Maintaining a Professional Image While Working at Home

One of the benefits of a home office is never having to wear a scratchy wool suit or pantyhose (unless you want to). The danger is that it’s easy to let that professional image slide if you spend the workday sitting on your couch wearing yoga pants and channel surfing in between conference calls. Follow these tips to maintain a professional image while working at home:

Stick to a schedule. True, working from home allows you to set your own schedule and gives you the flexibility to travel, take care of children, or otherwise tend to your personal life. But if clients never know when they’ll be able to reach you or if you sometimes sleep ‘til noon because you stayed up late watching movies, that can jeopardize your professional reputation. Your work hours will depend on the nature of your business and when you work best, but once you get into a schedule, try to follow it. And let your regular clients or customers know what those hours are. Being self-disciplined with your time means customers or clients can count on you and makes it easier to get work done.

Mind your social media use. Sites like Facebook and Twitter can be excellent tools for promoting your business and keeping in touch with old friends or colleagues. But if you get too personal or casual online, it can have an adverse effect on your business. Remember, anything you post online is public. Even if your settings are supposedly private, it’s easy for one of your contacts to take a screenshot or retweet something they find funny and/or offensive. Be friendly, but put on a professional face and always ask yourself how potential customers or clients might react to something you’ve posted.

Manage your incoming phone calls. If you use your cell phone for business and personal calls, remember to answer calls from unfamiliar numbers in a professional manner. Resist the urge to answer if you’re in a noisy bar or next to a screaming child. In fact, if you have young children, you should set up a separate phone line for your business and make sure you’re the only person who answers it.

Set up a separate workspace. Even if it’s a converted closet or a corner of your living room, having a space devoted to work helps you get into a business mindset that you’ll project to clients or customers. Having a designated workspace also helps you navigate issues of work/life balance. When you’re at your desk, it’s time to work. When you’re sitting on the couch watching TV, it’s time to relax.

Get out of the house when you have to. Sometimes it’s hard to feel like a professional when you’re surrounded by laundry that needs to be folded or toys that need to be put away. In those cases, it makes sense to work somewhere else, at least part of the time. It’s also smart to have a place outside of your home for meetings. Co working spaces often let you rent conference space by the hour or the day. You could also partner with another small business to share meeting or office space.

The bottom line? Maintain a professional mindset and create some separation (physically and mentally) between your business and your personal life.

© 2010 Ali International

Self-made millionaire entrepreneur and Inc. 500-ranked CEO Ali Brown teaches women around the world how to start and grow profitable businesses that make a positive impact. Get her FREE weekly articles and advice at http://www.alibrown.com/

Your Spouse Does What?

If you are like many small business owners, you try not to miss an opportunity to network with others. Did you know that some of your best referrals could come from your spouse, directly or indirectly sharing your business information with others? But if you are like Jennifer Harmon, you may need to train your spouse on what to say.

Darrell Harmon, of People Smarts, often uses examples from home in his business training sessions to explain how crucial conversations and crucial confrontations can be handled. Darrell used to say, “My wife does Pampered Chef.” Well yes, that is Jennifer’s business, and she has been a successful consultant for the past 13 years.

But here are the phrases Jennifer asked her husband to use to create an interest in her business:

“My wife goes into homes and teaches cooking skills.”
“My wife teaches women meal planning and cooking tips.”
“My wife shares with other women how to bring the family back around the table.”

The results – increased sales!

Have you been overlooking the opportunity to have your spouse or other family members network for you?

Bev McCrostie, M.Ed.
Virtual Assistant Certificate
Red Deer College
Bev.mccrostie@rdc.ab.ca
www.virtualassist.ca