Talking About Business With Family
Thanksgiving is less than a week away. For those of you in the US, you’re probably already thinking about planning the meal or looking forward to getting together with the family. Even if families cannot be together during the rest of the year, Thanksgiving is one of the holidays that tends to draw everyone to the same place. We all get to catch up with one another’s lives, and find out who is doing what out there in the big, wide world.
This is a perfect time to discuss your plans to work from home. Of course, if the idea is news to everyone, you’ll probably get some resistance, but that’s ok. Constructive feedback is great. You do need to have a little bit of realism surrounding you. Just make sure you let everyone know that you understand the risks and that you are preparing wisely for them. (You are, right?). Explain that you plan to work from home just on a part time basis until you start to see enough progress to justify moving to full time. That will ease some of the worry that your family will undoubtedly have. Once you’ve gotten the major objections out of the way, you can begin to solicit thoughts and ideas from them.
The people closest to you understand you the most. They know your strengths and weaknesses. They can give advice to help you make the most of your plans. Keep the conversations civil and friendly. Don’t let differences of opinions turn into arguments or fights. Thanksgiving is a time for being thankful and enjoying time with our loved ones. Don’t let arguments ruin that. But do take any and all advice into consideration. If someone tells you something you don’t like, let them know you’ll consider it, and move along to something else.
Each member of your family has a unique history to draw upon, and each person can likely give you very good advice. Once you are all gathered together in one place, you have a wonderful opportunity to learn a little from each person. Use that opportunity wisely. The lessons learned may be extremely useful in the future. Share your news, get some advice, and then let it go. After all, you don’t want to dominate the day’s conversations. The rest of the family deserves their time too.
If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, you might want to consider holding a special seasonal celebration with your family so that you can all catch up with one another. Make your own “thanks-giving” holiday. Why not?
Now it’s time to figure out what groceries are needed for next week. Have a great weekend, everyone.
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Posted on November 17th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Business Development
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This is good advice Donna (btw, thanks for the feedback on my site).
One more thing to consider is how to handle your plans differently when you’re celebrating Thanksgiving with the in-laws!