You Can’t Be Serious! Putting Humor to Work at the Home Office - Managing a home office can be a rewarding experience. It’s also one of the most challenging. Too few hours in the day, isolation, a lack of motivation and balancing an active home and work life are issues home-based workers wrestle with daily

Your Simple Guide to Starting a Home Business - Being the simple guy that I am, I like keeping things simple. And being the helpful guy I am, I also like to help. So I now offer you my simple, patented, 12 step guide to setting up a home business.

The Latest in Home Office Fashion - When I worked for a large organization I suffered from fashion angst every morning. What do I wear today? Will I be overdressed or underdressed? Will I impress the boss?

The Home Office Commute - I conducted an exhaustive (okay, somewhat tiring) survey of eight home-based business owners, asking them what they most enjoyed about working from home.

Home Office Lingo - One of the necessities of mastering a new profession is learning the inside lingo. Using these newfound terms in your business conversations lets the rest of the world know that

Your Guide to the Real Home Office Technology - Do you want to become the envy of the working world and out-class the techno-nerds from your last job? Is your home office equipped to get the job done properly?

Keeping in Touch With Reality - Perhaps you can relate to the following scenario. It’s Thursday. Day four of the work week in your basement home office. Day four of writing articles, sorting invoices, surfing the Net and filing papers.

The Office Away From the Office - It’s got everything you could ever want in a home based office. Comfy seats. A roaring fire. Tasteful art lining the walls. A convenient, high profile location. An aura of excitement and energy.

Opportunity is Knocking on Your Home Business Door - Looking for a unique and exciting home-based venture? The possibilities are limitless. For example, Toronto area police recently uncovered a home-based counterfeiting ring.

Madly Marketing in All Directions - Ah yes, the joy of marketing. And I mean that in a nice way. Honest.

Growing Pains - You started out small. Your were cute. You were quaint. No one, not even your immediate family, really knew what you did all day. Yes, you were home alone!

Growing, Growing, Gone - A while back when we met in this column I wrote about the challenges of working out of your home in an area the size of a mid-sized couch.

Door to Door Customers? - Selling from a home office presents a few unique challenges, namely how to reach potential customers, how to actually sell the stuff once you get the customers, and then, well, actually having stuff to sell…

Now Where Did I Put That? - For interplanetary travelers like Captain Kirk, space may represent the “final frontier,” but for me, a humble earthbound home office business owner, space (as in, “a lack thereof”) represents something a tad less exotic and a heck of a lot more frustrating.

Spring Has Sprung - Spring will soon be sprung, which means our thoughts will naturally turn to romance, gardening, and above all else, cleaning out our home offices (which really means junking all of the junk that we have amassed over the previous year).

Easy Come, Easy Flow - Every home office business owner must learn to practice the phrase, “We’re having cash flow problems right now” with as much sincerity as they can muster. Not to ward off Revenue Canada auditors or vampire-like vendors, but simply to keep your teenaged children, spouse, and in-laws at bay.

The Not So Great Divide - For many people, it’s an enormous challenge trying to maintain a balance between their professional and personal lives. Imagine how hard it is for us folks who have brought our professional lives into the home by running a home-based business.

People Who Need People… - The wonderful thing about working out of your home is that you can go days, even months, without seeing other people. And I say wonderful, because, let’s be honest here—people are annoying.

Resolutions - Ah, yes, another year under our belts. As January rolls slowly out from under out feet, it’s time, as home office business owners, to reflect on all the things we didn’t accomplish in 2001 and to resolve not to be such a pathetic slug in the upcoming year.

The Shoestring Traveler - Remember the days working for a large company when you had a little perk known as a “travel budget”? This wonderful tool allowed you to do two things: number one: travel, and, more importantly, number two: get reimbursed for your travel expenses.

The Home Office Coach - Hockey colour commentator Don Cherry makes coaching look easy. In fact, he makes it look so easy, I’ve decided to add one-on-one lifestyle and career coaching services to my home office business menu.

Playing in the Big Leagues - One of the challenges of running a home office is trying to make yourself appear bigger than you actually are.