Thoughtful Thursdays - Honey, can you pick up the kids?

A common response to the question "Why do you want to start your own business?" is "So I can work from home."

Whether you are self-employed or working for someone else, working from a home office definitely has its advantages. There are also many drawbacks that might result in an unproductive and sometimes frustrating business environment if you have undisciplined and/or unclear communicated work habits.

It is tough enough to work in isolation and when you add distractions that come with working from a home office, it can become very challenging. One of the most frequent concerns I hear about is: "My family thinks that because I work from home, I am home and not working."

Here are a few tips that may be useful when working from a home office:

• Designate work space or an office that is for business only - you live in your home, you work in your office
• Have separate phone and fax lines for business
• Have a separate computer for business
• Set office hours and stick to them
• Schedule regular breaks
• Discuss these business hours with your family and have them respect your need to have uninterrupted work time
• Be clear that you may not have the time to go shopping, cut the lawn or pick up the kids without sufficient advanced notice
• Some find it useful to close the office door when they do not want to be interrupted

It is my experience, with people I have worked with, that those who have barriers to working productively at home have greater difficulty resolving them in the long term. The situation often comes down to not having sufficient space at home to dedicate to the business.

The solution for many was to find an office away from the home thereby making it much easier to separate business and personal activities. Productivity increased as did satisfaction with the business.

Remember that you are still employed when you are self-employed, your business needs you to go to work.

Richard

Image credit: examiner.com