fascinated by trends and have been on the alert for them since years ago I read a book called The Popcorn Report, which predicted many trends that have since become commonplace – for example, the rise of ‘foodaceuticals’, where food such as butter spread contains ingredients with health benefits, the growing popularity of foreign foods, and the retreat to the home as a refuge from the scary things happening in the world. I can’t wait to hear Judy’s’ take on what’s happening now.
