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February 5, 2018 0 Comments

3 Ways to Set Expectations in a Home Based Career

Working from home affords a lot of flexibility and often improves quality of life, but it brings into focus the question of work life balance.  If you’re always in your “office,” does work ever stop?

One way to ensure that working from home is, in fact, working from home, it’s important to set expectations – and boundaries. You can still be there for friends and family on a more flexible basis while still having time to complete your tasks.

Set office hours and a schedule

Even though you aren’t going to an office, it’s still important to have fairly consistent office hours.  Not only does this set an expectation for friends and family, it keeps you on a schedule.  We typically get more done when we’re on a daily schedule, so it’s a great method for productivity.

Just because you set office hours doesn’t mean they have to be 9 AM to 5 PM.  If it works better for your family to start earlier or later, go for it.  It might be helpful to carve out an hour or two for kids’ obligations, car pool, or anything else that you typically need to get done.

Create a family calendar and fill it in.  You can create a schedule around this, giving yourself time off, extra days of work, and so on.

Have a conversation

If you work from home, you might find that more of the house work and kid responsibilities are your job. This can be a great benefit of working from home, but it can also become overwhelming.

If you feel that the home obligations are out of balance, or you aren’t able to complete your work, it’s time to have a conversation.  Delegate some tasks to a babysitter or family member, and simply make it known that you’re only available at certain times.

Make it a real job

Working from home is still working, and it should be treated as such.  Create an office space that you enjoy, keep housework to breaks only, and work as you would in a traditional office.

The benefits of working from home include flexibility and comfort, but it’s easier to take it seriously and work successfully as an independent employee when you work in a more traditional way.  When you, as well as others, see your job as more “real,” the balance of work and the boundaries of time are more likely to be adhered to.

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January 29, 2018 0 Comments

3 Ways to Make Your Resume Stand Out

Resumes are crucial parts of our application process.  We typically can’t get a job without one!  While they’re very important, they can also be tedious and frustrating for your potential employers. In addition to that, they often have an enormous amount of resumes to sift through.  Whether it’s too much text, ancient job positions, or any combination of both, it’s important to stand out among these resumes.

When you stand out, you become memorable to the employer or hiring manager. When a job position is popular, it can hundreds – or even thousands – of positions. Check out our tips to make sure you’re standing out among the crowd!

Change the look

Boring is out! The standard black text on white paper can be tiresome and even hard to read after so many resumes. If you have some design experience, take a stab at a unique layout.  Or, you could experiment with fun colors.

Although standing out is important, your resume still must be readable and professional.  You can inject personality and uniqueness while still staying true to yourself, the job position, and the work environment.

Keep it short and sweet

Long resumes are often the least fun part of a hiring manager’s job.  Make it easy on them! Keep your resume to one page if possible, two at the absolute max.  Remove any old information, fluff words, and information that isn’t pertinent to the exact job positions you’re applying for.

Get very specific with your qualifications, achievements, and job positions.  Keep only the most important information in your resume, and leave any lengthy job descriptions for interview questions.

Pack it with the good stuff

Remove as much general information as you can.  For example, “I produced $30,000 of additional revenue for the charity event,” not “i.e. I successfully planned a local event.”

Hiring managers and employers want to know, as specifically as possible, what you’ve accomplished.  Data and numbers really stand out more than “fluff” terms, and they help you to get noticed.  It’s very impressive that you increased attendance, saved money, made more money for a charity event, and so on.  It’s not as impressive that you created “outstanding marketing pieces,” since that information cannot be qualified or verified.

Creating a stand out resume removes unnecessary information, making it easy on those who are potentially hiring you.  A great resume is one that was given time and attention, making it unique and fun to look at.  Spend some time making the resume reflect you – in a professional way.

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January 15, 2018 0 Comments

5 Time Tracking Options for Virtual Professionals

When you work remotely or hire virtual professionals, you need a reliable way to track hours. Small businesses want to see how their virtual contractors or off-site employees are spending their time.  And contractors need a professional and reliable way to track their hours and bill their clients.

We’ve complied a list of some of the most popular time-tracking websites below. Many of these tools also integrate with other team and client management software which can be very helpful.

Toggl

Toggl makes it easy for you.  “Logging time with Toggl is as easy as it can possibly be. Just click a button to start the timer, and stop it once you’re done with your tasks. Simple as that, on any device.”

Toggl also allows you to log time anywhere on the web, so you don’t have to login to Toggl every time.  You can also discover what’s taking up your time via their visual reports option, so you’re able to visually see how long each task takes, as well as the time spent by your team members.

