today i ran across Inc Magazine’s slideshow, How To Run a Business from Home. it was fun and insightful from some of the peeps doing it right; and it made me think of another recent article i read, “The Way I Work”. both of these pieces talk about different habits and methods for entrepreneurs working at home, and how to do so successfully. well this got me started thinking about the blupint team and some of my own personal work at home habits… and of course, i then wanted to share.

ladies and gents, without further adieu, i present just a few of blupint’s work-at-home secrets to success for entrepreneurs…. (all rights reserved)…

(fyi, this is not our home office… wishful thinking)

1. it’s okay to be late. this might seem like an odd way to start a “secrets to success” article, but take a moment and stick with me. if you work from an office, when you arrive at 8:30, do you immediately snap into efficiency mode and start cranking through your to-do list? if you said yes, you are a liar. when you walk through the doors at the j-o-b you get some coffee, talk fantasy sports or what you did for dinner, post a tweet, read a funny forward, etc.. in fact, if you are reading this at work right now, then you know exactly what i’m talking about it doesn’t mean you are a bad employee, it means you are human and for whatever reasons we all have days where it just takes us an extra minute. well we’re the same way. working at home doesn’t mean you MUST be working bank hours, and it certainly doesn’t mean you should beat yourself up if you don’t. everyone’s got a life to balance, and everyone’s got a to-do list. our people know that if you sleep in an extra 20 minutes, or it takes a second cup of coffee to get going.. you don’t need to punish yourself with guilt. you just might be working a bit longer, or a bit harder in the near future. there’s nothing wrong with that.

2. eating lunch at home sucks. at least eating lunch at home every single day does. yes, it’s great to save money, you eat healthier blah blah blah. but eating a home made turkey sandwich and a banana, with a glass of ice water on the side every single day gets old… in fact, it gets old really really quick. go out to lunch at least once a week. meet a client, meet a friend, eat alone. regardless of who or where, just get out. it’s too easy to get started on your day, eat your sandwich at your computer, then look at the clock and realize its 7 at night and you completely missed the sun outside. it gets really bad, when you haven’t just missed one day of sun, you’ve missed five!

(if you make sandwiches that look like this, you actually should eat at home everyday.. then call me and invite me over)

3. set office habits… maybe even write them down as “rules” (i hate using that word bc everyone should strive to break rules, not set them). limit yourself to checking email a few times a day, try to limit your personal catch-up calls (“hhheeeeyyy, man! how are you, haven’t talked to you in months.. yea, i’ve got some time”.. prob not good on a tuesday afternoon), limit your itunes time… whatever it is, put a system in place so you don’t do it. i find it easier to avoid certain distractions if i’ve made it a “rule” or a habit of nature. if you ever think something might be a distraction, then i guarantee at some point it IS. so set habits, and stick to them.

4. know your available resources. quiet coffee shops ARE the new meeting rooms. and when the internet craps out at home, head to a local co-working space. we’re into sandbox suites, sf cube and numerous local cafe’s… but know what’s around you, what they can provide, and take advantage.

(we’d love to hear some of your personal habits or thoughts? what works, what doesn’t… )

Tags: blupint, coworking, culture, home, lean, office, startup, team, telecommute, virtual

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 4:30 pm and is filed under blog.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.