The Next Step in a Home-Based Business

Now that you’ve given working from home a lot of thought, done your research, and maybe have even dipped your toe in the water, it’s time to think about what comes next. 

This episode in the Home-Based Business series deals with tips on setting up your office, creating schedules, dealing with ‘expectations’ from others, and how to help make working from home a productive career. 

Transcript

Welcome back! I see you’ve given working from home a lot of thought.  You’ve done your research, and maybe have even dipped your toe in the water.  Now you’re ready to make that transition.  But what do you do next?

Here are a few things you need to do to help make working from home a productive career. 

First things first. Whether you like it or not, it’s time to get dressed! In spite of how appealing working in your pajamas may seem, it can also be detrimental.  Although you won’t need a power suit, you still need to shower and get dressed.  This offers a psychological feeling of professionalism.  And sorry.  But unless your heating system went out and it’s snowing outside, sweats are not considered professional attire. 

The second thing you need to do is to set up a dedicated office space. Setting up an ‘official’ office is another psychological trick to feeling more professional.  It sets the stage for ‘leaving home’ and entering a ‘work atmosphere’.  It doesn’t have to be fancy, just a separate location from the rest of the home. 

If at all possible, you need to locate your office in a separate room with a door.  This way, you can close it, which signifies you are working.  If you do not have an extra room, choose a corner of the living room or a place at the dining room table that is relatively low traffic and quiet.  My office space is in a rarely used guest bedroom. This could create problems when folks come to visit, but usually that’s over a weekend, so I can easily work around it.

 Make sure you have some type of desk and/or workspace.  With a laptop, you may feel that just placing it in your lap and sitting on the couch will suffice.  But in time, this affects your posture, which will also affect your physical and mental health. It also doesn’t present your psyche with a sense of professionalism.  

Be sure to have the standard supplies on hand.  Remember that you no longer will have access to the supply closet at work, so keep plenty of pens, pencils, computer paper and paper clips nearby.  Also consider purchasing extra ink cartridges.  There is nothing worse than printing out a proposal and running out of ink halfway through the project. 

Step away from that area or leave the room for breaks and lunch. When your workday is over, close the door, or turn off the computer and put papers and office equipment away.  This may mean using a portable bin or a filing cabinet if your office is on the dining room table.    

Let me add something here – most of these ideas seem to apply to computer work. But even if you have a craft, baking, gardening, or any other hands on type of business, you still have paperwork to do, and paperwork requires a desk. 

Now it’s time to make a schedule – and stick to it. Once your office is set up, sit down, and determine what your office hours will be.  Your start time doesn’t have to be fifteen minutes after you have gotten out of bed.  Take your morning routine into account.  Take a shower and get dressed.  Fix coffee.  Make lunches and take the children to school. But once those things are accomplished, make it a point to go to work. 

Choose a convenient time for lunch.  Eat healthy.  Schedule time for exercise.  Get a few household chores done, or just sit and read or knit.  But definitely move away from your office area.  This can help you clear your mind and be more productive in the long run.

If you are a writer like me, your hours can be a bit more flexible.  But I still have to maintain a schedule. If the work doesn’t get done today, I end up putting in a lot of early morning and late-night hours the rest of the week.  I still struggle some days getting dinner on the table at a reasonable time. But I can make those days easier by having plenty of freezer meals ready to go. 

Other positions, such as medical billing and bookkeeping, may be positions you can do in time blocks.  But if you are good at your job, your inbox will be overflowing, and those time blocks will start to get larger. A strong schedule will help you to be productive. 

It’s also important to maintain that schedule. If you work for an outside company, more than likely your hours will be set.  In most cases, it will be 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, with a morning and afternoon break, plus a lunch hour.  These breaks are approved ahead of time.  At this point, you can reroute calls, step away from your desk, and do what needs to be done.  

If you work for yourself, you need to still treat your business professionally.  Consider ahead of time the hours you will work, and stick to them, with only rare exceptions.  And learn to be flexible.  You do not have to put in 12-hour days.  Learn to be productive within the time you have. 

Here’s how I handle being on a schedule. I am a writer, blogger/podcaster, and also a homemaker and small farmer.  This means I have to create a daily schedule that can accommodate quite a bit. From 6 in the morning when I get up, shower and dress, until 9 pm when I settle in for my evening devotional, my schedule accounts for my writing work, household responsibilities, feeding animals, gardening, and getting dinner on the table. I even schedule time for errands, appointments, and time for friends. By keeping to a schedule, I know where I need to be at any given time and can accomplish more during the time allotted for each task.