Pricing begins at $9.00 per month for the Starter level, and goes up to $49.00 per month for larger organizations and those who want additional features.

Harvest

Not only can you track your own time on Harvest, but you can see where your team’s time is going as well.  “Harvest collates this raw timesheet data into a visual summary of where your team’s time is going,” according to their website.

You’re also encouraged to keep track of Projects, so things never slip through the cracks.  According to their features, you can “Keep your projects on track (and make sure your business is going strong) with answers to key questions, courtesy of intuitive visual reports pulled right from your timesheets.”

Pricing is free for one person and 2 projects, and goes up to $12.00 per person, per month if you purchase for a team.

Timely

Timely offers great features that allow you to “Let your timesheet create itself. All you need to do is to confirm.”

The site allows you to create an automatic timeline based on tasks, from your calendar, which you’ve completed in an easy to see and use format.  This was created because “People forget what they worked on, and they don’t want to spend time tracking time. So they avoid it, and you have to chase them down. That’s where Memory comes in: A radical new way to track time,” according to the Timely website.

Pricing begins at $7.00 per month and goes up to $59.00 per month for larger teams and more in depth features.

MyHours

MyHours allows you to “Start or stop timer with a single click, switch timings between tasks in seconds or, just as important, pause for a coffee break.”

MyHours also has the capability to set variable hourly rates, report work to your clients in style and detail, and do this via PDF and Excel reports.  They also offer a graphic breakdown of your work, so you’re able to see how your time is spent, how tasks are going, and what your team members are up to.

Pricing begins for free, and goes to $6.00 per user, per month for more capabilities, such as budgeting, billing, additional team members, and more.

Paydirt

Paydirt offers Smart Time Tracking, which means you can “Use the built in tracker to start a timer for any client in one click. Tracking time is a pain, but Paydirt takes the sting out,” according to their website.

It also integrates with Basecamp, Trello, Redbooth, Google Chrome and Zapier. Pricing begins at $8.00 per month for a single user, and up to $149.00 per month for a large agency of 20 team members.  “Smart Reminders” allow you to “determine who you’re working for automatically, and adds a link to start a timer right there on the page.”  It’s a very simplified option that keeps you on task.

 

 

 

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December 11, 2017 0 Comments

5 Tips for a Successful Blog

Running a successful blog is a very important part of running a business.   How can blogging help you?  It can boost SEO, help you establish yourself as the expert in your field, and provide content for social media posting.

We’ve all heard that blogging is important, but how do we achieve success with our blog?  Read along for some best tips and tricks to make blogging painless and effective!

Post consistently

Consistency is key! If you only blog once or twice per year, you’re not accomplishing any of the goals of blogging.  You need to get on a consistent schedule, whether it’s once per week, 3 times per week, or once per month. Decide what you can commit to and stick with it! It will take some time to see results, but it’s worth sticking it out.

Create a content calendar of topics and blog post ideas and work from there.  Once you lay out your schedule, make it easy on yourself and have everything ready to go. From here, you can simply start writing and let the words flow.

Share it

Once you create blog content, you have to share it! Start by sharing on your business Facebook page – and even your personal page if it’s a widely relevant topic.  From there, you can share to Twitter, LinkedIn, and anywhere else that your business has a presence.  This allows for more eyes on your blog post, which makes the effort even more worth it.

Another thing you can do is add the blog post to your LinkedIn page.  There’s the “Publisher” or “Write an Article” feature at the top of the page, and it’s useful to share your content there as well.

Use the content

Use the content that you worked so hard to create! You can break down your blog post into little tips and advice, which you can then share on social media.

Find a central topic and create an eye-catching graphic around it.  You can simply copy and paste the information into the graphic, making it very shareable and beneficial, since you’re reusing the content for social media content purposes.

Write about what matters

Write about things that people would want to know most in your industry! When people come to your blog, they want to know more about your expert topic.  Show your skill set! Provide answers to common questions, show the benefits of your business or service, or simply write on a topic that’s also relevant to your specific audience. When people are connected to your blog posts, they’re more likely to keep reading and to share with others.

Search it out

Try the Google Keyword Planner! It’s a great place to test searches and see what people are searching within your industry and knowledge base.  You can test keywords and see how they perform, as well as the competition around certain keywords.  This is a great way to stay above the competition; it’s like you’re reading the minds of your audience!

