I just found an excellent article about working from your home office written by Carolyn Kepcher, who was Donald Trump’s right-hand woman for a number of years, both in his company and on the Celebrity Apprentice television series until she left to start her own company. She started her new company by working virtually. We can all certainly relate to that!
Your Money columnist Carolyn Kepcher, author of the best-selling business book, “Carolyn 101,” is the former “Apprentice” star who thrived working for one of America’s toughest bosses. She’s now CEO of Carolyn & Co. (carolynandco.com), an enterprise created by and for career women.
I am a telecommuting convert.
Before this year, I spent nearly 12 years working for a large corporation where I was trained to believe people who worked from home could never get the job done. I believed that, if I couldn’t see my staff, chances were the work was not getting done. Real work meant time in the office.
My first experience disproving this theory was a revelation. It came on a day a few years ago when I was feeling so ill I couldn’t make it to work. Since I’m not the kind of person who can happily sit back with a box of tissues and cold medicine in front of a television, I grabbed my BlackBerry and laptop and decided to catch up on e-mails. I got more work done in my pajamas that day than I had all week.
I’ve since moved on in my career, creating a startup venture called Carolyn & Co. My business partner and I began by working from our home offices. As the company grew, so did our demands. We needed staff, but didn’t have office space. We found ourselves hiring people willing to work from home.
I’ll admit: The whole scenario made me nervous. Very nervous.
What a lesson I learned. Not only was the work getting done in a timely matter, the results were impressive. We were able to negotiate contracts, make decisions, plan, create, implement - efficiently and seamlessly - without sharing one square foot of office space.
I don’t believe telecommuting is for everyone. Some industries and positions aren’t well-suited for it. And there are those employees who simply lack the discipline and organization to effectively work from home.
But it works well for many, especially people with kids. As important as it is to have face time in the office, it’s more important to have face time at home.
When I work from home, I see my 5- and 7-year-old off on the bus in the morning, then get right to work. I take a lunch break at noon with my 5-year-old when she gets off the bus, and then it’s back to business.
Work is still work, but life is a little easier when you have more flexibility to balance your career with all your other priorities.
For employers, there are adjustments to be made to accommodate telecommuters. But there are enough advantages to make it worth it.
For starters: There’s a whole pool of barely tapped talent out there; people with great skill and experience who simply can’t or won’t work in a traditional job or office setting. Being open to telecommuting naturally enhances the desirability of any employer with jobs to fill.
In return for giving them greater flexibility with their job, employees who telecommute tend to be highly motivated and loyal, gracing bosses with a lower rate of job turnover. Also, many telecommuters want to work part-time, decreasing the cost of their benefits. And telecommuters cut back on office space overhead.
Employees and employers need to think it through, but I’m now a true believer that, when it works, it works for everyone involved.
As both a Web Developer and Virtual Assistant I am always on the lookout for automation tools. There are a couple of free tools that I use daily and want to share them with you.
The first one is a nifty little tool called “ShortKeys” which is intended for use with programs that allow text input such as a word processor, text editor, e-mail program, etc. It replaces a text string of up to 32 characters with a word, sentence, paragraph or several paragraphs, saving you valuable time by not having to manually type the text. Errors in typing can be eliminated. Save time hunting for that brilliant email or chunk of text that you want to duplicate by keeping it handy in ShortKeys. You will wonder how you ever got by without it. Did I mention that is is free? You can download it here: http://www.shortkeys.com/lite.htm.
The second tool that I use a LOT is a virtual yellow sticky note. It literally allows you to write a note on what appears to be a yellow sticky note on your desktop. It will stay there until you delete it. It is another free tool that will save you a lot of time when you need to jot a quick note to yourself or keep a reminder front and center where you can see it. You can read about it here: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/index.html and download here: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/download.html.
Enjoy!
Many of us are unintentionally lax with our personal information. Being lax with a client’s information can have devastating consequences for any Virtual Assistant. By being aware of personal and business personal information leaks, you can be proactive in protecting both yourself as well as your clients.
On a personal level, remember the last time you went to the doctor’s office and their new patient form asked for your social security number? Many people will fill in that information simply because it was asked of them. The doctor’s office isn’t paying you a salary or contributing employee taxes from your earnings. This is gratuitous information and they simply do not need it. One of my pet peeve’s about giving out my personal information is having a clerk at Lowe’s ask me for my phone number. They don’t need that information and I consistently refuse to give it to them. Or how about when the cable company asks for your social security number? They can look up your information by your phone number.
Let’s be proactive and guard our personal information.
- Clean out your wallet. Get out all the identification cards you don’t need to carry like your social security card, birth certificate, passport and other sensitive documents. NEVER carry your social security card with you. I am constantly amazed by people who will not memorize their SS number.
- Make sure your social security number isn’t on your driver’s license or insurance card.
- Do not have your home address tags on your keychain. If you lose your keys, a potential thief now knows exactly where you live.
- Create a secure place for all your credit card numbers, bank accounts, PINS and long-distance calling cards. We recommend a password protected excel spread sheet on your computer.
- Use complex passwords. Always avoid using passwords with easy to figure out info like your address, phone, birth date or pet’s name.
- Write “Ask for Photo ID” near the signature line of your credit cards and insist the store ask for that ID when you present them with your card.
- Protect your computer and financial passwords. Don’t put them on your Palm Pilot or cell phone.
- Buy a shredder. USE IT. A lot!
- Get your free annual credit report and check for anything suspicious.
- Consider how you hold legal title to property, cars, investment accounts and such. Move them into a living trust (with a complex name) or investments into a Family Limited Partnership that you control.
As a Virtual Assistant, I ALWAYS recommend that my clients protect themselves with LifeLock, the most advanced Identify Theft Protection system available. Lifelock is the only advanced Identity Theft Protection system available. We use it for personally and highly recommend it. Lifelock is only $10 per month, or $110 per year per adult. They even protect children and students.
So if you haven’t already, get busy and protect your personal information and your client’s information. Be safe!
