Working from Home

As an employee you may have spent hours daydreaming about setting up your business and working from home. Starting a business may have been prompted because you wanted flexibility in your life or you got fed up of the 9-5 grind and being accountable to others.

Well, now that you are working from home, is it all that you’d imagined? Are you loving it or loathing it? Are you feeling a sense of ‘lockdown’ again?

Do you sit all day at your desk in your pyjamas, not bothering to get ready for ‘work’ just because you can or do you get up, get dressed, and get on with your day.

Do you get easily distracted?

If you live alone do you find that you leave the washing up or mundane household chores until its ‘home time’ or do you fit them around your working day, after all this was your dream, to create a lovely flexible lifestyle. Being disciplined when you work from home is not always easy and you have to put your ‘business head’ on to make sure your day is productive and you are earning money or actively pushing your business forward.

Let’s take a look at a few of the pros and cons.

Pros

You can get out of bed in the morning whenever you like, no more alarm clocks.
You can take the kids out during or go for a walk, without asking for time off
You can structure your day around your own schedule and priorities
You can work till midnight (and beyond) and be safe and warm in your own environment
You can shop online and update your social media without the office ‘snitch’ keeping an eye on you
You can keep an eye on your children and what they’re up to if they are young enough to be at home during the day

Cons

You can sleep in late but miss a big chunk of the working day
You can go out during the day but there is always ‘catch up’ to do later
You can get easily distracted and not achieve very much and wonder what you did all day!
You can feel isolated running your business from home
You lack motivation and perhaps you are not the self motivated person you thought you were
You are constantly interrupted by your children or partner (you need to set some boundaries)

You started your business because you felt passionate about what you do and your dreams and aspirations, so do not lose sight of that but certainly put some strategies in place. Ensure that working from home does not become something that you now hate and wish you had not chosen to do.

Connect with others

If you’re feeling isolated why not join an online business networking group or better still (when able) meet other businesses face to face. If you’re struggling alone working on your business, engage the services of a mentor to help you. If you find it a struggle working from home, when you’re able, seek out the rental opportunity of a ‘hot desk’ in serviced offices, to see people again regularly. It will help you feel like you are part of a bigger team. Maybe even rent an office in a local business centre if you have limited space at home and you are feeling ‘hemmed in’. You could investigate sub letting space from another business owner (this would mean that you would get an instant colleague /work buddy).

You have options

Running a business from home is not always as good as it seems, but you do have options. Explore what it is about working from home that either works for you (or doesn’t) and make changes to ensure that working from home is not sabotaging your business.

I’d love to help…

If you’d like some help working out what is the best strategy for you in the first instance and then longer term for the growth and development of your business, then please get in touch for a no obligation chat. I’d love to hear your plans and see how I may be able to help you.

Image courtesy of Daniel Thomas – Unsplash