Work At Home Business Tips

There are so many people who dream about working from home and being their own boss these days. Just step out of bed and drink their morning coffee while pondering through their e-mails. There would be no commuting, no one to distract you, and your focus would be total.

It's not quite as simple and straight forward as that. Being solely in charge of yourself and your time is not as easy as you might think. The over confidence and surprise of unexpected issues can cause enormous stress and confusion. There is also the problem of being able to self-motivate without the pressure of the manager on your back. Many people find themselves more distracted and less productive when left to their own devices. When you work from home you are responsible for managing your own time.

To organize yourself better and get more done try the following tips to successful time management as your own boss.

1. Make sure you have a separate work area in your home. This does not mean that you have to have a complete office in a private room. Just make sure you have a desk and all your accessories in a corner of one room. This will be your defined work area and everything you need should be in reach.

2. Understand how you work best. You really need to find the best place in your home that will make you the most productive. Make sure you are comfortable but not distracted by outside influences.

3. Be mentally ready to take on specific tasks. Make sure to plan your workday to fit your energy level. Be realistic on what you can accomplish. If you are a morning person then do the hardest things in the morning hours. Make sure to value your personal commitments too, these will give the breaks you will need to clear your head and get you energized

4. Make sure you have the time to accomplish tasks by setting specific business time hours. Most people just figure that because you are at home you are available. This is not true. Interruptions are the biggest problems with the self-employed. Make sure that everyone knows when you are working and not to call by phone or in person. Put the hours you are available to and from on your website to allow customers to know when you will be there physically. Also let friends and anyone not business related know that during this time frame you will not be available for social calls.

You must realize that this way of working takes a lot of negotiating, planning, and prioritizing. No matter what you do you will get that personal call or drop in while you are trying to work. You will also get that business call or e-mail after your specified hours. It happens to everyone. Don't stress out. Take the emergency approach. If this is a personal or business emergency deal with it immediately. If it is something that can wait till an appropriate time then kindly let the person know

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Mission Statement Drift- The Corporate Cancer

Most if not all organisations these days have a published Mission Statement which should explain their reason for being. It is also true to say that most if not all organisations today suffer from 'Mission Statement Drift'.

Why is this?

There could be any number of reasons. However organisations suffering from this malaise are almost certain to have internal problems with communication and or interpersonal relationships. Their processes and procedures are also likely to be somewhat ragged.

All companies large or small follow a corporate script, whether they are aware of it or not.

The modern day corporate script has usually just evolved unnoticed as a consequence of the daily processes running within the organisation. Sadly corporate scripts directly devolved from the corporate mission statement seldom if ever exist.

Why? Because most companies are blissfully unaware of the damaging effect of performing to an inappropriate corporate script.

If left unchecked and ignored an inappropriate corporate script may well develop into a commercial cancer which quietly eats away at the organisations' effectiveness.

Recognisable title examples of corporate scripts which have just evolved surreptitiously are those such as;

A Victorian melodrama.
A Victorian Mill Owner.
A farce.
A Greek Tragedy.
The Roman Empire.
Megalomania.
Charge of the Light Brigade.
I'm alright Jack.
A thriller.
A 'who done it'?
A comedy of errors.

Some of the above may well be familiar to you. You may even have played a role in such a production yourself.

It is obvious that the performers in these productions are all corporate employees, from the longest serving employee to first day recruits; from the gate keeper to the CEO they all have their part to play and play it they do.

The problem is that they are unaware of the fact that they are performing at all, let alone to a script which is totally inappropriate and potentially damaging.

The corporate script should of course devolve from the Mission Statement and its' subsequent corporate objectives.

So, how should a company approach the task of rewriting their corporate script? This is a task which will be beyond all but those CEO's and main board members who are most committed to the long term health and viability of the company for whom they presently have final accountability.

The positive pay off for commencing such an arduous task will most likely not be felt for a few years. It is therefore a most unselfish task for a board to agree to embark upon.

However if anyone would like to seriously consider writing a definitive corporate script which is in trim with their corporate mission statement then the following may be of assistance.

Please feel free to contact me for any clarification or further information. msm@e-trainme.com

26 stage approach to developing an effective Corporate Script

1. Confirm the business you are in.

2. Confirm your market place.

3. Reaffirm your mission statement.

4. Map the mission statement in fine detail.

5. Identify and map the critical corporate objectives.

6. Identify and map the critical tasks to support the corporate objectives.

7. Group the tasks into job title roles.

8. Identify measure and map the competencies and performance attributes for each key job role title

9. Group job title roles into team roles.

10. Group team roles into divisional roles.

11. Match the mapped aggregated divisional competencies and performance attributes with the mapped detail of the corporate mission statement.

12. Apply critical gap analysis to identify any areas of incongruity.

13. If you have an acceptable level of congruence with the corporate mission statement you have a corporate script.

14. Now it is time to cast the key job roles.

15. Identify measure and map the competencies and performance attributes of the total workforce.

16. Match the workforce with the job role titles.

17. Reaffirm the appropriateness of the team groupings by matching aggregated team competencies and performance attributes with team objectives. Apply critical gap analysis to identify any areas of incongruity. If there is an acceptable level of congruence with the team objectives the team structures are in trim.

18. Reaffirm the appropriateness of the divisional groupings by matching aggregated divisional competencies and performance attributes with divisional objectives. Apply critical gap analysis to identify any areas of incongruity. If there is an acceptable level of congruence with the divisional objectives the divisional structures are in trim.

19. Reaffirm the appropriateness of the total workforce by matching total aggregated competencies and performance attributes with corporate objectives. Apply critical gap analysis to identify any areas of incongruity. If there is an acceptable level of congruence with the corporate objectives the human element structure is in trim. If not...............?

20. Monitor the corporate non-fiscal performance by continuously applying items 21-25.

21. Measure and match corporate objectives with your mission statement.

22. Measure and match divisional objectives with your corporate objectives.

23. Measure and match sub-team objectives with divisional objectives.

24. Measure and match actual aggregated sub-team member competencies and attributes with sub-team task driven competencies and attributes.

25. Measure and match team member competencies and attributes with their respective Job Title required Role Competencies and Attributes.

26. Re-assess at least every 12 months.

There are a number of ways in which the above tasks could be approached.

Please feel free to contact me for further information or clarification.

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