Balancing Home & Work: The Challenge
of the Home-Based Business By Vishal P. Rao
With the holidays around the
corner, you may find yourself struggling to keep your
home-based business and your home life separate and running
smoothly. And you're not alone.
Operating a home-based
business has many benefits as you already know, but its main
drawback is that it often causes the line between your work
and your personal life to become permanently blurred. Unlike
those individuals who work outside the home and who know their
day at the office ends when they get in their car and start
the commute home, home business operators do not usually have
a definite end to their day.
The reverse situation is also possible: they may not have a
definite start to their day either. If you have a hard time
breaking free of your work responsibilities or if you
sometimes have trouble settling in to tackle them, these tips
will help you bring both aspects of your life into
equilibrium.
Separate Your Office From Your Home
If your work computer is in
the living room where everyone in the family congregates,
chances are you are being bombarded by distractions. Plus,
when it is time for you to relax, you may find it difficult
with the computer right there as a constant reminder of all
the work you still need to finish and all of the
communications you still need to respond to.
The answer is to set aside an area of your home just for work.
If you have an office or an extra bedroom where you can set up
your space, then you can block out the distractions simply by
shutting the door. Also avoid putting anything in your home
office that might prevent you from getting your work done,
such as a television.
If you don't have an entire
room to dedicate to your office, move your computer and
materials into a room that is rarely used or that is normally
unoccupied when you need to be working, such as a bedroom.
Once you have separated your home from your office, you will
find it easier to stay focused on your work but also to leave
your work in its space so you can relax and enjoy the
remainder of your home.
Create Specific Working Hours
One of the best things about
running a home-based business is undoubtedly the flexible
schedule, but it can also have negative consequences. On the
one hand, your schedule may be so flexible that you only work
30 minutes a day or so hectic that you find yourself working
at all hours of the day without taking a break.
The answer is to set your own office hours. Creating your own
schedule still has benefits. For one, you can decide what time
of the day you start, so if you're not a morning person, you
don't have to get up at the break of dawn. Also, if you prefer
to stop working when your children come home from school, you
can consider that when you decide when to stop for the day.
Another benefit is that you
provide clients and customers with a specific times when you
are available to work with them. The most important thing to
remember, however, is to set hours for yourself that you can
live with. Once you decide on a schedule, you need to stick
with it long-term, so be realistic about how long you can work
without taking a break and how much time you'll need to
accomplish everything that needs to get done.
And, no matter how much you
may be tempted to keep working, you need to stop when you say
you are going to stop. Taking a break allows you to come back
refreshed and more alert, so you can be more productive. An
overworked, overly stressed person simply is not an effective
worker at home or in an office.
Draw
the Line Between Home and Work Communications
Has this ever happened to
you? You and your family have just sat down for a dinner
around the table when a client calls to talk about your
current project or a customer phones with questions about a
recent purchase.
The easiest way to prevent work from interfering with your
family is to keep communications separate. Start by having a
second phone line dedicated to your work and attaching an
answering machine or voice mail to the line.
When your work day ends, you
can turn on the machine and let it handle any after-hour
calls. An extra phone line also allows you to maintain
professionalism. Imagine the embarrassment of having your
young child answer the phone when an important customer calls.
You may also want to set up a
post office box for all of your business-related mail. Not
only will this prevent your important mail from accidentally
getting thrown away with the junk, but it will also offer you
and your family a level of privacy.
After all, you do not want to
make your home address available to everyone; it's just not
safe. If you use email or instant messaging as part of your
business communications, you'll also want to establish
separate accounts for those as well.
The key to running a
home-based business is balance. While it may be difficult to
stop working on that important project or to concentrate on
work while your preparing for the holidays, striking that
balance is essential for your well-being, your family's
security, and your business's success.
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of
Home Based Business Opportunities - One of Internet's
leading website dedicated to starting, managing and marketing
a home based business.
.gif)
