The Little Work-at-Home Tome

The Little-Work-at-Home Tome is a composite of my personal experiences as an independent consultant working from home (continuously since 1975). Sometimes the prose may read like fiction—but it's all factual. I've thrown in the bad and the ugly along with the good, describing many of my own business misadventures and how they could have been, and later were, handled more effectively. A home-centered business isn't always a bed of roses, but if you watch out for the thorns, it...
More Description

The Little-Work-at-Home Tome is a composite of my personal experiences as an independent consultant working from home (continuously since 1975). Sometimes the prose may read like fiction—but it's all factual. I've thrown in the bad and the ugly along with the good, describing many of my own business misadventures and how they could have been, and later were, handled more effectively. A home-centered business isn't always a bed of roses, but if you watch out for the thorns, it can be pretty nice. Hopefully, you'll be able to avoid these thorns (or at least make their jabs at your vulnerable underside less painful) after reading about them here.

Working at home changes the way you do business; it also changes the way you interact with your family (particularly if you're male). You're around more often and that alone alters your family dynamic. What role are you going to play in household chores? Will you be making lunches for the kids? Driving them to school? Work and home are now the same place—the homestead—and your whole family will be a presence in your work. Are you going to separate yourself from them while you work, or will you position yourself in the thick of family activity?

As you read, you'll notice that I've devoted a fair amount of space specifically to kids. For the traditional how-to business book, this information could be considered out of place. But this isn't a book about traditional business (at least not the traditional work space where success is measured by title, number of people managed, and time spent away from home on business trips). Kids can play an influential part in a work-at-home business. And if yours is anything like my own family, that influence can be powerful. Advice on working at home that ignores the kids isn't telling all.

The notes that went into this book originally were entries in a diary I was keeping. My intent at the time was to put together something that I could give my boys when they were grown up. But as I began to polish and assemble the collection of papers into a more coherent form, I realized that the information they contained might be useful to other folks working at home or at least contemplating that move. With that thought in mind, I reshaped my words and ideas into The Little Work-at-Home Tome.