For those moments of doubt, there is no better cure than a conversation with Barry Frangipane, the co-author of The Venice Experiment: A Year of Trial and Error Living Abroad. A middle-of-the-road computer programmer living in Florida with a full-time job, Frangipane decided to see if he could make all the advances in remote collaboration and increased acceptance of telecommuting work for him — by moving to Venice for a year with his wife and keeping his day job.

Sneaking up on the boss

Frangipane knew better than to spring a transatlantic move on his boss all at once, opting instead to inch his way toward greater freedom by slowly proving that, for him, the office was only a hindrance.

“The first thing I did was I started working a day a week at home,” he explains, “and then that gradually grew until I was spending the entire week working from home. Home being five miles away from the office.” From that point it was a surprisingly simple leap from Florida to Italy.

“Once you iron out the technical details and your employer can see that your productivity is actually increasing working from home, then at that point approaching the boss and saying, ‘look, I’m thinking of moving my home. Oh, and by the way, that home is Venice,’ well certainly it’s a little startling, but when the discussion turns to just the facts,” the boss has no reason to disagree.

All upside

Did Frangipane’s customers revolt? Did he miss the office banter or feel like his career was suffering because he was 4,000 miles away? Quite the contrary. “I would say it was all upside,” he says. Leaving aside the benefits of spending a year in one of the world’s most beautiful cities, Frangipane actually felt he got more done living abroad.

“In an office environment, there are so many interruptions. One of my partners once said that 32 15-minute interruptions is the entire day. And it makes you think a little bit,” he says. “When I’m working at home people don’t just stop by and stand in my doorway to talk about the ball game. I find myself substantially more productive because I can focus for longer periods of time.”

Dare to dream

Frangipane is adamant that there’s nothing special about him that allowed him to succeed at extreme telecommuting and insists that while living abroad for a year isn’t for everyone, it is for way more people than you’d think. “There was a time when this was just for computer people — web designers and programmers and things — but not so much anymore,” he says, citing the case of a neighbor who works as a customer service rep for a big-box store and has never set foot in the company’s offices.

“It wouldn’t even be noticed if she moved to another country and just continued answering the phone,” he says.

And if you think that Frangipane is simply braver than the average joe, he replies that simply setting a date to leave, informing yourself about your destination and carefully planning your move does wonders to embolden the timid. “Before you go, check the blogs online, check websites and talk to people who have already done it and ask them questions. You’ll see that many of your fears will be allayed,” he insists.

Once he and his wife started learning more about life in Venice, “you start realizing that they’re really just not that much different. Everybody puts on their pants one leg at a time.”

Learning to think Italian

International similarities in dressing aside, there were differences between the Italian way of life and the American, according to Frangipane, and these made a deep impression on him. “I find that things that used to be considered big issues for me, office politics and things, just slide off my back now,” he says. And Italy also changed him in other ways.

“Venice is a town of only 60,000 people and functions as one big family. Everyone knows everyone. They’re happy to shut their stores for a half an hour and just take you to the local coffee shop. They value the relationships so much more than the money that that has certainly changed my focus,” says Frangipane. “I’ve learned that earning that last $1,000 or $10,000 a year is not as important as the relationships.”

How much so? He and his wife already have their eye on Paris for another jaunt abroad.

Image courtesy of Flickr user melename

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With the arrival of summer weather, it’s natural for workers’ minds to turn to enjoying the sunshine and their attention to drift a bit from spreadsheets, sales targets and the like. So what’s the cure for this summer slacking? The Chicago Tribune tackles this seasonal worry facing managers each year and comes up with a list of suggestions. Primary among them is an increase in web work.

Reporter Jan Weigel speaks to Bryant Rice, director of business consultancy DEGW, who suggests that rather than fight against your employees’ urge to flee the office, managers should let them listen to their impulses:

Because of technology people can work from wherever they want, and we encourage this for worker productivity. Ten percent of the people might abuse this and not do the work, but 90 percent will do it and be happy about doing it remotely.

We see that employees will actually do more when they are not in the office because they don’t want the boss to doubt they are working. Very few people will abuse this privilege because they view it as a perk.

Are you more thankful for the flexibility of web work in the summer months?

Image courtesy Flickr user jan chill

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But the truth is that there are many laws that can potentially impact telecommuters and web workers. You have to have a clear picture of possible problems up front.

