Help for Homepreneurs

I was at home preparing for a big meeting when I noticed my flash drive was missing--and with it, my presentation. I had put the drive on my kitchen counter next to my portfolio and cell phone--but it had disappeared. I looked everywhere. It wasn't under the bread bag on the counter, or the pile of refrigerator letters on the floor. I checked the kitchen table which was still covered with breakfast dishes. Nothing. Then I went up to my child's room. She was in the middle of imaginative play and I rudely interrupted her by opening her bedroom door. "Have you seen my flash drive?" I asked in a panic. "No," she said. I was nearly in tears. This was the biggest meeting of my career. I had five minutes to get out the door, and the tiny drive was missing. Then I looked at my child's toy. She was galloping a horse through a field of blocks and string. Around the horse's neck was a bridle made of bright blue ribbon. At the end of the ribbon was my fla...

In the office, you had a small corner of the corporate world from which to ply your trade. You may have had a cubby in cubicle city or an office with a window. Either way, your space was compact, standardized, and vacuumed by the night cleaning crew. Not so at home. Unless you live in a studio apartment, you home has multiple rooms to spread out your stuff. And stuff can make a mess. Receipts, contact business cards, and paperwork all pile up quickly. Mix in your personal bills, magazines, and junk mail and you have business paper chaos. Searching through stacks of paperwork reduces productivity and can lead to errors. Organization isn’t complicated. It just requires a little extra effort and a method to sort through the madness. Step 1: Set aside space for a filing cabinet. In today’s electronic business world much is done through e-mail, fax and phone, but paper still exists and needs to be stored. Create a file for bills, customer documents, and receipts. You may need these docume...