In today’s business world, working from home is a reality. For some of you, it is only occasionally at night or on the weekend, but for others it can be part of your daily routine. More and more employers are giving their team members the flexibility of working from home simply to keep their overhead costs down. While others do it to allow their employees some flexibility in their day. In our current competitive job market we must all become effective and remain productive regardless of where our place of work happens to be. Here are 8.5 tips on how to make working from home a successful venture for you, your family and your employer.

1 ) Start your business day as if you were going into the office.
Even if you will be physically at home all day, that does not mean that you cannot mentally be at work. I encourage you to set your alarm to wake up bright and early, jump in the shower and get dressed in comfortable, yet business casual attire. These steps set the expectation in your mind that you are going to work. Not only that, but it demonstrates to your family that you are treating the day as a work day.

2 ) Place your office in an area that is not easily found.
If your office is right by the front door, kitchen or kids play room, you will undoubtedly be interrupted by others throughout the day. Even if you are not interrupted, you curiosity will be peaked and you will be inclined to leave your office when you hear others. Instead, I recommend your office be set up in an area that is away from all distractions. Remove the television, couch and home phone from this area as well, as they will only compel you to take your focus away from the tasks at hand.

3 ) Use a separate phone line.
Whether you use your cell phone or have a separate house line put in do not share your lines of communication with your family. Nothing will be more burdensome that having family members interrupt your business calls with their personal agenda.

4 ) Make sure you have all the equipment you need to be productive.
My office in my residence has the same equipment as my corporate office. I have a separate phone line (with speaker), a spacious work desk, high speed internet access, a color printer, fax, scanner and copier. This allows me to be as productive as possible.

5 ) Communicate your location to co-workers.
If you work in both a corporate office, and also at home sometimes make sure to let people know where you are each day. This will reduce the amount of follow-up you will have from people constantly leaving you messages at the office that you do not get until a later time. Also, you might consider forwarding your office calls to your home or cell line if more appropriate.

6 ) Set boundaries with your family.
My family knows that if my door is closed at home, then I am busy at work and I am not to be disturbed. Also, if they want/need to speak with me they call me on my phone. This prevents them from interrupting my flow of work. If you would like to integrate some time with your family during the work day, I recommend a short break and set your time limit up front.

7 ) Take several short breaks to change the scenery.
Don’t let working in your home office cause cabin-fever. Take a couple breaks throughout the day. Keep these breaks short, no longer than 15 minutes, and relegate them to 1-2 per day.

8 ) Know when to call it a day.
One challenge with working from home is that your work is always available to you. Learn when to end your work day and week. Just because you can work all the time, does not mean you should. Listen to your family members on this one. If they complain about you always working while at home, they may be right. Give your work and yourself a break after business hours.

8.5 ) You may need a permanent change!
Working from a home office only works for some people. I know quite a few people who thought they could do it, but failed. That is ok. But, try to be rational when you evaluate your production at home. You should be able to get the same amount of work done at home as in your corporate environment. If not, make a change – before your boss does it for you!

Question: Have you established goals for this year and are you prepared to meet those goals?

Goal setting is a good idea regardless of your professional or personal situation. Most people have an interest in getting from where they are today, to someplace better in the future. The goals you set for yourself may be suggested to you or you may create them on your own, either way, people have an innate interest in self-improvement. The following are ideas to consider when establishing your goals for the year:

1) A goal is much more realistic if you make it yourself.

Many sales organizations try to force a required quota onto their employees. This quota was probably based on an objective that your boss or the organization has. Bottom line, most front line people do not relate well to the goals given to them. Instead, ask your employees to create their own goals. Not only will these goals be more realistic, but the employee will automatically have more accountability to them.

2) Set goals based on income, rather than units sold or revenue produced.
Most sales people are completely or partially paid via commissions earned from the sales they generate. Money generally motivates team members more than the total number of units sold or the value of the deal. Reason being, the product sold is what the customer receives…..the revenue is what your company receives and cash is what the sales person receives. Why not set your goal based on how you are affected by the outcome? It is generally a lot more fun to think about all of the money you are going to make versus all of the units you are going to sell. This tip is equally important for sales managers. Put yourself in your sales reps shoes and see how your current measuring stick applies to them. If it is not providing the right incentive for them, make the change right now to get their goals aligned with their outcomes.

3) Keep your goals visible and make them known to all.
Write down your goals in three spots: such as a business card to carry in your pocket, a piece of paper next to your desk at the office and a sticky-note on your mirror at home. This way, you are guaranteed to look at your goals several times a day. Read your goals and think about them often. The power of your thoughts can directly affect your ability to reach your objectives. Additionally, share your goals with as many people as you can, such as your wife, your business partners, sales reps, your mentors, etc. You will be instantly more accountable to your goals you have shared with others. Also, once your family and friends listen to your goals, they automatically become supporters in helping you achieve them.

