For a lot of people, working from home sounds like the “dream job”.  Get up whenever you want to, stroll down the hall to your “office”, stay in you PJ’s all day long, take lunch whenever, work whenever, and get all of your personal chores done during the day.  Life is great working from home.

For the people that actually work from home the “dream job” can become overwhelming.  I currently work from home and have worked from home for another employer throughout my career.  Working from home takes dedication.

The misnomer is because you are home you have more time.  Not true. It seems that you work more when you are home because you don’t leave the office.  Your office is your home therefore, there is no disconnect at the end of the day. According to some of my peers who also work from home, they also try and find balance from work and home and experience the same struggles.

I’m not saying that working from home is all bad. There are some advantages of having the opportunity to juggle your schedule when needing to more easily. But keep in mind, you are still juggling and find yourself compensating for the time by working earlier or later.

Finding the balance is difficult but can be achieved.  For myself, I had to create a routine that I follow each morning. I get up at the same time and go through my morning routine as if I was actually leaving for the day.  Instead of getting into my car to drive to the office, I go to my office down the hall.  I try and schedule lunch at the same time (if possible) and stay within my working boundaries, the same as if I was at an office.  I do still struggle with keeping work and home separate, but we all do at times when there are deadlines and projects/items that needs to be completed.  It’s making sure that we don’t allow ourselves to become overwhelmed by trying to do everything and learn to shut down the computer for the night and walk away.  It’s OK – really.

Having a support system of family, friends and peers is a great help to finding how to achieve your balance.  I found a few groups that can help plus an article that is inspiring to finding a healthier you.  Check out this article called How to Be Happy With Yourself from HowStuffWorks.  Offers great insight and advice and definitely worth the read.

Also, if you  belong to LinkedIn and are a female, join the Groups: Girlfriends In Business and Women’s Network of Entrepreneurs.  You’ll find great people to connect with who offers support and insight.

How do you find your “balance”?  Do you have helpful advise that others can use? Feel free to comment.

There are a few ways that involvement can be addressed that may fit into your company strategy and profile.

Should you become involved in Social Media – YES.  According to the Nielsen 2010 Media Fact Sheet, Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277%; The average U.S. worker spends 5 hrs a month visiting social networks at the office; Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user; Twitter grew 500% over a year; and 32% of all mobile web users visit social network sites.

Due to these statistics, it would definitely be in your best interest to become involved in social meeting as a company and marketing strategy.  Now, to what extent do you become involved?

This will really depend on your staff and time allotment.  Adding a blog to your site and providing content and resources to your viewing audience and member is a huge commitment but one that will pay off in the long one as establishing yourself as a knowledge leader in your field.  Blogs do take time and commitment to write, but is it possible to spend about 1 hour a week on your blog work?  Consider video blogging vs. writing a blog.  Make it a point throughout the day jotting/writing down blog topics and key points (approximately 5-10). Schedule an hour to sit in front of a video (does not have to be a professional production) and tape a 5 minute blog session on each topic that you’ve recorded. The video blogs can then be posted weekly to your site and based upon the number of video blogs that you recorded, you could have about a  months or a little more of video blogs to post that took you a few hours to complete.

Assign social media sites to various people in your organization. Arrange for these people to be in charge of each site and check/perform searches on the selected keywords for your organization, and interact with others. A schedule can be arranged where this occurs at least 3 times a day for approximately 1/2 hour each time. This provides some type of interaction with the social media main stream and enables your organizations name and content to be seen and discussed.

Becoming involved in Social Media does involve a commitment of time and resources. But if this is planned according to your companies goals and staffs schedule and abilities, can become a positive tasks to any ones day while increasing company awareness, site visitors and potential members.

1. Recognize and Reward – Offer employees incentives to take that extra step in customer service.  Offer awards and/or prizes based on customer feedback or product satisfaction.
2. Staffing – Ensure that your staff is well qualified and skilled to lend themselves to reinforce your brand.  During employee training, make brand identity a key component.
3. Employee Feedback – Share your ideas/brands and plans with your employees and offer them with the ability to ask questions and provide feedback.  Feedback is a great way to open communication, ensure that employees are working for the same goal and provides employees with a vested interest since their feedback is being sought and acted upon.
4. Measure Performance – Reach out to customers, media and vendors to check to ensure that your message and brand is being conveyed appropriately.

