Working from home is slowly becoming the trend of the millennium. More women than men seem to be taking it up but numbers are increasing all the time.

Most of us are totally aware of the benefits from working at home but may not have considered some of the risks and what to do about them.

Lack of discipline in time management.

This is something that you likely did not face at the office because you were ‘on the office clock’. Now you’re home, with all the interruptions that go with it. Neighbours come by to chat or to ask favors, or invite you to go shopping. Hard to resist, and you might even be tempted. But, you are at your job, even though it is at home so….

Solution: Set your boundaries both with yourself and with your neighbours. Commit to working specific hours and inform neighbours that you are in fact working and they can contact you when off the home clock.

No separate workspace.

You might think that working from the kitchen table or dining room is a cool idea. However, unless you live alone, there will be others around who will be noisy and distracting.

Solution: Ban everyone from the house, unplug the TV and Stereo, unplug the phone OR….make a dedicated space in your home that is your personal workspace keeping it private and off limits.

Isolation.

When you worked at the office, there were lots of people around and while they may have been a pain in the neck, “you don’t know what you’re missing until it’s gone.” You might start talking out loud to yourself. You might even begin to feel lonely.

Solution: Take breaks during the day as you would if you were at your old job. Call a friend or relative and touch base. Make the time to go to lunch with a friend. That’s something you probably could never have done before. Don’t become a recluse.

Loss of Motivation.

Let’s face it. When you have the boss hanging over your shoulder it’s easy to stay motivated. You really look forward to working alone but then you sit in your chair, staring at your computer wondering what to do next. You lose interest and may feel lost.

Solution: Make a list of all the reasons why you wanted to work from home and review it often. Keep focused on the end results and if necessary, make a to-do list or list of goals and cross them off when completed. Keep your eye on the ball and remember the goal!

Lack of Exercise.

If you work at the computer all day, it is easy to have your rear glued to the office chair. Time gets away from you and before you know it, it’s time to get dinner. Being sedentary isn’t good for the waistline or the rear.

Solution: Make a point of getting out of the chair every hour. Walk around the house, go up and down the stairs a couple of times. Or….join a gym since you make your own schedule. No one says you have to work 9-5. Make sure you schedule some ‘Me time’.

Working from home certainly has its benefits but if you’re not prepared to take a few actions, you may find yourself feeling alone, isolated and even depressed. Take care and make working from home a fun experience. After all, isn’t this why you left the mainstream workforce in the first place?

About the author: Deb Marsden is an experienced Internet training customer support manager.
Deb and her good friend and equally experienced customer support gal, Lee Ann, have joined forces and offer their services to computer newbies and not so newbies, solve issues they may have in learning how to use their computer.Also, for those Internet entrepreneurs who want help with their personal branding…this team has lots to offer.Too much to do and too little time? OutMouseit! and let this dynamic duo work their magic with your personal online branding and more.

People who work from home are more productive than their office-based colleagues, a study has recently revealed.

Despite the stereotype that home-based workers get an easier ride than people in an office, researchers found they are actually less likely to spend their day surfing the internet and making personal phone calls.

On top of that, people who work from home are also more likely to work evening and weekends and take fewer lunch breaks.

What the study found…

A spokesperson for labelling solutions provider DYMO, which carried out the study, said “Whenever anyone says they work from home, it’s easy to picture them still in their pyjamas at lunchtime watching daytime television.

‘’But it seems that they are actually working harder than their office-based counterparts.

‘’While it might seem like it’s easier to shy away from work when you aren’t in the office, it can actually mean that many are working harder to prove themselves to their boss.

‘’Working from home can also mean you actually get more work down as it’s much quieter than a busy office.’’

Personal calls and emails

• The study of 3,000 workers found that more than half of office based-workers said they often send personal emails when they should be working, with another 42 per cent making personal phone calls.

• But people working from home are stricter with themselves with just 39 per cent sending emails to friends and less than a third making personal phone calls.

