There’s no question about it, working at home has many great advantages. No more traffic chaos, no more rushing to get out the door and eating breakfast on the run. The weather forecast and road report are not a big concern for you because you no longer have to leave home at peak times to get to work. Not to mention the perks of being your own boss and setting your own schedule.

While working at home has its many advantages there are also a number of things that you need to watch out for if you want to become really successful. Making money may be your goal but remember that success is not all about how much money you can make. It doesn’t matter how much money you have if the means of making that money has attributed to ruining other areas of your life.

Working at home is going to mean different things to different people. There are those that have an office set up at home because they are providing a service for others such a writing, accounting, book keeping. Also internet marketing has a growing number of followers with many of them becoming very successful working for themselves in the affiliate marketing industry.

Obviously not everyone that works at home will be working at a desk all day. There are those that sew, bake, teach oil painting lessons or look after children, plus the host of other ways people make their income at home. While some of the tips here are more specific to those working at a desk all day there is certainly something for everyone.

• Our health should be a top priority to us all. However, when you change your routine and start to work at home a few things happen that can jeopardize this, especially if you sit at a desk all day. Unless you make physical activity a priority in your day you tend to get less exercise than you would by going out of the home to work. Let’s be honest you do not have to move very far for anything that you need when you are at home. Even those little walks you used to take to and from the parking lot and going out to get your coffee make a difference. Working at home can easily and quickly lead to weight gain of several pounds. This is not a good thing because it affects your health and fitness level. Be sure to make time for exercise. You want to be able to be healthy and fit enough to enjoy your financial success.
• Staying motivated is a big problem for many. Some people can get easily distracted and pulled away from what they should be doing. Try not to get side tracked by things that have nothing to do with what you are working on. If you have a problem with this, try setting up a timetable of the hours that you will work each day and add some milestones of what specifically you will achieve in that time. You will feel so much better when you achieve what you set out to do. Procrastination and excuses can become a habit preventing you from achieving your outcome. Once you have met your milestone then you can go do something else.
• Learn to take regular breaks. While some have an issue keeping on track others get so focused on what they are doing that they end up sitting at their computer for long periods without moving, taking any breaks or even eating. This is not good for you either. Set up a plan of what you hope to achieve that day. Work when you are supposed to be working but do take proper breaks and eat properly and regularly.
• Working at home is no excuse for becoming a slob. If you look and feel sloppy that will not inspire you to do your best work. You don’t have to dress up but be respectable and don’t work in your pyjamas or underwear all day.
• Find out what is the best working environment for you. What inspires you? Some people find background noise annoying while others find certain types of music actually helps. What about lighting? Adequate lighting is important especially as you get older and find yourself struggling to read the small print. Are you stuck in a corner looking at a wall when you could be near a window? Do you work better in the morning, afternoon or at night? Think about it, there could be a few minor adjustments that you need to make that could make a big difference to your productivity.
• Stay organized. It is easy to become disorganized and waste time trying to find something that you need. You could be working in a confined space so it’s even more important to have a system in place that works for you. De-clutter, get rid of things that you no longer need. It’s common to become overwhelmed when surrounded by clutter.
• It’s so easy to become isolated when you work at home. There are those that spend all day and night in their homes and may not see a soul. Make a point of getting outside to see other people. Make sure that you have some other interests. Take a day off and phone a friend to play a game of golf or go practice your swing with a medicus golf trainer. Meet a friend for lunch. Visit your family. Make an effort to stay in contact with others.
• Separate your work life from your personal life. As excited as you may be about what you are doing you also have another side to your life. Don’t neglect what’s really important to you. Spend time with your family and friends. Take care of yourself. Have some hobbies and interests and add some fun too. Balance is Key!
• Setting attainable goals. Set goals that are attainable but that are still a bit of a stretch for you. If your goals are too small you may feel they are not really worth going for and if they are too big you will feel they are impossible to reach and not even try.

About the Author

Shirley Price lives in Beautiful BC. Shirley is trained in Life coaching, NLP, Solution Focused Counselling, as well as being a workshop facilitator. Shirley has written a number of articles on retirement and is the publisher of a website for the over the 50s. www.lifebydesignover50.com

Starting a home business is not as easy as you may think.  First and foremost you have to decide what type of business you will start and is it profitable.  Just picking a business out of the air will not work.  It has to be a business that you know something about.  Once you have decided on a business, then comes the planning.

Work space, support space and active storage are three of the main areas you have to concentrate on.  In looking for the work space in the home office, you have to decide where the most appropriate place is to separate the home office from the home space.

Organizing your Home Office Space

Organizing a home office is important to keep it from spilling over into the whole house.  The key to a well organized and well run office is a good filing system.  A good filing system is a workable system that is simple.  When paper enters your office it falls under Take Action, Read, Trash, Hold 30 Days or File.  Once your papers are sorted into one of these categories, which shouldn’t take more than half a day, keeping your office clutter free becomes a much simpler matter.  As with any home office the object is to get you organized and productive.  Always set up your home office in an area that it will be productive.  It is best to have it in an area where the clients do not walk through your home.

Now that you have the home office space picked out, it’s time for equipment.  A desk, possibly an L shaped desk.  They offer a lot of desktop room and take up less space in some cases.  Then the chair should be a high back, comfortable, desk chair.  Being comfortable while working is very important.  Book cases for any extra space that they can fill and either a two drawer or a four drawer filing cabinet.