Benjamin Wright is an attorney specializing in the issues surrounding working online. He points to six key questions that web-based workers must keep in mind:

1. Are there any legal restrictions on your ability to conduct business from your home?
2. Do you have a clear contract with the employer explaining the relationship, compensation, tax issues, reimbursement for expenses and ownership of property (such as who owns the laptop you are using)?
3. Are you an independent contractor or an employee, and do you understand your resulting tax obligations?
4. Is the actual work you’re doing legitimate and legal?
5. Have you taken care to protect any sensitive data or information you have access to?
6. Do you need any special license or credentials to do the sort of work you’ve taken on?

Disregarding any of the above questions could easily wind up leading to major issues for any virtual staffer who ignores them.

Home offices

For many web-based workers, the best work space available is a spare room or space in your home. However, many municipalities and counties put limitations on what you can do in your home. Wright notes, “Some cities limit a citizen’s ability to conduct business out of their house, especially when the activity creates traffic, deliveries or noise. Some rental leases will also forbid the conduct of business out of an apartment.”

Employment status

When you work virtually, you are more likely to be asked to work as an independent contractor than if you’re going into an office every day. As such, you need to be aware of what your obligations are. “If you are an independent contractor (rather than an employee), you need to understand your state and federal tax responsibilities, including accounting for income, payment of estimated taxes, retention of receipts, and documentation for deductions such as home-office deduction,” Wright explains.

Employment contracts

Because there can be major tax issues if an employer tries to list you as a contractor  rather than as an employee, you do need a contract in hand.You also need that contract to detail your compensation and obligations.

Legitimate work

It’s not unheard of for a web-based worker to take on a project from someone she’s never met. That can make it harder to understand exactly what you’ve been asked to do. “Make sure you understand the full nature and legality of what you are doing. Some work-from-home schemes trick people into supporting illegal activities like online gambling or money-laundering. Make sure you know who your employer really is,” Wright points out. “If the work is too good to be true, you should be suspicious.”

Security and privacy

You may very well be handling information that must be kept secure and safe. That can take the shape of requirements to lock up files or computer equipment in your own home, or even take things a step beyond. Wright suggests, “If you are handling sensitive data (like personally-identifiable information pertaining to individual customers or patients), make sure you understand and implement proper security procedures.”

Licenses

It can be surprising to see how many jobs are subject to licensing requirements, depending on where you live. Wright points out a particularly problematic example: “For example, in some states a person doing computer forensics work — which can even include some kinds of computer repair — must have a private investigator’s license.”

Image courtesy Flickr user Sam Howzit

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Jay Mulki, a business professor at Northeastern University, has been studying the issue, conducting surveys of telecommuters and is currently analyzing the results. In advance of the release of the research, Mulki gave a sneak peak of his developing findings to the University’s website. Based on what he says, workaholism and web work are likely to be linked. He said:

As expected, remote work and telecommuting increased productivity for the business and provided flexibility for the employee. But we’ve found people often have difficulty getting away from work, and as a result, the work-family balance may actually be getting worse. Some people can manage it, while others can’t and often experience conflicts in their work and life. In the second part of our study, we are actually looking at whether the work-life balance is real or a myth, and how managers can help employees achieve this balance.

Rather than a challenge solely for the web worker, Mulki went on to say that this was an issue for managers to tackles as well as individual team members:

Smart managers are directing their people to have the discipline to start and stop work at specific times. They are also encouraging them to set up their workspace as if they are in an office setting. There are times when all employees will put in extra time, but we’ve found that some teleworkers feel obligated to work more hours and worry they can’t disengage from work. They are feeling that the work is always there.

As the manager of a dispersed team, do you feel it is your responsibility as well as your employees to ensure they draw a firm line between work and the rest of their lives? 

Image courtesy Flickr user ryantron

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Recent research presented at the Academy of Management by University of Michigan management professor Susan Ashford reveals you’re not alone. For the study, Ashford interviewed a selection of solo workers from IT professionals to graphic designers and novelists to find out what challenges workers who leave the office behind for a more self-reliant work style are facing.

These challenges, it turns out, are more often internal than is generally acknowledged. “When you read the practical literature on working from home, people talk about creating an office, getting file drawers and managing your time, and there’s nothing wrong with those things. They’re all important, but they don’t talk about what’s going on at a level underneath that, which is really more about how you manage your ego,” Ashford told WebWorkerDaily in an interview.

Ego management was a general problem throughout her interviews as solo workers struggled without the supportive structure of an office “that creates incentives whereby you work even if you’re not motivated. Your boss is sitting there. Your co-workers are around you. You just work.” Take away that structure and questions about the value and meaning of work start to bubble up more frequently.

