Communication Overtones Comments
Thanks for the idea of promoting my business by the volunteer work I do. I've been doing volunteer work locally for a couple years, but under my own name, not my business. That may go a long way to getting my business some recognition locally.
Kami,
You do a wonderful job selling the idea of "work from home" -- so much so that I feel compelled to add a couple disadvantages. I ran a home-based PR counseling business for 5 years, and I agree with all of your advice. But there are disadvantages to working at home, in pajamas or not.
1) You're always at work. That enables you to be incredibly productive, but also makes it easy to ignore the home life, from daily chores to the spouse and kids. Hmm. Cut the grass or bill some work?
2) You're always at home. So distractions abound. It's easy to spend a little extra time on the treadmill, catch a movie on HBO or whip up a special snack that wouldn't be available at "the office."
3) You're always accessible. Unless you ignore the phone calls or have strict rules of engagement, clients are apt to call you most any waking hour. Email and wireless have changed that to some degree. Now even the "office workers" are on call evenings and weekends.
4) Your vacations are interrupted. Client business doesn't go away when you do. You can tell them you'll be away and you can slow the workflow to a trickle for a week (seldom two). But you have to be accessible for an hour or two each day -- even at the beach condo.
I am thankful we didn't have blogs when I was working at home. I'd have been a social-media basket case.
Bill; Yes, and you forgot to add that the first year I was in business my best friend was a swallow building a nest outside my door.
I agree with one and four and I guess I was trying to get at that with "the buck stops here." In the end you are responsible to get the work done. Plus, as you suggest, balance is much easier talked about in the abstract than done in practice.
On point three, I have a separate phone line for the business that I don't answer after 4:30 on the weekdays or on the weekend. As my husband so rightly says, "Isn't that what voicemail is for?" Luckily is it a lot cheaper with digital phone to have two lines in the house. With Time Warner I pay about $25 a month. Rules of engagement are critical to make this work, one must maintain their personal space, virtually speaking.
As for point two, having a place in my house that is set aside as an office (are you reading Uncle Sam) is not only good for a tax write off, but is also incredibly productive, allowing me to separate myself from the household. I also employee a housekeeper to come every two weeks so that I am not irritated (and thus distracted) by the dust.
All of that said, working from home is definitely NOT for everyone. You must be a very self directed personality to do it successfully.
Kami, thanks for sharing your work life in this post. It reflects my experience too. Except I decided to hire people and move into offices once I'd won more business than I could handle on my own. Overheads and other headaches are the result...but I really enjoy coaching my team and watching their skills improve. Now I get my buzz seeing just how far I can take this thing.
I started my own PR consulting business half time two years ago and this fall quit my other job to dedicate full attention to my business.
I agree with many of the points made here. I think the biggest success factor is personality. I am very disciplined--to the point of neurosis at times. This has served me well in my own business.
I work out of home but have very clear boundaries between home and work life. I have a separate phone line that I don't generally answer after regular business hours. I do other odd things to define my work day. I eat my lunch at a different seat at the dining room table from my weekend and evening meals. I use a specific cup for my workday coffee. I dress every morning and get to my desk no later than 9 p.m. All of these things signal to me that I am at work--no TV watching or housework allowed.
I don't think work/life balance is any harder working at home. I know lots of people who are employed and have very unbalanced lives. It all comes down to work style personality.
Great comments all. I have worked from home for three years now, and I cannot say enough about how much the flexibility has helped out in every element of my life. I have two sons in college and a 3rd grader, so I am able to adjust my schedule within reason to show up for most of the events, ball games, recitals and honors days, plus I get to volunteer at the school some. The trade-off for that, of course, is sacrificing some evening/weekend/"personal" time in order to get work done.
One of my biggest adjustments after the transition was to the solitude. I, like many of us in the PR profession, am a recovering conversation addict. In a healthy office environment, there is lots of face-to-face interaction with people, which provides access to a wealth of great ideas, immediate feedback and additional sets of eyes who can spot the typo you overlooked or tell you the truth when you put forth a really dumb idea. It is so important to maintain some brutally honest associates who can help you sharpen your sword and continue to grow. I missed that dynamic feedback at first and had to find resources - PRSA IPA group, other independents, former co-workers, even clients and "competitors" - to help me stay sharp. You can easily take for granted all of the great tools at your disposal when you work in an office, until you start replacing them at the house.
