Working From The Basement

Ok admit it you had a grin on your face this morning when you woke up and saw the snow.  If you think the people that you work with that do the daily commute are jealous on a normal day, they really feel it on a snow day.  Even though I work from home on a regular basis there seems to be something special about a snow day.  The pace of the people around you seems to slow down, you linger round the kitchen longer getting your coffee and reading the paper.  I even make it a point to work in my PJs for awhile, maybe it’s the snow or memories of snow days when I was a kid, but I feel calmer.

If you are lucky the people that live with you can work from home too, with today’s telecommuter options there should be no reason to risk life and limb for an office job.  So savor the coffee aroma listen to some music and enjoy your snow day.

WFTB – Michael Lawson

OK a lot of entrepreneurial related media talks about creating your own rules to be successful, but that’s not what this posts about.  What I am talking about are the rules that we need to keep ourselves motivated, organized and sane.  I have two sets of rules I use, one set is used every day the other for specific days of the week.  I’ll go over some of the ones I use every day.

1. COFFEE – This is the number one rule that must be obeyed for me to function, and I’ve seen Diana without coffee so I assume this rule to be universal.  I must have coffee before my brain even starts to work correctly. 
2. SHOWER, SHAVE etc… – OK this one usually happens at some point during the morning, but again it is not as important as rule #1 and sometimes goes un-followed.  This rule actually becomes rule #1 when leaving the basement though.
3. THE DAILY TASK LIST – This really should be rule #2, but #1 and #2 seemed to go together (am I confusing you enough yet?). I try and keep a short task list with only 3 or 4 things on it, enough to get completed during the day but not too daunting.  Yes I have a real task list that contains everything I need to do, but by moving only a small number into a daily list it makes it so I feel accomplished.  You can always add and remove things to the list and prioritize it as the day goes on.
4. LIMIT DISTRACTIONS – We talked about space here before and limiting environmental distractions is important, but keeping yourself focused is important as well.  If you are in the middle of something and the phone rings don’t take it unless you have to.  Close your email client, Chat, Facebook and any other Social Media outlet, plan to spend a set number of minutes an hour checking them if you use them to market your business.  I like to answer emails first thing in the morning, mid-morning, over lunch and mid-afternoon, unless it’s an emergency.
5. MUSIC – I don’t consider music a distraction, it helps me concentrate while working alone, One of the benefit about being self-employed is we can crank it when a good song comes on.

I actually have a few other rules I follow, but I just wanted to get you started writing your own list, although I think Rule #1 is universal please let me know if you have anything else to replace it.  I’ll post my weekly list if anyone is interested, but that is going to vary greatly depending what you do for a living.  Having guidelines even if we don’t follow them exactly helps us get through those really tough days, and I think also keeps us more focused.  One nice thing is your rules can be anything you want them to be; after all you are the boss.

WFTB – Michael Lawson

When Diana and I started this blog it was pretty much for shits and giggles, well almost.  After attending Podcamp in Boston this year we wanted to try publishing content centered on small and micro-businesses.  Initially promoting the site just using the Social Media skills we had acquired in the past year also seemed like a good idea.  Since I already had this domain name registered it was just a matter of installing WordPress on one of my servers and setting up email.   If you ask me I don’t even remember registering this domain name, but the name fit and we where off to the races.

Our goal was to create a collaborative site; the reason for this is that both of us had gone very spotty on our independent blogs.  Writing one or two posts a week isn’t as hard as writing the three or four a week which is what I believe is the minimum you need for an independent blog site.  Still with our busy schedules it is still fairly difficult to maintain the pace, but we did it.  This will be our twentieth post in a month’s time which is right in line with what we wanted.

A funny thing happened though – I don’t think Diana and I have written very many articles from our original lists.  This is because we picked a really broad subject area to write about based on our everyday experiences and interactions from which we get fresh ideas. A lot of these ideas come from the comments left by our readers; these outnumber the articles 3 to 1, when you consider all the Social Media postings. The feedback we get when we attend networking events has also helped drive and motivate us like we never imagined.  So what started as a cathartic release on the joys and frustrations of the small business owner has became something bigger.

I included a chart at the beginning of the article to depict our traffic patterns using WordPress statistics which show some predicable results.  When we tweet and link the articles on Facebook, traffic is double or triple what it is if we don’t do anything.  Our rise in Google rankings is also helped by our frequent updates and posts linking us to other sites.  So anyone thinking of a way to drive traffic to their blog or website needs to post frequently and share the information using Social Media techniques.  Diana’s articles also usually rank higher than mine when we measure direct links back to the posts. This may be because I tend to promote Diana’s posts more than mine or she is just more popular, either way it is an interesting phenomenon.

We intend to expand the blog over the next few months to include podcasts and video to keep it fresh and interesting.  We really appreciate everyone’s feedback and comments both good and bad, and if you want to contribute please let us know.  We are particularly interested in expanding WFTB beyond Connecticut so if anyone is interested in covering events in different States please contact us.  Thanks again everyone for a great first month and for reading what Diana and I quietly refer to as the Seinfeld of blogs (it’s about nothing and everything, but it’s always entertaining).

WFTB – Michael Lawson, Diana Bartolotta

Good morning, kids.  This beautiful Tuesday morning, I’ve decided to review the bathrobe as an essential piece of basement attire.

What? Bathrobes come in all shapes and sizes.  My, personal robe is white.  I bought it on Overstock.com years ago, because it promised to be just like those fancy hotel robes, and I wanted to pretend I was living permanently in a fancy hotel.

Why? Really, why not?  It keeps you warm.  It feels like you’re still in bed.  And, if you bought a fancy one like I did, it has pockets for all of your essentials, like cell phone and cigarettes.  Beer doesn’t store well in the pockets; trust me on this one.

Where? Whenever you’re in the basement.  Once your friends and family get used to it, you can pretty much wear it whenever you’re home.  At first, they might give you a hard time.  But that’s just because you haven’t fully trained them yet.  Once they are trained, you’re golden.

p.s. I’m hoping to upgrade to a snuggie soon.  Rumor is there’s an extra one with my name on it.  Not sure if it has pockets, which could be a serious limitation.

The dilemma: You’ve been working all day, you need to leave the basement, and you really don’t want to change out of that comfy basement attire.  Do you leave the house in your pajamas, throwing caution to the wind, and ignoring the stares from the clerk at the store?  Or, do you give in, put on real clothes, and face the world as an adult?

The solution: Cargo pants.

Until recently, I really had no idea of the awesomeness of cargo pants.  I’d come to the conclusion that that there were only three categories of attire:  lawyer costume, jeans, and pajamas.  If I had to go into public and didn’t feel like suiting up into my superhero costume, then my best bet was jeans (or dungarees, as my friend LostCosmos refers to them.)  Then cargo pants entered the picture, and my world was forever changed.  They feel like pajamas, but they look like real pants! Haha, world!  I’ve got you fooled.  I’m really wearing my pajamas!  And all the pockets – I’m like a kangaroo.  Complete bonus!

In conclusion, I invite all of you to try cargo pants.  Thank you, @LostCosmos, for introducing me to this wonderful, secretive world.