That’s why “people who work in regular jobs have mid-life crises. People who work on their own just have daily crises,” says Ashford.

So what was the key to handling the many, mini crises of ego-taxing web work? You need careful thought about how to conceptualize your work and what it means to you. Before switching to solo work, Ashford’s interviewees told her,

You should do some deep exploration of who you are as a person and what motivates you, what undermines you, that kind of thing. We just want to get a job. We go into a groove and we don’t do as much of the exploration of who we are. But who you are is so prominent in solitary work. You are the tool through which you do it all, and if you don’t have a good understanding of that, it’s pretty easy to get thrown off the track.

The work of ego management doesn’t end with some self-reflection before you embark on the web worker lifestyle. Ashford’s interviewees continually strove to conceptualize their work in a larger way, to understand its meaning. Take the rug maker she spoke with, who after five hours in her basement hooking away at her latest creation, reminds herself that “long after I’m dead my rugs will be in homes around the country and giving people pleasure.”

Nor is it as simple as finding the discipline to pretend you’re at the office when you’re really at home, one man who worked as a mathematical modeler told Ashford.

‘I don’t want to set up my life to be working out of my home exactly the way I would be in an office. I don’t want to make myself get there at eight and stay until six and take ten-minute breaks. The beauty of working in this way is you get to have a different kind of life.’ What is interesting is you don’t really want to take the easy way out of the problem of what does it mean by putting yourself in a rigid structure, which would help you stay motivated. You’re giving up all the benefit of working this way, so you want to go with the more flowing structure. But that puts you in the problem of keeping yourself going and motivating yourself and that’s where these internal dialogues, this meaning making makes a real difference.

How do you manage the ego challenges of the web worker lifestyle?

Image courtesy Flickr user the Italian voice

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A recent round-up of research on telecommuting in Knowledge@Wharton brings this point home. The in-depth article notes that “as the economy flirts with a double-dip recession… the workplace for many Americans has shifted away from crowded offices to a new world of solitary work,” and then proceeds to discuss the challenges of working alone.

Some of these issues like time management and work-life balance challenges have been covered extensively on WebWorkerDaily before, but one difficult aspect of solo work studied by Susan J. Ashford, professor of management at the University of Michigan, is less often discussed: the challenges to ego and self-worth that solo work presents. According to Knowledge@Wharton, her research has led her to conclude:

… [Q]uestions about purpose and meaning come up more easily to workers who have no organization behind them. “Our argument is that your ego is very invested in the work because it’s just you,” she notes. “There’s nobody there to tell you that what you’re doing is great even though profits are going down.”

In a study recently presented at the Academy of Management, Ashford conducted in-depth interviews with solitary workers about how they stay motivated, and discovered that many needed to create a larger narrative of meaning behind their work. For some, such as a rug maker who likened her basement workshop to Picasso’s studio, the stories were imaginary projections. Others created ego-boosting surroundings, like the financial analyst who set up his office to feel like the cockpit of a jet plane. The narratives helped sustain motivation when money got tight or stress levels rose. “When you are on your own, meaning-making feels much more necessary to your work life than when you’re in an organization,” Ashford says. “The more freedom you have in your work, the more you have to do this.”

Ashford’s conclusions seem sensible. If you’re required to show up at an office from nine to five every day and are paid bi-weekly for doing so, this arrangement is, in effect, a constant drip of validation. You’ve accomplished the primary goal set out for you –- attendance –- and been rewarded with a paycheck. A flash lobby and plush office functions the same way, assuring everyone who works there of the meaningfulness of their work. Plus, in an office, you’re surrounded by others who you can measure yourself against. If Stew in the next cube over is a bit of a slacker, every day you can spy him playing solitaire or bungling presentations and know where you stand in the office accomplishment stakes. Web work removes that supportive scaffolding.

Do you think web work demands inner confidence as much as organizational and motivational skills?

Photo courtesy Flickr user anna gutermuth

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UPDATE: GoDropBox has been renamed GoFileDrop.

GoDropBox is a nifty third-party add-on for Google Apps that adds a public mailbox to your Google Docs account, enabling anyone with the appropriate link to upload files to your account. This is handy for web workers who would like to accept files that are too big to email and don’t want to have to use additional file transfer tools.

Once installed via the Google Apps Marketplace, you’ll be given a unique URL that you can then forward to other people, which allows them to upload files to your Google Docs account through their browser (they can only upload files and don’t have the ability to read or otherwise access your account). The upload page is fairly basic, as shown in the screenshot above. It is easy to use and supports drag and drop, allows batch file uploads and can show upload progress. Uploaded files appear immediately in your Google Docs account.