For the machine equipment, it can depend on your business.  Some of the suggested pieces are a good computer with an all purpose printer, which includes the printer, copier, scanner and fax.  Have a dedicated phone line put in to put the printer/fax into and your high speed internet.  Have a separate computer for the home than the one for business.  This allows family to use the home computer whenever they like and not disrupt the business one.  Make sure that cords are long enough, and insure enough electrical outlets by using surge protectors.  Make sure that all the cords are placed so that no one can trip on them or that they can be seen.

Organizing Hardware and Software

Buy business programs to put on your computer, or any other program you need.  Make sure all boxes are placed on a shelf where they can be seen.  In some of the programs you can make a file and then store anything you want in them.  This is important so that when you write a letter, instead of printing a copy, you can put it in a file on the computer.  It saves a lot on paper clutter.  Have at least 2 business emails.

Office supplies should be bulk.  Especially printing paper as this is used for fax receiving and copying.  Again, this is where paper clutter comes into your office.  A paper shredder is important to have so that papers can be destroyed.  Having trays on your desk for in/out going and filing is also a big helper and wastebaskets.  A business checking account and business cards are very important to have.  A large grease board to write each weeks plans and things to do for the business.  Organization is the main focus for the business.

Lighting in your home office is very important and using indirect lighting sources is the best way to avoid uniform levels of light.

Limiting Office Distractions

Now comes hours.  You have to set business hours just like any business does.  Establish family time.  Stay within the business hours you set.  Don’t isolate yourself from the family by being a workaholic.

In your home office space, be sure to remove any family pictures or awards.  The person coming into your home office already knows where you live but you don’t know who they are so its better not to advertise who your family members are, in a place of business.  Make rules for the family members about coming into your home office space.  If it’s important, have them call you on the phone, just like they would have when you worked away from home.  A home office isn’t an invitation to an open house for the family.

Getting your home office off the ground and working will take some time and a lot of work, but if it’s a good idea for a business, it will take off in no time.

When you first get a new desk job, and you show up for work the first day, your desk and area is totally cleaned up, looking nice.  A couple of weeks later it looks like someone has ransacked your area.  This isn’t the way it has to be or the way you want people to see it.

There is an old saying, “I can tell what your house looks like by the way your desk looks.”  Several factors contribute to the disorganized workspace, and here are four ways to straighten your area up.

Your Desk Area

First get a good desk.  One that is right for you and meets your needs.  An L shaped desk will hold your computer on one end and you’ll still have working space on the other end.  It is considered a great desk for leaving space in the office.

The chair that is recommended to go with a desk is the high back chair.  Being able to relax for a few minutes in the chair is very important.  The lower back chairs are not comfortable.  Although, no matter what you’re sitting in, you should get up and move around every so often.

Implement Time Management Tips

Second, improve your time management.  To look at tasks and figure how long they will take, then schedule accordingly, is one of the easiest ways to make good use of your time.

Third, purge that paper.  Paper clutter builds because people are afraid to throw anything away.  They think they may need it.  About 80 percent of the paper saved is never needed again, and if it is chances are it can be obtained from another source or recreated.  Paper is the largest contributor to clutter in an office environment.

And fourth, make decisions quicker.  When failing to make immediate decisions clutter happens.  It’s not an event but rather a process when getting organized.  If you have a game plan and goals in mind it’s possible to make a good amount of headway in a relatively short time.

Develop Systems

A dedicated phone line should be available for a computer to be able to hook into for high speed internet.  A top line computer, i.e., IBM, Dell, should be available for you to work on.  At least 150 gigabytes should be available and at least 1 gigabyte in memory.

A printer that is a four in one and includes a fax should also be available.

A filing system can be established by alphabet files.  Filing cabinets are now nice looking compared to the old metal ones.  The wood looking ones are now recommended to dress up the office.  Either two drawer or four drawer ones are available, depending on the necessity of filing space.  File systems are simple, easy and manageable.  Finding information even faster is ease when you color code your files.

Office Supplies

When buying office supplies, buying in bulk is always a good idea.  A case of paper is 10 reams and it can be used for any paper needs.  Pens and pencils are always in demand, as they are continually lost easy.  Binders are used as needed, which could be for company’s special papers and instruction to different machines.  Anything else would be in a regular file.  Use an assortment of organizers to keep paper clips, staples, push pins, and rubber bands on your desk.  Stackable trays are a good idea to have on your desk to put outgoing mail in one, things to file in one and incoming from other employees.  Keep an assortment of all occasion cards and stamps in your desk.  Have a “to do” list to follow each day.

At the end of the day and especially at the end of the week, straighten your desk so that it will be clean when you come back to work.

Something that none of us would think of doing is not placing any pictures of our family on our desk.  Neither children’s pictures nor pictures of our spouse.  With the world the way it is today, we have no idea who sees these pictures and gets ideas about our family.  All this information to a predator means danger.  They could follow you home or look in a phone book for your phone number and find your address.  Always have your number unlisted.  Don’t display awards, certificates, ect., that your children may have earned.  This will usually tell the school they go to.  All of this also goes for your home office.  Display these things in an area of your home that people coming to the office won’t go to.  In this day an age, it’s scary as to what can happen.

Computer programs are kept in their own boxes and put on a shelf where they can be seen and found.  It is important to be able to get to these in case something happens and you have to download them again on your computer.

Keeping an office in good order and getting the office supplies you need is not a hard task if you stay up with it.  By doing so, you will have a smooth running office, that looks quite professional.