Melissa Rich-Landis Author – Your Virtual Home Office Can Be a Reality!

Wow!  The year is coming to a close.  This is a great time to look backwards and to look forwards.  As I look back to my goals for 2010, I find that have achieved most of my goals.  I begin each year with a specific plan for business growth and have goals for each quarter.   As I look forward, I have established new goals for 2011 and a strategic plan for achieving those sales goals.

Even thought the economy is uncertain, I am certain that my 2011 goals will drive YourVirtualHomeOffice.com towards a prosperous new year.   I hope that your goals are as defined and wish you much home office success during 2011.

In the beginning, work from home was mostly for Moms seeking to contribute a small income to the household but now more and more people are choosing to work from a virtual home office.

Many workers both male and female are choosing the type of work they do based on telecommuting opportunities. With the virtual home office becoming more of an option to workers, it allows families to earn a living while raising their families.

As school lets out for the Christmas break, many work-at-home parents are struggling with how to keep their kids pre-occupied while they work from the home office.    Now that my daughter is older (age 13), she requires very little of my time and does not affect my home office operations much.   However, when she was younger (in pre-school or early elementary school), keeping her busy while I was working was quite a task. 

Here are few quick tips for occupying young children during that holiday vacation:

• Remember that this is their holiday – their break from routine.    Scheduling several interactive and engaging activities during the holiday break will provide much needed “together time” and lifelong memories.
• Depending on your situation, your work is still a priority.   You still need to accomplish specific tasks during their break. 

Work with your family and children to create a balance between vacation and work.   Chapter 14 offers an array of tips for working with families.

Holidays are a great time to pick up extra hours doing customer service type jobs while working from your virtual home office. Companies such as 1-800 Flowers and other customer service type companies put on extra workers to help with the call volume during this time of year. If you have the time available and could use extra money, check out the virtual call centers for extra income during the holiday season.

As we approach the holiday season, I have developed a list of projects to accomplish during the holiday lull.   The holidays can be a great time for catching up on long term projects.    My home office may be filled with holiday cheer, but I know that underneath it all, I must remain focused and driven.

When working from home, you might find that the workload is not always steady. You will find times of feast and times of famine. When I started out working from my virtual home office, I decided I would dedicate a percentage of my paycheck to be put in a special savings account each month to use when business was slow. It is nice to know you have a back-up income source when the need arises.

As this year closes, I will be renewing my home owner’s insurance for another year.  As part of that process, I will be reviewing my insurance coverage to make certain that my policies continue to meet the needs of my growing home based business and virtual office.   

I also use this time of year to create a new home office inventory with a list of all business assets and serial numbers.   In the event of a loss, I can quickly and easily calculate home office losses in working with my insurance agent.

If you have questions regarding your virtual home office and your related insurance coverage, you may wish to re-read Chapter 12 regarding Business Insurance for a quick refresher.

While working from home, it is very very important to back-up your files. I find this topic one that has hit home recently. My husband’s personal computer crashed this week and he lost all data stored. His data was important since it housed all of our financial information. Since working from your virtual office is your main source of income, it is high priority to schedule time to back-up your computer files.

Some telecommuters complete this task weekly and others once per month. It does not really matter when you back-up files for your virtual business, but think about the position you would be in today if you lost your entire computer and all data and how easily you can avoid that situation.

Holiday time can really be a breeze when working from your virtual home office. You have the school functions, special luncheons at church and the unexpected house guests. Because you choose to work from home, you have the flexibility to attend the special events as well as work your required hours.

Set guidelines with clients on reduced working hours during this hectic time of year. The holiday period only lasts a few weeks and chances are clients are also taking some time off during the slow season.