Search Results for: blog the coffee shop an office away from home

The Car as a ‘Second Office’

We often talk about the joys of flexibility as home business owners—all the ways that we can take our laptops or work to the coffee shop, park, or other location and work while we are doing other things. Recently I have talked with a couple of home business owners who confessed that their “office away from home” is actually their car… If you are a busy parent who is trying to build a home business while raising your children, you may feel like you basically live out of your car. Perhaps that is where you find yourself eating meals (breakfast … Continue reading →

Do You Work Better at Home or Elsewhere?

We call it a “Home Business” but that does not mean the same thing for all of us. For some, it means that our business takes place in our home (a child care or elder care facility), for others it means that we have a home office or work for someone else from the comfort of our home. For others, it simply means that we are working for ourselves and not for a traditional company or someone else’s business. For many of us, we have come up with our own definition or a combination of some of these others. How … Continue reading →

Update on the Coffee Cut-back

I wrote back in October about my quest to cut back on coffee for my health’s sake. For me, coffee and working from home just go hand in hand. I was never much of a coffee drinker when I worked the “traditional” job—but since starting to work at home, I’ve become quite attached and it isn’t exactly great for my health or my frame of mind. So, I’ve been struggling trying to kick the habit… I have cut way back—I am no longer brewing and drinking that pot a day and for a while, I was able to drink tea … Continue reading →

Trying to Quit Coffee (But the Pot is Right There!)

Several months ago, I wrote about how I thought I drank more coffee since I do work at home. Since my work station is so close to the kitchen and it is so easy for me to just move in there and have fresh, well-made coffee, I know that I have become a much more avid coffee drinker since starting my home business than I ever was before. However, the time has come for me to kick that habit. Too much caffeine is affecting my health and it is time to get back to more moderate consumption. As I try … Continue reading →

Drive-Thru Donuts and Coffee for Dogs

Weather-permitting, and depending on the task, sometimes I take Murph with me to run errands. Quick ones, like to the gas station or dry cleaners. Things where I know I won’t be inside for very long. But lately he has some new favorite places to accompany me because he knows he’ll get a treat too: Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. Dunkin Donuts Yes, I know. Donuts are no better for my dog than they are for me, but every once in while I like to indulge. Mostly on Sunday mornings after a nice walk in the park. It used to be … Continue reading →

Coping With the Stress of Being a Home-Business Entrepreneur

Stress has been the code-word of the past couple decades. We are constantly warned to “cope with stress” and “not get too stressed out.” With all the joys and freedoms of being an entrepreneur and running one’s own home business–there are definitely some pretty intense and constant stresses that characterize this type of work too. For many of us, coping with the stress of running a business from home and caring for our families, can get challenging and overwhelming. Just the sheer volume of tasks and responsibilities we may have to accomplish when we start a home business can take … Continue reading →

A Few Things That I Love About Being Home Based (Part 1): Portability

In my previous posts I talked about one of my favorite benefits of working from home – having a great excuse for hanging out at the local coffee shop. Today, I want to cover the another “perk” (pardon the pun) of working from home which is portability. I grew up in Minnesota with a very close-knit family. All of my cousins, aunts, uncles, sisters and my parents still reside there. While I love Montana, I often miss my family and want to visit them as often as possible. While you will probably think I am insane, every few months I … Continue reading →

The Coffee Shop – An Office Away From Home

I am sitting at the coffee shop as I write this frantically typing away on my laptop. I’ve quite literally “set up shop” here again like I do every Thursday. It is my office away from home. If you are a big fan of the classic television show, “Cheers” you’ll fondly remember how everyone shouted, “Norm!” when he walked into the bar. That’s how I feel at my favorite coffee joint. “Hi Traci…are you having the usual today?” I am still trying to come up with a few witty responses like Norm always did. Here’s one of my favorite Norm’isms… … Continue reading →

Post-Christmas Musings

I was born and raised in Hawaii where retailers live and die by the tourist dollar. As such, on Christmas and New Year’s it’s business as usual across the island chain. All of the local McDonald’s are open and ready to super-size your Big Mac meal on Jesus’ birthday, and if Santa forgot to include batteries with your son’s new remote control snake, don’t fret, you can run over to Wal-Mart to get your AA fix. Such is not the case in the relatively small Northern Wisconsin town which I currently reside. In fact, during the first Thanksgiving I spent … Continue reading →

Junk Food in the House

You may have read about my war on crumbs. Well, now I have a new war in my home, and it centers on junk food. Most of the time we eat a pretty healthy diet, but sugar and butter are weaknesses. We make special trips to Amish country to pick up flour and come home with 25 pounds of cane sugar as well. We use that sugar for baking, for homemade ice tea and in coffee, and it is surprising how much we go through. So it is probably no surprise that I try to limit the sugar in other … Continue reading →