Owning and operating your own business is expensive, but one way to cut overhead costs is to run everything out of your home. It needn’t matter whether you’re a personal travel agent or candle artisan. Anyone can run their own business from the comfort of home and still achieve a good work/life balance. The secret is building the right space to help your business thrive. Check out these tips for creating your dream workspace in your home.
Separate Work from Play
You should create a designated place to do all your work. While you may have the luxury of not having to sit in an office all day, the wrong set up in your place can feel just as confining. You could consider adding a separate workshop or converting your garage or shed into an office space. Going to the office will only require a few steps out of the house, but it can have a major impact on your productivity.
If you’re looking to build a personal workshop because you make your own products, equipment and construction may get expensive. You may consider financing options such as credit cards or a home equity line of credit. This allows you to take advantage of all the mortgage payments you’ve made and borrow money for home improvements. You can review a guide on everything you need to know about borrowing an HELOC to decide if it’s the right option for you.
Get Organized
Organization, both physical and figurative, is imperative to smooth operations. Productivity can be halted by mismanagement, and that can stem from a lack of structure. If you’re working from your home, you should still carry out procedures the same way you would in an office, albeit in pajama pants. Get the right storage solutions for your line of work. Whether it’s physical file cabinets or a customer relationship management (CRM) software, your business will be better for the efforts.
Take Pride in Your Decor
Being able to have total say over what your workspace looks like is exhilarating. Rather than just leaving your laptop to sit lonely on the dining room table, craft an epic home office that you get excited to enter. This space can contain anything and everything you need to get in the zone. Don’t avoid indulging in your comfort, whether it’s luxury soy candles, fluffy pillows and a high-end desk chair with good lumbar support are all worth the cost. Play around with themes as well. You may keep your workspace personal, or you could go totally on-brand and deck the space with your company’s color scheme. You may want to add some amenities as well, like a mini coffee brewer for your desk or a snack bar.
Minimize Distractions
There may be some things you can’t ignore like small children or a noisy neighbor. But you can still limit how many distractions you let into your zone. Try to maintain the same level of consistency you would in any other professional environment. This means putting blockers on your work computer to avoid social media detours and not answering personal calls while you’re working.
This content is brought to you by the FingerLakes1.com Team. Support our mission by visiting www.patreon.com/fl1 or learn how you send us your local content here.