Whether you have decided to open your own business, pursue a freelance career, or you are simply continuing in your present position for an employer who no longer requires you to be in the office every day, there are a number of challenges you need to overcome to be a successful home-based worker.
The idea of working from home is a very appealing one as far as many people are concerned and while it can indeed be immensely enjoyable, it is not quite as easy to accomplish as it may at first appear. If you would like to avoid making some of the more common mistakes that others in your position have made, follow the advice in this article and be aware that what you are attempting to do is not for everyone. If you try it and things do not work out as expected, there is no shame in admitting that working from home is simply not for you. On the other hand, it could be the start of an amazing new phase of your life so stay positive, listen to those with prior experience of working in a home office and give it your best shot.
Start as You Mean to Continue
As you will realise once you have a few months’ experience, developing good habits is vital if you wish to succeed in a home working environment. Unless you are planning to loaf around until midday every day, don’t start off that way. If you are unlikely to have the time to take a 2-hour lunch break once you start working in earnest, don’t do it for the first few days either. You will find it much easier to stick to good habits that you form at the very start than you will to change bad habits that you unwittingly fall into. Do yourself a favour and make life a little easier for yourself by starting as you mean to continue.
- Create an Environment Conducive to Work – Sitting in front of the TV with your laptop is never going to work in the long run: the best thing you can do is to choose a room in your home, or a quiet corner if it is not practical for you to take over an entire room, and organise it in such a way as to create a space in which it is easy to focus on work. The key word here is ‘organise’ because if you cannot maintain an organised home office space, you will find it very difficult to be productive for any length of time. A dedicated space that is free of clutter and in a part of the house where you will not be disturbed is a prerequisite for anybody considering working from home.
- Stick to a Schedule – One of the biggest advantages of working from home, the freedom to set your own work schedule, is also one of the biggest drawbacks. This is especially so for those of us who are prone to procrastination: with nobody to tell you that you have to start work at 9am, you may well see no harm in surfing the net, chatting to friends, or watching a film before you get down to business but this attitude could be fatal to your chances of success as a home-based worker. It will be much easier for you to accomplish everything you set out to achieve if you start work at the same time every day. If you have a special reason for wanting to deviate from your normal schedule, such as meeting a relative who just happens to visiting from overseas, by all means take advantage of the flexibility that working from home has to offer; just be sure not to make a habit of it!
- Be Firm with Your Friends – The fact you are at home all day may encourage friends with nothing better to do to come round and keep you company. This is something you need to discourage right from the very beginning because if you allow your friends to disrupt your normal working schedule, you will never be able to meet deadlines and get through all the tasks that you are faced with on a daily basis.
- Promote Your Business Online – This one is only for those of you who are going freelance or setting up your own company. If you think you can attract enough custom by relying on the few contacts you already have and simply waiting for people to get in touch with their requests, your home working experiment may come to an abrupt halt in the very near future. Take advantage of all the opportunities for free or inexpensive promotion that the Internet has to offer: create a free listing for your business on Thomson Local, build an effective website and optimise it for major search engines such as Google, participate in forums focused on your industry. When you have done all this, explore the paid advertising opportunities that also exist online and see if any of them are likely to benefit your business.
- Know When to Stop Work and Relax – Knowing when to stop work for the day is just as important as knowing when to start. When the lines between your private and work life start to become blurred, something that can happen very easily if you are working at home, you may feel as if you are starting to lose control. The long-term viability of your home-working endeavour depends on your ability to keep your personal and business lives separate and to remain firmly in control at all times.
For more tips how to be productive at home and stay disciplined at all times, read some of the other articles on this site, such as those that are focused on time management for home businesses. If you maintain a professional approach and do not let yourself waste time on unproductive tasks, you will greatly increase your chances of success.
