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

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”

Adhering to business hours from a home office

Lately, the office phone seems to ringing later and later into the evening.  While I am thankful that the phone is ringing and my home based business is growing, I have also found that those calls are steadily nibbling into family time. 

It appears I need to work on adhering better to my established business hours as stated on page 51 of Your Virtual Home Office Can Be A Reality! .  Even though I have had a home office for over ten years, I often find that I need to continually strive to place boundaries on my home life and work life to ensure the proper balance between the two.

I talk about this subject since it is a lesson I am teaching my adult children. My son is seeking a job and has been taken in by all of the scams and ads that stated “ Apply here and earn $1,000 per week”. There are so many scammers out there looking for innocent people seeking to better themselves with a job. Don’t be fooled by the ads. When looking for jobs, steer clear of ads that just seem too good to be true.

Check out the job boards and always check out companies with organizations such as the BBB. Working in your virtual home office is truly a blessing and should not leave you with a sour taste in your mouth.

Virtual employees or contractors can save a company many dollars in terms of reduced overhead expenses in comparison to onsite employees.   However, managing virtual employees also offers a unique set of challenges.  Managers often find that their employees are not fully realizing their potential from the home office and can lose their focus; therefore, many of these same companies are contacting us for help and training in the home office aspects.

If we can help your team fully embrace the home office environment through our training programs, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

It seems like everyone is on the social media sites. You have Facebook, twitter, email and the list goes on and on. It can really be hard to focus on your work once you have these sites open. Sometimes because we work from home, we have a tendency to think it is not as important to keep your focus on work and turn off the distractions.

I make a point to check the sites that are important to me before starting work for the day. I am easily distracted and don’t need to hear about drama while I am working. When working from your virtual home office, you have to pick and choose when it is appropriate to take a phone call or check your social sites. Focus takes work and dedication. If you need help with distractions-check out Melissa’s book- Your Virtual Home Office Can Be a Reality.

Working from my virtual home office is the best thing I have ever done for myself and my family. However, not everyone feels that way. There are some virtual workers that need the everyday office drama and feel somewhat isolated from the day to day grind of the traditional brick and mortar job.

I personally have more interaction with people working from my home office than I would if I worked outside of the home. By working virtually, I am able to pick and choose my working relationships. In a traditional office, I would be required to interact with everyone.

When I am working at home in my virtual office, I often struggle with managing my time. It is not always the family or work that causes issues. It can also be the weather, society or general everyday distractions that keep me from performing at my best.

Every morning before I start my work day, I sit down and plan my day by priorities. This allows me to know what has to be done for the day and what could be put off to a later day or evening time when the family is in bed or occupied.

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.

I find this topic amusing. You hear about people that work from home in their pajamas and house shoes, but I cannot see my self as motivated if I crawl out of bed in the morning and start work. My day starts as any job would.  I get up at a set time, take a shower and get dressed in appropriate clothing for working from home and start my work day.

Motivation is different for everyone. My motivation is treating my work from home position just like a job that I would leave my home to go to the office.  The only difference is my commute time. The only traffic jam I encounter is the dog lying across the hallway to my virtual office.

When you are working in a virtual world, you really have to be extra careful when banking. Should you participate in direct deposit? I am a firm believer that if it is meant to happen-it will, but I don’t want to help it along. In my own personal transactions, I have used Paypal services for payments received from companies – as well as old fashion checks in the mail.

If you feel comfortable with the company you are working for, then by all means use direct deposit. Snail mail seems to have gotten slower over the years. Remember on direct deposit, if the company has authorization to put funds in your bank account, they also have authorization to remove them. Make sure you check out the company to verify they are issue free. The BBB is a great source for complaints on companies.