Your Home Office

Today with the New Year full underway and the end of January almost here, I thought I’d cover the importance of setting up your home office effectively for your home business success.

First and Foremost, you want to run your business as a business and not a hobby, unless it is simply a hobby.

Have a separate or designated area for your office, if at all possible try to keep it as far away from home distractions as possible, such as the family room and kitchen.  If your space is limited, keep your work area organized with rolling drawers or portable cases  so that you can put these out of the way when not using your “office”.

Set a fixed amount of hours that you will dedicate to your business each day and stick to it.  It can be hard at times when working from the comfort of home to stay focused on business, so by setting certain hours that you’ll be working will help you stay focused.  Even if it is only 2 hours a day after work if you still have a j.o.b., mark down that you’ll be working on your business from say 8 to 10 after the kids are off to bed and then do that.  Spend that time updating your blog, making a few tweets, placing some ads, following up personally with prospects, making your phone calls, and end by going over your agenda for tomororw.

Get a separate phone line or number for your business and use it just for your home based business. You don’t even have to call the phone company these days as their are great virtual number services out their.  This keeps you free from giving out your true home or cell phone number, which is great for privacy.  But even better it allows you to know that when someone is calling you on that number it is a business call and lets you answer accordingly.  This way you can also set up a business related voice mail greeting rather than putting that message on your home or personal cell phone voicemail, so that friends and family don’t’ have to hear your business greeting every time they call.  Its a business expense so you can deduct it on your taxes at the end of the year, but most importantly it will give your business that professional feel and may just help you take your business more seriously, which you should if you plan on making a living with it. See my recommendation for a 2nd line for your business here, whether you want a local number, unlimited tollfree number or a virtual pbx system this system works.

Take some time to organize your office, a place for you business files, your notes, a white board or cork board to put important notes like conference calls, meetings, ad deadlines, and even just reminders.  Use an online reminder program or calendar if you want, for me while I use my reminder with my email program frequently… I still work best with the white board notes and post its!

With a little organization and motivation you’ll have your home office running smoothly and keeping you on top of things!