For
many people, working from home sounds like an ideal arrangement.
You don't have to waste time commuting to and from the office, you
can be there for your children when they come home from school,
you don't have to answer to anyone but yourself and you can work
the hours that suit you ... not your boss. All very well in theory.
On
the other side of the coin, though, are the challenges of working
from home. "Working your own hours" all too easily can become "working
all hours" if you don't set a workday schedule, while rowdy children
can become an almighty challenge when you need to present a professional
image to the prospective client you're speaking with on the telephone. The
fundamental key to a successful transition to a home- based business
is to keep your business and personal lives as separate as possible.
Decide up front how many (and which) hours of the day you are going
to allocate to your business and stick to this schedule. What you
don't get done during today's business hours can and should wait
until tomorrow. Don't succumb to the temptation of allowing your
business to encroach on your personal and family time. One
trick to keep your business and personal lives separate is to have
separate areas of the house for each. If at all possible, allocate
a room of your house or apartment exclusively as your business office.
Make sure that all members of your family understand that when you
are in that room, you are working and are not available except in
an emergency. Likewise, don't use that room for any non-work activity
such as a TV room. By
strictly separating areas in this way, you will reinforce in your
mind (and the minds of other family members) that your office is
a place of business and is to be treated as such. Just as your family
will learn to respect these boundaries, it will also help you to
"switch off" at the end of your work day if you can literally shut
the door of your office and return "home" to your family.
One
temptation that, if indulged, will blur the line between your business
and personal lives, is attending to non- business tasks during the
hours you have allocated to business. Avoid leaving your office
to run a load of laundry, unload the dishwasher, clean the bathroom
or organize the kitchen cabinets ... any of the myriad of things
that can assume an almost overwhelming urgency in the face of that
business task you are putting off starting. These sorts of distractions
will only serve to keep you in your office much longer than necessary. Another
important tip for keeping your two worlds separate is to have separate
business telephone, modem and fax lines. Do NOT allow your children
to answer your business phone. Arrange for an answering service
to take your business calls during your non-business hours. Similarly,
when you are working, try to ensure your children are otherwise
occupied when you make business calls. The last thing you need when
trying to convince that prospective new client that you should win
his account is a screaming five year old right next to you.
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Elena Fawkner is editor of the award-winning weekly ezine,
A Home-Based Business Online, a down-to-earth publication
containing practical home-based and online business ideas,
telecommuting job listings, original articles, free e-books and
much more. She also runs the A Home-Based Business Online
website at at http://www.fawkner.com.
You can subscribe to her newsletter at the site.
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