Pros and Cons of Working at Home

Monday is Wear Your Bathrobe to Work Day. It is a celebration of people who work at home that have the luxury of wearing what they want to work. I thought I would share some of the pros and cons of working at home and how to turn the cons around to work for you.

This week I was invited to speak to a college class about working at home. Some of them had never thought about it before it came up in their textbooks, while others were already making plans to find work at home opportunities. I talked about the good, the bad and the ugly of working at home.

I think the first pro is the freedom you have. You have the freedom to dress the way you want, look the way you want, watch TV or listen to the radio if you want to, you can do whatever you want as long as you get your work done when and how it is supposed to be done.

The next pro that comes to mind is flexibility with your time. A lot of work at home jobs are fairly flexible. For me, this is key. I homeschool my daughters and having the ability to stop working for a while to help them with a project is invaluable. I can schedule my work around my life and not the other way around. Again, as long as I get my work done when I say it will be done, there are no problems.

The third thing that I love about working at home is the money that I save. I don’t have to drive to work, buy lunches or coffees, pay for parking, buy new clothes, or pay for all those little things that pop up when you leave the house to work. I probably save about $40.00 a week just by working from home.

Now for some of the cons. Distractions. It is easy to get distracted at home. The kids want your attention, the pets want your attention, your spouse wants your attention, and sometimes they forget you are not just at home but at work also. Another distraction can be telephone calls. If you have people calling that eat up your time, start screening your calls. I have a business line and a home line. This helps to decide which calls to answer.

Another thing that can be bad about working from home is isolation. Because you are by definition alone, you have to make sure you get out of the house once in a while. Treat yourself to a coffee with friends at least once a week, go for a daily walk through the mall, just make time to be with other people.

Another “con” of working from your home is scheduling your time. It can be hard to set a schedule and stick to it. You have to be on top of your game and set a schedule you can keep. If you are working at home for someone else, this may not be a problem. If you are working for yourself, make a schedule and then make sure everyone around you knows what it is. Don’t let people overstep your boundaries. Stick to your schedule and enforce it with family and friends. Get someone to help you keep your schedule. This could be a spouse a friend or even a virtual assistant.

For me, the pros of working at home far outweigh the cons. I love to set my own schedule, have more time for family and friends and to be able to go to work in my bathrobe. I just don’t think I could fit into a regular 9 to 5 job anymore.

What are some of the problems you have with working at home? Do you get distracted easily? Are you unable to stick to a schedule? Really look at your strengths and weaknesses and get help to work around your weaknesses. If you can’t follow a schedule, make yourself accountable to someone. If you aren’t getting enough time out of the house and spending time with other people, have a friend call you on a regular basis to check up on you. Come up with solutions that work for you.

It takes a certain kind of person to work at home. If you are one, congratulations, I think we have the best of both worlds.

What New Services Can a Virtual Assistant Offer?

I have been thinking lately about the new kinds of services that a virtual assistant could offer their clients. I have come up with five:

1) Travel - Are you already contacting travel agents for your clients and making travel arrangements for them? You could be the one getting the commission for those travel plans. There are companies you can join to become a travel agent. I chose Pro Travel Network. It is the only one to legally offer travel agent status in Canada.

2) Podcasts - Why not offer the set up and even recording of podcasts for your clients. If you have a good voice, strong writing skills, and a mic, you are all set. It's another great way to get the word out about your clients' products or services. http://www.podomatic.com http://www.odeo.com

3) Suidoo Lenses - Now I must admit that I do not understand Squidoo yet. It seems to be a new and great way to share ideas and information. It might be just right for some of your clients. See if you can get a handle on it and begin offering assistance in setting up lenses for your clients. http://www.squidoo.com

4) Shopping Carts - If you are not offering shopping cart set up and maintenance, you may be missing out on a lot of business. One VA I spoke with recently has a booming shopping cart business. If a client is selling thins online, they probably need a shopping cart. http://www.1shoppingcart.com

5) Blogging - Do your clients have blogs? If not offer to set one up for them. If they want, you could even "ghost-write" their posts for them. If they want to post themselves, remind them to send you post daily or weekly and the rest of the time you could post links to other blog posts that are relevant to your client's business.
http://www.wordpress.com http://www.blogger.com

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking outside the virtual assistant box. What kind of services can you come up with that maybe aren't offered yet or are offered but can be tapped into. Always be thinking and offering your clients help before they even know they need it.

Virtual Assistant Speaks to College Class

I was asked this week to come and speak at the college I graduated from this year. They are using a new textbook for their "Office Skills" module and it has a section on working at home.

Knowing I had my own business, one of my former instructors asked me to come and talk to the students about the pros and cons of working at home. It was a great opportunity and learning experience. It gave me a chance to practice talking about my virtual assistant business and it gave the students some new ideas about what to do when they graduate. (I also got a great travel mug as a gift for speaking.)

I encourage everyone to take every opportunity they have to talk about their business, to anyone who will listen. You never know - they may not need your services, but they may know someone who does.

I am learning this myself. To have a successful virtual assistant practice, I have to take every chance I get to tell everyone about the value of VAs.

Marketing the George Jefferson Way

Lately I have been watching the Jeffersons. I have noticed why George was successful. George Jefferson was a master marketer. He was always ready to tell anyone who would listen, and even those who wouldn't, about his dry-cleaning business.

Even my 10 year-old has mentioned that George gives his business card to everyone. Every time he has the opportunity he gives his "elevator speech" and makes sure people know he is the owner of the largest chain of dry-cleaners in the city. In one episode, he was bailing Weezie out of jail and he gave the guard a card and he even gave the prostitutes in the cell each one.

Any time he had the chance to be in the media, he took it; no matter how ridiculous the reason. He was always trying to get the attention of anyone with money that could further his enterprise.

How are you about spreading the word about your business? I know that I need to learn how to be more like George. I need to tell everyone about my business at every opportunity. I have been doing this well online, and now I am going to start giving this more of my attention in the "real" world.

What is your "elevator" speech? What do you tell people when they ask "What do you do for a living?" How are yoou involved in your community and how is this helping your business? Are you meeting with other business people on a regular basis?

New Virtual Assistant Podcast

I decided to join the world of podcasting. My first podcast, entitled "What is a Virtual Assistant and Why Do I Need One" was posted Saturday night.

This is definitely a new learning experience. It is great fun though. I really enjoyed the whole process. The only hard part was doing it over and over because I kept messing up what I wanted to say. I am so glad I found Audacity and figured out how to edit my podcast.

I am going to post a new episode every Saturday night. The podcast is hosted at Podomatic and Odeo.

Check it out!

http://righthandmanva.podomatic.com

http://odeo.com/channel/711083/view