When you know what people want to see, it’s easier to come up with a content calendar.  Create a content calendar with post topics, titles, and blog graphics at least 4-8+ weeks out, which will make it all the easier for you to blog on a consistent basis.

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November 27, 2017 0 Comments

4 Ways to Be Present Over the Holidays

The holidays are here! We’re into the holiday season now, but there’s still over a month of festivities to go.  Are you finding yourself overwhelmed by this time of year?  There’s often a lot going on, and it can be hard to stay in the present moment.

The holidays are the times that we look back on as magical. It’s important to employ techniques that keep us mindful and present.  Read along for our best tips!

Take time

Take time each day during your holiday break to spend time with friends and family.  Give them your full attention! Plan something that you wouldn’t normally do, or simply find somewhere fun and unique to have a great conversation.

The greatest gift we can give each other is our time, so go out of your way to give it freely this year.  You will never regret time well spent with those you love!

Be grateful

According to Harvard Health, “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

When we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s easy to focus on what needs done and not what we’re grateful for.  Take a few minutes every day to make a list – mental or physical – of what you’re grateful for.  It’s an important task with numerous benefits to your health and wellbeing!

Make memories

This is a time of year to have fun and make memories with those we love. If your parties don’t allow you much down time with friends and family, consider catering.  If they tend to lag, think about adding some fun games.

Games, good conversation, and quality time tend to add up to wonderful memories.  You can do something you normally wouldn’t do.  Try ice skating with your kids, outsource the dessert making if you don’t like it and don’t have any time, catch a midnight movie with a friend.  Whatever you do this season, take time to make memories that will last – and enjoy them in the process.

Turn it off

Technology, that is! We’re all glued to our computers, cellphones, and tablets every day, so use this time to disconnect.  You don’t have to fully toss your devices, but limit them as much as you can.  As we mentioned before, giving someone your full attention is a great gift, and you can’t truly do that if you’re constant looking at your phone.

Ask friends and family members if they’re willing to keep technology away from the dining table, and continue this into the evening if you’re all sitting around talking, playing games, or simply enjoying each other’s’ time.  Keep devices limited to emergencies and quick check-ins.

Staying present involves your time, effort, and gratitude to complete.  This time of year, being present it truly worth it.  Give the gift of yourself, fully present, to your friends and family this season.

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November 6, 2017 0 Comments

3 Ways to Adjust to Work From Home Life

Working from home has many wonderful benefits.  From productivity to more time with friends and family, it’s a great way to work with more flexibility.

If you’re new to working from home, you’ll notice it’s a big change from a traditional work environment and schedule.  Read along for our best tips and advice for a seamless transition.

Start slowly

If you have the opportunity, start slowly into your work from home career.  HireMyMom.com offers freelance and part-time jobs as well as full-time, so start small if you feel like it will be a big transition for you and your family.  Many of these positions also often advertise as part-time with the option to go full-time if things work out; this can be a great compromise!

Whether you’ve quit an office job or chose to stay home with your kids, there’s an in-between option for working from home.  You can still create income and contribute with a freelance, project-based, or part-time position.  This way, you get the best of both worlds while doing other things, or while you prepare to go full-time.

Have a plan

As with everything in life, having a plan and schedule is ideal. Since it’s been proven time and again that home based work results in more productivity, you’ll need to get a sense of what you can accomplish during a day.

Whether you’re staying at the same job but moving to a home office, or starting fresh in your home based career, it’s important to map out your days with a plan.  It’s still easy to get distracted at home, so it’s best to work from a to do list and work schedule.

Get everyone on board

Work from home is just that – work! Many people assume that since you’re home, you’re available 24/7.  This could be true, but not if you want to get any work done.

It’s important to set boundaries and expectations with friends and family as much as you need.  Whether that’s setting up specific times for meeting friends, or having your spouse pick up your kids at an inopportune time for you, it’s still important that your schedule is considered.

When your spouse, friends, or family members go to their traditional office job, they are essentially unable to leave for many obligations.  This is great for you to be able to step in, but it’s not always assumed that you will be available either. To take some tasks off of your plate, it can still be helpful to have a few babysitters on call to help you out when your work is also demanding.

Beginning your work from home journey is so exciting, but also comes with transitional changes.  Take your time, make a solid plan, and set expectations with others and you’ll do just fine!

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September 25, 2017 0 Comments

4 Tips for Keeping Your Computer Organized

When you work from home, your computer is an integral part of your day.  It’s very important to keep it organized and running smoothly.

We all know it’s important to organize our physical files, homes, and schedules, but even with all of that, our computers can look like a disaster!

