The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home
Sandy Anderson
1998
240 pages + appendices
Back cover
Working at home [good ol’ library sticker obscures text] be your own boss, and make your own [?] you need to be prepared for if you are going to succeed.
TOC
Part 1: Sizing up yourself and your situation for a work-at-home lifestyle
1. Why work at home?
-Identify your reasons for working at home
-Visualizing your work at home fantasy
-What excites you about working at home?
-Control and flexibility
-Getting clear
2. Are you suited for working at home?
-The home worker personality inventory
-The bottom line
3. Choosing a fitting line of work
-Establishing your motivation for working
-Targeting your comfort zone
-Designing your perfect career
-Research, research and more research
-Developing your plan of action
Part II: Coping Strategies - Keys to Creating Balance (Honest, Communication, Negotiation)
4. Managing children
-Child care - to have or not to have?
-Creative strategies for working without paid child care
-Paid child-care options
-Maintaining a good relationship with your childcare provider
-Experiment to find what works
5. Dividing and conquering the household load
-Who carries the load in a work-at-home arrangement
-Overcoming a lack of spousal support
-Team approaches to divvying up household chores
-Involving your children in household tasks
-Saving time on the home front
-What about hiring a housecleaner
-It’s up to you
6. Working at home can enhance your relationship
-Organizational constraints: what men and women are up againt
-What happens when men and women go On their Own
Unlocking golden handcuffs
Determining your relationship style
What makes a happy marriage
Crossover learning
Staying in tune with your partner
Tips for home working couples
Resolving conflicts
Setting joint goals
7. Establishing rules, Boundaries and schedules
-Communicating with children
-Creating physical and psychological boundaries
-A Word about pets
-Implementing personal rules of contract
Managing your schedule wisely
Achieving your ultimate balance
8. Dealing with the big three psychological challenges (Isolation, Motivation, Stress)
-Conquering isolation
-Handling internal and external cycles
-Managing stress
-Homeworkers attitudes towards stress
-Choosing three-in-one activities
9. Organizing your time and work space
-Saving time on the work front
-Designing your home office
-Organizing your home office
-Staying on top of it all
Part III: Savvy business strategies
10. Making the transition to a work at home lifestyle
-Creating a realistic plan for making the leap
-Targeting your start-up date
-Preparing yourself and your loved ones
-Launching your home business
-Special tips for telecommuters
-Approaching your plan one step at a time
11. Managing and growing your home business
-Fine-tuning your marketing techniques
-Few clients vs. many
-Updating your business plan and goals
-Hanging on to your money
-Expanding yor home business
-Record keeping
-Taxing matters
-Stay open to new ideas
12. Pulling it all together
13. Recommended resources
References




