One of the thing I love about the small business training is meeting so many people with great stories to tell.
I'll be repeating many of them here, and passing on some great tips for smoothing out the bumps of self-employment.
Here's one which was passed on by someone who'd started her new business at home after working for many years at the BBC.
She was re-adjusting nicely to being self-employed, but one thing was getting to her; her friends would see her car in the drive and assumed that she was always in for coffee.
Being a well-brought up kind of person, she found it impossible to tell her friends to get lost. They'd be in the kitchen boiling a kettle before she had a chance to explain that she was in the middle of some work. So how to diffuse the situation?
She decided to leave a file full of old papers next to the front door. Whenever the doorbell rang she'd come to the door, pick up the file and cradle it in a business-like fashion in her left arm. When she opened the door the friend would see the file and say "Oh, sorry. I see you're working now. I just wanted a coffee and a chat. So when would you like to meet?"
She reports that it works every time. She doesn't see her friends any less, but she sees them at a time convenient to her. Briliant.
Got any other tips for home working? I'd love to hear from you.
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