As a work-at-home professional it is important to have a housecleaning schedule.  You have options: you can hire someone to do the cleaning for you, you can schedule specific times during the week to do it, or you can select one day each week to do your housecleaning. The goal should be to make the most effective use of your time and if paying someone to do it while you use your time to work on strategies in your business, then that’s a great choice. Only you can make the final decision.

If your home office is well-organized, you have items that you use frequently placed together on your desk or within easy reach. Your cleaning supplies should be stored together for easy retrieval when you need them.

The kitchen is usually one of the areas of the home that is used most frequently. Keep utensils, dishes and the like that you use frequently together and work at cleaning up immediately after use. You do not need the feeling of guilt and stress knowing that it still needs to be cleaned every time you pass your messy kitchen to and from your home office. Just get it done immediately.

Multi-task when possible. If you’re heading to a section of your home to do one task, think of what you could take to the room at the same time, saving you time and steps.  Implementing strategies in your business includes networking with other work-at-home women.  A great organization for work-at-home women is the AWHW.org

Time-management expert Mark Sanborn said, “Some things are worth doing well, some things are worth doing very well, and some things are just worth doing.” You decide.

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Yvonne Jones is a home-based Entrepreneur and Direct Sales Consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to build and maintain relationships with their clients through regular communication.  To learn more about how this can be done easily and effectively, visit her website at http://cardsuccesscircle.com.

She also partners with women to develop a skin care program to meet their specific needs. To learn more, visit her blog.

There are many blogging platforms available; some of the free ones are Blogger, Blogspot, and wordpress.com.  There are also many paid sites, but the one I’m most familiar with is Typepad.

Wordpress.org is considered to be the premium blog platform and is a hosted blog.   Here are three benefits to having a Wordpress blog:

1)  Wordpress gives you the ability to work on a post offline. You may also build, edit and post to your blog at anytime, without being connected to the internet.  This is different from most blog software applications, which require you to be logged on to the internet.

2)  It is easy to use.  Wordpress functions are code-free thereby allowing you to post easily with icons that are similar to a word processing program.  This ease of use allows you to create beautiful, high tech blogs that look and are as complete as full-blows websites.

3)  Wordpress has an amazing plug-in library that allows users to add features and functions to posts and pages instantly.  The plug-in library has been enhanced by programmers and designers who have created their own plug-ins for their specific needs.

Wordpress.org allows you to create very attractive blogs that encourage people to visit and stay to read whatever is posted on the site.

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Yvonne Jones is a home-based Entrepreneur and Direct Sales Consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to build and maintain relationships with their clients through regular communication.  To learn more about how this can be done easily and effectively, visit her website at http://cardsuccesscircle.com.

She also partners with women to develop a skin care program to meet their specific needs. To learn more, visit her blog.

If you have read any of my posts before you know how I feel about Time Management. Basically, I believe that since you cannot control time, it’s difficult to manage it, but you CAN manage how YOU use time.

Those persons who work outside of the home, or who did so in the past know how interruptions from co-workers, phone calls, an unplanned meeting and vists from co-workers who always seem to have less work to do than you can derail your schedule for what you hoped to accomplish that day. Working from home can present similar challenges: an unexpected call from your child’s school, phone calls – related or unrelated to work, or your neighbor who ‘knows you’re home’ and stopped by to chat.

How do you manage phone calls so they do not interrupt your flow of thought or work? This is especially challenging for those of us who are in Direct Sales or any kind of sales as we know that our clients expect to speak with us directly when they call. Recently I found that a number of my clients no longer leave messages, they just hang up and expect that I’ll see their number and return the call. Has this happened to you? How do you handle that?

To avoid the vicious cycle of phone tag, voice mail funnel or as one author describes it “voice mail hell” following are five tips:

1) On your outgoing voice mail, let people know when you will return calls. You could choose to mention that you are in your office and will return calls between ___ and ___ or you could just say that you are on the other line and will return calls between a stated time period. When you reach a voice mail leave a message with the best time for the person to return your call.

2) Schedule specific call times and work at sticking to it.

3) When you reach your caller, practice good telephone manners by asking if this is a convenient time for your caller to talk. It can be frustrating to start a conversation and outline what you’re calling about then to be told by the person you called that they are busy and be asked if they can call you back. You should also indicate to the person you’re calling that your time is limited, but you wanted their input or response on the reason for your call.

4) If you are annoyed it will be reflected very loudly in your voice. Before you pick up the phone, smile! The person who receives the call or the voice mail message will have a totally different feeling than if your voice radiates annoyance. Their response to you will also be more favorable.