Get a program

Software programs can really help to keep your computer running smoothly.  An organized computer doesn’t just look good, it functions well.  It’s important to clean out the clutter or “junk” on your comptuer on a consistent basis.

Whether you have a Mac or PC computer, there are several options available.  One is CleanMyPC and another is CleanMyMac.  Both are reasonably priced, and you can run diagnostic and maintenance tests and clean up cycles on your computer.

This will eliminate old, large files, system clutter, and much more.  It’s a sophisticated way to delete several files that are causing your machine to run slowly or inefficiently.

Another method of organization comes in the form of storage.  Sites such as Dropbox allow you to clear a lot of clutter from your desktop and computer and put it elsewhere.  This will free up a ton of space! Just be sure that you’re taking time to organize those files as well, so it doesn’t become a big mess of files.

You can store text documents, spreadsheets, forms, and other types of word processing documents in Google Drive/Google Docs.  It’s a great place to keep things that you want to keep Internet-based.  It’s also easy to share with your team directly.  This is helpful for organization, as it prevents you from having to store individual word documents on your computer.

Make a plan

An organization plan is helpful for everyday life! It should be no different for your computer.  It’s not enough to simply clean off your desktop once or twice; it should become part of your process.

Where do your struggle the most with your computer organization?  It is hundreds of files on your desktop?  A slow-running machine that’s full of unknown junk that’s bogging it down?  Do you have tons of mailboxes with no idea what’s in them?

Have a long session of organization to take stock in where you need to focus your efforts.  Make a plan of action that will get your started in the right direction!

Organize daily

Organization is a habit and you must do it daily.  Take a few minutes at the end of each day to clear your desktop, send files to Dropbox, and put your notes from the day in Google Drive.

Once you’re in the habit of organizing consistently, you’ll see how it frees up your computer and your mind from thinking about it.

Use folders

Folders are a beautiful thing! Whether for your desktop, in your computer or both, it’s important to organize.  In work from home positions, we can typically be working with several clients and/or employers at once.

You can start with big categories, such as one employer, then narrow it down by project or event.  You can keep the most important, often accessed folders on your desktop for easy opening.

Do your best to not have things sitting wildly on your desktop.  It can be visually stressful and overwhelming to see this often, and it makes finding important things very difficult.

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September 18, 2017 0 Comments

4 Top Tips to Be a Successful Work From Home Employee

We’ve talked a lot about being a successful leader and manager, but how do you go about being a successful work from home employee?

Whether you’ve recently come from a traditional office job or you’ve been a home based worker for years, it’s always a good time to reevaluate what you’re bringing to the job.

Track your time

To be a successful worker, it can be helpful to track your time.  Whether this is done at your boss’s request or to see where you’re putting your time, it can help you prioritize.

One of the best ways to be a solid employee is to know how to prioritize and not let things slip through the cracks.  Tracking your time is also incredibly helpful if you’re paid by the hour, as your employer will appreciate the details.

Communicate, communicate, communicate!

The best employees are those who communicate! If you go off the grid, especially in a work from home position, it can spell trouble.

If your employer doesn’t know what you’re doing, they may start to lose trust and begin questioning your employment.  Do your best to communicate with your employer on a consistent basis, and even do check-in calls as needed.

If you do client work for your employer, be sure that any communications are clearly noted there as well.  Since you aren’t in a traditional office environment, staying in contact via email, phone, and text becomes even more crucial!

Make a schedule

Along with tracking your time, a schedule can help you stay on task.  It can be best to make an outline of your work week schedule for the upcoming week.  Start with the items that you do on a daily basis, then add in other items based on due dates.

From here, you can add the “special” projects and unique items as they come in.  Working with a schedule or to do list also helps things to not get missed, as they simply go to the next day’s schedule if they aren’t completed.

Build relationships

Staying connected and being a successful work from home employee begins with communication.  Once that trust has been built and nurtured, you can begin to build relationships with your employers and co-workers.

Since everyone likes to work with those they know, like and trust, establishing strong, trusting relationships with your team is very important.  This will ensure that your value is communicated beyond the professional sphere.

Being a good employee involves personal accountability and responsibility, solid scheduling, and lots of communication! If you take time to do these things on a consistent basis, you will certainly find success as a home based employee.

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August 21, 2017 0 Comments

5 Ways to Get a Work From Home Job

Home based job positions are highly coveted in today’s society.  Since we can almost always work from anywhere, the concept of a traditional office is changing.  Parents and families want more flexibility and time together, and work-life balance is becoming more of a prominent concept.

