This post is part of a paid campaign.

When I was working full-time, it was not uncommon for my coworkers and I to fall into phases of “not caring.” Those phases where you’re constantly wondering why you work with who you work, why it matters if the document is turned in by 5 pm as opposed to the next morning, and how in the world you’ll make it past lunch that day. Employee morale at its lowest.

Often times, our director would try to improve employee morale and bring back a sense of community amongst our team. Exercises such as “Share what you learned” and “Tell us what worked” were an attempt at doing this, but anyone who’s sat in on such exercises knows that they rarely truly work.

My coworkers and I would often joke about adding a trip to the beach into the budget, since that would really help bring community back into our workplace. “Can we have our staff meeting at a local resort?” we’d say. Of course, no such luck.

But, some lucky team will definitely get to experience a fabulous office retreat courtesy of HP. The HP Reboot with ROI retreat giveaway is providing a five-day trip to Napa for six people on your team plus a technology makeover for the office! To enter to win this prize worth $30,000, all you have to do is share a story with HP about surprising returns on something you bought. How you pick the lucky six staff members that get to go, is up to you. I don’t envy the poor soul who has to make that decision.

So, if you’re the owner of a small business or a team member that wants to retreat from the office, head on over and share your ROI story. Good luck!

Disclosure: As part of a paid promotion via Clever Girls Collective, I was asked to share this contest information with you on behalf of HP.

Guest Post by Lisa Kanarek

Running a household can be more demanding than running a business. When your personal life and your business life are in the same place, technology is one of the best ways to manage all aspects of your life. Faster, better and easier-to-use technology is available and more affordable than before. The dilemma isn’t whether there’s technology available to help you be more productive, it’s knowing which technology to use.

Finding the right computer

Technology changes often and trying to keep up with the latest computer is challenging, but not impossible.  When you’re shopping for a desktop computer or a laptop, decide what you want it to do. Will you use it mostly for sending and answering emails, for handling word processing, or for doing design and layout projects? When you know your business needs, find the right computer to handle each task. No matter what tasks you’ll be handling, buy more memory than you think you’ll need. Eventually you’ll use it. Also, whether you buy a computer online or through a retailer, make sure technical support is only a phone call or an immediate appointment away.

Picking a Printer

A good printer can make you look good to your clients and prospects, while an unreliable machine can affect your business image. When you’re looking for a printer, find out the paper capacity. The more paper a printer holds, the less time you’ll spend having to add more.  Also, look at the “footprint,” or the amount of desktop space it needs, including the paper tray and make sure you have enough room for it. I really like the Brother MFC-J615W because it has a compact, modern design that doesn’t take up a lot of space, and it looks great in any home office.

A Reliable Backup System

If you damage your computer — I slipped and fell while holding my laptop — you can replace the hardware fairly easily. The data however, may not be as easy to replace. A good investment you can make is in a reliable backup system.  You can choose between removable media drives (thumb drives) or external hard drives.  Remember to test your backup system often to make sure you’ve actually saved your information.  Also, keep two copies of your backed up data in different places, away from your home office.

Protecting Your Investment

You never know when your power may go out or when you may experience a power surge. Protect your equipment by using a surge protector. Go one step further by investing in an Uninterrupted Power Source (UPS).  A UPS gives you at least five minutes to backup what you’re doing before the power goes out.

Voice Mail

Whether you use your cell phone for business or install a separate business line, make sure you’re the only person who answers your phone (unless you have an assistant). Family members, especially teenagers, aren’t always the best at taking messages. Test your outgoing message to make sure there aren’t any noises in the background that you didn’t notice while you were recording your message.

Keeping up with the latest technology is challenging and at times, frustrating.  By finding the right equipment to meet your needs, you’ll be able to keep up with technology and furnish your home office with equipment that will help you stay productive.

Lisa Kanarek is one of the nation’s leading home office experts and the author of five books including, Working Naked: A guide to the bare essentials of home office life and Home Office Solutions. She is the founder of HomeOfficeLife, a firm that advises corporations and individuals on all aspects of working from home and is founder of the blog WorkingNaked.com.

Have you designated a formal space in your home as a home office? Do you have the necessary technology for doing your work?

Disclosure: Affiliate links were used throughout this post.

