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Do You Have A Cool Home Office Setup? BusinessWeek wants to see it!

Tree House Office 03
Originally uploaded by BlueForest

Breaking news--and there's a deadline on this, people! This is a chance to have your business mentioned on a major mainstream news site, so hop to this--this is big!

BusinessWeek Online wants to create a photo essay of readers' standout home-based offices.

What do they mean by "standout"? Here's what they say:

"We are looking for unique spaces from which you run your home-based business today. Do you work from a tent on the beach, a tree house, or the back of a truck?"

Now, my home office is pretty hum-drum, but I know some of you folks work in some really interesting places--on yachts, from RVs, in trailers on the beach.

Some of you guys are very creative with your office spaces, so please enter this contest so I can live vicariously through you and your fame! (I will still enter cuz there's always a chance, but I am not expecting to win, seeing as though my office is bo-reen.)

The deadline is May 30--so hop on this! And follow BusinessWeek's instructions exactly (full details are here):

Send us a brief description of your workspace along with one digital image no more than 1MB in size to [email protected] by May 30. Be sure to write "Home-based Businesses Special Report photo essay participant" in the subject line of your e-mail. Tell us what you do and what distinguishes your space from a conventional office. Remember: Entrants must be running their own home-based business on a full-time basis, and have been at it for a minimum of one year. We will feature a selection of outstanding work spaces in an upcoming special report in photo-essay format and ask readers to vote on their favorites.

Doh! How I wish I could say that I work from a tree house (maybe next year--fingers crossed!).

And thank you to Gavin Heaton who was sweet enough to let me know about this opportunity.

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15 Misconceptions Virtual Business Owners Deal with on a Daily Basis

Day 2: Now THIS is what I call telecommuting...
Originally uploaded by DDFic

If LOVE working from home and having a virtual business.

I love the flexible hours, the freedom to choose whom I work with, and the ability to work from the comfy-ness of my own home office. I can take breaks when I want and can actually have lunch out on a sunny patio rather than in a sterile cafeteria or "break room".

I also don't have to worry about having my lunch stolen from a community refrigerator --now that's a plus!

I wouldn't have things any other way, but I've noticed that there are some challenges and misconceptions that many of us virtual business owners run into on a daily basis. It can be annoying, but I can't really blame people who have never worked virtually for being confused about what it's really like.

Recently I bumped into a great post by Glen at LifeDev, which lists 10 misconceptions we self-employed folks deal with all the time. A few of these hit home, and these also got me thinking, "Hey, but what about such and such--that happens all the time too!"

Let's start the countdown! The first 10 of these are from LifeDev, with my commentary. The rest are my additions:

Learning New Habits Stretches Your Mind--Literally!

  Stretch Your Mind 
  Originally uploaded by abv

I used to work in administration for a hospital, and one of my duties was to supervise the volunteers.

My favorite volunteer was Mrs. P, who was 80 years old, full of life and enthusiasm and always had a full schedule of activities going on. I'm telling you--this tiny silver haired lady had a work and social life that was more full than most people half her age!

If she wasn't volunteering at the hospital, she was organizing fund raisers for her favorite causes, taking computer classes, going to the gym 3 times a week to lift weights, playing pinochle or bridge with her friends, and sitting on various boards for the museum or the hospital or whatever.

I was just amazed at her passion and her energy, and when I asked her what her secret was she said, "I always keep trying new things. I deliberately set out to learn new activities and skills, and that's what keeps my mind sharp."

Her words have always stuck with me and made sense--by learning new things we stretch our minds, and stretching our minds increases our ability to think in creative and problem solving ways.

Recently I saw an article in the New York Times that supports this idea. Actually the New York Times article said that basically any type of new habit that we initiate has the ability to positively impact our mental dexterity and creativity: