The red buds are peaking this week, and it smells sooo good outdoors. The Urn Garden is downwind of two monster lilac bushes that are so fragrant.
And that my friends is the problem. Or is it? There’s no separation between work and home. It’s getting better, but when you cross the threshold at my place, you immediately enter our World Headquarters. My messy desk and file cabinet, work and living space all rolled into one, it’s the first site you see when you hit the door. It’s aesthetics really, and can easily be solved. Lots of people would ignore the clutter and crossover just for the opportunity to work from home, but there has to be a more attractive and productive answer, to partition it off somehow, I feel inspiration coming.
Listen to Your Gut: Spoke with a colleague today who worked for a funeral supply company and had taken on a line of the Chinese caskets. She really wanted me to take on a territory and help move the product, she’s good at what she does, works hard, and it could be a “great opportunity”. A nice addition to my business. When someone says “Great Opportunity” my radar goes off. Call me lazy, but I didn’t want to travel, and I’ve got my own challenges with distribution without adding the bulk of crated caskets to the mix. Not to mention the YEARS it would take to establish relationships with the funeral homes that were locked up in long-term dealings with their suppliers. If ever there was a breakthrough….I just couldn’t see it.
Today she informed me that after a year or two of that back breaking business, she’s moved on to what she’s really good at. Selling pre-need.
Another Revelation: Since I left my old job four years ago, the position has turned over three times! Makes you think…was I nuts to stay there eleven years? Nah.
I have seen your site and i too came through these cases a lot. many of my friends were in a dilemma and got depressed in deciding among them. Your idea of gardening is really worth full to work it out
Lenette:
From personal experience (5 years running my own company) you have to find a separation. My current workshop is attached to my home but is completely separate, in terms of the activities that take place in each.
It took me a while to get there, but having the ability to “close the door,” both literally and figuratively has made a HUGE difference to my psyche.
Try it, even if it’s just a small partitition that you can close off. You’ll be glad you made the distinction.
TT, that’s what’s keeps it interesting, the growth and transition of the biz. Even in the early part-time stage, I realized right away, that the distribution had to be moved off-site, we were suffocating.
I think the separation of the space will help with time management. One of my talents is managing other people’s time. My own? Needs refinement.
Ur thoughts were perfect, who knew we would have these balancing
issues! I never want to hear “great opportunity” again. My opportunity lies within my soul. I am working as fast as I can.
Deidre, right on sister.
ah, *working from home*!
I have the opposite situation from Tim…
Something about it is still hard for the “outside” world to comprehend. Just the other day a woman who knows me very well actually made a comment about remembering how her days too, just flew by when *she* didn’t have a job.
huh?
And somehow…the laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, mowing, bill paying, errand running and cleaning, all those things can be done by ME ALONE because..hey…I have that cushy work at home job!
Seriously though, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Never again could I ever work for anyone but myself. I’d get fired for sure. I’m too used to doing exactly what I want/when I want!
Candace, when I first started working out of the home, I was shocked to discover that the help I’d had with household duties when working full-time at the office disappeared. Kinda hurt my feelings, cuz I was putting in more hours than ever.
Things are better now, and I’m with you: I don’t EVER want to go back to the cube farm.