Devoted to WAHMs -Work at Home Moms

According to some recent news stories, some companies are giving employees paid time off when their relationships break up. Apparently, the purpose of the leave is to allow employees time to cry about their disappointment privately so that they can return to work and be more focused. You can read about heartache leave at Yahoo News, the Time blog, A Blog About Things, and WalletPop.

When I read about this, my first thought was, "well, this leave really isn't new. People have been calling in sick after break-ups for years. It might not have been called heartache leave, but they weren't at work."

My next thought, was, "well, this really isn't a problem for those of us who work at home. We can take off whenever we want."

Wait a minute! Can those of us who work at home really take off whenever we want?

Although working from home is known for its flexibility, the truth is that for many of the self-employed time off is not really an option. They may be living project paycheck to project paycheck. They may be afraid of losing a client. Or, they may have procrastinated about working on their project until the last minute.

It shouldn't be this way, though. Life happens, including the unpleasant stuff (and that category includes more than heartaches). Those of us who are self-employed need to be ready for it. If you haven't yet had to face a crisis since you've been working from home, don't worry: sooner, or later, you will.

As self-employed individuals what can we do to give ourselves enough flexibility to deal with a crisis when it occurs?

Here are five tips to make sure that you are prepared when something goes wrong:

• Don't spend everything that you earn. Make sure that you have at least a few weeks in savings.
  
  
• Don't bid so low on projects that you can't afford to save anything.
  
  
• Whenever possible, negotiate a little extra time into your projects in case something goes wrong.
  
  
• Work ahead on your projects, rather than leaving the work to the last minute.
  
  
• Maintain a work history with your clients - meet deadlines promptly and be accurate in your work. A client is much more likely to be understanding when something goes wrong if you have a good relationship with them.

1. If a deadline will be affected, let your client know of the delay as soon as possible.
   
   
2. Be open about the cause of the disruption. You don't have to give away information that is too personal, but you can share that you are having a family emergency or personal crisis right now. Odds are that your client will understand, especially if you rarely have a crisis.
   
   
3. Let clients know that you expect the situation to be temporary. Give them a future date to contact you. (Overestimate, rather than underestimate the time when they can contact you. In other words, if you think that you will need three days to pull yourself together, tell them a week. That way, when they do contact you, you are more likely to be ready.)