We fantasize about that “big score”… the client whose business is going to “make us rich”. But sometimes getting the order is the worst thing that can happen.

Take the business that “wants Wal Mart’s account”… if you get that account you will be squeezed to the extreme to make sure you can provide a product that meets minimal quality standards but fits in with Wal Mart’s pricing strategy.

One local dairy, the story goes, wanted that account. In theory, there’d be enough business from Wal Mart to underwrite the expenses of their operation and make other lines more profitable.

In reality, the demands of that one account made them go out and buy another dairy entirely. They made the “Wal Mart” brand there and kept their original business intact. Why? The end product was so different it couldn’t be accommodated by their normal procedures.

If you don’t have enough money lying around to go out and buy an extra manufacturing plant to accommodate a high maintenance client, read this: 3 Reasons You Can’t Afford That High Maintenance Client

Fortunately, the list has some variety… there are suggestions for improving your productivity in a variety of areas:

1. Technology
2. Comfort and Convenience
3. Organization
4. Design
5. Lighting
6. Clutter issues
7. Feng Shui
8. “Green”
9. Working outside the office
and
10. Ergonomics

Surely you’ll find something of help!

Read them all!

It’s designed to dispel the myth that home based workers really spend their time goofing off, watching TV, doing chores, etc. It also discusses proper metrics for evaluating the results from working from home.

I’m not disagreeing with it in theory, mind you, but my wife – who could work at home – decided to go to one of those “third places” to work today because she knows that as soon as the two teenagers get up at about the crack of midday, the TV will pop on and there’ll not be any productivity working at home AT ALL during the summer school break!

The connection is through Office Web Apps: free, lightweight, Web-based versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft OneNote.

It’s a way to share for those who don’t have SharePoint, Campbell says. It’s a way to collaborate without getting locked out of a document when someone else is editing it. It’s a way to have access to a document at all times – at work, at home, and while mobile – without e-mailing it to yourself.

“This has huge advantages when you think about what the Web is good for, which is accessing from browsers anywhere, sharing, and collaborating on documents with anyone across the world,” Campbell says.

Here is a blurb from the book’s self description:

Business can be discouraging. According to US Department of Labor figures, only 44 percent of newly-opened firms will last four years. Amish firms, on the other hand, have registered a 95% survival rate over a five-year period. And in many cases, those businesses do remarkably well-as Donald Kraybill writes: “the phrase ‘Amish millionaire’ is no longer an oxymoron.” Success Made Simple is the first practical book of Amish business success principles for the non-Amish reader. The work provides a platform of transferable principles–simple and universal enough to be applied in the non-Amish world, in a wide variety of business and management settings.

• Learn how to develop profitable and fulfilling enterprises as Amish explain how to build fruitful relationships with customers and employees, prosper by playing to strengths, and create an effective marketing story.
• Includes interviews with over 50 Amish business owners outline the role of relationships in business and the importance of the big picture-taking in long-term goals, the welfare of others, and personal integrity.
• Offers ideas on practical application of Amish business practices to non-Amish businesses, with bullet summaries at the end of each chapter reviewing the most important take-away points

With a focus on relationship-building and the big picture, Success Made Simple offers business owners everywhere the tools for better, smarter, more successful enterprises.

I’m looking forward to getting into the book more…

The drawbacks I see for many of my visitors who are interested in “making money online” is that there’s a sense in which they wish to make money without all the hassle of building these relationships or even caring about a product. As an affiliate marketer, for instance, one can’t control the quality of a particular product batch. One is focused solely on marketing. The closest thing to “relationship building” online is social media… but the basic strategy for online marketing still is “get a name, bombard with email”. It alienates more customers than attracts them.

Can these lessons be applied online? I hope so…. But I think the book is going to prove VERY interesting.

Note: The above links are Amazon Associate links.

If so you may wish to check out this blog: 200 Ways To Be More Productive from Entrepreneur.com

They’re up to 95 already, so you can begin your immersion in the tips here!

Suddenly the offers became “doable”. There’s nothing as nice as a REAL computer chair for good back support and comfort in a home office. I’m so used to getting by with junk, I would consider a really good computer chair once the mental barrier of “free shipping” is overcome!

If you’re in the same situation, check out their computer chairs. You might find something you’ll like.

I love Google Voice and highly recommend it for your business. I recommend having a Google Voice “Call Me” button on your website to instantly connect you with web visitors.

But just DON’T as yet take everything transcribed as “Gospel”.

As a test, Google voice transcribed these words (first line of the Star Spangled Banner):

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

As this!

Hello say and use the 5. Delyn truly as bud with so promptly. We pay you, and I was at the primaries. Lastly, I mean through the wrong it’s really a good of the bomb includes the new there’s camp you through the night. The but wants to banner. Ohh say. Denise. It’s times and go up. Manning at when we or the double Freddy. I don’t know. I’m on my phone rang.

In other words, give your caller the benefit of the doubt!

Gotta go, need to tell my wife to keep typing for a while longer yet!

So what can you do? Here are some tips from  Freelance Apple:

1. First you have to allot time. This is something that needs to be thought about before you accept a deadline. If you have multiple projects going, hopefully you have enough insight into the projects and work habits to know how the “flow” will work and how much to allocate to each project each day until it can be accomplished.

2. Give yourself breathing room. It’s better to ask for a few extra days and be early than to hyperpromise and be late.

3. Stuck on a project? Change your focus to another one you can make progress on and return when you’re “unstuck”.

Want more great tips for  freelancer productivity? You need to check out Freelance Apple. While you’re there, be sure to learn about their free ebook: “The Grand Marketing Manual for Freelancers” to discover great ways to get more customers for your freelance work at home business!

Note: Work At Home Business Opportunities Blog is an affiliate for this company should you choose to purchase.

I was always the little boy who, when sent to clean up his room, started reading the books and not doing much cleaning.

If only I’d had this knowledge then and known how to use it!

This is about how to stay focused on those interminable conference calls, but I think it has some application to other situations …

Use small distractions to help you stay focused:

• Visual distractions help you focus. Don’t watch a movie (that is too distracting), but some low-key Internet browsing can work well.
• Do something with your hands. Play with a desk toy, pass a ball back and forth, knit, anything that you can do mindlessly.
• Walk around. Exercise is good for your brain and movement helps you focus.

Giving yourself small distractions while you are on conference calls will help you stay focused and be more productive.

HT: Maine Business on Twitter