Blake Snow

writer-for-hire, content guy, bestselling author

As seen on CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox, Wired, Yahoo!, BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal
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Tagged working from home

Face time: 4 ways to make an impression while working from home

wired.com

wired.com

A year after the Great Recession reared its ugly head, my biggest account of nearly three years terminated our contract. At the time, I was the head of news, principal feature writer and editor-at-large for IDG’s second-largest media property.

During my tenure, I managed a small team of remote reporters, oversaw the production of thousands of stories and grew web traffic by 15% in a saturated market. But it wasn’t enough to save my job. When the going got tough (i.e. when the print business failed to transition to digital in time), I was an easy person to let go, despite my page view gains.

One reason: I only visited headquarters twice during my term. I knew management liked me, but they didn’t know me well enough to realize that I, too, had mouths to feed; that I was a peer, their equal. To them I was an impersonal guy that did good work from afar — an easy name to let go that didn’t evoke much emotion.

“Sorry, Blake. We’re cutting back.” That was it.  Continue reading…

My own private external office

externaloffice

I’ve worked from home for nine years now. That means lunch with the kids almost every day, water cooler talk with my hot wife, afternoon delights, no traffic, more leisure, greater flexibility. Way more pluses than minuses. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

At the same time, Lindsey and I get in each other’s hair on occasion. I have to announce an important conference call to the whole house to remind the kids not to run down my wing. Understandably, Lindsey doesn’t like being told how and when she can use her house during the much more demanding job of raising kids.

Continue reading…

How I became an entrepreneur (aka self-employed)

Credit: Lindsey Snow

Credit: Lindsey Snow

Blog reader Derek Bobo asks via email:

I was wondering when and how you made the leap of faith to work for yourself. When did you know you were safe financially? What was the deciding factor, etc? I’m right on the brink but can’t seem to get myself to take the leap of faith.

Excellent question. Here’s my answer:

Continue reading…

Utah: Noah’s great and spacious multi-purpose rental building is awesome!

I started work on a project for the Podango boys a few weeks ago. Podango, like myself, all work virtually out of home offices. The saved overhead, non-existent commute, and luxury of remaining close to family is twenty first century goodness, yes. But one of the biggest downsides in working from home is when you and the client need a good ole fashion conference room or business office for necessary several-person meetings. In the past, I’ve mustered up private library rooms or a quiet restaurant, but they’ve always been far from ideal. Since neither I or Podango have a central office, their team recommended we meet at Noah’s in Lindon, Utah. “What’s Noah’s?” I asked. “It’s a multi-purpose rental building with online bookings,” they replied. “Cool,” I thought, but I had my doubts.

I was wrong. Noah’s great and spacious multi-purpose rental building is awesome! It has business rooms, gaming rooms, racket ball courts, basketball court, studio rooms, rec centers, reception rooms, private theatre and even a freakin‘ ice skating rink. All the business rooms include 50 inch plasmas, mini-bar, bottled water, 20″ iMacs, leather sofas, conference table white board, laptop to TV cables, free wireless, and our room even had a pool table to boot. It’s a very nice, flexible, and accommodating facility. You book a room (for as little as $18/hour) online or by phone and they send you a passkey with a room number. Granted, our key didn’t work right away, so we had to get assistance, but the place is only a couple of weeks old. Kinks are expected, but I see this thing as having tons of potential. Expect to see several more of these facilities in the near future as more and more individuals work from home. Me and Noah’s Rental Ark are tight right now.