Setting up a home office

Wednesday 22 February, 2012

By Duncan Heaney - duncan@consumerchoices.co.uk

Working from home can help you save money and increase efficiency - provided you’re properly set up.

Leaving your house to go to work? That’s so last century.

These days, more and more small businesses are choosing to establish home offices to save costs and increase their productivity. It’s an appealing prospect for many, as it eliminates many of the traditional costs associated with business, for example office rent and heating, and the fuel (and environmental) costs of commuting in each day.

Of course, “working from home” sounds all well and good, but it’s not for everyone. It demands that you’re self-motivated, reasonably organised and able to keep your work and home life separated - not always easy when both are located in the same place.

If you do decide to work from home, you need to make sure you’re adequately prepared. If you want to get any actual work done, you need to make sure that the room in which you sit each day is comfortable, properly equipped, properly connected and contains minimal distractions.

Work environment

Ideally you will have the space to set up a whole room as your office. It will help you create the right working environment allowing you work to more efficiently.

Whatever you decide, when you’re setting up your home office, there are a number of things you should always keep in mind:

• You need privacy - Sometimes peace and quiet is essential - when you need to concentrate, or you’re making an important business call, for example. That’s why having a permanent room to use as your office is advantageous - other members of the household can avoid it, and you can shut the door.
• You need light - Try and make sure you get some natural light, so pick a room with a window. Having said that, make sure that when you set up your desk, you’re not sitting in a sunbeam. Of course, it’s not always a sunny summer’s day (much as we wish it was) so you’ll need a decent artificial light too. Make sure your room is adequately lit and any screens are angled away from the glare, so you can work in comfort, and without eyestrain.
• You need power - Does your office have enough electrical sockets for all your equipment? You can add more plugs with multipoint extension leads, but you should be careful not to plug too many appliances in to one socket as it may cause overheating. Plus, too many leads and cables lying around can be a major trip hazard.
• You need to be able to stay organised - When you work from home, it’s important to stay organised. Even if (like me) you’re one of those people that exist in a continued state of organised chaos, you need to make sure you have adequate desk space to work, and storage for important files. Otherwise you risk losing important documents or forgetting to do important tasks.
• You DON’T need distractions - You need a computer. You don’t need a TV, games console, magazines, novels, or other forms of entertainment. Avoid the temptation to waste valuable time by removing unnecessary entertainment sources from the room before you start work.
• Make sure any pets or children are out of the way - Children particularly - they may be The Greatest Gift You Can Receive™, but they’re also incredibly distracting, even on their best behaviour. If you have a family, you should let them know that while you’re working, you would like to be left alone and not interrupted unless absolutely necessary.

Equipment

Your home office should be comfortable and well-outfitted. Basic equipment you’ll need includes:

• A computer
• A colour printer/scanner
• A telephone
• A fax machine
• A desk with enough space
• A comfortable chair
• Appropriate stationery (e.g. pens, paper, staplers, paperclips etc.).

Connection to the outside world

The most important thing you need to work from home is a rock solid communications infrastructure. You need to be able to communicate with colleagues and customers just as easily and efficiently as if you were working in a conventional office. And to do that, you need:

A fixed phone line - Even if you already have a landline installed, we’d recommend you have a separate line for business. That will ensure you don’t get business calls clogging up your personal phone (and vice versa), or risk one of the family picking up the phone in the middle of a business call, and it means you can set up voicemail to take care of calls outside of trading hours.

You might be able to get a deal from your home phone provider to add a business line, but you could potentially get a better offer by choosing a different provider. It’s also possible to save money by getting your phone line and broadband together as a package. Whatever you decide, you should always compare deals online to ensure you’re getting the most for your money.

Broadband - If you’re working from home, it’s essential you have a stable internet connection. With more and more of our work being conducted online, it could disrupt your business if you were unable to pick up emails or respond to customers, for example.

The broadband package you pick needs to be fast and reliable. Remember that providers advertise “up to” speeds - your actual broadband speed could vary according to the distance from your home to the local telephone exchange. If you are located within a cable network area, it may be the time to consider a fibre broadband connection. Broadband delivered by fibre optic cable is unaffected by distance and will provide a fast and consistent connection regardless of how many people are online in your household at the same time.

If you already have a broadband connection you might be able to use that for your business. Bear in mind, though, that your business activities may significantly increase the data usage, so it could be worthwhile switching to a different broadband package or choosing a different provider to make sure you’re not going over your usage limits. If that’s necessary, make sure you use a comparison service to make sure you don’t pay over the odds.

A mobile phone - Imagine how annoying it would be if you lost a sale because a customer tried to ring you while, for example, you’d nipped down to the shops to get some biscuits. That’s why a mobile phone is so important - customers and business partners should be able to reach you wherever you are.

You can use your personal mobile for business, but we’d recommend getting a dedicated business mobile. That way, you can keep expenses separate, calls are easier to screen, and you can exercise tighter control over things like data usage if you’re using a smartphone to pick up email or surf the web.

There are plenty of deals available on business mobiles, but remember to pick one with good coverage - both around your home and any locations you regularly travel to. Most providers will provide coverage checkers through their websites.

Photo by Sean MacEntee.