WORKING AT HOME

A lot of people are working out of an office at home these days. For a variety of reasons.

* They are self-employed and don’t need an office outside of the home
* They work in sales and don’t need a desk at their companies office
* Their company is letting them “telecommute” from home so that they can save money on
office space
* The company doesn’t want to lose a valuable employee who has children and wants to be at
home

The list goes on and on….

Working from home also saves you money (on gas, wear and tear on the car, clothes, lunches….). And it also cuts down on pollution from your car.

But working from home also brings about some challenges. There are a lot of distractions.

You might have a tendency to throw in a few loads of laundry while you are downloading some software or waiting for an important phone call. Or you might want to run the vacuum cleaner and dust while you are waiting for a fax to go through.

In order to work at home you must be very disciplined. You have to act in a professional manner just as if you were in an office outside of the home. That also means getting dressed and not working in your pajamas (who knows if your boss might stop over?).

My old accountants had an office at home in their basement. They had remodeled it with state of the art computer equipment and if you didn’t know you were in the basement you would have thought you were in a first class office building! Every morning they put on their business suits and worked from 9 am till 5 pm. They were always ready for a client to stop by or to go off to a business meeting. They ran their home office like a real business. They saved a lot of money by not paying for additional office space and therefore they were able to keep their overhead down.

On the other hand, some people never get out of their pajamas when they work and the clients on the other end of the phone don’t know the difference.

Being professional when you are talking to a client on the phone, no matter what you are wearing, is crucial in having a home office.

Working at home if you have small children brings on a whole new set of “challenges”. Having a child screaming in the background when you are trying to talk to a client is not very professional. By scheduling your calls to clients while the children are sleeping or while they are busy with a project of their own is one way around that problem.

Having a “dedicated” work space is very important. If you treat your “at home” business like a real business you will be much more successful. By having a desk or workspace set up with all of the essentials and having a filing system in place you will be much more organized and efficient.

Working at home should not be an excuse for “slacking off”. You should have the same dedication and drive as if you worked in a “real office”. And you definitely have to be the type of person that can work by youself…without having someone standing over you telling you that you have a deadline to meet.

It’s not for everyone. Some people need the interaction that an outside office brings.

But if working from home is something that you want or have to do (maybe because you live in a remote area), then treat your office at home as if you worked in an office building.

Have the proper tools and the proper attitude. And you too can be successful and happy “at home”.


Organizational Consulting Services

www.organizationalconsultingservices.com