by Angela Taffs | Jul 27, 2015 | Running a Business
The Importance of Home Office Organization
When you are working from home it is just as important to keep your office space organised as if you were working elsewhere. By being organised you will increase your productivity. The trap we fall into when working from home is getting too relaxed and things start to slip. Piles of paperwork start to appear that you will ‘deal with later’.
Too many personal items start to appear and make themselves at home on your desk such as birthday cards to send, household bills and shopping lists. This then starts to blur the lines between working on your business and completing personal errands.
It takes great discipline to organise a home office but it is such an important part of your business that you should not let slip and neglect to take control of.
Getting Started
Start off with having a good declutter. The same principle applies as in having a declutter of your home. Get rid of anything that is:
- Broken
- No longer used
- Dated and/or obsolete
- Doesn’t work (pens fall neatly into this category!)
- You wouldn’t miss if you never saw it again
Now make sure you have the correct furniture and/or accessories for keeping paperwork tidy and to avoid creating piles of clutter on your desk which needs to be kept clear for you to work.
Get a filing cabinet and split into sections for each area of your business. This could be for finances, client files, marketing ideas etc. Now take all that paperwork that has been building over time and put into its correct place. Remember the saying ‘A place for everything and everything in its place’.
Any documents or paperwork that you have been meaning to read for 12 months or more is likely not to be that important, or relevant, any more so be ruthless and bin it. Obviously, be aware of data protection and legal requirements but for general paperwork, get rid of it and stop it clogging up your valuable office space.
Get a bookcase and neatly arrange files, folders and books. Is there space to put your printer on top of the bookcase or filing cabinet to keep as much space free as possible on your desk?
Arrange your desktop so that you have everything you need regularly immediately to hand. This could be items such as pen pot, stapler, hole punch, calculator and diary. Having these items immediately to hand is much more convenient than having to scrabble around looking for them and wasting precious time.
Get yourself a desktop standing file for documents or files that you will be using regularly such as current projects.
Daily Organisation
During the day, use the one-touch rule for any incoming paperwork. Touch a piece of paper just once and deal with it there and then. Don’t add it to a pile to deal with later. Pay bills immediately and file away. Answer that letter and file or shred with complete. It will have to be dealt with at some point and will take the same amount of time so that time might as well be now. This will help keep your mind clear by knowing you are on top of things and will keep your pile of clutter to a bare minimum.
At the end of each day, double check to make sure your office space is tidy. File away any paperwork and check you have completed everything on your daily to-do list. Write down the top three things you need to complete the next day. This will help organise your mind and put you in a feeling of control allowing you to relax for the evening and recharge your batteries.
Follow these tips for organising your home office and see just how much more productive you become.
by Angela Taffs | May 18, 2015 | Running a Business
Do you work from home? Do you have your own private workspace that is a pleasure to be in, or are you stuck in a cramped corner with the family constantly traipsing through?
I started to hit a mental block with my business and was finding previously enjoyable tasks somewhat tedious. It took me quite a while, and, to be honest, a friend pointing the fact out to me, that as my business had grown so had my need for a larger office space. I had outgrown my little study area in the family home.
But what was I to do? I could not afford to rent an office and, to be honest, did not have the need for one. But I did need my own space where I could spread everything out and not feel the need to tidy up before friends and family came in.
So I started looking into other options and came up with the following:
Hot-desking
When I had specific projects to work on, I could go to work in a local work hub and rent either a desk or office space on a daily basis. This would have the benefit of both not being disturbed and also giving me a strict deadline to work to in order to get the task complete.
Garden office
This one was the most appealing. There are a range of garden offices available at every price and every size. Dependent upon the space in your garden you can simply clear out an existing shed or area of your garage, insulate it and pop in a small heater and lighting, or go the whole hog and have a custom built structure erected.
image courtesy of telegraph.co.uk
Caravan
Now, I hadn’t thought of this, but one of my clients went out and found an old caravan for a measly £175 on the internet. It was old and ugly and a hideous murky brown colour. But by the time she had finished, it was painted cream on the outside, had the interior ripped out, a beautiful wallpaper applied to the walls and a desk and chair in situ. It was the perfect office space for her at a very small cost.
If using caravans or sheds, you do need to take into consideration security and insurance and make sure the structure has a dual purpose so you don’t get hit by business rates. But they can be very cost effective ways of getting that space you need.
Do you have a quirky alternative home office? Please post your pictures on the Facebook page
by Angela Taffs | Apr 27, 2015 | Legal, Running a Business
Who has copyright ownership of works you commission?
How often do you outsource work or hire freelancers to do work for you? This could be anything from paying someone to design your website, create a logo for you or write some content for your website.
