According to an infographic by Vonage which looks at the growth of home businesses in the UK, 8million people run an online business from their home. Running a business from home can be the easiest option. You reduce the overheads of a traditional office space, you can use the home amenities and pay a % towards this from the business instead of full on rates. However along with the pro’s there are inevitably the cons.
Friends and family don’t always understand the concept of “working from home” and drop by for a cup of tea or ask you to fix their emails. You must be bored at home all-day while the children are at school. Why is your house a mess? You have been here all-day surely you could hoover?! It can also be hard to “shut the door” so to speak on your business when it’s in your home.
Here are 4 top tips to keeping your working day productive.
- Office Space – having somewhere where the business magic happens. That can be your dinning room table but believe me from experience. Sitting at a desk is far more productive that curled up on the sofa, laptop on knee and Bargain Hunt on the TV. My office space is under the stairs meaning I can walk away from the business at the end of the day and be just mum.
- A Working Day – Ensure you have a structure to your business hours. What time you start and finish. For work at home parents this might be disjointed but having specific business hours will increase productivity and stop procrastination. Also include breaks and lunch time. Moving away from the office for 15 minutes to make a cup of tea can make a huge difference especially if you spend a lot of time staring at the computer or making products.
- Tunnel Vision – a key skill you need to develop. It’s very easy when networking on and offline to be aware of what other small businesses are achieving and feel like you have been left behind. My main business goal from the start was to develop a viable business for me to work full time in when all the children are at school (still another 8 months away). I could have easily been put off these goals by seeing others developing major household brands and buying houses in Southern France. But my goals suit my family and my business and that’s the key. Remembering it’s your business.
- Organisation – when your working hours are limited it can be easy to get sucked into being a busy fool. Ensure you have a plan, not just a long list of jobs but have dates, times, prioritise and if need be delegate. AND don’t spend 4 hours trying to clear out your inbox and then realise the jobs that earn the money have not been achieved!
Working from home requires a shift in your mindset. Self employment is empowering and for many parents the best way to achieve a flexible working environment. However you need to still think like an employee.
What top tips do you have for building a productive work from home business?
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Thanks for the tips. I am trying to do the same. My youngest starts school in September so I am starting to put things into place. My biggest issue is being organised and knowing how much time I should be spending on things like social media promotion, it’s hard to get the balance right sometimes but I am more aware of these things than I have been in the last 4 years of blogging. I never used to write anything down and now I have 3 notebooks going and a diary so I am on the right track.
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I know what you mean social media can be such a time sucker BUT if you don’t do it then you soon notice a dip in your blog stats. If I know I have a full on day where social media is a no no I tend to do a mass session of scheduling for the next day. That way I@m still “visible” online but I can get on with paid work. Thank you for stopping by.
Great tips Joanne. I’ll definitely recommend this to my wife. We don’t have office space at home, but I’m planning to build one for me and for my wife. I want them separate because we both want to have privacy while working.
Tunnel vision is the thing I struggle with – I can be too easily distracted.
Erica Price recently posted..The Return of Mr Frosty
Some great tips here, I used to be quite structured before my Daughter became ill, these days though I am either in our studio where I do find it easier to work, but a lot of the time I am in the house with laptop on knee or in bed with laptop on lap, and my hours are hit and miss and when I get a chance as I am dealing with my Daughter or hospital visits, school runs etc. I do need to get back to a much more structured routine x
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I’m sorry to hear that, juggling children is hard work at the best of times. But I really do believe having a routine or schedule will make you much more productive even if using a short period of time.
thanks for the tips 🙂
I get terribly distracted – i have to switch off social media accounts otherwise I get sucked in
Kara Guppy recently posted..Mr Frosty is back!!
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Yes normally with me!! I blame you!
Great list. I have worked from home for a couple of years now and at first I would flt from one thing to another. Easily distracted like Dory from Finding Nemo. Obviously this doesn’t work and I have more of a routine and things get done.
Great tips. Tunnel vision is definitely important as well as multitasking if you have kids too. It’s tough!
“Friends and family don’t often understand the concept of working from home” –> SO TRUE. Bless their hearts, they try, but then they think you can do whatever you want, go wherever you want, and never have to actually do the thing you do. Love these tips. Thanks!
That bit about your friends thinking you are sitting at home bored all day! I’m pretty good at working from home now, very disciplined most of the time but I do find I waste a lot of time on social networks chatting to people!
Amanda Webb recently posted..How To Achieve The Business Blogging Goals You Set – Blogcentric #45
What a great post! Thank you for the tips, especially about it being a job to build and not expect it to grow at a really fast rate.
My main thing is don’t even try and work when the kids are around it just leads to frustrated children and mum..