Working from Home

Homepreneur help

Working from home can be challenging. After all, it’s hard to serve dinner to your family with office files piled up on the kitchen table. “You’ve got to set up systems to grow your business and to keep personal and business life separate,” entrepreneur Elizabeth Verwey says.

ROGER PIERCE


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Elizabeth Verwey of Home Office Mentors helps others to balance business and home under one

Verwey guides people in business to become more effective in their space and time management so that they can take time to play and balance the two.

Since establishing Home Office Mentors (www.homeofficementors.com) in 1997, she has helped hundreds of home-based clients in the Greater Toronto Area to gain perspective on their challenges and priorities, and take concrete action to improve how they organize and operate their businesses day to day.

“Corporations have their executive teams, boards of directors, consultants and staff,” Verwey says. “Entrepreneurs too often work in isolation without anyone else to advise them. That’s where we come in.”

She has a mountain of ideas to share from her work with entrepreneurs in diverse industries, plus 20 years’ experience in facilitating groups. Through one-on-one consultations, monthly support groups, workshops and seminars, Office Mentors helps small business owners clarify their priorities, identify quick wins, map out action steps and follow through on their plans.


An innovator in developing peer mentoring groups for entrepreneurs, Verwey recently published a book called The Mentors Circle: Clearing Your Path to Business Growth. “It’s a guide for business owners, sales professionals and entrepreneurs to begin their own business growth groups,” she says.

One common challenge for home-based entrepreneurs is how to stop thinking about business. “It’s especially hard not to think about work when your desk is in the living room,” Verwey says. “We’ll help people to find ways to give their entrepreneurial minds a rest so they can enjoy their personal time.”

Verwey practises what she preaches. “When I feel that my clients are in good shape, I take lots of time off,” she says. “I’m up to four holidays per year.”



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