Work-Life Balance | Home Office Warrior

Get out!

Mar 19, 2009

No, seriously. Get out of here.

Oh, wait! Read the rest of this first. Thanks.

So I’m working at home all by my lonesome. The view is pretty, I’ve got access to snacks and coffee. I’m on Twitter (too much, probably), so I’ve even got little conversations going.

So why do I start feeling down? What’s with the inner struggle, the questioning of my abilities, wondering about my effectiveness?

Recently I’ve discovered the answer.

Most of the time when I work with my clients, I never even meet them face-to-face. A lot of my interaction is with someone on the other coast via phone, iChat, or e-mail. It works for them, which is the important thing. I do have a few local clients that I am fortunate enough to meet in person. Mostly I work in my studio away from the things of man.

So I’ve noticed that every time I get out and meet a client, a business partner, or even another illustrator I come back feeling refreshed and ready to take on new stuff. It’s not even that we always talk about refreshing new stuff I could work on or apply, sometimes it’s just local microbrews.

Using a small bit of logic and reasoning I’ve deduced that getting out sometimes is healthy for me and my business. There are (of course, you couldn’t see this coming?) a few things I try to remind myself on the way out the door:

1. It’s about them, too. Whoever I’m meeting with. They have plans, thoughts, and needs that aren’t related to me at all. Respect that.

2. Shave. I know, I know; “this is Portland.” I still shave.

3. Bring something to offer. I don’t mean like a casserole. I mean like a thought, some information that might be valuable to the other person.

Thats’ pretty much it. No major rules here. It’s just about being a human and meeting other humans outside the confines of your computer. It helps, it really does. Besides just getting that essential interaction, you might pick up some valuable info for your business. You could even (crazy) create a brand new relationship.

Now you can go. Go on, get out!

David Billings is an illustrator, animator, and writer. He currently runs two businesses from his home studio near beautiful Mount Hood, Oregon.

Sparky Firepants Images (http://sparkyfirepants.com) is focused on building kids’ brains to ginormous sizes while they have a crazy time. David creates fantastic, colorful images that complement books and educational media for preschool and elementary-level kids. A unique perspective on children’s publishing and the business of illustration can be found on his blog (http://sparkyfirepants.com/blog).

He also uses his technical expertise in creating corporate graphics and presentations to consult with and assist presenters of all types, keeping their audiences rapt with attention. Prepared Graphics (http://preparedgraphics.com) focuses on helping individuals and small business owners with great content who don’t want to mess around with that PowerPoint stuff.

David lives with his wife and children on an alpaca farm. No, they don’t really smell that bad.

Home Based Business, Home Office Warrior, Home Office Worker, Networking, Tips for Working at Home, Work-Life Balance Written By David Billings Comments (0)

How Exactly is This Different Again?

Feb 12, 2009

Welcome to the fantastic secret universe of the home office worker. Check your former ways of working, living, and thinking at the door.

If you’re like me, you’ve come to this new world of freedom from a 9-5 (okay, 8-7) corporate job. In my former career there were things I saw that made me want to hurl my laptop out the window. Office politics, blundering management, new policies that were too broad to be effective for everyone but enforced nonetheless… the list goes on.

Not one to point all ten fingers at The Man – I was guilty myself of some poor practices when I worked in an office. Complacency (sometimes), e-mail avoidance (often), procrastination (daily) were my main corporate vices.

Now that I find myself sans boss, in my home office (studio) environment, I’m starting to get a handle on what it means to be in charge of my every day.

The advantages of being independent are obvious:

No boss hovering around or scheduling impromptu unnecessary meetings
I can plan my day around personal errands, meals, time with family
My studio/office is my own to set up according to my comfort and convenience
I decide what projects I take on, my rates, and how to approach clients

Just about everyone dreams of this world. It sounds like heaven to most people headed toward Independent Land.

While these things are all happy little pieces of this home office universe, I struggled at first, trying to understand how this was different from what I used to do. The only tangible changes were lack of a regular paycheck, no commute, and no co-workers.

Over the course of my first year at home I realized that this couldn’t be simply a shift in location, it was a complete mindset overhaul. I wasn’t just trading in my ties for a t-shirt and wool hat.

I realized that:

Complacency kills, but when you’re on your own it hurts more
I have to find my own “co-workers.” Networking, networking, networking.
Sometimes I have to take on projects that aren’t my ultimate dream.
My family comes first, but they also respect my need to work (it’s our nuts and berries)
My bosses were good at challenging me. I have to find other people to do that now.

