The Work-at-Home Professional

Yesterday I talked a little about how Tamara and I are working on our professional image by working with Rainmaker Marketing to brand our company. (No, we don’t get a deal to plug her site . . . Darn, we should have asked for a deal to plug her site!) I also mentioned that the marketer is a freelance parent, too. This brings up some rather interesting thoughts when it comes to putting forth your “professional” image.

When we decided to get together with Billie, she suggested we meet in her home. She also encouraged us to bring our children. In fact, she thought it would be nice for her daughter and Tamara’s daughter to play together while the mommies talked business. We sat around her dining room table and talked about everything from logo colors to breastfeeding. It was not your typical professional business meeting. Instead of having a secretary schedule an appointment in some boardroom, we were able to work with someone who saw what our needs were. How fortunate that they matched her needs and created a situation that worked perfectly for all of us. The outcome: We hired her, and she is doing great work.

We just had our second meeting today, this time at my dining room table. All three of us wore jeans, drank tea, and visited as if we were friends. Actually, I suspect that we will be just that. It was a far cry from what one would expect from a regular business meeting, and I think that is awesome. Things like this are exactly the reason we choose to work from home, aren’t they? Being able to take my baby to a meeting where everyone else is actually pleased to see her . . . that’s not something I would expect in most working situations.

Don’t get me wrong, if we were going to interview with the CEO of a local corporation for a writing job, you can bet we’d be dressed in our business-y attire, carrying our nice portfolio, and on our best behavior. Why? Because that is what is expected in that environment. It is what is considered professional for that situation.

We talked about it this morning, and I think that the definition of “professional” has changed a bit for us these days. It used to mean wearing a certain thing and speaking a certain way. Now, it means doing great work. Being professional means giving the client what he or she needs. Of course, you need to read your client and his or her situation to get a bead on what direction to take. In our case, we were better served by a marketing professional who holds meetings at the dining room table with coloring books and receiving blankets. There was nothing less “professional” about the meeting. As far as we’re concerned, it was just what we needed.