Surfing the net

• Almost 55 per cent browse the internet at work while more than a third will make sure their internet banking is all up-to-date.

• Just 35 per cent surf the internet to kill some time and only 26 per cent do their shopping or banking online during work hours.

Distractions

• Those working from home also think they work harder with a quarter saying they are fully concentrating on their work the entire time, along with 26 per cent of self-employed and entrepreneurs.

• But in comparison just 20 per cent of office-based workers said the same, with six out of ten admitting they sometimes have moments where the job isn’t getting their full attention.

Clock watching

• The study also revealed that almost a quarter of people working from an office refuse to start work a minute earlier than 9am, but just 16 per cent of office-based workers said the same.

• And a staggering 30 per cent of Brits who work in an office said they switch off as soon as the clock hits 5pm but just 10 per cent of home workers agree.

Overtime

• More than half of people who do their job from their home also claimed they often put in extra hours during the evenings, while just 45 per cent of office workers do the same.

• Entrepreneurs and self-employed Brits are even better with almost three quarters saying they are often working into the evening.

• Another 57 per cent of home-based employees are also happy to work over the weekends to keep on top of their workload, compared to just 42 per cent of office-based workers.

A spokesman for DYMO added: ‘’Those that work from home tend to be self-employed or an entrepreneur setting up their own business who are passionate about their work and are prepared to put the hours and the hard work in,”

The findings are part of DYMO’s ‘Future of Entrepreneurship’ trends report, which has also revealed some fascinating insights about which industries the ‘Futurepreneurs’ of the next decade will emerge from and how working life will change between now and 2020.  For further information on DYMO visit www.dymo.com.

About the Author: Daniel Drage is Head of Digital at 72Point and at OnePoll. 72 Point are National News, PR and Market Research specialists offering a range of services.  OnePoll are a fast growing online market research company.

Successful women biz owners weigh in on the people, places and things they can’t live-or work-without.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to interview many mumpreneurs, from Julie Aigner Clark of Baby Einstein fame to maternity wear designer Liz Lange. For self-serving purposes, I’ve asked them all the same question: What can you not live without as a mumpreneur? Most answered with things like “a sense of humor,” “passion for business” and “unrelenting determination.” I then asked for something more tangible. Many gave the same answers and tips. I think you, too, will agree with this must-have list:

1. Phonetag.com

This website is a must-have. It’s a service that transcribes phone messages, which are then sent to an e-mail account. With all phone messages transcribed, you can discretely check voicemail via smart phone while at school assemblies, standing in line, etc. The service provides the entire voicemail message including call-back phone numbers. It’s great for checking the status of voicemail messages left on the office machine without having to call in all the time.

2. Daycare

My must-have is fantastic, reliable daycare. Your hours might not be 9 to 5 as a mom entrepreneur, so you need to be able to depend on your child care situation so you can attend essential meetings, answer phone calls and work.

3. Housekeeper

A good housekeeper is my No. 1 must-have. It doesn’t matter who makes your bed or does your dishes. Get those household chores off your to-do list and you’ll have much more time to spend on the important things in life. Plus, a good housekeeper can watch your children when you have to take a call or leave for a last-minute meeting.

4. Helpareporter.com

HARO is a must-have for mom entrepreneurs, especially if you can’t afford a publicist. On average, business owners receive 15 to 30 queries each day about various media opportunities. It’s free and it just takes a few minutes to see if a query is a good match for your business.

5. Husband

OK, not everyone has one. But if you do, appreciate him and acknowledge that he can offer great support for you as you run your business. Not only can he can help with the kids, he can also be your sounding board. If he thinks he’s a part of your business, he’ll be more likely to lend a hand.

6. A Smart Phone

Whether it’s an iPhone, a BlackBerry, a Treo or something else entirely, it allows you to juggle multiple priorities anytime, anywhere. It lets you balance work and motherhood.

7. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

Get profiles up on all the social media sites; it’s free and some of the heavy traffic these sites get will be transferred to your site as people find your profile and click on your business’s website and blog links. Be careful not to let it suck too much time from your day; designate a specific amount of time each day to attend to social networking sites and stick to it. Use sites like twitterfeed.com to feed your information from Twitter to your other social networking profiles.

8. Dedicated Work Space

Your hours might not be traditional and you may be homebased, but you need some adequate work space if you want to be productive. Create a home office that’s organized and inspiring. Make sure you have enough time each day to work while someone watches your children.

9. A Good Accountant

Get somebody who will help you make decisions to prepare for the growth of your company. While this may seem like something you can do yourself, it’s best to have a professional make sure your business is financially sound from the start.

10. Virtual Office

Make sure you have a web-based system so you have access to your e-mail, faxes, files and calendar wherever you go.

Mum entrepreneurs continue to be some of the most creative, resourceful and passionate people in business. They have a fierce determination for success and openness to learn from others. Learn from what these successes mumpreneurs have shared here and these invaluable time-savers will benefit you, too.

About the Author: A Lisa Druxman is Entrepreneur.com’s ” Mompreneur ” columnist and the founder and CEO of fitness franchise Stroller Strides. Druxman is also a nationally recognized speaker and author, and is considered an expert in the field of fitness, particularly pre- and postnatal fitness. She hosts a free monthly webinar during which she answers questions from fellow mompreneurs. If you are interested in participating, contact her at lisa@strollerstrides.com .

Working from home gives you the opportunity to set up an office that perfectly suits you and your business. Emma Jones offers her top four tips on creating the right environment.

1. Make some space – you’ll work much better if you have dedicated office space. That way, you can work without distraction, and close the door at the end of the working day. This space could be the spare room, the attic or even the garden shed. Working at the end of the garden path is becoming increasingly popular and the garden office industry is booming on the back of it.

Wherever you choose, make sure it has plenty of natural light and decorate it with soft tones of blues and greens as these colours will make a home office, and you, work particularly well.

2. Furnish – Once you’ve identified the space, whether inside or outside the house, it’s time to furnish it and the two most important pieces of furniture are those you’ll spend most time at – your chair and desk.

Buy a chair that is designed for computer use and try it out. Sitting awkwardly for any length of time will put your body under stress and make you work less efficiently, so make sure your chair is fully adjustable. Ideally, your feet should be flat on the floor and your back straight. Getting this right will make working from home so much more comfortable.

Invest in a good, sturdy desk that offers you sufficient working space and can also accommodate your computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse. The top of your monitor should be at eye level and the monitor itself about an arm’s length away.
Scale furniture to the size of the room to avoid any sense of claustrophobia and keep furnishings an inch or two away from the wall.

3. Cut out the clutter – it’s difficult to work effectively amidst chaos, so try to keep your workspace free of clutter. If necessary, invest in some good storage but always buy boxes with lids and make sure you label them well. If you have a lot of boxes or files it can be distracting so consider buying a screen or a box seat for visitors to hide them from view

4. Final touches – to make your home office complete, consider adding a plant to help reduce any feelings of isolation, or a vision board to remind you of your business goals and priorities each time you enter and leave the room. And a decent sound system to provide some background music or something to dance to when celebrating a new deal!

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’

Enterprise Nation is racing to follow every home business on Twitter by Home Enterprise Day on Friday 20th November at www.twitter.com/e_nation

The activities of certain high-profile celebrities who have recently been discovered to have business facilities within their homes have brought the whole concept of home working into the spotlight.

From an employer’s point of view, there are major companies who are now quite deliberately encouraging staff to work from home rather than coming into a headquarters building on a regular basis. Hot-desking within the headquarters building for occasional visitors has become much more the order of the day and some companies are funding their staff to set themselves up at home with appropriate internet and computer links, telephone services and so forth while visiting the office only occasionally.

Individuals who run their own businesses have long taken advantage of home working, because it can often avoid the expense and responsibility of taking on a business premises. Many people have a space set up for their business in their home which is incapable of being distinguished from other parts of the home but at the other end of the scale, health professionals for example, frequently set aside specially equipped treatment rooms in their houses for the purposes of their practices.

