Category: Run a Home Business

    Unexpected Skunk!

    da4a17c502d2cff6649b008fc3a1948fUnexpected Events

    It is always good to be flexible in your day to day planning when you have a home based business.

    What happens when a skunk decides to ruin your day and stops your business in its tracks?

    A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from my brother, with a cat howling in the background, that his cat was foaming at the mouth and could we go to the emergency vet?  Well, we raced in the car over to the emergency vet only to find out that the cat had been skunked.

    They  gave him some skunk removal shampoo to use but the smell was upsetting the invalid dogs and cats in the hospital so we left quickly.  Luckily, the emergency vet  only charged us for the shampoo and we were relieved that the cat hadn ’t been poisoned. The skunk must have sprayed the musk right into the cats face which caused the mucus to pour from his eyes and throat.

    When we got home, we realized that we were both skunked as we had sat in the enclosed car for 45 minutes with  a stinking cat. Many showers later,  and Skunk removal shampoo, I still smelled of skunk two days later. The car had a horrendous smell.

    So, three days of cancelling appointments and washing clothes, I didn ’t get much work done because the musk clung to anything I touched. The car was the worst so I got the interior shampooed and “bombed” with fragrance overnight so it smelled of a pretty skunk.  I try to keep the car windows open so that one day, the smell may go away.

    The week that I had the “Skunk Incident” was a waste in terms of work and I had to cancel a few appointments.

    Remember that in business:

    1. You can ’t be prepared for everything so have some flexibility in your schedule. There are always “Acts of Gods” like skunks or flooding or (in our area) earthquakes that you can ’t plan for.
    2. To try to have an assistant who has a “How To” Guide from you whether it is a family member or some trusted “handyman” who can help you with chores or email or repairs to keep the business going forward if you are incapacitated.
    3. To automate the business as much as possible whether it is bookkeeping, email or contacting clients.
    4. To have business interruption insurance even though I don ’t think it covers skunks!

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    Categories: Productivity Tags: Tags: , , , ,

    Life as a consultant – Fred’s Story Part 2

    Fred 's consulting business is running smoothly!

    Fred ‘s consulting business is running smoothly!

    Fred had been working as a sub-consultant for his previous company for about six months when he had a look at his money coming in versus his expenses for his business.

    His time spent working at home was more productive. He was spending about five hours a day in his home office available for his client working on projects. Since he wasn’t spending two hours commuting to work each day and he didn’t have to spend non-productive time in watercooler chat and meetings , he got more work done than when he worked in the company!

    He did have home office expenses including internet connection, computer, phone and office supplies. However, he was able to do his work by a connection to the company intranet designing and collaborating on projects with the company actually covering costs of production and office correspondence.

    Once he calculated a yearly budget for hours spent as a consultant and took away his home office expenses and taxes, he realized he would need to bring on more work to maintain his previous lifestyle. So, he decided to market his services as a consultant to other companies since he had some available hours during the day to do more work.

    He found more consulting work through his contacts in his previous job. He set up his own intranet system in the Cloud where he could set up private consulting areas for each of his new clients. He increased the money coming in without increasing his expenses. He increased his productivity using systems for his communication, time and reduced his expenses by setting up a virtual office for his clients.

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    Categories: Fred Tags: Tags: , ,