A truly horrible and dumb thing happened the other day. I was just leaving the house to drop off some toys to the childrens ward of our local hospital and decided to just quickly check my email before I left. This one single moment saved me hundreds of hours of work and potentially thousands of dollars.

Why?

Because I’d forgotten to renew my primary domain name. Not the Homeofficebuddy.com domain. No far, far worse. I forgot to renew a domain that I use for all my private email, membership sites, logins etc etc. If I’d lost control of this domain the trouble it would have caused was absolutely massive. I broke into a sweat even thinking about it.

Of course I immediately paid my domain renewal fees and set the domain to automatically renew in future to stop this from ever happening again. Fortunately the domain had not been snapped up by somebody else. There are domain investors out there who are waiting to pounce on your domain and register it themselves if you ever forgot to pay your dues. There are even companies specializing in offering this as a service. Scary huh? Oh they’d sell your domain back to you – for about 100 times the original cost.

Now I don’t know if it was karma intervening because I was dropping off toys to a childrens ward or just pure good luck on my part but either way it’s ok. That domain is still under my control and I didn’t just waste almost 5 years of work.

If you have a domain that’s important to you then make sure it’s set to automatically renew. Better again when you are actually renewing it why not do so for 4 or 5 years? At least that would mean for the next few years you wouldn’t have to worry about domain fees and you’d never run the risk of making a really, really, really stupid mistake like mine.

Until the next time

Niall

That sounds like an odd topic for the title of a blog posting here I suppose doesn’t it? What does it all mean? Anyone running their own business is always (or should always be) looking for ways to improve the way they do business or how much profit they can make from their business overall. Refining your business is healthy. Looking at new ideas is healthy.

There’s a limit however and you’ve reached that limit when you start chasing rainbows. This simply means that when you become so distracted from your own business and your own ideas by the thoughts, ideas and proposals of others that you’re no longer focusing on your business needs then it’s time to stop. Physically and mentally stop and look at what you’re doing. Are you really benefiting from that book you’re reading? Is that teleseminar of any actual value or is it just another pitch fest for something you don’t need? Is that business breakfast of any actual value or are you just going there to be seen?

Have you ever fallen into this trap? I know I certainly have. We all do to a certain extent and that’s ok. We need to be honest with ourselves too and accept that we’ve given up our time to the act of chasing rainbows and not do it again or at the very least minimize how much time we spend doing this.

I recently fell into this trap. I love learning new things and I love seeing what other people are doing with their businesses. If I can learn something new each day then I’m a happy man. I slipped up however. I put some of my own work on hold based on some ideas I was waiting to learn from an online training session. The training itself was deeply disappointing and the guy fell far, far, far short of what I was expecting to learn from him. The end result is that I effectively wasted 5 days of my own time chasing this rainbow (or at least waiting for it to arrive). Oh yes I’m annoyed with myself but I’ve forgiven myself this slip and it’s also allowed me to focus back in on my business.

There are very few “secrets” to be learned in business anymore. 99% of the important lessons have been taught and been learned. Be brilliant at the basics of your business and the rest will follow. There’s nothing at the end of that rainbow folks except perhaps frustration.

Hope you’re having a great day!

Niall

As I’ve mentioned previously time is something that is extremely valuable to everyone and especially to business people like you. Once time is gone you can never have it back because you’re always working with a fixed amount of it. Therefore it’s important to get the most of out of each working day in as much as you possibly can.

People working from home offices tend to have the same general problem though. You can be the most efficient time manager in the world but you will always suffer from at least one time “vampire”. Time vampires are those distractions or events that take away from your working day in a very big way.

The worst time vampires are friends and family I’m afraid to say. When you work from home friends and family tend to assume that even though you’re working from home it’s not really a serious job. Based on that they decide it’s ok to stroll in on you at any time of the day. As much as I love and value my friends and family this is annoying. I’ve had friends “drop in” for 4 hours at a time. I recently had my sister and her 3 kids appear out of the blue with no warning. These events suck up your time like a vampire.

