All homeworkers stress about one thing or another. It’s a fact of life that we worry about a plethora of things that can cause us anxiety. The Freelance Switch blog has an interesting post that looks at how to manage the stress in your life.

Point 4 stands out for me:

4. Spend half an hour worrying. A certain level of worry helps you plan for the future. But worried thoughts that intrude and distract you will drain your productivity like nothing else. Set aside 30 minutes each day to worry. Get really worked up about everything you fear could go wrong. Write it all down. Then put it away and go back to work. If you find yourself worrying again, tell yourself to save it for next time. Don’t do this right before you go to bed. Plan to do something specific immediately afterwards, and don’t drag it out.

It’s an interesting thought to put aside some time to get all your worrying out of the way for the day. I guess it’s the ultimate in time management. But can you really be disciplined enough to stop worrying after the allotted 30 minutes? I find my mind wonders back to whatever is worrying me at the time if I don’t keep busy with work. What are your patented stress relieving regimes?

Doing your accounts is the less sexy part of being self-employed. But as homeworkers we need to keep on top of the paperwork to ensure our accountants can keep the Revenue happy. But how do you keep track of your income and expenses?

I had tried computerised accounting packages over the years including Quicken and Microsoft Money. Microsoft’s Office Accounting 2008 is also an option, but you know, they all seem like overkill to me. These packages are great if you want to track your entire households budget, but for my business I find a one sheet spreadsheet is all I need.

On the left I list all the invoices that have been paid, divided into clients. Each is subtotalled with a formula, with the grand total at the bottom of the sheet. I can then see at a glance exactly how much has come into the business.
On the right are my expenses. These are divided by type. So a column for stationery, hardware, postage etc. I then total these columns at the end of the year to give me overall expenses.

I also have two boxfiles. One for invoices and one for expenses. My accountant then gets these boxfiles and my one sheet spreadsheet that he simply pulls the figures he needs off to complete my tax return. If you update the spreadsheet whenever money comes in or out of your business, you can generate your end of year accounts in about five minutes.

It’s one of the issues that all homeworkers have to contend with. Getting your invoices paid so you can pay next month’s mortgage is a problem that looks set to dog all home-based enterprises for the foreseeable, but there may be light at the end of the payment tunnel.

A new fast payment system is now live and could mean your business bank account can now receive faster payments. By the end of the year the majority of the UK’s Internet, phone and standing order payments are expected to be made using the new system.

Barclays, Citi, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks (National Australia Group), HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Northern Bank (Danske Bank) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group are  sending and receiving phone and internet payments, and Alliance & Leicester, HBOS, Nationwide Building Society and Northern Rock are receiving these payments. As part of the phased rollout, some financial institutions are placing lower initial limits on the value of payments that can be sent or alternatively they may be choosing to phase rollout across their customer accounts.

The Faster Payments Service enables banks to process one-off payments made over the internet or by phone within hours, not days, benefiting customers by speeding up the clearing of their payments. Customers are able to make Internet and phone payments outside of banking hours even at the weekend. The service will also speed up standing order payments, enabling them to be cleared on the day they are sent on bank working days. Standing orders will start to be processed through the Faster Payments Service from 6th June.

You do not need to make any change to any payments. Any payment that is not processed through the new service will continue to be made using the existing Bacs three-day service. They will be informed directly by their banks when they are able to use the service.

You can check if your account is faster payment enabled with the easy-to-use checker on the APACS website.

OK, hands up who hasn’t built a website to support their business yet? Website construction can be a daunting prospect if you’ve never attempted this before. Paying an HTML jocky may not be possible, so where’s that leave you?

I recently came across the WebOn that promises to enable anyone to build a professional website in minutes via an intuitive point and click interface. I’ve seen systems like this before, but this one seems quite accomplished and gives you more control than the average automated package over each component on your web pages. Certainly worth investigating if the thought of looking at HTML code makes you break out in a cold sweat.

For the second year in a row Google has been voted the best place to work according to the Great Place to Work Institute. Their website states: ‘According to their employees, this company has created a culture that is high on trust, low on politics, great at sharing resources and sharing the wealth, and full of meaning and significance.’

I guess if I ever wanted to go back to an office job, places like Google would be high on my list. In the early day’s of my home working life I often questioned my motivation for starting Nexus Publishing and turning my back on the 9-5 job.

Personally it was the best move I ever made. Now my home office is the best place to work on the planet. I have complete control over the environment I work in. Since moving house I now have all the space I need. Google may have the edge as a great place to work, but all homeworkers know that there’s no place like their own space crafted to their precise requirements.

