I was talking to someone the other week and he looked at me and said "working from home doesn't work - everyone needs a proper job too". I smiled. I guess that we live above the training centre, rather than working from home these days. It's inside out but really the same thing - rather like PHP is a scripting language within a web page, whereas the Perl language can be used to wrap a web page (i.e. the opposite way around).

Set me thinking - what does make us "tick" - what are the facets of how we work that leave us steadily heading where we want year upon year as other companies seem to come and go. And then someone asked how to plan and manage time. I came up with this list - a little wider ranging

1. Set yourself a long term strategy - the shorter term tactical decisions then become obvious.
2. Ensure you have the backing of your SO.
3. Draw up a list of urgent jobs and a list of important jobs, and ensure that at least some of the important ones get done.
4. Learn the 80 / 20 rule, and see where you're spending too much time.
5. Set up your work so that you enjoy it. FIND a way to enjoy the nasty bits. That will encourage you to work well and long.
6. Consider all aspects of your business from marketing right through to debt collection.
7. Allow yourself at least a few hours each week to think, read, learn and relax.
8. Do a bit of informal "critical path" analysis so that you don't suddenly find you're short on supplies on long lead.
9. Take time to service your customers - they're your ambassadors for future business. This goes further for us. We say "come as a trainee leave as a friend" and it really happens
10. Set up systems that will cope with your strategy - this allows for reuse; avoid special cases if you possibly can.
11. If you want a specialist job doing in a skill that's not yours, consider paying a specialist to do it.
12. Set up a web site that tells people everything they could possibly want to know, and tell Google about it.

12a. Consider advise carefully, encourage and learn from suggestions - but don't follow them without question.

I see similar notes on the walls of training rooms quite regularly and I make a point of applying points 7a, 7b and 7c to those note.
(written 2005-02-03, updated 2006-06-05)

 G502 - Well House Consultants - Business Practice
  [3506] Cold call contacts - preference services and turning off spam sales approaches - (2011-11-03)
  [3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
  [3157] A new monopoly on the ferry to Northern Ireland - (2011-02-04)
  [3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
  [2966] Cheap Country Hotel in Melksham, Wiltshire? - (2010-09-21)
  [2936] The service that customers should receive - (2010-08-27)
  [2821] Chancellor George Osborne inspires Perl Program - (2010-06-22)
  [2788] Cost of Sales - (2010-06-01)
  [2598] An excuse for making a sales call - (2010-01-26)
  [2465] Melksham Town - asleep or awake? - (2009-10-21)
  [2331] Certification Revisted - Lua - (2009-08-09)
  [2283] Everyone is in the customer relations business - (2009-07-12)
  [2190] How you are (re)presented at an exhibition - (2009-05-19)
  [2187] Are we IITT (Institute of IT Training) members? - (2009-05-17)
  [2161] Get it right ... if it goes wrong, it takes so much effort to sort out! - (2009-05-08)
  [2126] Weeding out old phone numbers - (2009-04-11)
  [2122] Commission Creep - (2009-04-08)
  [2044] Please Trouble me - (2009-02-16)
  [1913] Alastair Darling helps make paperwork and confusion - (2008-11-30)
  [1855] Volunteer v Employee - a skewed balance? (FSB) - (2008-10-25)
  [1713] Ways to accept credit cards - or not! - (2008-07-19)
  [1626] Early May - a short chance to regroup and improve - (2008-05-01)
  [1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
  [1453] What makes our courses special? - (2007-12-02)
  [1394] Business to Business Networking - North and West Wilts / Melksham - (2007-10-17)
  [1373] New Month, New Quarter, New Laws - (2007-10-01)
  [1342] Google, wwmdirectory, Freshwater, ATP - new scam? - (2007-09-09)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1263] 0800 043 8225 - a new phone number for Well House - (2007-07-10)
  [1260] An inspirational business talk from one of our prospective MPs - (2007-07-06)
  [1243] Heavy duty hole punch - (2007-06-24)
  [1165] Extended Credit request - train in June and be paid in September - (2007-04-27)
  [1157] Speed Networking - a great evening and how we arranged it - (2007-04-21)
  [1133] B-2-B Networking, 20th April. Useful for YOUR business? - (2007-04-03)
  [1084] Writing terms and conditions for conferences and other events - (2007-02-17)
  [1057] Selling by phone and Skype - our policy - (2007-01-30)
  [906] A commitment we won't be making - (2006-10-27)
  [883] Age discrimination law - (2006-10-01)
  [869] UNABLE TO ATTEND - (2006-09-16)
  [849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
  [808] Sales call - (2006-07-19)
  [766] Discounts and approved supplier lists - (2006-06-17)
  [664] Ruby course - oops - it's not happening - (2006-04-01)
  [652] Morning Post - (2006-03-20)
  [626] Not just a pretty face to answer the phone. - (2006-02-26)
  [536] Cancellations and penalties - (2005-12-21)
  [491] Being atypical is typical - (2005-11-10)
  [487] On line course booking - credit card protection - (2005-11-06)
  [467] Tell them three times - (2005-10-17)
  [457] Do the work and take the risk - a PHP contract to avoid - (2005-10-06)
  [438] Fair system for travel and accommodation expenses - (2005-09-07)
  [399] simplicity hides real size - (2005-07-31)
  [321] Sales - the alternative close - (2005-05-23)
  [297] A reminder that the customer is King - (2005-05-01)
  [226] Growing our systems - (2005-02-24)
  [217] Use of time - (2005-02-16)
  [211] Look after your staff and they'll look after you. AOL. - (2005-02-12)
  [188] Pink elephant and appreciation - (2005-01-24)
  [180] Skunk works - (2005-01-17)
  [157] Automatic service upgrades - (2004-12-19)
  [137] Certification schemes - (2004-12-02)
  [129] Trawling our site to prevent student copying - (2004-11-24)
  [125] Staff theft - (2004-11-21)
  [121] Fair and Simple - (2004-11-17)
  [108] A typical morning - (2004-11-03)
  [95] Five red flags - (2004-10-21)
  [88] Getting the right level of trainer - (2004-10-14)
  [77] Telephone systems - (2004-10-07)
  [68] Get the strategy worked out and the tactics just fall into place. - (2004-09-30)
  [27] Sales technique - (2004-08-25)
  [15] 90 to 10 or 80 to 20 rule - (2004-08-15)

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The confidence to allow public comments
Holes in on line information
Searching for numbers
0870 telephone numbers
Tips for the top
Post course support - part of the service
A new skill may not be quick and easy
Allow for peak traffic on your web site
An Open Source course on the Channel Islands
Customer service - examples to warn us