The Top Things You Need to Know About Working From Home
These five top tips are in no particular order. Why not? Well, so much depends on your circumstances; if you work from home in an ‘office’ type job things will be different for you than someone who works from home knitting handmade sweaters for a designer label. Someone who works from home trading one e-bay will have very different priorities to someone running a blacksmith’s shop in their garage.Workspace~ it is a really good idea to have dedicated workspace. If you are a potter then it is fairly obvious that you are going to have to convert some space into a studio. But if you are a freelance writer you can just chuck your laptop on the dining table and get on with it, can’t you. Well if you live alone maybe you can, but if you share your home with a spouse, partner, friends or family, you need to be more considerate. Also you want to be able to get up and take a break without having to pack everything away. In this instance you don’t necessarily need a separate room, but a portion of a room will generally suffice; in my last house I had a desk under the stairs, in my current house I have a desk at one end of the dining room. Remember the need for ‘ancillary space’ as well~ do you need to store materials or finished goods, files and documents, customers waiting area and parking, room for delivery vehicles to stop, load and turn.
Permissions~ wherever you are in the world you need to be sure that you have any necessary permissions from the relevant authorities to work at home. This isn’t usually required for a ‘proper job’ but if you are running a business from home then you may need permission; it usually depends on the nature of the business. For example in the UK if you don’t employ anyone at your home and you don’t have customers visiting and you don’t have excessive traffic (couriers and deliveries for instance) then you seldom need permission, even if home is your ‘registered office’. If you want to have customers visiting (eg a chiropodist or beautician), clients (and architect or accountant) you will probably need permission. If you have lots of deliveries and or collections (eg an internet or eBay shop or trader) you probably need permission. Or if your work requires structural changes or creates non-residential noise or smell (eg a pottery, workshop or printer) you’ll probably need permission.
Goodwill~ you need the goodwill of the other people at your home. That may sound odd but your teenage kids will hate you if they get home from school and can’t listen to music with their mates because you are on the phone! You also need the goodwill of your neighbours; if they start to complain about the traffic, noise, visitors, smell or whatever then they can either make life formally a misery by setting the authorities on you, or just make life difficult because they live next door. (In the UK it is now a legal requirement to declare any neighbour disputes when you put a house up for sale; this can affect the saleability and therefore the value of your home).
Motivation~ when you work from home you have to motivate yourself to go and do some work; there isn’t a boss looking over your shoulder. This is both the main love and the bete noir of many people who work from home. If you have the ability to work at your chosen times and pace then you should make a concerted effort to understand your own bio-rhythms; when you are best at doing what, and utilise this knowledge. for instance I often write at 0600 in the morning or 10 in the evening because I feel good doing that. Set yourself daily targets of output or activity so that you are managing yourself. If you work for a boss make sure that you get clear goals of output and activity, including timescales; this will ensure that you are not only keeping yourself happy but your boss as well. Make sure you share your work plan with the other people in your home, when you are working you are not taking someone shopping or doing the laundry. You may be able more easily to fit these things in around working from home but not instead of.
Interaction~ Unless you really are an anti-social misery guts you will benefit from interaction with a diverse group of others. People need to interact with other people or they become one-dimensional (No sexism, but think what is so often the worry of the ultimate home worker, the young mother; ‘I never see anyone else other than other young mothers and all I ever talk about is babies….I’m losing my mind!’) You need to make time to interact with others outside your immediate world, be they customers, suppliers, delivery people, social networks, neighbours or sports facilities. This also helps you to get out of the home to prevent cabin-fever or going stir-crazy!
