Career & Life Balance for the wahm

Even WAHMs struggle with career and life balance - and more so than not - they get by on less than equipped home offices, and a lack of access to sophisticated software and hardware. We're often bootstrappers at best - rolling together the day-to-day tasks of our family lives and home businesses into one where time management could mean a tight schedule like: drop kids to school, deliver product to clients, schedule kids dentist appointments, pickup kids at soccer, stop by grocery store, make dinner for the family, bathe & put kids to bed, work on next month's promotions...

In particular, I've been challenged by my addiction to Outlook which I have in my "regular" job to manage contacts, emails, events, tasks and colleague collaboration. In contrast, while at home - I utilize my yahoo calendar, yahoo address book and often the good 'ol pad of scratch paper near the kitchen phone to jot down to do lists, reminders, and the lot. So for me the missing piece for sure was the digitally equipped task and to do list. I may have found my solution in a new software release by 37signals -- Highrise. This web-based software is a scaleable solution for an online contact manager and simple CRM. Now allowing me to keep track of who my business talks to, what was said, and what to do next. A variety of pricing schedules are available and even a completely FREE option which can be upgraded as your needs change and business grows. Other features include: the ability to enter and review notes from calls, meetings, emails, conversations, etc. in a basic CRM; Set up email and mobile phone reminders to get things done; and customize the page with my logo/brand colors.

It has the feel of a big business tool for the small business and I believe it's a great resource especially for the WAHM. I'll be managing our wahm business tasks on Highrise as well as the business of keeping our home lives in order. Now if I could only find that extra set of hands to do the laundry...


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