successful home working
Posts tagged Linkedin
Social media – vital for working from home, but…
117 months ago
Social media has only been around a few years and yet I can’t remember what home working life was like without it. Which doesn’t mean I’m enamoured of it all. Do you have a favourite social media site? Mine is Twitter, because as a confirmed minimalist I love its brevity, I started off by attending a day course and so understand everything I need to, and mostly because I feel in control – I know exactly what will happen when I press Send!
Facebook, on the other hand, feels to me like a sprawling mass of ever-expanding stuff, most of it of no interest whatsoever. I’ve had no instruction in using it and haven’t really grasped who sees what and which bits of information go where. I rarely look at my Profile wall – I just don’t have time and can do without another opportunity to procrastinate. Please excuse me if you’ve contacted me and had no response – I’m not ignoring you, it’s just that I probably haven’t even found what you’ve sent, don’t know how to respond or have done it wrong. Every time I start to feel I should get some help, something happens like the recent uproar about tagging photos, and I think rude thoughts about the sheer arrogance of the youths manipulating us and resolve to have as little to do with it as possible.
I should get more training on Linkedin as well. From the comments I’ve heard it seems many of us do little with it apart from occasionally sending off a flurry of invitations to connect and guiltily posting an overdue contribution to a group. I am happy to connect with you if we have connected on or offline. It seems rather pointless to connect with somebody who is a total stranger and my least favourite communications come from people sending the standard connect message who claim to be my friend, when I’ve never heard of them. At least tell me why you want to connect.
As for Youtube, my resolve earlier in the year to film regular vlogs has been hit by the persistent humming of the microphone, a problem that was supposed to be have been resolved. I can’t spare the laptop going off into Apple hospital again, and so vlogs have slipped down the list.
So for now my major efforts are reserved for Twitter, which has been a rich source of fascinating people and information. But I’m open to persuasion and no doubt I’m missing all kinds of tricks – how can I get the best out of social media?
It’s good to talk
01 year ago
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!
Jelly at Glove Factory Studios
01 year ago
I’m really excited to have another venue for Jelly, the beautiful and quirky Glove Factory Studios at Holt near Bradford-on-Avon. They are described as a contemporary renovation of an industrial heritage building and have to be experienced – the website has some lovely pictures, but you have to be there to appreciate the place, which is light, airy and full of character. As well as office and studio space, there is a gallery, cafe and outdoor exhibition spaces in the process of being finished.
Glove Factory Studios is owned by Alix Paver and Nick Kirkham of Great Western Studios, and is a part of the Forwardspace family. The Old Church School – another Forwardspace property – is owned by Gavin Eddy who believes in the many benefits of Jelly as strongly as I do, and whose Frome coworking space, is home of Frome Jelly. Forwardspace is also working on another characterful conversion in Taunton, The Collar Factory, which I believe is due for completion later next year.
Holt Jelly is on Wednesday 24 March from 10 am to 4 pm and all you have to do is book a place and turn up with your laptop to take advantage of free wifi access and inspiring surroundings for the day.
Go Freelance
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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.
In the pod
21 year ago
We’re presently trying to find out where to host some audio clips I want to put on the site, with little progress to date. But I’m pleased to say you can listen immediately to me talking about the challenges of working from home by going to Freelance Advisor, an excellent site full of good advice for anyone already working as a freelancer or contemplating taking the plunge.
The podcast came about as a result of the spontaneous call I made to Radio Bristol after receiving a tweet one snowy morning telling me the subject under discussion was working at home in bad weather. Somehow the editor of Freelance Advisor heard the clip and invited me to do the podcast. And all accomplished sitting at my desk at home – amazing!
‘What do you do?’
0Just lately a few people have asked me ‘What do you actually do?’ or ‘How do you make a living?’ and those are very fair questions, as at the moment there is nothing on the website that gives any indication!
The answer is that I have been working first on the content of the site, on linking to other sites that are good resources for home workers and on building up traffic. I’m now at the point where I’m almost ready to offer products and services, while still regularly adding new pages of information.
One thing I have been working on is provisionally titled the Work from Home Audit, and is a 30 or 60 minute phone or Skype conversation to assess how happy you are with what you’re currently achieving in your home working role, and to discuss ways of improving things. The people who have been helping me trial this have been delighted with the results and moved their businesses on noticeably.
I also give talks and workshops about home working to groups and at events, and again I’m preparing information about this. At the moment, apart from the occasional help of the patient and long-suffering A, it’s just me producing all this stuff so progress is always slower than I’d like, bearing in mind I have very little patience and would ideally like to bring every idea into being as soon as I think of it!