Building your brand isn’t something that is only done externally through Social Media, Meetings, your website, etc., but comes from within as well through employee interaction with customers, vendors and the general public each and every day.

Currently, it is estimated that there are 240Million Smartphones in use and 56% of US Smartphone users are using their phones for news and information (web/internet and social media), while 50.8% of US Smartphone users are using their phones for email. The US is far and above Smartphone usage in other countries such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, who on average have a 30% usage of Smartphones for Web/internet and social media accesses.

Based upon Smartphone usage and the amount of units that are available in and in use in today’s market, is your web site Smartphone friendly and providing users access to your site and site information via the Smartphone?

Sites can be developed that provides users with easy access to content and navigation through the site. (Take CNN, ESPN, or Home Depot). These sites have been set up specifically to allow for Smartphone user to access, search and navigate throughout the site effortlessly.

Applications and applets can be developed that enables you with the ability to provide users ease of access to content, updates, and relevant materials found on your site.  There are approximately 50,000+ apps available for iPhone user, with an ever increasing amount of apps availalble for other Smartphone users as well. These provide users with quick and easy access to informtion, from inventory, to marketing/sales information, etc. These can also allows users the ability to subscribe via RSS feeds to newly posted information and provide your publications via Smartphone download and access, as well as member interaction and forum posting are advantages that can be offered to members or potential new members.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to provide members with a Smartphone app that provided them with newly released member updates and information that is delivered directly to their smart phone? Wouldn’t it be great to deliver upcoming events to registered users (whether members or not), notifying them of upcoming events and providing them with options to order the event via their phone and or log in and order via their member access?

Quick and easy is the term and phrase for the future, and providing data to users in a quick an easy method provides you with the leading edge in user interactivity with your site, thus increasing users and their overall experience.

Enough of the technical definition – What is Value Added and how can this be of benefit?  Value Added is defining yourself as being a value to your client.

This can be in the way of an additional product or resource.  Think of it as “setting yourself apart” from your competition. What makes you and your product/service special and why should clients chose you over other resources?  Are you one of the bunch or do you stand out in your field?

I’ve found that “value added” can be as easy as a returning calls within a certain time frame and/or just taking pride in your work and your work environment.  Let’s look at a few “value added” items that are of no additional cost to yourself or your company and can set yourself apart of the competition relatively easily.

Relationship – how is your relationship with your clients? Are you a partner to your client and works with them to reach their final goal? This is always important and a great way to establish a long lasting relationship in any economy.  Your client needs to feel that they can talk with you easily, share ideas and goals and rely on you for your input.  Communication is the most important aspect of any client relationship.

Relationship building does take time and is well worth the effort when you have a client that shares companies goals and strategies with you and provides you with the ability to share ideas and/or resources with them that can assist with their goals. This puts you in the place of becoming a value added resource to your client.

Something as easy as taking a client to lunch occasionally, stopping by to check on them and/or see how things are going, sending a brief note that has an item that they may be interested in (either professionally or personally) and most importantly, returning correspondence in a timely manner.  Remember, the personal touch, not relying on email for all correspondence, sets you apart.

Customer Service – Your Company already has a customer service department that handles your client’s projects.  How responsive and helpful is your customer service department? Do they return calls/correspondence in a timely manner?  Do they go the extra mile and actually make a phone call vs. rely on email?  Is correspondence detailed and provides the client with all information vs. having to go back and forth in email? These are all very important aspects to good customer service.

Service/Products – Does the workers take pride in the products/services you offer? If they do, then there is less of a return rate or customer dissatisfaction rate, therefore this is a value added to your customer.  In today’s economy, the last thing anyone needs is a customer who receives a product or service and they are not satisfied. You don’t need to give your clients reasons to go to the competition.  Reviewing procedures and policies and having a stable/employee work environment is key to reducing customer returns.

Some other great resources for setting yourself apart and leading in tough times can be found at www.bizzia.com called “10 Ways to Lead in Tough Times“