The installed version of GoDropBox is only a trial, offering up to 100 users on a domain just 50 MB of data allowance each. Additional data is priced at $5 for 2 GB per month, $9 for 5 GB per month, or $15 for 10 GB per month (subscriptions can be canceled at any time).

Note: Confusingly, despite the name, this has absolutely nothing to do with file-sync-and-sharing service Dropbox. Also, in order to use it, you’ll have to be a Google Apps user and an admin will have to install it on your domain.

(via Digital Inspiration)

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The Seattle area already has a number of coworking spaces, including Office Nomads, just a few blocks away, and various other members of Coworking Seattle. So I asked Keith and Jana how they differentiate their offerings from the other spaces in the area. The Harpers are creative professionals themselves — Keith is a graphic designer and Jana is a web application developer — so their primary goal for the new space was to attract a group of like-minded and compatible creative people. While there is one “drop-in” desk available, The Mill’s major focus is on “dedicated desks.” They told me that they are looking to create something more than just a space where workers come and go; they hope to create a compatible group of creative professionals who can generate ideas, help each other and enjoy shared lunches and events. They even envision that the group could conduct design reviews and debug code.

One thing that The Mill is not: corporate. The Harpers made a conscious decision to create a low-key space, so just about everything is recycled, including surplus furniture from the University of Washington and rugs and knickknacks from the local thrift store. About the only new item in the space is the whiteboard wall, which was so new that the paint was still drying when I visited. The artwork that covers the walls is borrowed from artist friends, and the coffee beans will come from another friend. The vibe is so informal, in fact, that Keith and Jana kidded about needing to start “corporate Mondays,” when everyone would dress up.

However, the Broadway Building, where the coworking space is located, is new, and The Mill has access to a shared conference room and kitchen (although the building and the neighborhood have many restaurants). It is centrally located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, across the street from Seattle Central Community College and next door to the landmark sculpture of Jimi Hendrix. The Harpers point out that while parking is available, there are several bus lines serving the location, and a new streetcar and light-rail line are under construction, meaning that their colleagues might well walk or take transit to The Mill.

The Harpers’ vision seems to be gaining momentum, as they have already filled half of the eight desks available, and they have been talking to other startups and creative people that they think will be a good match.

More information about the space is available at The Mill’s website, and you can also find out more at an open house that will be held on Friday evening in the space.

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The benefits of the blurring of these boundaries are obvious, but less discussed are the downsides, and several experts feel that there is at least one serious one: increased workaholism and the potential for burnout. Does being on the cutting edge of connectivity and evolving workstyles make web workers more vulnerable to becoming workaholics? Paul Miller, the founder of the Intranet Benchmarking Forum, definitely believes so. He told WebWorkerDaily:

One of the downsides of the digital workplace is addiction to work. Companies are actually facing the opposite problem of the one they thought they’d have, which is that people would essentially not work hard enough. They actually overwork. You’ve seen it all around — people are working on holiday, working in the evening, working at the weekends. People are working much longer hours and seeing this blurring of work-life as being a positive thing, where I actually don’t think it is. I think it’s really important to know when you’re working and to know when you’re not working. If you’re using the same device for work as for talking to your mom, you start to forget which bits are work and which bits are the rest of your life. And actually I think people are becoming addicted to being connected.

Miller isn’t the only one with this worry. Contacts organizer Gist has been promoting the concept of a new workstyle that blurs the boundaries between the personal and the professional, but it’s not a change that comes without pitfalls, according to Gist’s VP of Marketing, Robert Pease. Technology and the workstyle it enables provide great benefits, but they also put significant demands on our maturity and self-control. He told us:

Web workers are very innovative people and they’re very into new stuff. You can get an activity stream of your friends, your favorite brands and your customers, and everything becomes almost overwhelming. It’ll be interesting how the web worker on the front edge of this is going to evolve to have a true on/off switch — to know that it’s OK not to be watching everything every second of every minute of every day.

You can very easily sit online 24 hours a day. As much as you’re willing to consume can be delivered. You can always pick up your phone and you can always see your messages. But you also have the ability to not pick up your phone. What that requires is a level of self-awareness and a level of maturity, for lack of a better word, to know that work is always going to be available to you, but you need to balance fulfilling things in your life than are not related to being online — running or hiking or time with your children or throwing a ball with your dog.

Of course, correlation is not causation. So perhaps rather than web work turning people into workaholics, it’s simply that ambitious, workaholic types are more drawn to web-work-style jobs in the first place.