An interesting post is getting some coverage on several blogs at the moment. The ultimate PC set up details what the ideal home office could look like - at least as Microsoft think it ought to look. Check out the post yourself and see what you think.

Clearly your own home office set up will reflect your own choices in hardware and software. My set up consists of a Mac Pro, dual 23 inch Mac Cinema monitors. Wireless natural keyboard, Logitech MX mouse and a bank of external hard drives using the compact M9 enclosure. I have two laser printers. A mono Brother for ordinary black and white stuff, and a Samsung MFD for colour printing and scanning.

If you want more details about the set-up that is detailed on the Ultimate PC webpage, download the PDF. What’s your ultimate home office consist of? And how far have you go to making this a reality?

WildCharge

How many times have you lost your mobile phone charger over the last year? If like me you’re always misplacing it, the WildCharge is just what you and I have been waiting for.

The WildCharge site describes this innovative device: ‘Once you enable your cell phone with WildCharge, you will be able to charge the phone by placing it on any WildCharger pad that is connected to a power source; this regardless of where the pad is – at home, work, or abroad. The charging pad is, in fact, universal in this regards; any cell phone, music or video player or other mobile device we enable can be charged on any pad, and any pad can charge any enabled mobile device.

‘Initially, WildCharge is introducing adapters for the very popular Motorola RAZR V3 cell phones. During Winter 2007/08, we will introduce adapters for iPod nano 2G music players, and soon thereafter adapters for RIM BlackBerry smart phones and multiple other devices.’

It’s a superb idea realised in a great product. Any iPhone owners out there will also soon be able to use the device to keep their beloved handsets fully charged. If you’re in the UK you can pick up your WildCharge from FireBox.

I recently got a new colour laser printer. I was looking for an all-in-one device to reduce the amount of hardware I have cluttering my office. I now have two lasers, as I’ve kept the old black and white device for general printing.

It struck me that I’d need to ensure that my office is well ventilated when these printers are operating. These days the ozone and toner that escapes from laser printers is very low, but your breathing air can still become contaminated. Luckily, my printers are positioned away from my desk and near a window I can open. But if you do work in a very confined space, think about the quality of the air you’re breathing.

One solution to improve the air quality in your office is to get some plants. They can in effect act as a filter and not only do their job well, but also bring some greenery into what can be a very sterile environment to work.

This reminded me of a blog post over at Shedworking, where Alex Johnson recommends some plant varieties to try in your home office. There is also a great post on Eco Street including a list of plants that can help purify your office environment. There’s also some interesting products if you’re looking to green up your office on the Breathing Space website.

Working form home can be a very sedentary affair as long hours at the keyboard aren’t that great for your health. Over the last year or so I have been taking an early morning walk before diving into the days work.

Where my house is means that I climb a fairly steep hill on the first leg of my walk. The whole thing only takes 20 minutes at a brisk pace, but I do feel fitter and above all else, it gives me some fresh air and a chance to get in the right mindset for the day’s work.

It’s odd as I’m taking my walk to see everyone else coming out of their houses, get into their cars and start their commute to work. Whereas I’m heading home to get my day started. How different my working experience has been over the last 6 years. I know which one I prefer!

If you can’t get out and about regularly, then some kind of exercise at your desk is a good idea. I came across some desk exercises on wikiHow the other day. Sometimes I catch myself hunching my back, or sitting at an odd angle. At the time it feels OK, but when you try and stand up, you really feel those muscles complaining. All homeworkers need to protect their health. What’s your exercise regime like?

Today is a very special day for Nexus Publishing. After almost 6 months of very late nights the first issue of HomeWorker magazine is complete. All the features, news and reviews are now locked into the magazine’s pages.

Phase 2 now begins were I look for advertisers to take ad space in the first issue. I hope this will only take a few weeks as I would like to launch the magazine by the end of June. If anyone would like to place advertising do get in touch. I have recently reduced the ad rates for the magazine. You can see these on the back page of the Media Pack that you can download from the magazine page on this blog. Just click on the link above and fill in the form.

I am also thinking of including a directory/classifieds section in the back of the magazine where small businesses can advertise their service to their fellow home workers. If you’d be interested in taking a space in this section email with you business details for a quote on costs.

So far the select few people that have seen the finished magazine have been very positive with their comments. I hope to make HomeWorker magazine the hub around which all home-based workers can orbit to find the latest news and features to help them develop their businesses and become better home workers.
I’ll update you all about the progress of phase 2 in a couple of weeks time. Hope to see you all as regular readers.