I have worked from home for probably the last 8 years. At my previous job, my employer afforded me the opportunity to work from home because I got more work done when there wasn’t the constant chatter going on around me and the incessant ring of the phones. It worked well for me because I am able to motivate myself to do the work from a home office. In 2008, I took the steps to work from home permanently. There are some tricks to doing this effectively and I am willing to share my own experiences with you now.
Just because you are working from home does not mean you are on vacation. Get up. Shower, shave, brush your teeth and put your work clothes on. Act as if you are going into the office, even if it is your kitchen. Make sure you put your shoes on. I don’t know what it is, but putting my shoes on makes me more productive.
Don’t turn on the television. Outside noise is fine, but if you have the television on, you are going to watch it. I’ve learned this the hard way time and time again. If “Braveheart” is on tube, work is not getting done. It is far better just not to know it is available. If you have kids running about, this can be more difficult. You have to take care of the needs of your children, but you have to work, as well. There is nothing wrong with hiring a babysitter to watch the kids while you are there working. If you were going to an office you would have to do the same.
Be aware of your time and use it wisely. Start at 9:00am, take a break at 10:30 for fifteen minutes. At noon, go out to lunch for an hour. Do the things that you would normally do if you were working in a big office somewhere. The breaks and the lunch are just as important as the actual work.
Put aside a place in your home to do the actual work. This could be a spare bedroom with a desk in it, your garage, or your kitchen table. Just make sure that the place you choose is “the office” while you are working. When work is done, it goes back to being “the kitchen”. If this isn’t possible, you need to find yourself a workspace at home or rent a small office.
I think this is the most important point of all. When the work day is done, it is done. Shut down the computer, change into your “around-the-house” clothes, go out in the backyard and fire up the grill. You’re done working. This is important to your well-being because if you continue working into 8:00pm or longer, you will burn out and feel like you are never getting away from “the job”. You will start resenting what you do, your family will start resenting you and that whole mess can only lead to trouble.
If you can teach yourself these five easy steps, you will do great in your business. The final step was the hardest for me to accomplish. It took me a long time to figure out that quitting at a set time was the way to better business. It stopped my clients from calling me whenever they wanted, which was an irritation to my whole family. If you work from home and have any other suggestions or success stories, feel free to share them!
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#1 by Interested on August 16th, 2009
All common sense, but all valid points. Thanks for sharing.
How do you get your work? Do you advertise? Call? Word of mouth?
#2 by Jimm on August 16th, 2009
SEO and word of mouth, mainly. My main advertising is through local organizations and getting in front of people to explain what I do.