What do you you think: Are web workers more likely to struggle with work addiction? Is this because of their basic character or the nature of their workstyle?

Image courtesy Flickr user Joye~

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If you’re living with a bit of anxiety that your tax naughtiness might be uncovered and cost you, now is a good time to do something about it. The IRS is offering an amnesty. Inform them of your assets before Aug. 31 and you’ll pay a lower penalty fee of 12.5 percent for up to $75,000 or 25 percent if you’ve got more than that (on the odd chance you inherited a foreign account and never withdrew anything, the penalty will be only five percent).

If you’re discovered outside the amnesty program, the penalties “are draconian,” warns Harry Miller, a partner at Burns & Levinson, and expert on international tax issues. “If the failure to disclose is determined to be willful, then the civil penalty for each violation is up to the greater of $100,000 or 50 percent of the value of the undisclosed account. Accounts can be decimated.”

Who should consider taking advantage of the program? Miller recommends that “any U.S. citizen or U.S. resident with investments or accounts outside of the U.S. who has failed to disclose these accounts on annual information returns required by the U.S. government, or who has failed to include the income from such accounts on their personal U.S. income tax return, should consider taking advantage” of the amnesty program. But he notes it’s not for everybody:

There are significant tax costs involved with coming clean. In most cases the cost to be paid will be very low in comparison with the potential costs of being discovered without having participated in the program.  But anybody interested in this program needs to know what the potential tax cost and reduced penalties will be before getting into it.

For those who have so far avoided detection and are considering risking it for a while longer, Miller warns that a combination of terrorism-related scrutiny of international accounts and a recession-related drive to increase revenue without increasing tax rates will make the government more likely to discover you going forward. The IRS “has hired hundreds of new agents in Europe and Asia specifically in order to beef up their compliance enforcement efforts,” says Miller, who warns the risk is greatest in those countries with tax treaties with the U.S.

And while this amnesty is a repeat of a successful 2009 program, which convinced 15,000 tax dodgers to turn themselves in, “it is unlikely that there will be another similar program, and certainly nobody should count on such a program,” says Miller.

So what do you do if you’re thinking of taking advantage of the amnesty? Your regular accountant may not be able to handle the matter, as this is a highly specialized area of tax law, so find someone experienced with the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative. And do it quickly. Paperwork must be filed and penalties paid by the end of August.

Image courtesy Flickr user Podknox

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Managed correctly from both sides, such working arrangements can be good for both parties. However, part-time web workers often need to do an even better job of managing client expectations and communications than full-time freelancers. Here are five tips for those considering web working outside of their day job for the first time:

1. Vet the side project thoroughly. Your success working remotely during off hours hinges on a number of things. First, there are some projects that lend themselves to such a working arrangement like technical writing, journalism, graphic design and web development, to name a few. It’s in your best interest to talk to the client and ask in-depth questions about the project, including quizzing them on access to stakeholders, technology and delivery dates. You may also run into potential clients who want full-time attention — even though it is supposed to be a part-time project — so take the time to thoroughly vet the project so you are absolutely comfortable with the working arrangement and can put together a statement of work that satisfies the client.
2. Respect Boundaries. One of the worst mistakes new part-time web workers make is to do their client work on their daytime employer’s time (and even use their daytime employer’s equipment to do it). This is unprofessional. Prior to taking on potential projects, you need to take stock of the boundaries you need to set between your day job, personal life and the side project(s). In regards to the day job, take advantage of a flexible work schedule — if available — for attending client conference calls and other activities. If you need to reschedule that lunch run off-site to call your client, so be it. The responsibilities of your day job and extracurricular projects should never affect each other. There might also be your day employer’s non-compete agreement to consider when taking side projects, so review any employment agreements carefully when considering taking on a side project.
3. Set Expectations Clearly. Too many times an outside contractor is brought in for a project that has already fallen off track. Coming in as a part-time off-site contractor puts you at a disadvantage in this scenario. It is prudent to be very upfront and honest about the time you have to put into the project and that you have a day job. If needed, establish times that you will check in via phone, IM, or email during the course of the project. Since you aren’t going to be in the same office as the other team members, it is up to you to maintain communications and not let the client slip into thinking they have full-time access to a part-time resource.
4. Schedule Work/Life Balance. It can be easy to drown yourself in work, especially if you’ve spent some time unemployed or underemployed. This means you have to run a tight calendar, including time for yourself. Just as you schedule time for deliverables and other work obligations, you should do the same for gym time, evenings off and much-needed personal time.
5. Embrace the Cloud. While the recent Gmail outage raised the ire of its users, as a part-time web worker you have no other option other than to embrace the cloud. While an email inbox serves as the document management tool of choice for way too many organizations, keeping your project artifacts online and available — even when you are not –  is paramount to the success of the project. There are services for all budgets from Google Sites and Zoho Projects, to BaseCamp to even hosted SharePoint sites. Keeping the project online means your client(s) will have full access to all project artifact,s even when you are fully ensconced in your day job.

