How to work from Home

November 28, 2006 | Author: Eve Lester | Filed under: Working at Home

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Working from home can be both fun and challenging, you don’t have to drive to work everyday, heck, you dont even have to really get dressed. Here are some tips I have found to really work while working at home and setting up your ’space’. Let me know if you have anything to add.

1. Separate phone and fax. I use Skype for work so I can turn it off while I am not working, while this is only really important if you have a position that requires you to have a phone or fax. If you need either, it is best to have a separate line, it will also help keep it professional if the business line rings your kids or family wont answer it for you.

2. Keep work and home separate. Ideally, you need a separate room for work. It�s good to shut the door on work at the end of the day. It also helps to shuts out distractions. If your not able to have a separate room, a big room divider or nice screen will help keep it separate.

3. Office stuff. Just because you�re not in the office doesn�t mean you don�t need office stuff. Get a stationery cupboard, a shredder, a filing cabinet and even a water cooler. A good filing system is vital.

4. Business class IT. Here�s my set up: I have a Dell computer that I try to back up weekly, but have not been 100% on top of that, as well as a backup drive and a live in IT. Both me and my soon to be husband are programmers, he handles hardware, I handle software. If you do not have a live in IT person, you can find them online or through your paper, just having someone come out and show you how to make backups and clean your PC is worth it.

5. Everywhere is your office. You can use a lap top and site at the coffee shop for the day, while I do not have a functioning lap top anymore, I plan on getting one, it is very nice to be able to get out of the house and get some work done. Also if your selling or consulting, you can have meeting at coffee shops, restaurants, anywhere, you are no longer confined to an office.

6. Be businesslike. Just because you work from home doesn�t mean you have to be amateur about the way you run your business. How I do my marketing is probably another post but invoicing on time and chasing payment needs to be done in a professional way. I log all of my time and billing in outlook right now, with a calendar and the ‘works’ program. But there are a ton of programs to help track time and invoices.

7. Be like a small big business. Depending on your niche, you don’t have to announce you work from home, with a decent website or blog, it will not matter if you have a driveway or a parking lot. answer the phone professionally, respond to emails promptly and no one will know the difference.

8. Build your rank. If you have a webiste, you need to get it seen, whether you pay to market it, or you do it yourself, you need to do it, it will not magically get popular without work.

9. Insurance and tax. depending on your place of business, you will have to look this up, as the regulations vary. I suggest talking to a tax accountant about takes early, you can hire one for an hour a week for as little as 45.00 an hour here. Also check with your city hall on any permits, these will vary depending on your business.

Hopefully this helped a little in setting up your office, I have many more I will be sharing as time progresses.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 and is filed under Working at Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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