I suspect as a small business owner that the majority will have paid for some work to be done at some point. But when you agreed on this work, did you get terms and conditions signed by both of you and if so, did you check these carefully? Did you ensure that those t’s and c’s transferred ownership of the work and the copyright to you and your business upon completion of payment?
And did these terms and conditions get signed in ink by both parties?
You may be in for a shock!
If not, you may be in for a shock.
As the law stands, and as I learnt from attending an event by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), even if you pay someone to do work for you that you will use in your business unless you have a written and signed agreement in place to transfer ownership, the person who created the piece of work for you will retain the ownership and copyright.
Therefore, if you decided to change your website designer but keep the same or similar layout, text etc, they could stop you or sue you if you go ahead!! Also, have a read of the article ‘Do you really know who owns your website?‘ for more important information.
The only exception to this rule is if the work completed was carried out by an employee of your business as they would have been deemed to have done the work in the course of employment.
There is a lot more information regarding copyright ownership on the Gov.Uk website.
The real danger of not having copyright ownership
What concerned me more than anything was learning that if a less than honourable person completed a piece of work for you without a signed agreement, they could if they decided to use the work that you had paid for and sell it on to other parties!
I thought in reality a problematic situation probably didn’t happen that often but since speaking to an IPO solicitor and also getting feedback from people on social media, it is a more common occurrence than I thought.
So this is something that every small business owner needs to be aware of and to be on the safe side, with any future work, always get a written agreement in place to transfer the copyright ownership to yourself and make sure both parties sign it. You have been warned!
N.B. If you are in the creative market and need a contract, a site that has been recommended to me (although I have not used it myself so cannot say how good it is) is Own-It. The site has a range of fact sheets and articles along with both paid and free contracts for you to download.
by Angela Taffs | Apr 7, 2015 | Business Success, Running a Business
Do you have the mindset of a successful business owner or are you just playing around hoping that things will miraculously just drop into place for you?
Too many times I come across those who tell me they are running a small business whilst complaining that they are not getting the results they want. They blame everything from the economy to marketing just not working for them down to customers just not understanding them. But really?
What is the real reason that your business is not gaining clients and generating income?
So many times during discussions, I find these people are not treating their business as a business but are just doing ad hoc work here and there when it suits them. They play with their business when they feel in the mood and if they don’t get instant results, go off and do something more interesting instead.
I work with these people and help them set out plans and goals for the month ahead to start moving things forward. Heads always nod enthusiastically and then when we next catch up these plans haven’t even been started upon, let alone achieved. It is incredible that the same excuses come up time after time.
- I wasn’t well
- I had to take my dog/cat to the vet
- I had a lot going on in my personal life last month
I am sorry, and I know there are some genuine cases out there, but these really are pitiful excuses. If this resonates with you, do you really mean to say that you were ill all month? Did you have to take your dog to the vet every day? Did you really let your personal life take over your business efforts? Emergencies do happen, but these should be factored into your business and a back-up plan put in place to deal with these.
Have you ever been in employment? If so, do you think the CEO or MD managed to run the business and pay their staff with the excuses and lack of performance you are allowing yourself to get away with? Do you think if they took time off every day to deal with personal situations they would have held on to their job? No. I didn’t think so.
Change your mindset and start to think like a successful business owner.
Stop playing around and decide if it is a truly successful business you want or just a hobby that will fit in when you feel like it. Change your mindset and start to think like a business owner.
As fired up and enthused as you may be about creating your own business, it will take hard work, commitment and personal investment on your own part along with self-responsibility for making things happen.
As John Barney stated in a past article on why many quit their business, being your own boss is tough and comes with its own pitfalls such as not having anyone to be accountable to and telling you what to do. This is one of the reasons that many start their own business but soon discover they need to be given constant direction as they lack the necessary work motivation to get the job done.
To build a successful business you will need to be able to motivate yourself to do work that you do not always enjoy and that does not bring instant results. To be able to succeed, you will need a strong inner drive, work ethic and a laser focus. Sadly too many people I meet lack these characteristics which are needed to accomplish the success they are looking for.
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If you truly want to succeed and have a business to be proud of, start to act like a business owner now.
- Set out your goals and specific plans to achieve them and put them into action.
- Prepare for the unexpected and emergencies and have a plan in place of how you are going to be able to cover these where possible.
- Set yourself out strict working hours and sit down and work!!
- Sort out your priorities and get them done.
Because if you don’t, you won’t have a business. And there will be no-one to blame but yourself.
Need more help?
