The workaholic's guide to a successful home office

Many small businesses are successfully started up from home.

There are huge advantages in doing this. There’s little or no financial burden of premises in the early days, you save huge amounts of time in looking for premises, and your commute will be taking a few steps from the kitchen!

But the downsides are huge too. If you’re not careful, you can find yourself burning the candle at both ends, and constantly ignoring your family in favour of your new venture.

Here’s how to successfully manage a home office, even if you’re a workaholic:

Have a separate office space

You hear entrepreneurs talk about starting up from the kitchen table – the reality is a little different. Your business needs its own permanent separate space, ideally a whole room.

Businesses generate huge amounts of paperwork and mess, and should be kept away from domestic life. Not only will that help the whole family understand basics like the computer in the office being for business only, but it should prevent your quarterly VAT return attracting jam stains. Using a room or piece of furniture for both business and domestic use will eventually lead to a nasty clash of the two.

You don’t need to spend a fortune preparing a room. Consider if a garage or conservatory can be adapted, or a desk squeezed into a spare room. The space you need will depend on the work you’re doing – you can’t assemble mechanical parts in your lounge, and a domestic garage may not be big enough.

Manage your family

One of the other advantages of a separate space is that it’s clear for your family to know when you are and aren’t working. It can be hard for them to leave you alone while you are at home, especially for children. Set clear rules that while you are in the office, you shouldn’t be bothered for trivial things. But also be clear about what time you will “leave” your office and rejoin the family – a clear deadline that you stick to will make it easier for everyone.

By the way, if you think you can run a business and child mind at the same time – very few people can. Children and small businesses have competing demands, and it’s not healthy to try and focus on both at the same time.

Manage your time

One of the hardest parts of working from home is managing your time. It’s as easy to “just pop into the office” and spend much of your weekend working, as it is to waste time during the working day.

Set yourself some golden rules: start and finish work at set times (even if it’s still a 14 hour day; set times will bring much-needed structure to your day); shut the office door at the end of the day to escape work and avoid the temptation to return; and the number one golden rule: never ever switch on the TV during the working day. It will suck you in and waste your time. Leave it till the evening.

Keep your motivation levels high

Working and living in the same space can actually be quite de-motivating. You can feel that you never leave the house, especially if you don’t need to call on clients to run your business. And if your partner has a job, at the end of your day you’ll be itching to get out of the house, just as they want to stay indoors and relax!

The trick is to balance your time in your home. Using your separate space and shutting the door on it at the end of the day can help you separate the two aspects of your life in the one building. Take regular breaks during the day where you escape your office – a 10 minute walk will actually increase your productivity. If you need to work in the evenings, use a laptop on the kitchen table. This will help you feel you are doing a little extra work, not just sitting in your office again.

Finally, consider joining local business groups like your local Chamber of Commerce, the Federation for Small Businesses (FSB) or a networking group. Yes it’s good for business, but it also means you’ll develop a network of contacts that you can use to stop you feeling lonely during the day and keep you in touch with real life.

If you’d prefer not to network over business, join your local Round Table or Rotary Club and give something back to your community. Taking a little time out from your business will help your growth in the long-term.

Other tips to running an effective home office

Finally, a few other tips to ensure working from home is a good experience. Consider any possible impact on your neighbours. If you have lorries pulling up day and night to deliver items, your neighbours may eventually get sick of it and could even seek an injunction to stop the noise and disturbance.

If you use a part of your home purely for business, you may be liable for business rates on it – check with your local council. You should also check your insurance to ensure you are covered for home working, and check there are no restrictions in your mortgage or rental agreement.

Finally, imagine how devastating it would be if you had a fire or you were burgled at home – your home and business could be destroyed in one go. So keep copies of vital documents off site, perhaps at a friend or relative’s house.

You could also consider using an automated online backup system for your computer, such as Oobu or Perfect Backup. It will ensure a copy of your PC’s contents are kept off-site, helping you get your business back on its feet quickly in the event of an emergency.