And with seasonal requirements all being different, I have to be flexible.  From April through September, my mornings are consumed with outside work that cannot be done in the winter months. When it is warm, we have hay to cut, gardens to tend, canning to do, animals that need attention.  

Having a homestead, even if it is just a few chickens and a garden that feeds your family throughout the year, is a serious consideration when choosing a stay-at-home position.  This is also true if you are a homemaker and taking care of a family.  You need to keep a firm, but flexible schedule in order to keep everything running smoothly.

You may need to take time at the end of the day on Friday to work up a schedule for the next week.  This way you can easily add in the ‘extras’, such as a school program, lunch with your mom, taking time to visit a sick neighbor or getting involved in Community activities. 

You also need to schedule time for exercising, at least to some degree. One of the biggest issues of working from home is becoming sedentary.  It is necessary, for both your physical and mental health, that you get some form of exercise during the day. 

Schedule a 10-to-15-minute morning and afternoon break. Get away from work and move.  Take a walk down the block or do a few exercises in the living room.  

And be sure to eat healthy. It is an easier proposition to eat healthy when working from home.  Instead of grabbing a snack from a vending machine, you can keep fresh fruit, yogurt, or granola on hand.  Rather than leaving the office and grabbing a burger, you can toss a salad or eat a sandwich.  

Eating healthy isn’t just economical.  It also helps with productivity.  Greasy fast food, processed vending machine snacks, and sugar-laden candy bars may give you a quick high, but will only make you tired and less focused in the long run. 

And no matter what, learn to take a day off on occasion. As with most jobs, working at home can quickly and easily produce burnout.  Before I learned to create a schedule and stick with it, I teetered on the brink of it.  And burnout can be a very dangerous precipice. 

Because of that experience, I learned to make Sundays a day of worship and rest. Our minds and bodies need this down time so we can be productive during the week. I also take Saturdays to complete outside chores, run errands, or just generally spend time with the Country Boy.

And once a month or so, I schedule a day mid-week to go to lunch with a friend, run errands, or just do something fun. Getting my mind off of work and onto something more pleasant helps to clear my mind and increase my productivity the rest of the time. 

But then there are the inevitable interruptions. One of the first things you are going to encounter when working from home is the ‘expectations’ others have.  Just because you are ‘at home’, doesn’t mean you have all the free time in the world to visit, shop with friends, or have lunch with Mom.  Your location may be an office in your house, but you should still consider yourself at work – which you are.

Training others to respect that can be like walking a tightrope.  At best, they will understand quickly, and respect your work.  On the other hand, it will be a wobbly and treacherous fight to make it to the other side of that tightrope.  Keep in mind, they wouldn’t call you to chat if you worked outside the home.  They should offer you the same respect when you work from home.

Be up front with your friends and family.  Let them know the times you will be working, and the times you can take a break.  During working hours, do not answer the phone to anything non-work related.  If for some reason you do, be polite, but ask the friend or family member if you can get back to them after work. This may need to be done continuously for a while, until they fully understand you are serious.

Yet, there are some exceptions to the no interruption rules. If you are a parent and the school calls about a sick child, you have no choice but to go get them.  If you get an emergency call, you deal with it.  This is no different than working outside the home.  And, if you are like me, you do get the occasional call that your cows are ‘visiting’ the neighbors again.  That is when I am doubly grateful I can work from home.  

Just be judicious about which calls to consider important enough to get you out of your office.  Trust me, there are days when a lunch invitation from a friend can get me up and away from my computer in a flash.  But I make sure I don’t make a frequent habit of it, even though I would prefer having fun to being stuck behind a computer.

Now you are well on your way to considering a home-based business, your office is set up, your schedule has been created, and you know how to deal with interruptions. Stay tuned for the final segment: What jobs are available for remote positions and self-employed businesses!

And don’t forget to check out my Amazon Shop page for books and other products that can help you get started with your own home-based business!

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Thanks again for stopping in. I will see you next week on Living a Simple Life with a Back Porch View. And while you are waiting for the next episode, grab that glass of refreshment, pull up a rocker, and sit back for a while. It’s time to relax and enjoy.