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A Home-Based Business Online
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Issue 149 : September 9, 2017
Sent to 13,307 Opt-In Subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: AHBBO Publishing
http://www.ahbbo.com
Contact By Email
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Welcome and Update from Elena
2. Home Business Idea of the Week
3. Feature Article - Flipping the Switch
4. Surveys and Trends
5. Success Quote of the Week
7. Subscription Management
9. Contact Information
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1. Welcome and Update from Elena
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Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue.
This week's article is for those of you already running a
business from home and finding that, far from bringing
much-needed balance to your life, it's actually having the
opposite effect. "Flipping the Switch ... How to Turn Off
Your Business and Turn On Your Life" is at segment 3.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this
week's issue.
Remember, AHBBO is for YOU! If you have comments or
suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed, or
would just like to share your experiences with other
subscribers, I want to hear from you. Please send
comments, questions and stories to Contact By Email .
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2. Home Business Idea of the Week - Video Duplication Service
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Audiotapes and videocassettes are as common as books right
now, and there is an expanding need for reproduction services.
Businesses are the most frequent users of these audiotape/
videotape duplication services. The business world is making
heavy use of duplicates of tapes of conferences, business
meetings, speeches, in-house seminars and workshops. You
may also find yourself copying promotional tapes or sales videos.
Beyond the business world there's an ever-expanding number
of opportunities for tape duplication. Audiobook publishers use
tape duplicating services. Musicians need promotional tapes of
their work. Travel companies often want videos of the trips
they offer. Parents want copies of their home movies to send
to the grandparents. With more than seventy percent of the
households in the United States having videocassette recorders,
there is a large market for tapes of all kinds.
In the videocassette world, the VHS format now dominates the
market. The basic equipment to do the job costs less than two
thousand dollars, and with some looking around you might find
it as low as a thousand dollars for good used equipment. The
quality of your transfers will be important.
Duplicating audiotapes will yield one to three dollars apiece.
Videotape copying services can be offered at five to ten dollars
an hour. If you have several machines in operation, you can see
that you can make hundreds of dollars an hour.
Keep away from illegally duplicating any tapes, for example,
copyrighted movies or audiotapes. Movie studios and other film
producers keep a vigilant eye out for such piracy and they
prosecute any counterfeiters they uncover.
If you really enjoy this field, you may want to offer to do the
original recordings, and then do the duplication, too. This will
be more expensive and require more expertise so you may want
to plan it for a future goal as your business grows.
If you don't have all the equipment you need to handle some
of the jobs you're being offered, you may make use of larger
services to do the work and add a broker's fee to the cost.
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This is just one of over 130 ideas from the new "Practical
Home Business Ideas From AHBBO" e-book. Find out more at
Unique Home Business Ideas .
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3. Feature Article: Flipping the Switch ... How To Turn Off
Your Business and Turn On Your Life
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© 2017 Elena Fawkner
So, you work from home. Good for you! No boss looking
over your shoulder, no wasting time commuting to and from
the office, no-one setting your hours for you or telling you
what to do. No one to care if you're wearing your rattiest
clothes or don't take a shower before 10:00 am. And how
about no life and no time for yourself while we're on the
subject of what you don't have any more? Sound familiar?
If so, read on.
Escaping the regimented structure imposed upon you by
the corporate world may have been one of the driving
forces that prompted you to seek a way to work from home
in the first place. One of the often-overlooked advantages
of such a structure, though, is that it *is* a structure. It
has limits, it places you at a certain place at a certain time,
and it dictates what you will spend your time on.
In other words, it establishes boundaries in your life. The
boundary between work and home, work and play, on duty
and off duty, company time and your time. You could leave
work at the end of the day and your time was your own.
Sure, you may have had other obligations but at least your
work was confined within the boundaries of a workplace and a
workday. Working from home, for all its advantages, can
sometimes have the disadvantage of removing the boundaries
between work and home, work and play, work time and your
time. For some, the problem may manifest itself as a tendency
to procrastinate when it comes to work activities or a lack of
personal self-discipline may become unavoidably obvious. For
such people, the formalized structure of a workplace separate
from the home may suit them better than the independence
and autonomy of a home business.
This article, though, is concerned with those at the other end
of the spectrum. Those who have absolutely no difficulty at all
in motivating and disciplining themselves to work from home.
So much so that their home business literally takes over their
entire lives.
In my time online, I've heard many people say that they sit at
their computers for 18 hours a day working on their businesses.
Oftentimes, they will still be working at 3:00 am and then go to
bed for four hours or so before getting back in the saddle.
They say this as if it is something to be proud of. I don't know
about you, but working from home, when and if I am finally able
to achieve it on a full-time basis, will be first and foremost a
lifestyle choice.
By that I mean I expect my decision to work from home will
result in an enhancement of my lifestyle in that I won't have
to commute the best part of an hour to get to and from work
each day, if I want to start at 5:00 am and finish for the day
at noon I can do that. If I want to work all weekend and take
two days off during the week I can do that too. I can choose
the projects I want to work on, I can retain the rewards of
my own efforts and I am answerable to no-one but myself.
Although I understand that I will work as hard or harder at
home than I do at the office, I certainly have no intention of
merely exchanging one form of prison for another.
So, it perplexes me that some people seem to think it is a
Good Thing to shackle themselves to a desk for 18 hours
straight and break only to snatch a few hours sleep before
starting all over again. But, if that's how they want to live
their lives, that's entirely their business.
But what of those who want more balance in their lives but
find they simply can't 'flip the switch' on their home business
so that home becomes a retreat again once the workday is
over? If this is you, here are six suggestions to help you turn
off your business and turn on your life.
