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

It seems like the work-at-home schemes are becoming more prominent, but they are also getting more sophisticated; consequently you need to stay alert and skeptical.    Use the tools in our book in Chapters 7-9 to research job opportunities and protect yourself.   Exercise due diligence and complete the necessary research to protect yourself.

How can you reach out to new customers when you are not out in the workplace? Take time to build a website and let others know what type of business you are offering by word of mouth. Take the time to become a local member of your community with organizations such as Chamber of Commerce or sponsor a little league team. Working from your Virtual home office will provide unique challenges such as advertising but once you have all your ducks in a row, the opportunities are endless.

Recently the afternoon temperatures have been as high as 102 degrees and the hot weather shows no signs of letting up.   Summertime can be a time for extra leisure and spending time with the kids.   Summertime can be quite enjoyable, but yet you still have a job to do and must dig deep to find that extra motivation to keep on track.

Setting a strong work schedule will ensure that you can enjoy summer activities, while accomplishing the necessary tasks.   Posting that schedule for your spouse and children will allow them to respect your work time, while showing them that you still have together time for family.

Planning your work from home job is almost more important that a brick and mortar job. Usually if you go to a building to work, the schedule is provided for you. If you work from your virtual home office, you are required to fill your weekly work schedule. Plan weekly for work and projects in place and then make plans for future work.

Careful planning will make or break you in the virtual world. With the Virtual worker, work can be feast or famine. If you need help planning. check out Melissa’s book- “Your Virtual Home Office can be a Reality”

Not everyone can work from home in a virtual situation successfully. What personality type is successful working from home? Answer:  People that have great time management skills and those that are organized and productive during working hours. Working from home is a great opportunity but not everyone can work without supervision or the flexibility that comes with working from home. If you need help with time management, read Melissa’s book-“ Your Virtual Home Office can be a Reality

In order to plan, you need to have the right tools at your fingertips including calendars (paper daytime planners or calendar applications) and an appropriate place to make solid to-do lists.   Start with an evaluation on what tools will help you and then using those tools to plan ahead.

If you are an independent contractor or employee working from your home office, it is generally your responsibility to keep up with equipment. Make sure you are updating virus protection as well as computer and software updates. Many things of those maintenance activities cost money but some of them are just a matter of completing the updates.

Some virus protections are free as well as Adobe reader products. I have found certain software will not function properly without all of the components which might mean windows updates or Microsoft office products. Keep a planner or notebook that gives dates of current updates to keep you on top of equipment and software. This will keep you up and running in your virtual home office.

For me, the view from the home office is so essential.  I recently moved my office from a small room without much of a view to a larger office with a great window and a great view.    For more tips on the ideal home office locations, please review chapter ten of the book.

I love my career working virtually from my  home office. It gives me the flexibility to contribute an income to our household, as well as enjoying life along the way. In my position as a Program Consultant, we have hired many people that share the same attitude towards working from home except for one small thing..they really don’t want to work. People that think they want to want to work from home will find many reasons to keep them from doing their job:

The cable man is coming; I need to take off the day.

The kids have a dentist appointment; I can’t work today.

I am just not feeling well.

How about if I get started on that tomorrow?  Or next week?

Working from home is very flexible and that same flexibility is one of the greatest reasons to work from home; but working from home is still work. If I don’t complete my scheduled working hours, I will not have a job or future work.  If you need help with time management, check out Melissa’s book:“Your Virtual Home Office can be a Reality”

I have worked from home for 12 years, but I have recently made a very positive change within my working environment.  I have made the transition from a home office to a portable office.   With my new laptop and a briefcase filled with necessary files, I am ready to work from any location with wifi.

The transition has been quite rewarding and I frequently find myself working while  waiting for appointments or killing time between appointments.