Even if you want to work from home, you may be curious about how to make that happen.  Most job postings are still for traditional office environment jobs, so it can be daunting to begin the search.  Read along for some of our best tips for landing a remote job position.

Use specific sites

There are specific websites just for the purpose of filling home based job positions.  Sites like HireMyMom.com are carefully crafted to filter only remote positions, making your search much quicker and less frustrating.  All jobs on HireMyMom.com are screened and involve flexible work schedules and environments.

Using specific virtual job sites also eliminates the probability of scam listings, which are prevalent in the work from home field.  Specific sites don’t typically feature multi-level marketing jobs, and they cater more to the educated professional seeking a similar job to those in the traditional workforce.

Avoid scams

As we mentioned above, scams are everywhere when seeking a virtual career.  Many listings feature jobs that you have to buy into, which should never be the case with a home based job position.  They will also say they’re virtual jobs, when they’re truly just call center or sales positions.

While there’s nothing wrong with these types of jobs, they aren’t often what most people are seeking when trying to find home based work.  Avoid the scammy positions and look elsewhere for your new position!

Word of mouth

Listen closely! Friends, family members, and current co-workers might have the in when it comes to home based jobs.  Sometimes a business owner will need a Virtual Assistant or Admin.  Maybe your hair salon is looking for social media management, or maybe you can offer your editing services to a family member who’s an author.

There are many ways to find freelance home based positions, which can transition to full-time work.  Listen to those around you, and see where you can offer your home based services in ways that can help others.

Look to the traditional

Don’t fear the traditional job postings.  Sometimes, in a sea of “regular” jobs, you’ll see that they’re open to remote or virtual candidates.

When you search, try words such as: “remote,” “virtual,” “telecommute,” “home-based,” or “work from home.”  You might be surprised to find that a lot of traditional office environments are open to ideal candidates who might not live in their cities.

Make it a transition

Sometimes a work from home career can come out of a traditional one.  You might find that you start in an office-based job position and have that conversation with your boss about transitioning to remote work.  Just because your current job is in an office, doesn’t mean that your boss isn’t potentially open to exploring the option of virtual work.  You don’t know if you don’t ask!

Maybe you can transition to 2-3 days per week at home, and eventually, full time. Show your boss that your productivity levels have increased, and be as effective as possible in your trial or transition time period.  Show that you have mostly eliminated sick days and overhead.  There are tons of benefits to working from home, and it’s up to you to do the convincing to make this a viable option for you.

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August 14, 2017 0 Comments

3 Tips for Effective Time Management

We’re always looking for more time in our days, but sometimes it’s a matter of managing the time we do have in a better way.  There are tons of time management tips out there, and they all work if we do them consistently.

Read along for some quick, best tips and practices for managing your time and busy schedule.

Write it down

Every success begins with writing something down.  We all hear time and time again that goals, schedules, and priorities should be written down – and for good reason!  When we write something down, it becomes more solidified in our minds.  Also, we can visually see what we’re supposed to do or remember.

Write down everything you can in regards to managing time.  A to-do list, schedule, calendar/planner, and any priorities that will keep you on track.  Get into the habit of writing out your day in the morning.  This will allow you to check items off as you move through the day, as well as keep you on task.  Rate your tasks by order of importance, and implement your calendar to block off periods of time for work.  It’s important to keep up with your workload as much as possible, as playing catch up can truly mess with your time management.

Look at your priorities

Where are your truly spending your time?  You might think you’re only watching TV for 2 hours per day, but if you really look at your day, it might be more like 5 or 6 hours.  It’s easy to spend time on mindless activities, so getting very clear about where your time is going is crucial.

Prioritizing also involves saying “no” sometimes, which is a powerful way to clear some time in your schedule.  Say “yes” to the things that bring you joy and time with those you love, and “no” to those that are more obligatory.  Prioritizing isn’t always an easy thing to do, but it’s crucial to saying sane and staying on task.

Add to your breaks

If you work from home, you’re lucky enough to be in your own home for most of the day.  There’s typically laundry to be done, dishes to be put away, and hutches to be dusted. Since breaks should be a part of your day, it can be helpful to use your breaks to fit in other items.

This doesn’t need to include housework, but that’s the most common task.  Throw in a load of laundry during your 10-minute morning break, fold a load of laundry after lunch, or water the garden during your afternoon break.  Most breaks can seem fairly mindless anyway, so it can make you feel more accomplished to check off those little things that need done anyway.

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