1. Confine business activities to an exclusively "work" room
If possible, confine your business activities to a certain area
of the house, preferably a room that is exclusively used by
you as your place of work. The advantage of a room as opposed
to an unused corner of the living room is that when work is done
for the day you can literally and symbolically shut the door on it.
Out of sight, out of mind. If you don't cordon off your work area
in this way, you will be reminded of work whenever you enter
the living room. Even though you may not be physically engaged
in work, you will still be mentally engaged and that's the same
thing.
2. Separate communications systems
Have separate communications systems for home and work.
That is, you have one telephone for home and one for work. The
same for fax machines, cell phones and email accounts. When
you're working, you should have your home answering machine
on. When you're home, you should have your work answering
machine on.
3. Establish a routine and structure similar to the workplace
As stated earlier, the structure and routine of an external
workplace has the advantage of allowing you to leave work
behind at the end of the day. By establishing a routine and
structure similar to a place of work, you can still benefit from
this advantage. Now obviously you don't have to be as
regimented as you would be if you worked in a corporate
office.
You don't have to start at 9:00 am, work till noon, take a
one hour lunch break and then work through until 5:00 pm.
You can set whatever routine and structure you like. The
important thing is to be disciplined in sticking to your routine,
whatever you decide it is. If you prefer to work from 5:00 am
through 10:00 am and then from 2:00 pm through 4:00 pm
that's fine. This structure allows you to enjoy the hours from
10:00 am through 2:00 and after 4:00 pm as your own. There
is room for flexibility here. Work however is most productive
for you but stop once you get to the end of your allotted
work time. If you haven't finished what you started, pick it
up again in work time. Don't allow 'your' time to be encroached
on by work.
4. Minimize distractions and interruptions
By implementing suggestions 1., 2. and 3., you will also be
establishing an environment where distractions and interruptions
are minimized and discouraged. For example, if you have
school-age children, by scheduling your work time to coincide
with their school time, you will minimize the distractions and
interruptions you will inevitably face if you try and work while
they're at home.
By having separate communications systems, you won't be
interrupted with calls on your home phone while working (your
answering machine should be getting these calls so you can
return them on "your" time).
By having an exclusively "work" area in your home, and making
sure that other members of your household respect this space
for what it is, you can help others remember that when you're
in your room you're working and are not to be interrupted for
things that can wait until you're "home" again.
5. Rituals
Rituals can play a useful role in flipping the switch at the end
of the workday. For example, you may already have a routine
that sees you working until 6:00 pm, the time your partner
returns home from work. Perhaps you share a glass of wine
together at that time. Why not think of your shared glass of
wine as an "end of workday" ritual. By making a habit of doing
this, your mind will soon learn to associate that glass of wine
with the end of the workday and flip the switch on work in
automatic response.
Another idea is to wear a certain item of clothing while working
so that, when you take it off at the end of the work day, your
mind makes the connection between its removal and the end
of work time. A baseball cap, a particular pair of shoes,
whatever it is doesn't matter.
6. Plan to take days off and vacations
Finally, when establishing your routine and work schedule,
don't forget to schedule days off and vacations. And make
sure you take them. You may decide to take Saturdays and
Sundays off, or your "weekends" might be Tuesdays and
Wednesdays or Mondays and Fridays. Whatever works in
best with your lifestyle, do it.
The same goes for vacations. Don't underestimate the
rejuvenating effect of taking a week off entirely. Not only is
it good for your overall health and mental wellbeing, you will
probably find that you are that much more productive when
it comes to getting back to work for having taken a true time
out.
Hopefully you can see that working from home does not have
to mean turning your home into a place of work. Working from
home as a lifestyle choice should mean that the quality of your
life is enhanced as a result of your decision, not diminished. By
practicing these simple disciplines day-in and day-out you can
be sure that even though you are taking care of business, you
are also taking care of something even more important. Life.
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include the following resource box; and (2) you only mail to
a
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practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the
work-from-home entrepreneur.
http://www.ahbbo.com
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4. Surveys and Trends
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© 2017 Ryanna's Hope
The following is an extract from Larry Wack's excellent
weekly ezine, "Surveys and Trends". Follow the link at the
end of the segment to subscribe for the full version.
CLUTTERED ADVERTISING TRENDS & THE BACKLASH
Burst Media Studies, the New York-based ad network said
that a recent survey of 3,000 Web surfers found that generally,
users accept advertising on the Internet. However, 63 percent
said they wouldn't tolerate more than two ads per page. About
33 percent said they tolerated two ads per page, while another
third said they could tolerate only a single ad.
About 36 percent said they would immediately leave a site if
they felt it was "cluttered" with advertising. Teens, especially,
said they are more likely than other segments to abandon a
site they perceive as cluttered.
About 70 percent of respondents that said they remain on a
site they feel is cluttered, said they pay less attention to the
ads. The study also found that 58 percent of respondents said
they had a less favorable opinion of an advertisers' product or
service when it appeared in advertising on a Web page they
perceived as cluttered. More than half of that group said they
found the advertisers "much less favorable."
The news contributes to the mounting research and anecdotal
evidence suggesting that consumers might be reaching their fill
of increasingly intrusive Web advertising.
(source: markets advertising)
WHO'S SPENDING THE MOST?
The issue of ageism in ads has gained heightened attention
following a survey released last month by the AARP, which
shows that adults 45 and older are no more brand loyal than
adults ages 18-34.
Americans ages 55-64 spent 27.4 percent of the $4.16 trillion
American households spend each year, the largest of any age
category, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2017
survey of consumer spending.
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5. Success Quote of the Week
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You only live once -- but if you work it right, once is enough.
-- Joe E. Lewis
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7. Subscription Management
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9. Contact Information
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Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com
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