If you have a day job, and freelance on the side, what tips do you have for managing side projects and clients?

Image by stock.xchng user Nintaro.

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I shouldn’t have been surprised — I’d told her earlier in the week that we might become more productive if we work near each other. At that time it was merely a suggestion. I didn’t think that one day I would just wake up and find it a reality.

“Oh well, there’s nothing wrong with that,” I thought to myself. It’s not like we didn’t discuss it. What’s the worst that could happen? In fact, I believed we were going to be more motivated and productive.

A few days later, I realized that every benefit of coworking with my partner came paired with a disadvantage.

Inspiration vs. Distraction

As Darrell suggested in a previous post, you should pick a coworking partner that you respect and admire. I knew I could learn from my partner’s work ethic and her ability to make connections. I find her inspiring, but having her around is distracting too. Every time she moved or made a sound, I would shoot involuntary glances to her side of the room. To be fair, she told me that although she’s motivated by my passion for work she got annoyed at how loud I type.

This meant that we needed some physical barriers so that we could block out distracting movements and sounds. At the same time, we didn’t want to completely separate our workspaces. Our solution was to keep our desks six feet apart, rather than side-by-side, and place a small shelf of books in between. From where I’m sitting I can see her monitor, keyboard and hands without being distracted with the other movements she makes. Also, she can barely hear me type.

Common Ground vs. Conflicts

Having similar goals and habits can work for you, but there will always be  conflict no matter how compatible you think you are. For example, we agree on the color of the walls (orange), the position of the furniture and having a small garden behind the sliding door. Things we disagree on: everything else.

The workaround to this issue is to know your priorities as a team and as individuals. Do you need a completely silent work environment or can you adjust to soft ambient music? Is your need for a large shelf as important as her need for more leg room? There will always be compromises. Knowing your priorities can identify the compromises that will least affect you.

If you must argue, pick your battles well. An argument over who makes the coffee is not as important as a constructive discussion on how the other person’s habits interfere with your work.

Collaboration vs. Independence

It’s hard to create privacy when you’re working in one room. This can be a good thing, since you can help each other out of time sinks as well as share ideas. Too much collaboration, on the other hand, can be suffocating.

Facilitating collaboration was easy. The whiteboard in the office allowed us to write our to-do lists for the day and the rest of the week. If I need help with something, I just write it on the box labeled “Requests.” She then responds in a way that was most convenient for both of us whether it’s through email, a conversation, or Twitter.

Even then, we’d often think of a question that needed a quick reply. Asking out loud worked at first, but during peak productive moments we’d rather work uninterrupted. How would she know if it was okay to disturb me (and vice versa)?

Here’s the solution we came up with: a simple “DND” under my name in the whiteboard shows that I can’t be bothered until the “DND” has come off. The same goes for her. Now, it’s almost a reflex to look at the whiteboard and check for the “DND” before I speak.

Coworking with my partner was much harder than I expected. The good news is that with continued effort, we’re slowly getting to the point where the arrangement is making us stronger — both as a couple and as teleworkers.

Have you ever tried sharing a home office with your spouse or partner? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Image by nyuszika from sxc.hu

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But how do you know if your clients are abusing you? Here are a few telltale signs and tips for how to fix and avoid these situations.

The work keeps creeping in. Scope creep is the bane of many freelancers’ lives. You start with one description of what is to be done and end up doing something entirely different, or something that’s way more involved than the original task.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Have a contract and a clear and agreed-upon scope and schedule for each and every phase or project. Outline exactly what is to be done and when it’s due.

The client expects immediate responses or complete availability. Occasionally, you’ll come across clients who want 100 percent undivided attention. They expect emails to be responded to within an hour and work to be completed at an unrealistic pace.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Set expectations from the start. Explain when you’re available to clients, how quickly you tend to reply to communications, and how you prefer to communicate. You may also wish to explain how you work. For example, do you generally devote a set amount of time to each project or client per day? If so, explain this to clients up front so that they know what to expect.

