If you work from home you are very likely to be using your computer a great deal. You could be an business consultant, or perhaps you’re a writer. Working from home has a great many benefits, not least being that you can save on renting an office and travelling and also be there for your family. In fact, having some kind of home business is ideal for many people.
However, if you work from home you may have realised there are downsides too. These must be addressed in order to make your business as well as your life, successful. Here are some of them.
- It is very easy to put in longer hours at a home business because you don’t need to leave the office at the end of the day. Working can become addictive to the point you neglect your relationships even though you live and work in the same home as your family. You may just want to finish that website or do a little more research into keywords and the next thing you know the children are all in bed and so is your spouse. You need to make a cut-off point for work and stick to it.
- If you work from home, many people think you can do it at any time, or don’t have a ‘real job’ and so are available for social visits or chatting on the phone at any time. While you don’t want to become a recluse, you really have to be strict with your time and not waste it. Tell your friends that you are not available during the day and make them understand they have to wait for your attention, just like they would if you went to an office.
- Finding the room. You really do need to have a dedicated room or at least a corner of one to work from home successfully. You may have things that are easy for your toddlers to play with, or generally mess up. One little finger on your keyboard can destroy hours of work. And if you have to share the dining table, you really won’t get much work done. Having to clear it off all the time for meals will be really annoying.
- If you are also a housewife, it is easy to get distracted from your work by all the housework that needs to be done. Once your business is up and running, it would be advisable to hire a cleaner once a week or fortnight and ignore the dirt in between.
If you have clients coming to the house, you really need to have a separate entrance leading into your office or a waiting room. This can sometimes be organised by adding an extension or filling in the back veranda. Or you may be able to convert an unused bedroom with an external wall by adding the external door.