5) Have you ever tried listening to a long, rambling voice mail? Make you voice mail as brief, but as concise as possible and don’t forget to include the best time you can be reached.

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Yvonne Jones is a home-based Entrepreneur and Direct Sales Consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to build and maintain relationships with their clients through regular communication.  To learn more about how this can be done easily and effectively, visit her website at http://cardsuccesscircle.com.

She also partners with women to develop a skin care program to meet their specific needs. To learn more, visit her blog at http://www.yvonneajones.com

If you work from home you invariably have multiple responsibilities.  You may be a work-at-home-woman, possibly a Mom.  You may be a work-at-home-man, possibly a Dad.  Your reasons for working from home may differ, but ultimately the goal is the same: To earn an income from the business activities you engage in from home.  Note that I mentioned “from home.”  While home is the base for many of us, our actual work activities may take us away from home for chunks of time, while those involved in Internet Marketing only may spend more time at home.

How about you? At the end of the day do you often find yourself asking, “Where did the time go?”  Do you have a schedule for your business?  Do you stick to your schedule or do you find yourself constantly engaged in non-business activities during designated business hours?  Do you find it hard to say “No” to various requests from friends and family?  An honest response to “Where did the time go” may reveal that your fear or reluctance of saying “No” to others could be contributing significantly to valuable loss of time that should be spent in your business. Remember that whatever fear you may have of offending others may be only based on your perception and not necessarily on the reality of how others will respond when you explain your priorities.  I’ve done the same thing in the past, especially when I had visitors.  Even though I love them I would silently resent the intrusion  because I felt I had to spend time making more meals, talking with them , etc.   Interestingly I’ve come to realize that once I explained to my visitors the hours I needed to spend working in my business, they understood and were willing to help themselves more. Learning to say “No” may require a change in your mindset, but good judgment and proper planning will allow you to spend more time in your business.

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P.S. Do you find it challenging to maintain motivation in your business? Go to the box on the right and opt-in to receive the MP3 and Transcript of my interview with Denise Hart, the Motivation Mama.

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Yvonne Jones is a home-based Entrepreneur and Direct Sales Consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to build and maintain relationships with their clients through regular communication.  To learn more about how this can be done easily and effectively, visit her website at http://cardsuccesscircle.com.

She also partners with women to develop a skin care program to meet their specific needs. To learn more, visit her blog at http://www.yvonneajones.com

Customers may be unhappy for a number of reasons: the product did not meet their expectations, they did not experience the desired results, they were dissatisfied with the color or texture; they may regret an impulsive purchase and would like to have a refund, or because buying often involves the emotions the initial enthusiasm for the product has waned.

Regardless of the reason for the dissatisfaction, how you respond to the complaint makes the difference between customer retention and customer abandonment. Successful entrepreneurs and small business owners recognize that tact and discernment are necessary to cultivating and maintaining good customer relationships. Your goal should be to keep your customers happy to the extent possible.  Not only is this the wise course from a business perspective, but is also the best course from a relationship point of view.  While there are some persons who will rarely be satisfied, your main concern should be to do your part to retain your customer.

It has been said that when someone is happy with your products or service they will tell three people, but when they are dissatisfied they share this with 3,000.  Which would you prefer? Responding promptly and offering to correct the situation is the most effective route to take in
addressing  dissatisfaction and increase customer retention.  Make it seem to the customer that this was the easiest thing to correct and, in
fact, you appreciate that they brought it to your attention. Follow-up with a card of appreciation for their continued business.

People want to be made to feel important and if you can genuinely keep them feeling that way, they will leave your space feeling that you really appreciate them and they would rather do business with you than anyone else who may provide similar products and services.

This post was written by Barbara Lopez of Brightfarm Introductions.  I felt it was a really great article to make networking and connecting people through e-mails a more effective process and wanted to share it with my readers.

In your daily travels, you'll often times meet people who you think should meet someone else in your network.  Sometimes
it's someone who shares a need that you think someone you know can fill
for them, and sometimes it's a connection based on some sort of common
interest – people that have a complimentary type of business or
service, or even just a common personal interest.  

Barbara Lopez, "The Elevator Pitch
Coach" with Brightfarm Introductions, helps business professionals
introduce themselves with high impact.  Everything in business starts with
an introduction.  If you're ready to learn how to introduce yourself and
your business professionally and comfortably, visit Barbara at www.brightfarm.com.