Tag Archives: work at home

Does Autonomy Compromise Professionalism?

I was talking with a friend of mine recently who does NOT work from home, someone who is happily holding down a traditional job. She asked me an interesting question, however, that got me to thinking about how home businesses are perceived. She asked: “How do people know that you’re a professional operation when you work out of your home? How do they know you’re not just slacking and unprofessional?” There is still a perceived idea that unless there is an office, a boss, and plenty of meetings—work is not getting done. I can understand that a new customer or … Continue reading →

Reason #197 to Work from Home

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We recently got word that my husband’s long-time employer, a sign company, was closing their doors come August 1st – the owner was retiring and wasn’t selling the business but instead just shutting it down. As we debated what to do, we finally decided that moving was our only option. We live in a small town, and there isn’t exactly a plethora of graphic artist jobs in the offing. We will be moving to a larger town about two hours away, where there is a plethora of sign companies who hopefully will want to hire my husband. Hopefully. 😉 But … Continue reading →

Why I Love My Laptop

Are laptops absolutely necessary? Probably not, unless you are me. When I received a laptop a couple of years ago, my whole world changed. I became less stressed, grew three inches taller, lost 20 pounds and developed sparkling white teeth. Well, maybe not, but I did grow less stressed. Getting a laptop is a definite choice to be made. Laptops are generally more expensive than desktops and may have some limitations in terms of power and capabilities. They also tend to become appendages, never far from their owner. I know one full time employee of the corporate world who got … Continue reading →

A Question A Week

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I was sitting at home this morning, busy getting ready for the day, when an odd thought popped into my head, “How many of my readers work at home? How many of them work in an office?” As much as I love this writing job, I usually don’t walk around my house wondering about my readers. And this morning, I realized that was awfully one-sided of me. I should know more about my readers; I want to know more about my readers. So I started to think about all sorts of questions and topics that I would love to get … Continue reading →

Do You Have a Home Business Title? Do You Want One?

Sometimes it is difficult to tell people what we do for a living when we are home-based. I am often jealous of transcriptionists, daycare providers and other home-based careers where the title is pretty cut and dried. The other day I was talking with my preschooler about my husband’s job. He is a police officer. That’s a pretty easy job for a four-year old to grasp. Out of curiosity, I asked her, “do you know what mommy does for a living?” “You play on your ‘peuter’” (computer). “Oh great”, I thought. Her preschool teacher probably assumes I sit around and … Continue reading →

Sometimes Desperation is the Best Motivation

As someone who has been a leader in the direct sales industry for five years now, I’ve seen people come and go from the business (often daily). While I was never a great salesperson and I wasn’t the top leader in the company, I always considered myself to be a pretty good judge of who would be successful and who wouldn’t be. “Why do you want to join?” I would ask. The responses were pretty typical. “I need extra money for the holidays”. “I want to pay for my children’s preschool program”. “I need to get out of the house … Continue reading →

Income for Single Moms

For many women going through a divorce or death of a spouse, starting over as a single mom is tough. Although challenges include running the household and supporting the children emotionally, there is always the financial aspect. Considering that some single moms have not been in the workforce for years, this challenge becomes even greater. If you are now a single mom but you have no idea what type of job to look for, I recommend you first consider your skills. Even though you may have been a stay-at-home mom without any skills to offer, the truth is that you … Continue reading →

Do You Need E-Mailers Anonymous?

Hi, my name is Traci and I am addicted to e-mail. In a previous post, I offered a few tips for managing your e-mail. While I try to follow my own suggestions, I learned a few more tips today that I wanted to share with you…and try myself. I have an e-mail program that shows the latest breaking news stories each time I log in to check my mail. Ironically, when I was checking my mail for the fifteenth time today, the headline was; “First AA, Then NA… Now Emailers Anonymous?” According to the Reuters News Network, an executive coach … Continue reading →

It’s Great that You Can Work in Your PJ’s…but Should You?

This week, I did the unthinkable. I went from being a fun-loving, stereotypical “ditzy blond” to an intelligent and sophisticated brunette. (Okay, at least that’s the end result I am hoping for). I have naturally blond hair and I’ve never considered changing it until this week. As I mentioned in a previous post, I just changed careers. So I thought the dye-job would be timely. I had dinner with some of my friends for the first time after the drastic change. One of them kept saying, “but Traci…it’s just not you anymore…you were my favorite goofy blond”. Gee thanks. It … Continue reading →

The Job/Employment Blog Week in Review for Feb 10 – 16

Hello, and welcome to the Week in Review for February 10 – 16. This is our way of catching you up on any blogs you may have missed in the past week! Last week, the 3rd to the 9th of February, we started the series on how to become a blogger for Families. We finished that series this week and also covered how to keep the job that you got with Families.com! I hope this series was helpful to all blogger hopefuls. If you have any feedback or comments, feel free to either leave a comment below or get in … Continue reading →