Home working can involve anything from bringing the odd file or laptop home to working on a regular basis from a dedicated space that has been set aside for the purpose. In assessing the degree to which home working is taking place, one important question is whether the work space has been separated from the rest of the home so that it has ceased to be available for domestic purposes.

Before you go down the home working route, you need to check whether there are covenants on your property against using it for business. If your property is leasehold, it is usual for leases to be fairly prescriptive about the activities that are allowed and a landlord will usually find enforcement fairly easy. Freehold properties can also be subject to restrictive covenants. However, the rules are slightly different. While there may be a covenant that says that business use is not permitted, it does not mean that anyone vaguely interested automatically has the right to enforce it. Covenants set up on an estate management basis can often be enforced by management companies or possibly by neighbours who might be subject to similar restrictions. Rights under such restrictive covenants are not necessarily absolute and, depending on the degree of importance that is attached to the situation, there are procedures in the last resort (though time consuming and expensive) which can sometimes secure the release or modification of the covenants.

Regardless of any covenants, there is always an issue of whether planning consent is required for a change of use or to operate some types of business within the residential area. Anyone who is using the home as a place to work occasionally without changing its character is probably using the home for purposes ancillary to the main use and planning is unlikely to be an issue. If, however, an area of the home has been fitted out exclusively for business purposes, making it unlikely to be used any more as part of the home, that can constitute a change of use that will attract the attention of the local planning authority and could result in enforcement action if planning permission has not been obtained.

Council tax and non-domestic business rates can also impact upon this issue. The whole rating structure of commercial property is different and someone who has set aside a separate area for business purposes may find themselves subject to non-domestic business rates for that part of the property. This can apply to a room within the house that has been set aside or perhaps a purpose-built structure in the garden that is used for a business function.

Another area which can cause problems is refuse collection. If you are using your domestic refuse collection service to take away business rubbish, your local council is entitled to object and insist that you pay for commercial waste disposal.

Many people assume that home working is a minor matter and that no-one is going to find out anyway. It is becoming increasingly apparent that some local authorities are using wide-ranging powers including many intended for anti-terrorism operations to maintain a significant degree of surveillance in their local area specifically to detect activities that are contrary to the normal rules. There is also the position that if neighbours are uncomfortable with your business use, they may well be looking for a means to prevent it by disclosing your activities to the authorities.

Home working can be an enormous boon but it is not worth the stress that can be generated when faced with notices and objections seeking to prevent you continuing with something you have already implemented. It is far better to work through the system and identify the problems and reach a measured solution before embarking on home working generally.

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About the author: Roger Smith is a Partner at Barlow Robbins LLP www.barlowrobbins.com

In order to find ways to improve and accomplish more with the time you have, it was important to look at how you are currently spending your time. That was why in the previous article I suggested you create a time diary. Your time diary should have included how long each individual task you do takes (even your tea/lunch breaks and staring off into space).

How has it gone? Did it reveal some interesting information? Were you able to see your strengths and weaknesses straight away? What jumped out as your biggest waste of time, and when are you surprisingly productive?

With your diary to hand we will have a look at a few Success Secrets to improve your self management and allow you to accomplish more.

Set goals

The ability to consistently, all day, every day determine what to do, or not to do, is a major key in correctly using time and increasing your productivity. To be able to make the effective choices necessary you will need to know what your goals are. It doesn’t matter whether your company sets the goals or you are self employed and set your own. You need goals.

Set a time table

With your goals set, have your time diary to hand and create a daily/weekly timetable of all the tasks you need to carry out so that you will be able to accomplish your goals. The time diary comes into its own here, because using the information you have gathered it will inform you on:

• How long tasks take.
• Where you lose the greatest amount of time.
• Your most productive time of the day.
• Your most productive day of the week.
• When your motivation is low.

