You remember what it was like in a regular job. Sun was out, you still had to work. Friends were going on a trip, you had to work. Could use a day to sort out the car but you had to work.

The good news is that working at home gives you the power to change all that. If your mates are organising a day away, you just sort your work around it and get away with them. If your head is feeling fried sitting in front of the computer, you have the power to switch off and get out in the sun for a while.

This doesn’t mean that working at home is a recipe for slacking off. More than ever you need to get through the work that’s on your plate or you wont get paid, or your business wont grow. I personally find that my line of work excites me enough that if I take an afternoon off to go for a walk, that evening I’ll be right back at the screen checking if I missed anything and trying to catch up on the few hours I’ve missed.

On the flip side, you have to remember to have a home life too. Not every hour you spend at home has to be working. Set a day or two days at the weekend where you simply don’t allow yourself to work and you really will feel like you’ve had a break and might not need to slack off during the week. Maybe if you play catch-up in the evenings you should set a late limit e.g. never work past 10pm.
If you set yourself a target of working x amount of hours per week then you’ll find that you usually manage to do it, even if you take breaks during what would normally be your main working hours if you were still in a non-work at home job. Don’t feel guilty about taking breaks, but don’t abuse them either.

I know that lots of people want to work at home but often never have an idea that really inspires them to take the plunge. This page from Sun.Star in the Philippines has a lot of ideas if you are looking for inspiration.

Came across a new work at home Dad site today at www.entrepreneurdad.com - nicely laid out with lots of good articles. Currently running a competition to win an Ipod - what a great way to get people to visit your site. Much better than a hundred quid of advertising in some dreary magazine.

The site itself is well laid out and contains some very good articles.

This from their press release:

EntrepreneurDad.com was created by Justin Powell, who works from home as a web designer and cares for twin boys. “When I first started out as a work at home dad, I found useful information was minimal and scattered,” says Justin. “I was looking for a single location online that addressed the needs of work at home dads but found that such a place didn’t existed. I felt a there was clearly a need for this type of resource, so I decided to create an online destination just for dads who work from home and care for their children.” 

There is a lot more buzz online about work at home mums than work at home dad’s but in reality it’s not that different.
This is a sweet article about a mum working from home and I pretty much identify with it all…

“Leigh DeLozier is a freelance writer who writes, edits, and proof reads for different publications across the nation, all while she juggles play time with her daughter and the loads of laundry that sometimes pile up in her laundry room.” more…

Darren Rowse of Problogger.net is a new father and work at home dad. Congratulations to you and Mrs R.

This is a silly post, but probably one my wife would agree with. Lists keep you sane and allow you to sleep when you work at home.

Sometimes when I’ve got a lot of jobs on, I spend the majority of time that I’m not working thinking about working. It’s ridiculous, it might just be half a dozen things I’ve got to do, but in my mind’s eye I’ve got a hundred things to remember to do and I better not forget any of them. It even keeps me awake at night.

So these days I’ve taken to noting down everything that is still outstanding at the end of a day on a post-it and sticking it to my keyboard for the next morning. I even prioritise it with the important stuff at the top.

As soon as that list is made, the pain of remembering everything leaves my head and I know I’ll get a decent night’s sleep that night.

Told you it was a silly post.

Should you advertise your business in the yellow pages? I guess it depends what your business is. There’s no doubt that people in local services and trades can do very well out of the yellow pages, but it was not my experience.

I spent around 120 quid on an enhanced advert, right at the start of the internet services section. It detailed what I do - web design, search engine optimisation etc. It looked great and I was excited, waiting for all the promised phone calls to roll in.

Months later I was still waiting. Then -briingggbrinnggg. “Hello, may I speak to the proprietor - would you consider outsourcing all your work to our company in India, it’s very cheap”. There is no doubt at all that they got my name from the yellow pages directory as I had altered the name of the company just slightly to be able to identify any calls that came from there. Then, on a weekly basis I would have more sales calls - many from India, but virtually none from customers.

Over the course of the year my ad ran, I believe I had 1 genuine enquiry from my yellow pages ad. It didn’t convert.

So how do I get local custom then? Talk to people in your town. Talk to anyone and everyone about what you do. Don’t do it as a blatant sales pitch but instead just plant the seed that your service might be beneficial to them. If they say yes, let’s talk more, then it’s time to put on your big sales hat. My wife talks to people all the time about what I do and I’ve had 10 times the number of enquiries that my yellow pages ad has brought me that way.

I guess it is going to be a different story for everyone, but from my experience I wouldn’t spend the money on an enhanced ad again - it just didn’t bring me any results.