Life has taken me away from the home office in the past few weeks as I beging the detailed process of creating aspects of a new Business School for a college in the UK.
The aim is to offer support and access to education to micro-businesses (home based and mobile) This has prompted so many new questions and themes, one of the common aspects is coping with the loneliness, isolation, the need for self disciplne and focus.
So I am looking for the thoughts of those who are experienced in dealing w…
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Added by Mark Trotter on May 20, 2009 at 3:03am —
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It may sound a strange concept but we have to look at the success of home working and realise that as technology and flexible working arrangments grow more companies will be looking at cutting overheads by locating their staff remotely.
We have been told that outsourcing is dying due to the SME's looking inward and reducing outgoings with the idea of keeping everything in house.
Well here is something that may tip the scale for the future of Homeworking.
I went to Comfort In Derbyshire (might…
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Added by Mark Trotter on February 23, 2009 at 3:00am —
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There are three good reasons why a recession is an excellent time for the economy as a whole and they all have to do with the people who need success.
The first simple reason is that out of hardship and no hope comes the opportunist with a real need to sustain the essentials. In the 1980's European recession we saw the move from manufacturing to service industries because people had the desire to get off the benefit handout system and get into meaningful employment.
The second reason is that i…
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Added by Mark Trotter on February 20, 2009 at 4:03am —
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'you don't understand what it islike to be in the real world'...'real business is hard' comments I recently heard from colleagues attending a networking meeting. Bemoaning the unfair competition as they now have to compete with more lone and isolated workers as more specialists are made redundant or are taking the opportunity to strike out on their own.
Strangely I do sympathize with their views, the attraction for me is the lower overheads, the flexibility and creation of real space in my life…
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Added by Mark Trotter on January 26, 2009 at 3:17am —
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The need to be available is now creating so many tools for home businesses and in some cases many appear to the outside worl much larger than they are because they have begun to develop a large scale media presence.
Recently a colleague explained how he spent at least twenty minutes a month on prime time news when it came to consumer profiling and spending habits, he is viewed as an authority.
It wasn't his google placement but his YouTube and video content.
Some of the contact times were odd…
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Added by Mark Trotter on December 2, 2008 at 3:52am —
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PSR - in this time of Corporate Social Responsibility the development of a Personal Social Responsibility Profile is becoming more interesting. Reflecting on a month of purchasing and the crasy situation of sameday or next day delivery for things not needed for days started a train of discussions.
This was followed up with a visit to a couple of organisations that are promoting PSR amongst thestaff because the investment in that is saving thousands not in cost saving initaitives (re-using paper…
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Added by Mark Trotter on November 10, 2008 at 7:00am —
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Personal Organisation is always a difficulty for colleagues who have tried working from home. They find the remote activities difficult to program into their day.
When I set up a company a few years ago I created a hot desk policy and remote server access for all the staff including me, encouraging everyone to balance the customer contact time with the adminstration and planning activities. Most of the report writing could be done in the comfort of their own homes and I set up a budget for the…
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Added by Mark Trotter on October 30, 2008 at 5:54am —
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