From The Australian, Entrepreneur:
Ed Charles | July 27, 2007
THE home office is often thought of as an oasis outside office politics, an ideal space without interruptions, but the reality is that there might be more distractions at home.
For people who have kids (or partners), their grubby mits can get over everything.
Even though a home office may be stuck in the corner of a garage or family room, it is important that it is ergonomic and professional, as if it were part of a large company.
The first impression most clients get is from the phone. For that reason a dedicated phone line is important. Leina Broughton runs her own clothing label and a pattern and technical consultancy from home, and saves on having two phone lines in her home by having a fixed line for work and a mobile for personal use.
Other people use voice over internet protocol but these services are still in their infancy and it is difficult to maintain a professional image when calls sound as if they are coming from under a doona.
Amanda Sarden, who runs Organising Place, which helps businesses organise themselves, uses a second fixed line and has a professional answering service, rather than voicemail, to ensure she doesn’t miss calls.
“If you work from a home office you want to be as professional as if you were in a corporate office. All of the things you would normally have in an office are important.”
Broughton works from an office that takes up a whole floor of her home in inner-Sydney’s Surry Hills. She likes it because it keeps her work separate from her home life.
“One of the big things for me has to be space,” she says. “Because of the way the house is set up, it doesn’t really flow over into all the other areas, because we can just have it on the bottom floor.
“If you really love where you live, it makes it a lot easier to set up an office there and have a really great space. I like being here all the time.”
Natural light is important as well as a space that is pleasant to work in. She is organised through a filing system across one wall, which means there is a place for every piece of paper, a system she duplicates for clients’ electronic files on her computer.
Not everybody has the luxury of a dedicated floor, or even office. Jodie Cole runs Travelling Angels, which chaperones children flying alone.
Like with many people, her office is in the corner of a family room — in this case her large kitchen and dining room.
She doesn’t have the view she would get from a corner office in a high-rise, but she does have plenty of natural light and she decorates her work space with attractive pictures and motivational quotes, while her screensaver rotates pictures from her digital photo album.
Sarden, who has a small child with a penchant for staplers, has a dedicated office. “In reality many people who set up in their home don’t have that option. What we suggest in those situations is to use a separator, like a screen or a bookcase. It separates it from the rest of the house.”
Bookcases can also be used as paper management systems, she says, giving everything its own place.