I no longer have the luxury of a large company’s sales force to fall back on. If I procrastinate or slack off in my marketing, I will feel the stress a month later.

The reality is that the Deep Pockets Corporation doesn’t exist. People are experiencing layoffs and belt-tightening because of the myth that large corporations have bottomless wells of cash. They act accordingly in their day-to-day “just get me to the weekend” mindset and at some point the bill comes due.

Those corporations are just like my small business, only the scale is different. Which reminds me of another realization:

The reality is, there is no weekend. That’s not a Zen koan, it’s just the truth.

Does that scare you? No weekend? No holidays? No paid vacation?

If you want to be a member of the super secret society of home office professionals, you’re going to have to realize that you cannot shut off your brain at 5:30 PM. You can’t “forget about the office” for the Superbowl.

If you’re going to really make a go of this independence thing, you’re going to have to do more than switch your location and your clothes.

That’s why I say “welcome to a different universe.” It really is.

David Billings is an illustrator, animator, and writer. He currently runs two businesses from his home studio near beautiful Mount Hood, Oregon.

Sparky Firepants Images is focused on building kids’ brains to ginormous sizes while they have a crazy time. David creates fantastic, colorful images that complement books and educational media for preschool and elementary-level kids. A unique perspective on children’s publishing and the business of illustration can be found on his blog.

He also uses his technical expertise in creating corporate graphics and presentations to consult with and assist presenters of all types, keeping their audiences rapt with attention. Prepared Graphics focuses on helping individuals and small business owners with great content who don’t want to mess around with that PowerPoint stuff.

David lives with his wife and children on an alpaca farm. No, they don’t really smell that bad.

Advantages of Working at Home, Home Office, Home Office Worker, Mind Map, Telecommuting, Tips and Hints, Tips for Working at Home, Work-Life Balance Written By David Billings Comments (6)

Announcing Dad-o-Matic

Sep 19, 2008

Announcing Dad-o-Matic is a very recent post over at Chris Brogan’s blog. And I am honored to be a small part of it.

Read Chris’ post about Dad-o-Matic and find out more, who is writing there and a very special guest post.

I will be posting weekly if I can swing it. And if there are certain post you would like me to tackle on Dad-o-Matic let me know. I am open to any suggestions, comments or questions you have. And thanks again to Chris Brogan for allowing me to be a part of this.

Blogging, Home Office Warrior, Work-Life Balance Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (0)

My Work Anywhere Office

Aug 05, 2008

Macworld recently had a post called “The Portable Office: Work Anywhere” and it got me to thinking. What tools am I using myself so I can “work anywhere”? Here are those tools I use almost daily whether I am working in Home Office Warrior headquarters or from somewhere else.

Anywhere Hardware

First of all, there is the hardware I use in my “work anywhere” office. The main piece of hardware I use is of course Macbook The reason I use the Mac computer can be summed up in three words, “it just works”. There is nothing I need to do which I can’t do on the Mac. And once you see many of the applications I use, you will soon realize that I don’t need a pc to do any of them.

The second piece of hardware that I started to use right at a year ago is the iPhone Once again, this is one of those tools I would not be without. The features of the iPhone are ideal for someone who works on the web and needs to do so from anywhere. I will be the first one to admit that AT&T and I don’t always get along. But, what I have come to appreciate is, I really don’t get along with any cell phone carrier. They all have their good points and bad. The iPhone has so many good things going for it, I can overlook my issues with AT&T. (As a side note, I will do a post soon on the applications I feel are must have for the iPhone.)

One other piece of hardware I feel is important, and mainly for those times when I am traveling and working from a hotel room is the AirPort Express Base Station I mainly use it to expand a wireless connection which might be available in the hotel as I find most of them rather weak.

Anywhere Applications

If there was one applications I would not be without, it would be Gmail There are a number of reasons for this choice, even with Apple’s Mail being available.

I get a huge amount of email every single day and being able to create labels and filters with Gmail is wonderful. It really makes organizing the incoming mail easy and efficient.
I publish more than one of my email addresses on the web. Because of this, I really appreciate the built in spam filter Gmail supplies. And I only occasionally get an email that slips through and ends up in the spam folder.
Gmail offers custom domain addresses and we use one with our G2 Web Media domain. I also have a special email address for this blog.
Now that Gmail supports IMAP, I can check my email from any computer that has Internet access. And the iPhone supports Gmail too.