4) Set your goals based on historical data.
If you made $50,000 last year, your chances of making $250,000 this year are not so good. For better or for worse, your history tells you a lot about your future. Reviewing your past sales record will help you be more realistic when setting your goals. Your intent should be to improve on what you accomplished last year and to set your goals in a way that is challenging, yet attainable. If you are new on the job and have no previous data to pull from, then ask one of your peers what kind of success they achieved in their first year.

5) Modify your goals as the year goes on.
If your intent is too create realistic goals that motivate you to succeed, then your target for the year may change as time passes. This could work in two ways. First, perhaps you are having a better than expected year and it looks like you will achieve your goal sooner than expected. Great….now re-set your goals to more accurately reflect where your target should be. Secondly, there may have been several challenges to your business that you did not anticipate. That being the case, your goals for the year may be too aggressive. Review your objectives and try to re-align your present objectives to your current reality.

6) Treat yourself!
Often, people focus too much of their attention on the goal and not enough on their personal reward for reaching the goal. Think about a short wish list of personal items that you want for the year and align your goals with them. So, if you meet your quarterly or annual goal, go ahead and buy that watch or golf club that you wanted. Print out pictures of these rewards and post them in strategic places around your home and office. When you see these photos, it will remind you again of how great it will feel to buy those items as a gift to yourself once you meet your goal.

Hopefully this overview of goal setting has been valuable to you. All of these suggestions can be adopted and implemented right away. The longer you take to get started, the longer it may take for you to reach your goals.

With the advent of cell phones and PDAs, our lives are now filled with devices intended to make communication easier. Ironically, though, many of us have let these gadgets, combined with poor time management skills, ruin what would otherwise be a productive workday.

It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Here are some tips that you can use immediately to help you become more organized…and consequently, less stressed out.

• Schedule your workday the night before. This suggestion may be the least difficult to implement, but it will provide the quickest return on your investment. Take 10 minutes during the night to review what your following day’s schedule looks like. This review typically sets your mind at ease about what is coming up and often reminds you of a task that you wanted to do in order to prepare for something on your schedule.

Also, write down your most important objectives for the following day. A “To-do” list only helps if you prioritize your time and activities. Unfortunately, people rarely rank what is most important on the list. Try coloring the revenue-generating ideas in green and the non-revenue producing items in red. When you arrive into work the next day, you are then ready to begin working on what is most relevant, instead of thinking about what you to need to work on.

• Use selling hours wisely. Most businesses in your area are likely open between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Given that, try not to fill up that time with non-selling activities. Plan your weekly internal meetings at 7:30 or 8 a.m. If you aren’t the boss, ask yours to make the change based on your self-interest in having as many selling hours as possible available to you. Odds are you’ll find him pleasantly surprised by your request.

Another tip: If you travel in the car a lot, plan phone appointments at that time instead of while in the office. If you move one 15-minute phone call from your office line to your cell phone daily, you just opened up over one hour of extra time per workweek.

• Make clear distinctions between work and personal discussions. Yes, you love your family and friends, but 99% of their communication just isn’t urgent. Accordingly, do not answer personal telephone calls during the day. And make sure all personal e-mails go to your personal account—never your work one. In fact, you’re best off not giving out your business e-mail account to friends or family.

Also, turn off the text function on your cell phone and close your instant messaging client. Have you ever added up how many minutes (hours?) you waste answering people’s meaningless messages to you? Business and personal communication need to be separated—period. Don’t worry, your friends and family will quickly get the message and stop bugging you during the workday.

• Change your e-mail patterns. Switch your e-mail settings so new messages arrive in your inbox every 10 minutes. This way, there is less of a chance you will be interrupted while finishing another e-mail, on the phone or completing another item off of your “to-do” list. It isn’t necessary to drop everything to immediately read and respond to every e-mail that comes into your inbox. E-mail is not intended for instant communication. But the more you respond instantly, the more often people expect you to do so.

When several important projects are piled up on your desk, simply close out your e-mail account altogether. It’s okay to respond at a more convenient time. In fact, it makes more sense to respond later in the day when you aren’t distracted with other things on your mind. The same is true for answering the phone. Feel free to let a few messages accumulate. You can easily call them back later that day or the next morning. As long as business calls are returned with 24 hours, there’s no problem.

• Be selfish with your time. This is the hardest one for salespeople to get comfortable with, but it’s perfectly alright to tell people you cannot do something right then. When someone requests some information right now, politely explain that you are in the middle of something else and ask them what times would be good to meet with them.

These tips will help you organize and prioritize your time better. They may even help you earn more money and reduce your stress level. By controlling your activities, you will no doubt experience a much greater sense of fulfillment.