Your Office Online

Archive for 2008

Having just come back off an absolutely fantastic holiday to Kenya I am feeling refreshed and ready for a new challenge. What to do though…

Well, on Tuesday I picked up a new client who is just starting a new business of his own; and today I discovered a great website and I have published my first photo book.

Blurb – www.blurb.com – allows you to upload and publish your own books which can be made public or kept for just your own guests. I have made a small book of photos taken whilst on my holiday and have published it to the public as I want to be able to make a little profit and donate this profit to Wherever the Need, a charity which provides an holistic approach to the provision and use of water and eco-sanitation toilets.

Their core aim is to provide and conserve clean drinking water for people and, where possible, livestock, crops and trees in Africa by combining this with the building of eco-sanitation toilets, which is vital to the good health of both people and the planet.

Kenya is a vast counrty where most people live in rural areas with limited fresh water. I was appalled to see children as young as 5 years old carrying 3 or 4 1-gallon containers a distance of 2 miles or so from their village to collect fresh water, with some people resorting to collecting rain water from puddles and ditches. Most villages do not have piped water or toilets on mains sewers; most of the villages we passed had communal toilets with no piped water or mains sewers! Something we in the UK take for granted, and probably waste more water in a day than some of these villages have in a week.

Please take a look at my book, My Safari, and if you like the pictures, please purchase a copy and I will donate the profits to enable Wherever the Need to carry on their good work.

I read a blog this morning written by a lady called Rachel Henwood about The Benefits of Going Freelance and wondered why people choose to go freelance.

My reasons – choice. Choice to select when and where to work, and with whom.

I live in Cornwall, near Liskeard and the closest large town for corporate work is Plymouth, just over 22 miles away. Not far, many people would say, but on rural roads with the school runs and a toll bridge or ferry crossing of the river Tamar, this 22 mile trip can take up to 2 hours to make, with the return journey at 5.30pm even worse – and don't even think about public transport!

Since starting my Virtual Assistant business, Your Office Online, which sees me working from home, I have become less stressed and have time to enjoy my work days and I do – enjoy them. No more dread of the alarm (except on networking mornings when I get up at 5.45am!), time to tidy up around the house and see hubby off to work and then time to sit down and plan my work day.

I work with a number of clients on a variety of projects and no two days are ever the same. If the weather is nice I can manage my work load so that I can get out in the fresh air with the dog for an hour or so; if not so good, then I can work on whatever project takes my fancy if the deadline permits.

No office politics is another reason for going freelance. We've all had those days where we have to work with someone we don't get on with, whose work isn't to the same standard as yours or who simply drives you mad for no particular reason. I only have to worry about when I stop for lunch or a cup of tea and when to take the dog out!

I love working freelance and now wonder why I didn't make the break and do it sooner.

Why did you go freelance? Let me know.