After a hectic final four weeks and the promise of some rest until the early New Year, all that is left for me to do is to wish you my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008.

I would like to thank all of you for your comments and input to my blog, without which it would not have been so successful and more importantly rewarding for me, thank you. It has been an absolute pleasure to talk to some of you on the phone and exchange ideas and I look forward to much more of the same in the New Year.

During the festive season it is always time to reflect on the year gone bye, and remember the loved ones lost over the years. Then when Christmas is over it gives way to planning the coming year, setting goals and looking to the future. No doubt it will be the same this year, with the long holiday, maybe even more so. With all this I always try and remember to spend some time in the present, meet with as many of my family and friends as possible and enjoy their company for as long as possible - something I look forward to more and more as I get older.

To say it with W.T. Ellis,

“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.”

Until next year, have a great and peaceful time. Stefan

A few days ago a colleague sent me a newspaper cutting from the The Times, a piece written by Sathnam Sanghera, his title for this piece

Remote Working? It’s expensive, it’s lonely and there is no going back.

He is talking about remote working, so not quite running you small business from home, but the point he is making is just as relevant to the home business owner. I have written about this before and I absolutely disagree with his conclusion:

“…. But the truth is that remote working has driven me insane. And my advice to anyone considering it is to resist. Avoid Starbucks, avoid the Business Lounge, avoid home. Work in the office like normal people have done for decades. Otherwise you will end up like me, writing this at 2am, dressed in furry pyjamas, a pair of bunny ears flopping dementedly about your head.”

I have now been working from home for over eight years and so have all my colleagues, it certainly has not driven any of us insane and we show non of the other symptoms either. What really worries me about this is the question are we really that dysfunctional? Do we really need an office to have a social life?

When you look at the fact that humans have been working from home for thousands of years, you realise that working from home is the norm, not working from an office. ST.