Great site for our kids!

I have a new client I am working on now called Educational Adventures. They are a multi-media edutainment company committed to the production of premium content that entertains, educates, and empowers children in all areas of safety and well-being. If you have children, you've probably heard of their Television Show called Danger Rangers. Their series focuses on safety topics for children to help teach children about safety in a fun and entertaining way. My kids love it! If your a parent or educator I highly recommend you check out their site. They have online games, downloads, products such as DVD's and activity books that you can purchase, and tons of resources and information on safety topics.
They are an amazing organization and I am looking forward to working with them on their web sites!

Communication with your clients

These past few weeks have been very busy with my walk-in bathtubs client. We have been dealing with some email issues that should not have taken this long to resolve. Why do host companies have to make things so difficult? Any way, I have learned a great deal from this experience. As a work at home parent you have to be even more resourceful than if you were working in an office environment. You also have to be sure to stay in close contact with your client so they know you are working to get the issues resolved. Communication is very important when your working out of a home office since you never have the opportunity for face to face meetings.

Thanks to technology it's easier to be resourceful and to be able to communicate well with your clients. Many vendors offer alternatives to an 800# which you usually end up wasting time on hold with any way. For example, many vendors offer online chats and/or a technical support email address where they can create a ticket for tracking and follow-up. If it's a vendor you deal with on a regular basis, oftentimes they will offer a point of contact person (account manager) that you can contact directly. Use as many of these resources as possible.

In regards to communicating with your client, there are very obvious ways to do this well.

Email- with email you can keep a history and manage follow-ups so you can be sure you are answering questions and getting things resolved.

Phonecall- Usually a simple phone call letting your client know the status of a situation will help them feel comforted that you are working to get the problem(s) solved.

Teleconference- Same as a phonecall, however in a teleconference you can speak with several individuals including the vendor(s) which can save time and hassle.

I/M- Instant messaging is a great way to chat with your client or co-workers as you are working through a problem. It's real time and you can swap documents, links and more which you can't do as easily on the phone.

These are just a few tools you can use as a work at home individual to ensure you are meeting your clients needs.

It also helps if you have wonderful clients which I happen to be lucky enough to have!

Welcome to 2008!

Happy New Year! Here we are in 2008 and as for me, I welcome it. Last year was great overall and I see only good things for this year as well. For a lot of us work at home people January usually means one thing is weighing heavy on our minds- yes that's right, TAXES. I have a very dependable accountant, which makes tax season a lot less stressfull. I highly suggest to anyone working freelance, if your not comfortable with tax "stuff"or just don't like the hassle, get an accountant. It's usually well worth the money. There are a lot of write-off's you can take working from home. I am no expert so I won't give specific advice, instead I will send you on a learning experience. I suggest you do some research on the internet. There are a lot of great sites out there that are full of information. Aboutus.com and the IRS web site both have columns on Office In Home Tax Deductions and Justanswer.com offers free tax advice. However I still recommend getting an accountant if you are unsure and/or want to avoid an audit, which of course doesn't mean you won't get audited, but at least your accountant has your back. So in summary, do your homework and if all else fails, turn to an expert. Best wishes to all of us this tax season!

The end of the holidays- WHEW!

Well we made it. The holidays are behind us. Not that I don't enjoy the holidays. I do enjoy the time with family (especially those from out of town), spending time with my husband and kids, exchanging gifts, the spirit of the holidays and so forth. However, I am glad to be back on a schedule and in a daily routine.
Although I did take time off during the holidays to host some out of town relatives, working at home means you have the ability to "check in" every once in a while so I did cheat a bit by reading emails and checking in on clients a few times during my vacation. I think that is one of the benefits of working from home.
Now that I'm back, I will be spending a lot of time catching up. End of the month reporting, email follow up, etc. I will be focusing most of my time on my walk in tub client. Although I really enjoy helping them manage their websites so it will be enjoyable time. Offering marketing help and ideas and brainstorming with them allows me to be creative and helps me to continue learning and growing. I highly recommend to any work at home parent finding something that allows you the same so that you will never be bored and you will always have something to look forward to in your work.
Only two more months until spring!

Getting work done during the holidays.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner. It always sneaks up on me. Trying to prepare for the holidays and maintain a work "schedule" can be difficult this time of year. I get most of my work and errands done in the morning when my kids are in school. Of course this time of year there are many more errands to do than usual so I find myself spending the entire morning on those, which means I have to work in the afternoon/evenings. I think most of my holiday errands are behind me so right now I am trying to get as much work completed before the end of the week so that I can take some time off during Christmas and New Years to spend with my out of town relatives.

I will be spending most of today on A&R Wholesale. They are the main client I have done work for since I began freelance work for SavvyDog Design. One thing that makes this job easy is that the clients are amazing. This client imparticular has a great product, a walk-in tub by Safety Tubs, and a great way of running their company. I like doing work for a company that takes pride in what they do and has a product that I can stand behind. As a matter of fact, my mother keeps asking me about them because she wants a walk in tub for herself. I told her that they are primarily for the elderly and disabled, however she thinks of them as more of a "luxury" item. I guess she is right, they do have a lot of features that make them "spa-like". I suppose I had better keep that in mind when talking to this client about target markets. :)

Hopefully my kids will cooperate this week so that I am able to get my work and errands done and then I can enjoy the holidays. I wish everyone, friends and family and those strangers who may read my blog, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!