I don’t have kids, but I spent last week watching two children while trying to keep my schedule as normal as possible.

I learned two things:

1) Having a schedule for both you and the kids is key. Without it you are setting yourself up to be less than productive.

2) Even with the schedule things will still get off track.

Because I had a school-aged child as well as a newborn I got to see the full scope of things.

Newborns are newborns and you are on their schedule and that’s that.

School-aged children need to be kept busy.

What I decided to do what type up a daily schedule. I made sure I had activities for all times of the day so that I would have a chance to get some work done.

There was arts and crafts time, school work, reading time, tv time, exercise time, and so on. Keeping that schedule would probably get tiring day after day (because I had to come up with the school work and arts and crafts activities); but it’s better than having kids complaining to you every 5 minutes that they are bored.

Like I said, I don’t have kids but that was what worked for me. What has your experience been like?

Share This

No I didn’t drop off the face of the earth, I’ve been busy making sure all my ducks are in order.

You see, while I’ve been a business owner ever since I can remember, I’ve only been free from traditional employment since 2005; and with this recession I’d like to make sure I stay there.

No more evil employment!

Back in March I wrote Have You Recession Proofed Your Home Business? If you haven’t read it, head on over, and then check out these other great posts about the topic.

Telecommuting Diva shares 5 Ways To Recession Proof Your Home Business.

Remarkable James tells How To Recession-Proof Your Business in 13 Steps; here is part two.

Biz Chicks Rule lists 9 Recession Proof Industries. While you could use this list to start a job search, if you are really savvy you might find a way to start a new business or add another aspect to your existing business.

Blevins Franks Accountants writes about Protecting The Small Business From Recession. My favorite tip is “Try and find additional income streams so that the hit isn’t so big if you lose one.”

It can be tough, but by staying ahead of the curve, keeping up with trends, and diversifying like crazy you can watch your home business grow and avoid returning to employment.

Good luck!

Share This

I get worked up about bad customer service experiences. Since I haven’t updated in awhile, allow me to tell you about my bad experience with Vonage.

I signed up for Vonage in March of 2007. I heard the horror stories so I decided to ask lots of questions, especially about canceling. The person assured me that if I canceled after a year, then I wouldn’t be subject to any fees.

Fast forward to today, May 2008. I haven’t used my Vonage in awhile so I decided to call and cancel. I read online that they have rebuttals for every reason you’d want to cancel so I simply told them I wanted to cancel because my dog doesn’t like the service.

I threw the Vonage lady off a bit, but she still tried to weasel me in by offering me one month free, then two months free, then a discounted monthly rate.

I said no, the Vonage lady put me on hold, and then told me I’d have to pay a $40 cancellation fee.

Excuse me?

She said that I had a two year contract as per the terms of service. I told her that I was told that I was committed to one year, and that either she was lying or the person who signed me up was lying.

So my question is, who is lying at Vonage?

I have a feeling that if I try to cancel after two years, they’ll tell me I agreed to three years and so on.

We went back and fourth for a half hour and she refused to transfer me saying she was the highest level and if I wanted to talk to someone else I’d have to hang up and call back.

Nice customer service Vonage.

So I told her to give me the two months free and in the meantime I’d be contacting someone from corporate. Now I am starting to rethink that, I think I will just call back and cancel Vonage. Meanwhile I’ll be devising a clever SEO plan to warn people about Vonage.

Here are some more experiences with canceling Vonage.

Tom Keating tries to cancel vonage and records the call.

Here’s another post about the annoyances when trying to cancel vonage.

Here are some more recent complaints about Vonage. Oh look, someone else was orginally told it was a one year term and then when they went to cancel they were told it’s two years.

I haven’t tested this number, but apparently you can call 1-888-288-7435 to cancel Vonage.

P.S. Vonage got booted by the BBB.

Share This