If you really do want to put those plans into action but need some help, join the member’s club today. As part of your membership, you will be able to take advantage of the Time Management business builder video tutorial along with all the accompanying planners, templates and action plans to turn you into a successful business owner.
by Angela Taffs | Mar 19, 2015 | Running a Business
Why you need to find out now who owns your website
Yet again today I came across a horror story. I was asked to help out with planning a new website for a company that has been running very successfully for a number of years. During discussions, the CEO told me that they were not getting any response from their original designer and he wouldn’t even respond to a simple request to add a new email address to the site.
I said I would help where I could and if they could give me the login in information for their hosting provider I would set up the new email address for them. This is where it all started to go wrong.
They weren’t sure of the hosting provider so I did a check on Who.is. And to my horror, I saw that the registrant, or owner, of the site was not the CEO as they expected but the web designer himself.
So what does that mean? Well basically, this company cannot do anything with their site if they wish as they do not own it. They cannot do the rebrand they have planned, they cannot update the site, add or delete email addresses, move it to a new platform as planned or anything else they wish without the permission of their original designer who has is now refusing to liaise with them.
They are left stunned. The best case solution is that a dialogue can be opened up with the original designer once again and he agrees to transfer the domain to the company he purchased it for. Worst case scenario will involve a long drawn out and possibly quite expensive legal case, during which time the original designer can take down the site altogether if he so wishes leaving the company in dire straits as much of their work is done online.
You may be under the impression that this is an isolated incident, but I assure you it is not. I have lost track of the times I have come across this scenario which in a couple of cases has had an incredibly detrimental effect on the business in question.
So just go do a sanity check and make sure you know who owns your website and hope that it really is you. And if you don’t, start to resolve the situation now before it gets to a critical stage.
by Angela Taffs | Mar 17, 2015 | Personal and Lifestyle, Running a Business
Anger can be triggered by a wide variety of things which will be different to each and every one of us.
Certain situations will limit our ability to control our anger such as being tired, having consumed too much alcohol or having had a stressful day at work.
If we can try to identify what angers us and avoid these triggers, then we should be able to control our anger more effectively.
If however you find yourself in a situation which makes you angry, try the following simple ways on how to control anger and lessen your stress.
Breathe deeply
Breathing deeply can help you clear your mind and see things from a calmer perspective. It will help slow down your heart rate and bring back a feeling of calm
Visualise
Pick an image that makes you feel calm. Think back to a holiday when you were lying in the sun totally relaxed. Think of a favourite walk in the woods that you love. Think of listening to the sound of the rain whilst you are sat reading a book. Try to focus on that image to bring back a feeling of calm to your mind.
Count to 10 before you speak
Speaking in anger can exacerbate the situation, causing the other person to react in an adverse way towards you which in turn increases your anger. Try not to say anything at all until you have your anger under control. The simple act of counting to ten really can help.
Walk away
Following on from the above tip, walking away from a situation until you have calmed down can be the most sensible option. When you feel calm again you can then return and deal with the situation in a controlled manner.
Put things in perspective
So someone has cut you up in rush hour traffic. Does it really matter in the great scheme of things that you will be 20 seconds later at your arrival point? Someone has been rude to you and you feel insulted. Does it really matter what they think? Are you going to be seeing them on a regular basis and do you really value their opinion?
Always remember that there are far more important things going on in the world that you could spend your energy worrying about. There are children with life threatening illnesses and horrific wars going on. Don’t contribute to any more unnecessary anger in the world.
Think of the situation from the other person’s point of view
We find it all too easy to just focus on our own feelings. Try to think of it from the other person’s point of view. Did they simply misread a signal? If so, calmly and clearly explain that you are sorry if they saw it this way but that is how you saw it/meant it. Are they just having an incredibly bad day? Have they just come from a stressful meeting with their boss? Have they just discovered someone close to them ill? Most people don’t get angry for the sheer fun of it. There is always an underlying factor which will have contributed. So try to find out what that is to help both you and them deal with the situation.
Speak slowly and calmly in a soft tone
This will help the other person calm themselves also. If you shout, they are likely to shout louder. Softening your tone can help them come to their senses and lower their tone also. Just the tone of your voice can have a calming effect. Don’t rise to the bait. Stay in control.
Vent your anger
Find somewhere to go on your own and vent your anger in a controlled manner. This could be as simple as going for a hard run, going to the gym for a workout, using a pillow as a punch bag or going into the garage and having a good scream
Write it down
Vent your anger on a piece of paper. Write down what and who have made you angry and why. Write down your feelings. Let it all out. This can be a therapeutic way of getting everything out of your system and then being able to assess the situation logically.
So next time you feel your blood boiling, take a moment to stop and really consider if your anger is going to contribute to a successful solution to the situation you are in. Try the simple ways above on how to control anger and keep it under control. You will feel so much better in the long run if you do.