With this information your schedule will be more accurate. Especially since you will no longer be filling your schedule with an unrealistic amount of tasks and then feel frustrated that you are not accomplishing more. This is a learning process so be flexible with your time table and adaptable as needed.

Set priorities

Ask yourself. “Which one project or task, if done in a timely fashion would have the largest positive effect on your career, business or life?” For me priorities within the subject of working from home and self/time management, is really helpful when dealing with household distraction. It may seem like a good idea to quickly do laundry or cut the grass. But is that task going to have a positive effect? If you do scheduled time for chores, make sure it is a productive use of time and not a tactic to avoid any areas of your job you may not enjoy (it is amazing how sometimes the ironing can look very attractive next to doing the accounts).

It is sometimes viewed that working from home should mirror the office environment. That is not always true; it is the flexibility of having an office in your home that can generate success. But equally you need to have excellent self management, to make sure that, that flexibility doesn’t take over and eliminate the success.

Now it is your opportunity to put your time diary into action. In the next article we will have a look at even more self management secrets. Now go and use your time wisely.

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About the Author: Rachael Ross of Purely Peppermint provides specialist consultancy services in developing and introducing an effective home working environment. She works with individuals and businesses by providing bespoke practical solutions for their home office. Through leadership, training, hands-on and telephone support and advice, Rachael ensures that her clients have the greatest of success in their chosen field. To help achieve that success she instructs on, setting boundaries, dealing with isolation, managing clients, managing your time, finding work/life balance, plus much, much more.

A regular contributor to leading working from home websites and magazines, Rachael was invited to the Home Business Summit at the House of Commons to advise central government on how to improve and support home businesses.

Rachael is focused on her clients achieving productive and effective results. Her continual commitment can be seen through the monthly newsletter, packed full of practical tips and solutions to all your home office troubles. For more information on Purely Peppermint and a chance to sign up to her newsletter please visit www.purelypeppermint.com

Photo Credit: Flickr Jeff Hester

Adjust your clocks as the world of work is changing. People in their thousands are heading home from the day job to build a business at nights and weekends. It’s what we call the 5 to 9 economy and it’s a great way of starting a business as it means low cost and low risk. Are you interested in joining this growing group of part-time and spare-room entrepreneurs?

Starting up a business in your spare time is, I would say, the best way to start. You give yourself time to research the market, test out your products & services, build a presence on the web and, critically, make some sales. And you can do all of this whilst holding down a job that continues to pay the bills and cover your overheads.

Consider a few small investments to get you going:

Find dedicated space in the house – it’s important to keep home as a place to which you return from work and unwind so find a dedicated space/room which becomes your home office and in which you can comfortably be in ‘building my business’ mode.

Technology – a growing range of products are designed to help the 5 to 9 entrepreneur. Create a home on the web through a blogging tool like blogger.com or wordpress.com, sell your products through sales platforms such as etsy.com and keep in contact with customers with a BlackBerry and follow-me numbers. These products and gadgets mean you can keep in regular contact with your business in a way that’s not detrimental to your job.

Develop relationships – use your time to develop relationships with possible partners, suppliers and an all-round support network. Much of this can be done online by visiting business sites (such as my own at www.enterprisenation.com and women-unlimited.co.uk) and industry-specific sites where you can keep an eye on new ideas coming to market and follow what customers are buying.

Business branding – promote yourself and your business at every opportunity with stylish stationery like business cards/promotion flyers/stickers etc. I particularly like moo.com as they offer good quality for low prices and the ordering process happens online.

As your brand grows and, with it, the number of customers knocking on your home office door, the time you devote to the business will increase. Before you know it you’ll move from working full time for someone else to working full time for yourself!

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About the Author:

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation,  the home business company, and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’

There are lots of startup books out there, but how do you know which one to pick?  This book, Spare Room Start Up: How to Start a Business from Home by Emma Jones is unequivocally one of the best and if you start out with this book if you are thinking about starting a business from home, you won’t go too far wrong.

