This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.

With COVID-19 stay-at-home mandates in place all over the country, working from home (#WFH) is the norm now, and more people than ever are now telecommuting for at least part of their week. To set yourself up for success, follow these three tips to ensure you remain engaged and productive.

Set a Schedule

Working at home since 1996, I’ve learned that staying focused when you’ve transitioned to working at home can be challenging. While you may be fortunate enough not to be required to put in a full 8 hours each day, sticking to routines and schedules can help ensure that you still meet your commitments and are less tempted to fritter away time.

Many people find it helpful to work a traditional shift, beginning and ending their work at the same time each day. Because being at home often presents a lot of distractions that aren’t present in a traditional workplace, others prefer to plan out the number of hours they will work each day and deal with interruptions as they arise. For a sense of accountability, many use a time-tracker app to measure the hours they are putting in to ensure they are not overly distracted. This is especially important when you’re working on social media and it’s easy to get sucked into a black hole!

Create an Office Space

Having a dedicated workspace can also help you maintain the right mindset when working from home. If an entire room isn’t available for conversion into an office, try to find an area that can be carved out into a functional workstation. Ideally, the room in which you’re working with have good lighting, as well as a door you can close to limit noise and intrusions. There should be adequate room for your computer, phone, printer, and other equipment so you can reach it all easily without feeling cramped.

Don’t overlook the need to feel comfortable and happy in your home workspace. A good office chair will put you in the optimal position for typing and viewing your screen, and it can prevent you from slouching or stressing your back muscles. (My favorite is the Aeron.)

Think, too, about decorating your space so it doesn’t feel sterile and uninspiring. Hang artwork, bring in some accessories in your favorite colors or add greenery. Successful home workers often find that playing music helps them focus, as it can wash out sounds coming from elsewhere in the house or provide background noise if you’re new environment is a bit too quiet.

Prepare for Staying Connected

Once you’ve planned your schedule and set up the perfect work area, it’s time to think about how you will stay in touch. Many remote workers are still called upon to attend meetings and otherwise engage with their clients and co-workers, and more and more often those communications are happening via Zoom or other video chat apps. Seek out tips for video calls so you are presenting yourself in a clear and professional manner.

You will also want to make sure your technology is optimized for communicating remotely. If you aren’t working with a monitor that has a webcam built-in, you’ll need one for online meetings. The upload and download speeds of your internet connection should also be a consideration. If you don’t have adequate speed you may not be able to participate in video calls, and you might experience lag when accessing large files. There are websites at which you can test your bandwidth and find minimum recommendations for various applications. If your speed is falling short, your internet provider probably has faster options available, for a price.  

Now that you know some of the key areas to address, you’re prepared to be successful when working from home. Following a routine and creating a workspace that helps you stay in touch and remain focused will help you thrive in your new environment.

What tips would you add to this list that are must-haves for working at home? Post in the comments!

Blog cover photo by vadim kaipov on Unsplash

The post 3 Musts to Be Successful Working From Home appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

It all started with an email I sent out to my list. Then I posted it on my blog.

I was feeling the anxiety of so many colleagues and clients as we grapple with doing … maintaining … business in the age of coronavirus. Many people I know are suffering from a sudden drop in business. Clients deciding to pull back until life becomes certain again.

How could I address this unease?

I decided to put out an offer to meet up, via Zoom of course.. the hottest work-from-home tool on the marketing right now.

I suggested we meet and discuss how collectively we can add more security to our lives by looking at how we can create more income streams. There have been business disruption crises before, and this one feels bigger. It impacts everyone: business owners, employees, families, friends. Every person on Earth.

What follows is the replay from a discussion when 40+ colleagues turned up for the Community Call. The chat transcript (download below the video) is also rich with ideas from entrepreneurs with many years of online business experience.

Download the Chat Transcript (PDF; lightly edited)

Creating Multiple Streams of Revenue for Income Security

1 file(s) 1.23 MB

Download the Chat Transcript

One of the income streams we discussed is adding a “Buy Me a Coffee” button on your articles. I’ve never considered doing that before, and I wanted to check out how the tool works so here goes… if you like the video replay of the conversation and appreciate the transcript:

Like this? Buy me a coffee!

I’d love to hear your ideas for creating additional streams of revenue. If there’s something missing from the list (included with the transcript), please add it in the comments.

We’re all in this covid-19 world together. Let’s lift each other up!

The post 20 Simple Ways to Create Multiple Streams of Revenue appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

After my morning meditation, I was feeling reluctant to get up and face the day. I started thinking about the anxiety I’m feeling from clients and members of my various communities. There is an underlying, and overt, feeling of “what happens now?

“Will my business survive?

How will I make enough money to pay my bills?

Is my work even needed in this current environment?

I have these feelings too. My marriage and first business both failed after 9/11. I was remembering that this morning. That event triggered a huge pain and upheaval in my life as it did for so many others.

This one feels different though. Bigger. Even more uncertain.

I went back to thinking about how to make ends meet. The technology available today is also a huge gift we can leverage to keep ongoing.

Here are a few ideas you may find useful for expanding your reach right now if you’re asking these questions too.

1. If you’re a consultant, coach, speaker, an expert in something, set up a profile on Clarity.fm. People who need answers and expertise can book consults and pay by the minute. It may not make you rich, but it may keep some much-needed cash flowing into your bank account. I’ve been on it for years and every now and then I get a request for a consult. Today, I decided to drop my rate in half to make it easier for solo business owners to get answers to their pressing online marketing questions. (Here’s my profile if you want to see an example.)

2. If you have a product, book, ebook, service, post it on Gumroad. Use the Pay What You Want feature to be both of service and get paid for your offer. I’m looking at this option right now so I can get my services in front of more people.