So what do you do? I’m afraid you need to establish rules. This may seem harsh but you couldn’t just walk into their workplace for a few hours to chat so they’ll need to offer the same courtesy to you. If they don’t understand this then you’ll need to make things more formal.

What can you do?

Simply establish your working hours and stick to them. Let your family know that between 9am and 5pm (or whatever your timeframe is) that you won’t be avaiable except over the phone briefly. Post your working hours outside your home office door. Make it known (politely) that your home based business is serious and that you can’t just goof off for 4 hours because somebody else is bored.

For persistent offenders who “forget” you’re working then after the quickest cup of coffee possible simply inform them that you have to get back to work urgently and in future if they could “…just phone me to see if I’m available”.  This is being assertive yet polite and gets the message across.

If you wind up with a die hard case who won’t listen to reason then simply don’t answer the phone or the front door if they decide to come calling. That may seem a bit cold and harsh but you have a business to run, right?

Talk soon

Niall

Hi there,

I’ve just finished a new article on online data storage services. You can view it here. It’s worth reading full stop. We can all be a bit complacent about our data at times. You can never be too cautious and online file backups are a good addition to any backup strategy you already have in place.
Until the next post.

Niall

PS I’ve managed to badly sprain my finger today chasing the family dog so please excuse any typos

I know this may seem like a trivial post to many people but a good stapler is well…..a staple of any good home office. Most home officers don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what stapler to buy. One stapler is as good as the next one right? Wrong!

The mistake most people make is buying a small stapler for $2 and then “forcing” it to do the work of a $20 stapler. The end result is messy paperwork and filing and of course a broken stapler. The insane thing is that some people will buy another $2 stapler and abuse that until it breaks. Abuse? You’ve all either seen it or done it – you see somebody literally putting their entire bodyweight on the stapler to force it through that 30 page document. The stape goes halfway in. Ok they then resort to banging the staples in with their fist. The stapler falls apart and the vicious circle begins all over again. I’ve broken enough staplers in my time to know.

The smart thing to do is buy at least one high quality stapler from the beginning. Those dollar store staplers are not going to last and you’ll continually need to buy replacements – this is the worst kind of false economy.

For my own office I use a Rexel Matador for smaller jobs – up to 25 sheets of 80gsm paper. This small sturdy stapler has lasted well over 12 months now without missing a beat. For those bigger, thicker stapling jobs I have a Rexel Odyssey – this is honestly one of the best staplers I’ve ever used and seems almost indestructible. The Odyssey can handle up to 60 sheets of 80gsm paper which is more than enough for most small offices.

Don’t get cheap when you’re buying staplers – it’s a waste of your money.

Till the next time

Niall

I hate wiring around my computer. The fewer wires I have to trip over then the happier I am. When I got my new Dell (*wanted* an Alienware… *needed* a Dell) I decided to once again go for a wireless keyboard and mouse setup. This wasn’t an attempt at showing off it would just mean a tidier desk for me – I just work better that way. Not a neat freak but like my clean spaces to work on

So computer is all set up and away I go working for about 2 days and the mouse stops working. Batteries are deader than a dead thing just having graduated with a degree in battery deadness! These are brand new Duracell batteries so I’m somewhat confused. Batteries replaced and work begins again. This time the batteries barely last 24 hours. Not happy!

I dig around and find that my new Dell mouse has a rechargable battery pack and cradle included with it! This neat little design combines the wireless basestation with the battery charger. Now every day or two I just pop the mouse into the charger for a few hours and no more battery problems.
There are two lessons here:

1. Always, always keep a reliable, old corded mouse handy.

2. Never buy a wireless mouse unless it comes with a charger/recharger.
If you’re interested in buying a cordless mouse then I’d suggest something like the Logitech Cordless Click! Plus or the Logitech MX1000 Laser mouse as both of these come with the rechargeable battery setup that I’ve grown to love.

Cordless mice are wonderful…. as long as you buy the right one

Until the next time

Niall