Spare Room Start Up is a friendly and stylish, full colour guide which focuses on the specific issues that affect home business start-ups, from the ‘kitchen table business plan’ to the web server in the attic, organised by three key themes: business, lifestyle and technology. It is an essential book for anyone who wants to start a business at home and manage a work/life balance. The home has become the most popular location for business start-ups in the UK.

Over 60% of businesses are now started from a home base; more than 1,400 every week. Yet there is no authoritative and approachable guide to starting a home business. Spare Room Start Up presents people with simple solutions, demonstrates the ease and low cost with which a home business can be started, and dispels the myths about working from home, so that more people can enjoy the rewards of running a successful home business and lead a happier life. Advice and suggestions are interspersed with quick tips, illustrations and case studies to uncover the lighter side of working from home.

Enterprise Nation TV: ‘Start Up’ and get motivated from Enterprise Nation on Vimeo.

About Emma Jones

Following a career with an international accountancy firm, Emma started her first business at the age of 27 and successfully sold it just 15 months after launch.

The home business website was launched in 2006, and has attracted a regular readership of more than 250,000 people and national press headlines. Emma has written for Enterprise Nation since its launch and also for the Financial Times, City AM and customer magazines, including for Orange, Microsoft, BT and Viking Direct.

In July 2007, Enterprise Nation launched the ‘Home Business Award’, which is the UK’s only award dedicated to home businesses, and have just launched The Home Business Report with BT, the UK’s first region by region look at home business. Emma is regularly called upon by the Government to speak on the subject of home business and she advises Regional Development Agencies on how to encourage and support homeworking.

Some of the customer reviews from Amazon:

I’m an avid reader of business books and I honestly have rarely seen such rave reviews of a business book.  Here are some of the reviews that have been left by others who have read Spare Room Startup, which has received 5 stars across the board…

“Gripping as any thriller, for an entrepreneur that is, this is the book to take you from rags to riches quicker than Cinderella – when you take the lessons. Oh! that this book had been around when I started my first enterprise at 18. I have met some of the featured entrepreneurs from these Case Studies and had the privilege to work with a number of home business start up entrepreneurs, including the late Dame Anita Roddick, and Emma Jones. This book gets the message across that they are just like us. Speaking from experience, starting a business from home is life changing but EASY! – when you know how. Spare Room Start Up is excellent not only for helping people to make that start, but it is a call to stand up and take pride that a home based business is the most sensible and cost-effective way for many people to test, launch and grow their business idea in a safe environment. This applies perhaps especially for people with illnesses, disabilities, children or caring responsibilities – And let’s be clear, the lessons in this book also apply equally to all businesses.

Full of practical business and personal stuff; lots of brilliant Case Studies; easy to follow hints, tips and ideas; useful website links plus templates that you can use straight away for everything from sorting out your marketing plan to getting the pages of publicity that every business needs. ”

“Not the usual boring business book. This sleek and stylish coffee table edition makes you want to get out there and start your own business. It’s practical and friendly and easy to understand. It’s written in an upbeat and fresh manner. The pictures are fabulous too. It makes a great gift for someone thinking of taking that first step into self employment. And written by such an expert – you really feel that your hand would be held through the whole process.”

The allure of running a business from home is either attracting more optimistic people than the rest of the business community, or there’s something to be said for the care that goes into running your own ship during tough times. According to a new survey from RSA Insurance, just under three quarters of businesses based at home said that despite the economic downturn, they believed their business would grow over the next year. Only 8% said that they didn’t think they’d be able to grow or maintain their current level of business.

This week’s news that the UK’s economy is most likely going to suffer even more than the rest of Europe is one thing, but Aaron Devitt, director of professional and financial risks at RSA, said: ‘Clearly, in at least one area of the economy, there are reasons for remaining optimistic about future growth.’

Survey participants listed the top three benefits of working from home as ‘being your own boss’, ‘being able to offer clients a flexible service’ and ‘greater job satisfaction.’ Many also said that the very fact clients knew they were speaking to the owner-manager meant that the clients knew the business was important to the owner of the firm, which is good news for the company in the long run.