The client expects to be able to chat with you frequently. Some clients prefer to communicate by phone, others expect to chitchat at the start of each call, and occasionally, you’ll even find those who expect to have multiple calls per day. In any case, these clients can be a serious drain on your time, making it next to impossible to stay on schedule with your work.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Make it part of your policy to limit phone communications altogether. It may seem harsh, but phone calls and excessive meetings are actually counterproductive. Keep all phone calls to 15 minutes or less and require all calls to be scheduled in advance. Finally, let clients know your preferred communication methods so that they know what to expect.

The client frequently goes back and forth over decisions or nitpicks with minor changes. When a client is indecisive, it can make working with him a nightmare. He wants things one way one minute, the complete opposite the next. Round and round you go, until you are completely confused and way outside of the original scope.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Clearly specify the number of revisions that are included in the project, as well as the deadlines for each set of revisions. Then communicate frequently about pending deadlines so that clients understand that they must turn in all changes by that point and that any subsequent changes will fall within the next set of revisions or will require additional revisions (at a predetermined and contracted rate).

The client expects free consulting and advice. Many times, this type of client has “friends” working on things for him or her for free, so if you hear this hint early on, you might want to consider this a red flag and run the other way. Unfortunately, it’s quite common to come across bargain hunters, so you’ll have to be firm and stick to your guns if you don’t want your bottom line to suffer.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Again, the contract and scope can be a real lifesaver here. If you clearly outline what’s included in a project or job (including the number of phone calls), it will be much harder for clients to negotiate freebies.

By preparing for these common situations in advance, you can often avoid them altogether, saving yourself time, profit and sanity. Put your policies in place and then stick to them without fail so that your clients know exactly what to expect.

How do you handle difficult clients? What techniques do you use to stay on track?

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Recently, it’s been much easier to work from a place of desperation, taking every opportunity that comes our way and doing every marketing tactic imaginable to maintain a contracting sales pipeline. Suddenly, the “fight or flight” reaction becomes almost routine, an up and down roller coaster ride that started as an attempt to keep our businesses afloat during these tough times.

The Fight Response

When times get tough, we take a “no holds barred” approach to marketing and promoting our businesses. The goal is finding ways to stay open and survive when it’s getting harder and harder to secure new business. We create elaborate and ambitious marketing plans with the intention of doing all that we can to keep things going. We get up early. We stay up late. We work at a furious pace trying to keep up with it all until…

The Flight Response

…we burn out. All the running and pushing and fighting has caught up with us. We’re tired. More than tired, we’re exhausted and spent. We’re frustrated with the lackluster results from what seemed (at the time) like very promising plans and the best of intentions. At this point, we just need a break. It takes every bit of effort to muster up enough energy to complete the bare minimum of “must be done” tasks, let alone keep up with the ambitious marketing plan.

We take a few days to rest, and then we decide to regroup. Where do you think we go? Back to the fight response, and the whole thing starts over.

How do we end the cycle of this instinctive response? We have to recognize it and stop it before it starts. Here’s how.

Step 1 — Acknowledge that you’ve been running the “fight or flight” circle.

It may take a while to even realize that you’re doing this to yourself. After all, for many of us, this is perhaps the first time we’ve ever had to try this hard to keep our businesses afloat, so this is all very new to us.

Step 2 — Find a good accountability partner to help you keep things in check.

Let your accountability partner know what you’re trying to accomplish and agree on ways that he or she can keep you on track. Have monthly (at a minimum) phone calls or in-person meetings to discuss your progress and setbacks, as well as ways to improve your efforts going forward. With each call, agree on next actions/steps to move you forward in some way.

Step 3 — Be realistic.

When you’re not stressed or thinking about the problems you are facing, sit down and formulate a realistic plan for keeping your business afloat. Determine the goals you want to reach for your business in the coming months, as well as the marketing tactics you will use to help you achieve them. Your plans should include small but consistent steps that you can take on a daily basis to achieve your goals. Remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Plan accordingly.

Step 4 — Plan for time off.

This is probably going to be the toughest part, but you must regularly take time away from your business to do things that restore your energy and enthusiasm. Rest is just as important for your success as the work itself. It’s important to plan for it, and (if necessary) force yourself to do it, and don’t just stay at home watching television. Get out. Get outside. Be with other people. This is especially important for web workers.

The fight or flight response is only natural. We’re finding ourselves under increasing levels of stress, and our instincts are telling us to protect ourselves. We can, but not exactly the way Mother Nature intended. By recognizing that we’re falling into this trap, we can learn to avoid it and improve our results going forward.