3. Reach out to your clients, customers, and students, one to one to see how they’re doing. Send a personal video email using Loom (free version). Don’t make a sales pitch. Check-in and see if you can offer support in any way. If you need a kick in the pants to up-level your video skills, join Lou Bortone’s Video A Day in April Challenge. Video is a top skill you need now and in the future.

There are many other ways to generate income that may not be your usual way. If you’re feeling nervous right now, then maybe it’s time to open up to some new ideas.

I’m planning to have an open Q&A call to discuss these and other ideas, on Monday, March 23 at 10 am PT.

Click here to watch the video replay and download the chat notes.

May you have a safe and peaceful day.

The post Morning Meditation in the Age of Covid-19 appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

We had one dial-up phone line and one computer. I know I’m dating myself here, but when I think about how I work online today, it still amazes me at how far we’ve come and how cool it is that small business owners can compete for attention on a more level playing field than in pre- and early Internet days.

I remember how excited I was when I bought a Zip Disk drive because I could store 100 MB of information! Now, if you manage your business in the Cloud, your storage capacity is unlimited. 

During several conversations with clients last week, we discussed what tools to use for managing their business in the Cloud. It brought to mind a short ebook I read by COX Business on 5 Technologies Every Business Owner Needs.

The 16-page ebook covers:

• Accounting Software
• Marketing Automation
• How to Create a Technology Plan for your Small Business
• How to Choose the Best Cloud Service
• How to Create a Collaboration Culture

 There are various recommendations in the ebook so you can research and find the best solutions for your business.

As a small business owner or solo entrepreneur, your needs differ from those of large businesses. It’s important to know what you need and that’s where the chapter on how to create a technology plan comes in. There’s a five step process for auditing your current systems, defining your needs and evaluating the available tools you may want to add to your business.

Some of the recommendations include:

• QuickBooks online
• Dropbox
• Skype
• GoToMeeting
• Trello 
• Campfire

I don’t recommend GoToMeeting for small businesses. It’s too expensive, clunky and out of date. Instead, I recommend using private Hangouts on Air so you can record your meetings. You can also use private Hangouts instead of Skype. 

Dropbox is a wonderful cloud storage tool and you can easily share files and photos with your team or family and friends. I automatically save every photo from my phone to a folder on Dropbox via the Google+ app.  I never worry about losing my precious images. I also share files with clients, colleagues and vendors. 

I haven’t used Trello or Campfire so I can’t speak to how they function. I’d be curious to hear from you if you’ve used either of these online tools for your business.

These are just a few cloud-based tools recommended for running and managing your small or solo business. The Google suite of cloud apps, not discussed in the report, are my favorites because of the integration between Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Maps, Photos and Google+.

There are cloud-based tools for accounting, file back up, help desks, customer relationship management systems, office tools like word processing, spreadsheets, slide decks, and creating charts and graphs.

If you have ever downloaded software to your computer, there's probably a cloud-based version now. Click to Tweet

Once you do your technology audit, a simple search for “best cloud based business apps” will provide you with many options to explore and test. And, testing is important so you find the right tools for your specific business needs. 

The primary benefit of all cloud apps is the ability to sync your content and business processes between your laptop, smartphone, and tablet. 

You can manage your business on the fly, no matter where you are and are no longer stuck at a desk. For me, that is the biggest benefit of all. To be connected to my business when I’m out and about on an Adventure, is a freedom I couldn’t imagine 18 years ago.

Now, it’s time to take action.

If your business is not currently taking advantage of cloud-based apps, get the ebook, do the technology audit, figure out the best place for you to start and implement just one tool to test how you like it. 

I’m curious, what cloud-based apps do you use in your business?

NOTE: This is a sponsored post. I am taking part in a campaign with Cox Business to help them get the word out about how they’re celebrating National Small Business Week throughout the month. Be assured that I never write about or promote anything I don’t believe in and everything I write reflects my own opinion and experience.

The post Do You Manage Your Business In The Cloud? appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

Every business has its ups and downs. Before I could offer any words of encouragement or suggestions, I asked what she was doing currently to get the word out about her business.  She looked at me and after a few seconds of silence said, “Nothing. I don’t know what to do.”

I cry inside when I hear a response like that. There’s so much information about marketing online and offline, I have to ask, “What’s stopping you?”

Much is available for free. There are workshops (we were at a business development workshop); there are low-cost courses; there are ebooks and videos and podcasts and membership sites. The list goes on and on.

There’s so much information, that may be the problem…you don’t know what to do or where to start. So, if you feel like my colleague, you do nothing. And, unfortunately, nothing gets nothing.

Do something. Do anything.

1. Start with your foundation (think blog – your own digital real estate).
2. Identify your ideal client and where you can find them.
3. Create an editorial calendar and plan your content around your core message.
4. Amplify and distribute your content (blog posts) on social networks. 
5. Always be listbuilding.

Your Content Plan

Lunch with my colleague was brief and I didn’t have a lot of time to go through the five steps listed above. What I did share with her was a quick way to create a list of 50 topics for her blog so at the very least she could be creating doorways to her business via her content and search.

The excerpt embedded below is from an article I wrote in 2011. It’s still relevant today. 

Another way to look at what’s outlined above is with a mindmap. Below is an example of mapping out five subtopics for one primary topic. 

Go through this process for ten topics related to your business and expertise and you’ve got a content plan for 50 blog posts.

Better done than perfect

Whether you own a small business, run a non-profit or are a solo entrepreneur, doing nothing is not an option if you want to keep your dream alive.  What’s stopping you from acting on your business dream?

Need help with your plan? Let’s talk.

The post What’s Stopping You? appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.