How many people dream about being able to work at home? How many imagine themselves in their immaculate home office zipping through tasks while sipping a homemade espresso or blended natural drink?
Some believe that compared to the standard office, a home office is a virtual oasis of a working environment where they do not have to work surrounded with constant interruptions. Well, it’s wake up time in the home office nursery! Working from home has its own unique challenges.
Having a fully equipped home office is not always the answer to the success of a business. Let’s not forget about the constant distractions and ‘invaders.’ Is your home office necessarily a suitable place for small children and pets to play? You may not think so, but what do they think?
Working from home may save you money on office space rentals, but does it keep you productive and profitable? In 2013, a survey of 24,000 workers from over 95 countries revealed some interesting statistics about the obstacles of working from home. Want to guess the biggest obstacle? It was work life versus family life. When working from home, it is often too hard to separate the two.
Let’s not forget that, when you work from home, you may have a separate home office phone number – but when it rings after normal working hours, you want to answer it. The distraction of a phone call for business after hours can really affect your home life and cause stress on your family life. Even with voice mail on your business line, you still get a feeling you need to answer that one call, because you do not want to miss a potential opportunity.
Another reason why some small business owners and entrepreneurs struggle with running a business from home is the lack of office equipment. Even with today’s cheap prices for electronic equipment such as a high-end laptop or tower computer with multiple monitors (combined with multifunction printer/fax machine/copier), a small business is still not working with professional gear. They likely spend more time working to get these devices up and running than they actually spend using use them.
The biggest problem with working from a home office rather than having an office at a professional business centre, is that you are less likely to take work home from an actual office than if your office is at home. When you work from home, you are less likely to separate your business life from your home life because there is no physical separation.