Because those of us here at G2 Web Media aren’t sharing a network calendar per se, we needed some way to share a master calendar and Google Calendar is really our best option for this. Yes we could use Apple iCal and we may eventually move to it once they get the bugs our of Mobile Me. But for now we will stick with Google calendar. With Gcal, I set up multiple calendars, including “G2 Web Media”, “Editorial Calendar”, and “Home”. And like Gmail, I can access my Gcal via my iPhone since I use Spanning Sync to sync my Gcal with iCal and when I sync my iPhone, it is all in sync. I will say this, Mobile Me has been working very good lately and is keeping my iPhone up to date on my calendar without having to sync.

A fairly new application I have come to really appreciate a lot is Evernote With Evernote, I can use it on my MacBook, my iPhone and access it from either. If you have not used it, you really must. What I have found most amazing, just when I think I have figured it out, I find something else I can do with it. And having it on the iPhone has expanding its use even more.

Communicating between all of us involved in the day to day workings of G2 Web Media and even clients is done by using a couple applications, both of which are available from the web. First of all, we use instant messaging all day long and the application we use the most is Adium The other one we use a lot is Skype With Skype, if I am in a hotel room or a shared office space which has wifi, I can make calls with my MacBook. It has become my phone from anywhere.

Anywhere Tools we Need

One are we have been struggling with in finding just the right fit has been project collaboration and a good CRM. One we have been kicking around is BatchBook. I just can’t decide as there are so many to chose from. For project collaborative, the grand-daddy of them all is Basecamp. Again, just don’t know if it is the right fit for us. Where we have been struggle is we can not define what we want these applications to do for us and how we can work with them. We also want applications we can use both on our Macs and our iPhones. We aren’t asking for too much are we?

If anyone would like to leave a comment on what they are using in these two areas, I would greatly appreciate it. Any help you can give would be great.

Work-Life Balance Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (3)

Home Office Highway Taps Verizon Wireless as Premier Sponsor

Jun 02, 2008

Wireless Provider Joins Summer RV Promotion to Showcase Mobile Digital Lifestyle

Home Office Highway, the digital road show that this summer will showcase how personal electronics and small business technology can empower the digital lifestyle from within the comforts of a recreational vehicle, has
signed Verizon Wireless as a presenting sponsor.

“Verizon Wireless is an ideal sponsor because its communications products are vital to any road warrior or digital consumer,” said Jeff Zbar, the tour’s creator and host Home Office Highway. “People who work from the seat of a car or a tech-laden RV must be able to reliably log on to the Internet or communicate with their wireless phone. It’s essential to working and living in the Digital Age.”

“Home Office Highway is a great new concept that relates to such a large part of today’s mobile society,” said Chuck Hamby, public relations manager for Verizon Wireless in Florida. “We’re glad to have the opportunity to show off a variety of our wireless technologies that meet the dynamic lifestyle wishes to work and play while on the move.”

Setting off in a recreational vehicle packed with the latest office technology from partner Office Depot, Zbar and his family will reveal just how productive the modern family can be when traveling the nation’s highways. A widely published technology columnist and author, Zbar will write from the road; his wife, Robbie, will manage the family’s home finances; and their kids will stay connected with friends as the RV travels from Florida up the Eastern Seaboard.

Home Office Highway’s target audience is large and growing – with spending power in the billions. It includes home-business owners (14 million), teleworkers and corporate employees who work from home or the road (25 million), and heads of households who manage family finances via the Internet, electronic banking and bill-pay services.

The 25-foot RV will visit small towns, popular tourist destinations and Office Depot locations. The family will live digitally, networking multiple laptops on latest wireless broadband service, while Zbar files dispatches, blogs and Webcam videologues to reveal how productive a “road warrior” – and his family – can be from the road. Visitors will receive a booklet on setting up an ideal workplace from the road – courtesy Design Print Ship Depot.

ABOUT THE HOST: Jeff Zbar’s work has appeared internationally in Entrepreneur.com, Costco Connection, JuggleZine, the South Florida Business Journal, the South Florida Sun- Sentinel, among other outlets. Learn more at Home Office Highway and Chief Home Officer.

Zbar will be available for media interviews before and throughout the tour, which is scheduled to depart South Florida in early July, and remain on the road for three weeks. For media availability, contact Alan T. Brown with Fish Consulting (954-893-9151) / alan@fish-consulting.com.

Home Office Warrior, Web-Workers, Work-Life Balance Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (0)