I still feel that it was absolutely the right move and would repeat it tomorrow without hesitation. Getting a realistic picture of what to expect is probably the most elusive thing for the practitioner looking at branching out. It is truly a great life once you figure out the logistics.
I love this conversation. Helps me know that I'm not alone. Well, figuratively anyway.
I've been working from a home office for four years now and am still fine-tuning it. I now have a dedicated office and a separate phone line, which helps me keep work from invading my personal life and vice versa. However, one of my regular retorts when people ask me about working from home is "I don't work from home -- I live in my office." It's so tempting to check my email "one last time" before going to bed and spend my weekends in front of the computer.
The things I miss most about working for someone else are a benefits package, direct deposit and the watercooler conversations. To compensate, I transfer a set amount from business to personal accounts at the beginning of each month and live within that budget. I make sure to include conferences and vacation in my annual budget (both take time away from billable hours and cost money). I also have my circle of other IPs and colleagues that I can chat with during the day to quell the sense of isolation. Client meetings, volunteer committees, and Chamber functions get me out of the house and make sure my real clothes get worn occasionally.
I have seen a handful of posts about promotion of a site. They do tell something about joining communities. I already started and observed that it has significant impact on the traffic. Can I tell you about the Young Entrepreneur Society from the www.YoungEntrepreneurSociety.com? Provides many interesting business related info.
Sherrilynne; I have watched your business on the Isle of Man grow and have been amazed. It is fun to see others that you interface with regularly succeed where they plant the seeds. I sometimes miss the managerial aspects, but am still not sure I could handle having the professional fate of others in my hands.
Lin; I use my volunteer work as almost an audition of what I can do. In fact, I treat volunteer opps like I would a client and am very careful what I agree to do.
Deborah; I think you make a great point about keeping your day job and transitioning out to full time self employment, it is a good strategy.
Vic; I think that the loss of the day to day creative interaction was my biggest concern as well. However, I have more than made up for it with my involvement with social media and other independents.
Kristie; You are probably one of the best networkers that I know. I guess these days my "watercooler" is Twitter, you should try it.
Beck_2; I will check it out.
Kami you are right about the sense of responsibility. Not a day goes buy where I don't remind myself that I have the income of five people, plus my own, on my hands. And two of them have families/partners to support. Yikes!
Sherrilynne; You are stronger person that I, this is the one aspect of owning a business that terrifies me. Before I move forward on that front I think that I need to overcome that fear.
Kami,
Great post on working at home. I really did for many years interview leading tech CEOs in my pajamas and with my little ones on the floor playing legos, so I'd have to say I broke the no pajamas rule! (See my bloggerstory on Toby's site.:>)
But I admire your work and your take on working at home, and hold the same vision in terms of the challenges and the rewards. I've just recently hired another great gal to work part-time with me who is a fantastic PR collaborator and I did not realize how much I missed being more in contact with peers!
Great inspiring post and thanks for it!
Nettie H.
Nettie; Sorry I didn't respond sooner. Truth is, it doesn't matter what you wear. The important thing is that you take it seriously.
As for working while your kids crawl on the floor, you are either a better person than I, your kids are better than mine or both. lol.
Kami...This dialogue is fabulous! Last year I started mulling the idea of renting office space due mainly to a yen for more work/life balance. (I'm the one who wanders into the office at night and rarely escapes work.) Then over the summer I officed out of a client's office for a week to assist on some projects. I loved the water cooler talk and the perks of working in an office, which I had missed over the last nine years. But the grass wasn't greener. I dig working from home. Another client recently offered me the option to office out of their space. Decided against it and instead I'm organizing and upgrading my home office and technology. As a work-from-homer and a business owner, I have to push myself to get away from work. But the bennies far outweigh the downsides! Your strategies are terrific. I am also a big fan of structuring time to do regular business breakfasts, lunches and such for face-to-face interaction with others. And I plan to hire a virtual assistant this year so I can "get away" more on vacation.
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