Five Tips for Running a Successful Home Office
There are a lot of stories written about home-based businesses—trust me, I just did a Google search. Working from home has changed drastically over the years, thanks to technology.
If you think back not even 20 years about home-based businesses, you might envision a low-tech service business such as a daycare or landscaping company. To run a professional business, you needed to be located in commercial office space. Not only did commercial space provide the technical services you needed, but it also provided a professional atmosphere appropriate for meeting with clients. —seacoastonline.com
Luckily, for us freelancers, that is no longer the case.
I have a computer, high speed internet, printer, and cell phone that allow me to do my work at home. And I have a nice office/laundry room to do it in. I know a bunch of people who work from home and I have some tips on how to run it right. See if you agree.
Find Your Own Space
Working from your kitchen table is hard. Especially if you have a spouse and/or children who like to use that kitchen table. My desk is chaos to an outsider, but I know exactly where everything is and no one is allowed to touch it.
I work on a desktop computer (an iMac)—if I didn’t I’d undoubtedly work in bed or in front of the television, and that’s not very productive. I have an ergonomically correct chair and lots of natural light pouring in all day.
Having a space all to yourself is important. You can shut the door when you need to and focus. You don’t need to rely on a noisy coffee shop or the hours at your public library to get things done.
Schedule Kid-Free Time
A lot of people who work at home make the mistake of thinking they can also take care of their children during the day, saving on the cost of child care for younger children. More often than not, you end up working in spurts when (and if) your child goes down for a nap. And since that’s only a couple of hours (if you are lucky) during the day, you are playing catch-up at night after the kids have gone to bed, leaving you no time to socialize with your spouse.
Depending on the amount of freelance work you have, this arrangement may work out fine. If you are busy, however, it could prove to be your downfall.
Also, I can’t tell you how annoying it is when you are on the phone with someone and your child is howling in the background. I have had several conference calls where this has happened. I didn’t appreciate it, and your client won’t either. If you are going to take important phone calls, make sure your lovely children aren’t causing a ruckus in the background. It’s unprofessional.
Find Someplace Where You Can Have a Client Meeting
If your clients are local, you may have to meet them face to face on occasion. Please don’t invite them to your house if it is a catastrophe. I know several professional photographers who work from home that have a separate meeting space where they can sit down with their clients that is a part of their home, oftentimes with a separate entrance.
If you need to have a meeting, and it can’t be at your client’s office, try to find a quiet place outside of your home to have it. Scope out some coffee shops in the area and find out when they aren’t busy (i.e., quiet) and schedule a meeting there. Many co-working spaces and libraries have designated conference areas—see what it would take to use these spaces if you have frequent meetings.
Hire A Virtual Assistant
If having a professional presence is important to you, a virtual assistant can be a great help. It’s like having a secretary that doesn’t work in your office. This person works remotely, and can help you with your bookkeeping, scheduling, and even answer your phone calls and forward them to your phone or voicemail.
Create Separation Between Work and Home Life
The downside to working from home is that you can feel like you should be working all the time. It’s nice to have an office door that you can close to create a literal barrier between your work space and home space.
Trying to keep regular office hours can help with this, but, as any freelancer knows, that can be a tall order. Set your alarm to get up at the same time every day and have a routine. The later in the day you start your work, the later in the evening you will be spending on finishing up.
Just because you are working from home doesn’t mean you can’t run a professional office. Do you have any tips on ways to make freelancing from home even more successful?
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by xilius.
Great article! I have been running my own freelance business for a while now and I would agree with all of these points, especially about not working from a bed or in front of the tv. That, along with opening the fridge a few times an hour (oops), I would say are my biggest distractions. I managed to get a little office a few blocks away from my home and I must admit my productivity has improved drastically. Its a small investment that goes a long way – and looks better for client meetings (I don’t have to rely on Starbucks anymore).
Thanks for the article!
A lot of us designers identify with this situation, it´s my case so I´m still in the process of learning to designate an work area for myself, now that my wife has assimilated that I´m actually working.
Sometimes when you work at home, if you get dressed, that helps to create a mental separation between work and home life, which allows for more productivity.
I totally agree! Taking a shower and getting dressed before I start work is a must.
Designating work hours is important and allows me to schedule blocks of time each day to accomplish various work relevant tasks while still leaving me some down time to relax. Separating work and free time is a bit more difficult when you work from home, but the flexibility is very beneficial when properly managed. And Melanie definitely addressed some of the most important points for success in her post here.
Very insightful Melanie. Having worked as a software trainer, developer and web design/development for 30 years you have touched on five very relevant tips. The current problem that I face as a home based freelancer is that In moving to a somewhat rural town ten years back, it is very challenging to meet fellow colleagues that I can talk with and share work ideas over coffee. As such I no longer get word of mouth leads for work projects. I have tried unsuccessfully to bid for jobs via elance and MANY others.
I’m uncertain how to adapt in finding new clients without moving back to the city.
This is so true – and this also applies to houses with pets – trying to talk on the phone during a conference call while the dogs are barking in the background is very distracting. I usually grab them and either kennel them up or let them hang outside on a nice day during important calls.
Good point about the barking dogs! You never know when someone will come knocking at your door, causing the pups to go crazy. Even a honking horn at my neighbors house makes my dog sound his alarm…
I think discipline is more imp than anything else…its tough to work and look what your kids are doing parallely but adjustment is the key here
Your site is awesome. I work as a software tester in a IT company and live a busy city life. but my dream is to become a freelancer one day so that I can go away from city life and live the life i want…
Thanks for your helpful tips
I think you should work wherever you feel most comfortable. You can always move about and find where you are being most productive; whether it’s in the bath or at your desk in the study. I’m always most productive in the morning, too, and then get distracted in the evening, so it would be a 6am start for me and then off working straight away.
Great post. I have worked as a freelance web designer and graphic designer for the last 10 years. Initially I found it a daunting prospect working from home in the spare bedroom. After careful planning I made the room into my very own studio with plenty of workspace, the right lighting and the right decor. This all helped to create an area that was professional and also inspiring and creative. These factors are really important for any type of designers whether it be web or graphic. You must have a room where any household distractions are locked away from your work.
Great post. Keep them coming
It’s very good article & lets you understand your mistakes. I have been freelancing for last 2 years & finally gave up & joined fulltime last month. I have 2 kids at home & it was very difficult to manage my work. I started loosing clients in past 6 months as I could not meet deadlines & then came financial issues. That’s when I decided to finally give up freelancing & joined full time.
In those 2 years I worked with many good clients & there were moments where I have to actually say NO to new clients due to overload. One thing I realized that if you want to freelancing you need to have some sort of routine in your work. You should follow some discipline in order to meet deadline.
Great article! I’ll add one thing that has helped me. SET BOUNDARIES with your clients. When working from home, its so easy to answer that email at 11pm or on the weekend. Before you know it, your clients are expecting a response from you 24/7 and will be disappointed if you don’t answer them right away.
Great article, I included it in my latest issue of Freelancing Weekly: http://freelancingweekly.com/issue-13