I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a weird relationship with money. I want it, I need it, but I have a hard time asking for it. I always say “this is a female issue” only because I know so many women who are in the same boat and very few men. Is it a female issue, this fear of asking for money? Or of devaluing our work? Or underestimating our worth in business? And if so, why is it there like a big obstacle that I must overcome each and every time it is time to talk about money?

I’ve put together some of my thoughts about how to get past the fear/hesitancy/uncomfortable-ness asking for what I’m worth. I’d love to hear your tips and thoughts as well.
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I’ve been thinking about the debate I have occasionally with other business owners about when to give away services versus when to charge. Some are of the mind that you should never, ever provide services for free. Others, like me, feel there is a right time and reason to provide services gratis but that you should apply sound business thinking to your decision.

For me, giving services away is not something I take lightly. I have to be careful how much time I spend on pro bono work, and as selfish as it might sound, I must be able to leverage the job to directly benefit my company - and my bottom line - in the long run.

Here are some tips for giving it away - when to do it, how to do it, when not to do it - and if you have any others to add, feel free! Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been writing for Work It, Mom (or WorkItMom.com as I refer to it) for a while now, and it occurred to me recently that I really need to devote more attention to my interactions on the site. Like any social networking site, Work It, Mom provides all the tools to connect to the people and resources you need to address an area of your life - in this case, work/life issues for busy, professional women. But if you don’t use it, it won’t work for you.

Even with cursory efforts, I’ve had some wonderful outcomes from being connected to like-minded moms on the site. One woman interviewed me on her blog. Another just requested to reprint one of my blog posts here and will give credit to this site and my blog here with a link. Both achieve one of my goals of being part of this community and writing for this site: the personal goal of publishing my thoughts and advice to share my experiences with other women in the hopes that we can support one another and the more business-oriented goal of marketing who and I and what I do.

But there is so much potential here that I’m betting few of us are tapping into. Here are a few tips on how to better leverage - but not misuse - the Work It, Mom community.
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As I juggle all of my new and different sources of freelance income, I am also encountering a greater variety of clients than ever before. Since I’ve been a consultant, I’ve always tried to manage my clients expectations, but the areas I’ve covered have been the traditional work process such as:

• establishing who is responsible for what tasks in a project,
• setting timelines, deadlines and milestones,
• overestimating how long something will take so I can deliver early or on time.

These days, I have tried to manage client expectations in a new way - that sets the stage in advance for working in a home-based business with a toddler running around. Even with a babysitter, toddlers somehow find a way to nudge their way into work-time, and I can no longer hide the fact that I’m a consultant working from home with a high energy child. Read the rest of this entry »

Baby is leaving the nest!

It is time. Time for baby to go to daycare. And I have very mixed feelings about it.

I realize how lucky I am to be able to work from home with a babysitter watching baby for four hours every morning while other mothers have no choice but to go back to work outside of the home, I probably have complained more than I’ve counted my blessings.

Four hours is not enough time to realistically scratch the surface of my workload, but I can’t really afford to spend more. Now that the prospect of taking her somewhere and leaving her for eight hours sounds good on paper, but I’m beginning to dread the day she goes. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m finally giving in and admitting that I need help. This is a tough one for me because:

a. I think I can do everything.
b. I think I’m the only one who can do everything I have to do correctly.
c. I’m not so good at delegating.
c. I have a tendency to micromanage.

I’m really not the right candidate for managing staff or consultants, but I think I’ve worked out my bad habits over the years, and now my workload has increased exponentially so it would be bad business not to seek help.

So I’ve identified several people who can assist me with some online tasks - the busy work that I really shouldn’t be doing with so much strategic work and writing on hand. And I’ve discovered two tools that are really helping me as I begin to manage someone else’s time. Read the rest of this entry »

What do you do when you are just one of several consultants your client is using on a project and one of the other consultants is clearly a scam artist?

This is a situation I was confronted with recently. I was brought on to help oversee some of the Web initiatives and asked to sit in on a meeting with a Web development company. In short order, I recognized all the signs of a scam.

Having run my own Web development firm in the mid-90s, I watched other Web companies do one or more of the following things to their clients: Read the rest of this entry »

Are you getting enough sleep? If not, how is it affecting your work? The National Sleep Foundation just came out their their 2008 Poll Stats that include:

A Day in the Life of a Typical American Worker
They have wake up time between 5:00 AM and 5:35 AM. I must be lucky beause I get up around 6:30 AM. But then again, I don’t have a commute.

They also have the typical work day as being 9 hours and 28 minutes long. I’m limited to 4 hours, 5 hours tops if I can squeeze an extra hour during baby’s nap time.

They also have time in bed as 6 hours and 55 minutes. Even when I stay up “late,” I get at least 7.5 hours of sleep but typically 8. Guess I’m not a Typical American Worker. Read the rest of this entry »