Working from Home Tips for August
Our monthly round-up of working from home tips
Our monthly email has gone out this morning with a varied collection of useful working from home tips and news.
Not surprisingly, my post about getting national press coverage for your home business has had plenty of hits. It tells you how to approach an editor at The Guardian about writing articles for the Home Business Hub, like mine on the distractions of working from home. Plus how you can enter competitions or submit photographs for the chance of being featured.
I recently met Jo Bradshaw of Minestrone Soul and was impressed by how well she understands the reservations of one-man bands about branding and promoting their business. She has provided not only a great guest post, but also an original illustration for 5 great excuses for not marketing your home business.
In my Twitter bio I declare myself to be a believer in the power of coffee and cake, and many a Jelly and meeting have been fuelled by caffeine and sugar. But I may have to change all that after reading Beating home workers’ sugar addiction by Laura Thomas. Laura has cured her own home working sugar addiction and habit of reaching for the biscuit tin, and has some achievable and original tips to help you do the same.
It was great fun to take part in Women Unlimited Worldwide’s working from home Google Hangout. Julie Hall, colour consultant Karen Haller and I had a lively chat, and shared working from home tips gained through experience of fending off family and friends wanting to interrupt our working day, of coping with kids in the holiday and other daily challenges.
If you’re self-employed, do you get fed-up with all the talk of summer holidays in the media, when you can’t just cut yourself off from work and take a break? I discovered that even a working holiday has advantages, when there was a late cancellation on a friend’s flat in Cornwall and A and I stepped into the breach. Despite having to keep up with the blog, social media and emails, I returned home feeling quite refreshed and rested.
So that’s it for this month. Remember we’re always happy to hear your own working from home tips and see your photos, and to share them on the blog. And if you’d like to get the month’s top tips direct to your inbox, just sign up in the box on the right. Happy home working!
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Just found my way here and found some great articles. Signing up for the newsletter also. Thanks for a great blog.
And thank you, Johan, pleased to have you onboard 🙂
I’d like to do a gift wrapping article in eg Sunday times magazine pre Christmas. When do I make my approach and to whom?
It’s a good idea for any small business to build relationships with journalists, so start straightaway, Amanda. Trawl through magazines and papers to find who writes the articles relevant to what you do, and then either check the website for contact info or search for them on Twitter. RTing and joining their conversations is a great way to become known without being pushy. Often they will ask for people to contact them to be case studies for particular stories. It’s a long term process, but does pay dividends if you’re patient!