Guest post by John Gerber

If you’ve been blogging for a while, or if your blog concept includes commercial aspects, you have probably thought about whether you should formalize your blog into a business and how to go about doing it. If you’re like many bloggers, that thought can raise intimidating questions. Why should I do it? What do I need? Isn’t it expensive? Where do I start?

1. Why and when should I formalize my business? Your blog may have started as a simple online journal, a place to express your opinions, or as a side project. Once it begins generating revenue, it becomes more than any of those things. It is a business and should be treated as such. The process of formalizing your blog into a business means creating an identity for it that is separate from yours as an individual. From a legal perspective, that means establishing a legal entity (an LLC or corporation) and conducting all of the activities of the blog as that entity (i.e., signing in its name, keeping its own bank account, etc). Individuals commonly go through this process in order to protect their personal assets from liabilities of their business, since the owner of the entity, in most circumstances, will not be personally liable for the actions or debts of the business. From a liability perspective, when your blog consists only of original content you personally create, you are probably not facing considerable exposure. However, if you collect money on a regular basis, publish third party content, offer products or services, or have employees the blog should become a business entity.

2. What do I need? Your initial organizational needs include forming your LLC or corporation and obtaining federal and state tax identification numbers for it. This tells the IRS and the state revenue department that you have a business that will be separately making tax filings, and your bank will need the entity formation document and tax identification number when you open the business account. You will also want to consider registering a trademark for your blog, and possibly its logo/design, if you are building it into a brand. Finally, if you don’t have this already for your blog, you will want terms and conditions in the name of your entity for users of the site, among other things to protect copyrights, for third party posts and for advertisers. If you offer products or services, such as consulting, through your blog, then these same considerations exist for that line of business.

3. Isn’t it expensive? The good news is that there are a variety of resources available that keep the expense relatively low. State fees for forming an entity typically run, with exceptions, in the range of $75 to $150. The legal set-up for your business shouldn’t stop there, though. You will need a number of other documents, including client/customer contracts, an operating agreement if you’re working with a partner, subcontractor agreements if anyone else is contributing to the blog, and a non-disclosure agreement if you’re working with vendors. All these documents can be found online for a small fee.

4. Where do I start? It’s not required that you use an attorney to set up your entity. If you are the do-it-yourself type, your state’s website will assist you in making the necessary filing to form your entity, and the IRS makes obtaining an identification number straightforward on its site. There are a number of online legal resources (www.upstartlegal.com is one of them), as well, that will handle the entire process for you at a reasonable cost.

Do you think of your blog as a business? If so, have you taken any of these steps to formalize your blog as a business?

Since I started working from home, I’ve had to deal with a few comments regarding my new work life. Comments such as:

“Well…she’s not working right now.”

“How much work do you have to do every day?”

“How’s the job search going?”

Different scenarios and conversations caused the comments to be said to me or about me; some were not said in my presence. But, the fact is that while many friends and family have been supportive of my decision to pursue freelance and consulting instead of the standard 9-5 job, there are others who don’t quite understand it. They think I’m looking for a replacement traditional job. They wonder what I do each day. They don’t always understand why I say that yes, in fact, I am quite busy – even at home.

I’ve dealt with the comments and explained that no, I’m not looking to go back to working outside the home. And, yes, I do quite a bit each day, because building a business and doing freelance work, is in fact, work. I understand that it will take some time for everyone to become accustomed to my new work at home status, so it doesn’t bother me. Really…part of me is still getting used to it myself.

As I was thinking about this more, I decided I’d open up the topic for a round-table-type discussion. I want to open it up to you and hear how you have dealt with such comments.

Do you have friends and family that don’t quite get it? Share with us in the comments about your experiences.

Photo by ugly banana from Flickr

What do you do on days when you’re not feeling great? If you’re a blogger, do you force yourself to post something that day even if you know it won’t be a great post? If you run a home business, do you put business on hold until you feel better? Or do you push through and work regardless of how you feel?

When I was working outside the home, I knew just what to do. It was easy. I’d just take a sick day and spend some quality time with my TV catching up on shows I’d been missing all week. Now that I work at home, I feel guilty if I take a “sick day.” If I don’t do something – write a post, check email, whatever it may be – I feel like I just wasted the day. I think the main reason is that I’m not getting paid for my “sick day” like I used to when I worked full-time. I know that if I’m not working, I’m not earning anything either.

So, how do you handle it? What do those of you that work from home do to ensure you don’t fall behind? Do you seek help? Do you just take a day or two off and deal with it when feeling better?

