We all have different tolerance levels for how much work we can put in for the week.
But, there is definitely one thing that distinguishes those of us striving to get ahead, build, or otherwise express our love for what we do: We tend to work at it
a lot!What exactly is meant by
work?
For us, the following would cover to a great extent what
work is:
- Providing the best possible solutions and services to our clients.
- Developing our professionalism through formal training, mentorship, reading, labs, and more.
- Contribute our expertise back to the community at large.
For those of us who are single, the amount of time spent working can be quite large. There is a flexibility in the amount of time a single person can schedule around their professional life. But, there needs to be a balance with the time spent with friends and family too.
For those of us who are married with or without children there is a balance that we must achieve between our work and family life. That balance is critical, because if one suffers, the other will too!
We are fortunate that SBS and related products and services we work with facilitate the ability to make efficient all aspects of our work life:
- Remote Web Workplace: Remote connectivity to everything we need.
- Remote Desktop: Via RWW gives us a secure way to work from anywhere.
- SharePoint: Via RWW or direct allows access to many critical resources.
- Outlook Web Access: In a pinch, works great via Web or Mobile Device.
- Windows Mobile device: Remote connectivity while moving about with access to virtually all SBS services.
- A good laptop that is encrypted and uses cellular high speed for connectivity.
Tying all of these SBS and related products together for our own businesses enables us to have a demonstration platform in place for our prospect visits, or for demonstrating to existing clients what further SBS based features could help their business.
For us, the above setup allows for scheduling flexibility. If there is a need to spend time with family, the day, like today, can be divided up between family and work.
Balance ...
Involvement in our professional and local communities are the other side to this coin. Getting out and getting involved in the SBSC, local Microsoft User Groups, online forums and groups, local charities, and the like are good for maintaining and developing new business and colleague relationships.
While the online stuff may facilitate our professional and to some extent our personal lives, nothing replaces face-to-face time with our peers, business colleagues, family, and others. To a great extent, the online stuff needs to take second place to face-to-face time.
A further development to balance things for my own family was the implementation of an SBS network at home. Having SBS at home has given us the ability to work with shared resources such as family e-mail, calendars, tasks, and contacts. Centralizing has made our home life balance and time management a lot easier to accomplish.
The CompanyWeb SharePoint site facilitates both our business and personal life work flow management that helps to give Monique the ability to be at home while still being fully involved in our business.
In the end, if our lives are well balanced between business and personal time involvements, we will find find that balance lends itself to our being very successful in both!
Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
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