I’m just loving my office away from my home office. Today, it is the Middleway Cafe in midtown Anchorage. At other times, I alternate between Cafe del Mundo - also in midtown - and Coffee Cats closer to my home which is in South Anchorage.

Each of my offices away from my home office serves a different purpose. Coffee Cats is less than a 5 minute drive from my house so it is easy to get to quickly and I don’t get caught in cross-town traffic to get there. It is a cozier coffee shop and quieter as most customers grab their coffee on the run. Those who hang out seem to be regulars who know the owner by name. I frequent this place not only for the convenient location but because it is owned by a young woman, and I want to support her business. I hold the occasional client meeting here, however, South Anchorage isn’t always convenient for downtown clients.

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When do you know that it is time to hire an assistant? I think so many of us are used to multi-tasking. Some of us, like me, even thrive on having a million things to do and find it difficult to get motivated when our workload is light. But even with Type A overachievers, there must be some definitive signs that it is time to hire some help.

Here are some signs that could mean you are in need of hiring somebody.

1. You are missing deadlines. Sure, your clients may be forgiving, but if you find yourself getting behind, chances are you’ve reached the tipping point between a lot of work and too much work for one human being. Missing deadlines is not acceptable. Don’t sully your reputation by lowering your standards. Read the rest of this entry »

Just finished having a very impromptu lunch with a friend and colleague. I was leaving a client meeting and thought I’d touch base with her. She was leaving a speaking engagement. We both hadn’t had lunch. We headed to a great local cafe with wifi. I arrived first and had an iced coffee while I went online to get some work done before she showed up.

We talked over lunch about a variety of topics including:

1. the status projects we are working on together;
2. new projects coming down the road;
3. our kids and daycare, discipline and mommy guilt;
4. local politics and gossip;
5. more ways we can work together. Read the rest of this entry »

As I realized that I’ve procrastinated on blogging today, I began flipping through the book Designed for Success: The 10 Commandments for Women in the Workplace by Dondi Scumaci. I was struck by the honesty in the book’s opening paragraph:

Good News! You are not imagining it. Women do face unique, even daunting challenges at work. There really are different rules and expectations in the workplace reserved just for women. The playing field is not always even. Sometimes the rules are unspoken, and the path is not always well marked. Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, motherhood. It is always there, banging on your door, even when you have “important things to do.” Like meetings with new clients. Case in point: I was driving my 2-year-old to daycare and then heading directly to a client meeting afterward, hoping to make it there within minutes of the designated time.

I get to baby’s daycare. It looked eerily quiet.

Then it hit me. It was a Jewish holiday and baby is enrolled in a daycare at the Jewish synagogue. I now had baby in the car with me with no other option but driving to my client meeting.

“Think think think. You don’t get paid the big bucks to not think of a solution,” my professional brain told me.

“Hey, you’re a mom, what do you expect?” said my mommy brain. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m starting to reconsider our 2-year-old daughter’s daycare schedule. I’m beginning to feel like 8 hours a day 5 days a week is way too much for a 2-year-old. I come to this thought not as a work-at-home mom who is feeling guilty about sending her child away to let other people take care of her while I slave away (contentedly) in front of my computer without interruption.

I don’t think my slight change of heart over daycare came from this NPR poll:

Moms Say They’d Cut Pay for Time with Kids

Frankly, I’m not sure I’m ready to cut my pay to spend more time with my daughter.

I think my new view of daycare comes from bonding more with her and becoming more sensitive to her needs. Forty hours a week of daycare is just too exhausting for her even though she loves the interaction with other kids, something she gets much less frequently with a work-at-home mom who doesn’t have many girlfriends with kids her age.
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One of the latest megatrends in business is sustainability. What is sustainability, you ask? According to the Sustainability Dictionary, sustainability is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In other words, a sustainable company is one that has a triple bottom line:

1. People
2. Planet
3. Profits

You may have heard people talking about their “carbon footprint.” Your carbon footprint measures the amount of greenhouse gas emissions your life and work activities create. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, and chlorofluorocarbons that absorb infra-red radiation in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
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