I did a quick search online to see what others have to say about this. However, most of the articles I came across were about how to get work done when your kid is sick. The suggestion for that? Reschedule, use a laptop to be more mobile, and work after the kids have gone to bed. And that makes sense, of course.

But, what about when you are too sick to think straight? There’s no rescheduling or shifting around that’s going to fix that problem. This article, There Are No Family Sick Days for Freelancing Moms, touches on free time for those that work from home as freelancers, but doesn’t offer any solutions either.

I’m looking to you now. I know that many of you have a home-based business, freelance, and work at home as bloggers. And, you’ve been doing it far longer than I have. Tell me, how do you keep business going when you’re sick?

It’s been nearly two weeks since I left my full-time job and have been working from home. In the last two weeks, I’ve had days that were really really productive and days that were not very productive at all. In thinking back, there were things I did differently on those days that perhaps had an effect on my productivity. I realize now that just a few changes in my routine or habits for the day, provide me with a greater chance of getting things done. With that, I share with you my personal tips for working from home.

5 Tips for Working from Home for the WAHM (or anyone really)

1. No TV
   This should come as no surprise, but it’s worth repeating. If I try to work on the laptop and watch TV at the same time, one of the two suffers. So, what’s the point in wasting energy by having the TV as background noise if I’m concentrating on work? Or conversely, what’s the sense in having my work suffer because I keep pausing to look up at the TV? Choose one or the other. This will also help with saving money on the power bill.
2. Listen to Appropriate Music
   I am a person that needs music to be able to work. When working in total silence, my brain doesn’t function. I know, it’s a little contrary to how most people function. But, for me, the silence is ear splitting and doesn’t let me think straight. So, I always have music on. However, there are certain types of music that allow me to get more work done than others. I’ve found that lately, listening to more acoustic or chillout music has helped me when writing or when just brainstorming ideas. That’s a personal taste, but the idea is to find music that inspires you and help the ideas flow. You don’t want to be distracted by the music.
3. Sit at a Desk
   When I worked outside the home all day, I was accustomed to working on my social media and blogging business at night by sitting on the couch on my laptop. This worked fine at the time since it was only a couple of hours each night. But, now, I realize that the days I tried the same method, I didn’t get as much accomplished as the days that I sat down in a proper chair at a table. We have an actual office area with a desk, but it’s at the very back of the house and I’ve found our dining table more appealing since it’s in a brighter part of our house. If you have a desk and office space that you’ve made your own, then even better! Either way, though, sitting upright instead of slouching down into the comfy couch works much better.
4. Eat and Drink Properly
   I am the worst about this. I will go hours and hours and forget to eat. Or just plain ignore the hunger signs. I even tweeted about it. I get so caught up in the work, that getting up to get something to eat is pushed to the side sometimes. The same for drinking water or any fluids. But, that is so bad. So, I have to remind myself to take a break and get some food and a bottle of water. It helps me in not just feeding my brain so that I can continue to be productive, but also provides a quick mental break and has many times allowed for new ideas to flow.
5. Shower and Get Dressed
   This may seem ridiculous to include since I think we all know not to go around stinky and naked, but what I’m really saying is do this early in your day. The days I worked in my PJs and waited to shower until the afternoon, I felt out of it. I fed into the feeling and didn’t really do much. When I shower early on, it helps me feel refreshed and ready to get things going. And you don’t have to sit around your house dressed like you were going to a business meeting either – unless you want to. Just change out of your “bumming around the house” clothes.

So, go ahead. Try some of these simple ideas and see if you feel better about yourself during the day and in turn, get more done.

And, please, share any additional tips you have in the comments below.

***More resources on productivity I’ve saved on delicious***

I’m providing these Tips for Working from Home in a printable format for you to download and share with others. Feel free to share liberally by pointing back to this original post.

Photo credit: supershoppertoo

I just quit my job.

Seriously. I just handed in my resignation letter.

It feels good. And a tiny bit scary. But, I think that’s normal. It’s a big change for me. I’ve never quit a job without first having another.

So, here I am. Well not quite yet.

I still have some time at work before I am officially done.

But, soon. Soon, I’ll be done with my outside the home job.

I may be broke and eating Ramen noodles soon, but at least I’ll be working towards something. And, like my husband said last night, “There’s no one I’d rather be broke with.”