Working from home can be a nightmare and does not necessarily live up to the fantasy of being able to work as and when you want in the freedom of your own space. If you are especially used to being constricted by the whims and wills of others around you in a structured working environment – it becomes a challenge to discipline yourself to think for yourself. Listening to others – and doing as they ask – is a habit and if you are to be successful at working from home – it is a habit you need to break.
If you are getting stressed out by a constant flow of visitors, household chores and partners wanting you to do things about the house – your ‘WHY’ is not big enough. Thinking that working from home is a sexy thing to do is not a good enough reason to suffer the inconveniences of nagging partners, weeds threatening to suffocate you and your roses and constant interruptions from friends thinking that you are home just to provide them with free tea and biscuits.

If I were you and this is the case – I would drastically re-evaluate your situation! Define some boundaries and then tell everyone else about them – including the weeds.

But to do that you need to sort out why you are doing this.

I am personally on a mission. I cannot achieve what I want to achieve in a 9-5 job. And apart from the fact that I have a teenage daughter, dog and cats that invariably make it difficult for me to commit to a ‘normal’ job, I know that if I give in to my insecurities about what I am doing – I will never get to do the things that I want to do. My ‘WHY’ is BIG! It may not be big to anyone else – but it is to me and it includes things like:-

• I want to set up several passive income streams for myself which allow me to maintain my independence.
• As I become more independent I can allow myself to indulge in the creative things that I enjoy doing – just for the sake of doing them – like writing a book or ten, getting more involved in film, etc – which if I get right – will also generate income.
• I want to gather enough capital to be able to design and build my own house – and that means drawing up the plans myself, and project managing it from start to finish. – and for that I need time too to be able to take my time when I am doing something particularly creative, different, intricate, etc.
• I want to be able to set my daughter up with several passive income streams and build a solid foundation stone for her to launch herself into her own future knowing that she has financial security for the rest of her life.
• I want to have the time to travel to see the many millions of fascinating places in the world.
  I want to spend time with those precious, intelligent and inspiring people who have done and are doing extraordinary things with their lives.
• I want to enjoy doing more photography, take up painting again, and be able to stare endlessly at a beautiful view without worrying about the bills piling up to terrorise me and my bank manager.
• I want to experience all that there is to experience without money, people, fears, stress, and narrow minded attitudes hindering the fullness of those experiences.
• In short I want to live – not as a sheep – ie woolly brained and mindlessly following the crowd – but an inspired life which allows me to follow my instinct and go to places that I would have never thought of going to before.

Your friends need to understand that you have tea breaks – but only at certain times – or not during the hours of…..

Your partner needs to appreciate that being at home does not constitute a license to nag at will according to the mood of the moment. If any nagging needs to be done – it has to be out of working hours.

Get creative with the weeds. I use gardening as thinking time. If I find myself getting stale while I am working – I can breathe a sigh of relief and just go outside and weed a patch of the garden. It is therapeutic, doesn’t take a great deal of thinking and invariably allows me to step back from something with which I was struggling and that in turn allows me to see the problem from a different perspective. And it invariably only takes a few minutes and it is amazing how much you can weed in that time.

If you have a problem about getting this message across – then you need to explain the ‘WHYS’ to your family and friends. Explain that you are on a mission. You have set yourself a target to achieve x, y and z by a certain time and that means you spending time doing a, b and c. Define it clearly and re-affirm it regularly. Keep them updated with your progress so that they too become a part of the mission. They can all help you achieve these targets by bringing you tea and biscuits when it suits you, giving you space and respecting your wishes as a human being wanting to improve your life – which will ultimately benefit them too. If you are lucky then one or two will weed the garden for you while they wait for the tea break to talk.

And if that doesn’t work – employ someone else as a mentor/consultant who has an air of authority who can help you stick to your goals and empower you to get the message across to those that need to hear it.

So – what are the real reasons for working from home then?

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Photo credit: Photo by Fabio