Have you noticed the “fight or flight” response affecting your actions in recent months? How are you learning to cope with the increased levels of stress, while still keeping your business afloat?

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nim·ble : quick and light in motion;

Being a web worker has its advantages, and one of the biggest is that you can build a very adaptable and nimble business. Here are a few of the ways we stay flexible.

Web workers hear about developments and opportunities immediately.

The good thing about working online all day is that you have access to information as soon as it becomes available, making it easy to keep a finger on your competitors’ and customers’ pulses and adjust your services and business offerings accordingly.

Tip: To make your business a bit more nimble when it comes to staying in the loop, participate in social-networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Your competitors, clients and potential customers are there posting updates and issues they’re facing 24/7.

Web workers can jump on opportunities quickly.

Even better than just hearing about opportunities, web workers are in the unique position to take advantage of them quickly, amazing customers with their service, even before a working relationship begins.

Tip: eLance and other job posting sites are perfect places to find out about new business opportunities. As soon as customers submit their needs, you can be there to respond and provide a solution. The same is true of sites like Twitter. Using the service’s search functionality, as well as Twitter applications like TweetDeck, you can immediately see when someone is looking for your type of service or expertise and be the first in line with assistance.

Web workers can quickly adapt.

The landscape of the web is constantly changing. Businesses, applications and sites that exist today may not be around three months from now. Fortunately for the “in-the-know, always-connected” web worker, it’s relatively easy to adjust course and compensate for the changes in scenery.

If a favorite web app is no longer available, a quick Twitter query or Google search for an alternative is only a few key strokes away.

Tip: To stay agile in the ever-changing web world, be sure to always backup your files, keep your computers and applications synced, and stay knowledgeable of alternatives for all of your commonly used web applications.

If you take advantage of the tools and resources available to you online, it’s easy to build an adaptable web-based business, one that can even get a jump on the competition.

How do you keep your business agile and quick to adapt? Share your tips and experiences of the nimble web business.

Definition from Merriam-Webster
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You don’t need a fancy set-up. You can get by with a few basic necessities (in most cases, a computer, an Internet connection, a web site and maybe some business cards).

You don’t need to quit your day job. You can keep working at your current job until your web work picks up enough to support you.

You can work around your current obligations. You can work at night, on weekends, in the mornings after you take the kids to school, or use any time you have available. It doesn’t have to be a huge commitment. Web working is a lot more flexible than most jobs, and you can get a lot done in just a couple of hours a day.

You don’t have to sell the farm. You can work where you are, without making any major lifestyle changes to compensate for the new venture. If you were starting a traditional “bricks and mortar” business, you might have to find a way to fund the business, which might include selling assets, moving to a smaller place, etc.

So, what are you waiting for? To start, you’ll need a few things:

Set up a legal entity for your business as soon as possible. This is good for tax and liability purposes, as well as maintaining personal privacy.  Be sure to speak with your accountant or tax adviser about the most appropriate entity for your business and needs.

Set up a business account as soon as you get your first check (or sooner). If you set up a PayPal or Google Checkout account that isn’t used for personal purchases, then it could serve as your “business account.”  Of course, you should always consult an accountant for assistance and advice surrounding your business finances.

A web site. Even if you just have a small site to start with, you need a face for your business online. You also need a place to post regular and frequent updates (a blog, a newsletter, or a podcast are a few examples). This will help you to start establishing your site with search engines and with building traffic. The earlier you start posting regular (and relevant) content to your site, the better off you will be. You need a way to build a list of followers who want to stay updated about you and your products and services. Aside from these few basic “must haves,” you can forgo the fancy design until you can afford it.

Create (and maintain) a consistent lead generation plan. This might consist of a lot of writing and posting online, or a cold-calling or advertising campaign.

Build a portfolio and testimonials. Do free work for family, friends, former business colleagues and nonprofit organizations. Do whatever you can do to create a respectable portfolio and authentic testimonials regarding the quality of your work.

Here are a couple of things you don’t need just yet.

A logo or “identity.” Your name or business name will do, along with a specific description of the services/products you provide and the ideal target customer you serve.

A fancy web site. While you do need a web site, you don’t have to drop the big bucks on it to start with.

The key is to start small, think sustainable, and focus on lead generation and building a following. If you have a product or service that people are ready and willing to buy, you can worry about the more complicated tasks involved in starting a business a little later on. For now, just jump!

Do you have a business success story that resulted after taking a leap of faith?  Tell us about it, and share the steps you took to get it off the ground.

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