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Start
A Home Business
Working
From Home and Living:
Don't Blur the Lines
by Jeff Cohen
When you're working from home all the time,
people have a way of giving you a seemingly endless list of
tasks to do, with no regard for your job. It can be very difficult
to keep your family life separate from your business when you
work at home -- in fact, this is one of the most common reasons
home businesses fail, and their owners come away all too glad
to get back to the corporate grindstone. If you don't want
to be driven away from home business, here's what you need
to do to keep your family at bay.
Work Time, Home Time
Make a schedule for when you're going to work and when you're
not, and stick to it. This doesn't have to be inflexible --
it's very silly to only work nine to five every day, for example
-- but it still really needs to be there. Without a plan, you're
inevitably going to go too far one way or the other, and either
work far too much or nowhere near enough. You might find it
best to create a new plan at the start of each month or week,
so that you can still respond to changes in circumstances.
Yes, I know it can be difficult to draw clear lines between
family time and work time, especially if your family is around
for some of the hours that you want to be working. The only
thing I can say to you is that it's important to keep on trying,
because the moment you give up everything's going to come crashing
down. Whatever you do, don't let your family anywhere near
your office space.
Fit Errands Around Work
People will obviously be upset if you absolutely refuse to
run their errands -- is it really so much trouble to run down
to the bank when you're at home all day? -- but you can't let
them take away hours from work. You should make your response
automatic. When someone asks you to take an hour out of work
to do something during the day, tell them that you'll have
to make that hour up at the end of the day, so they shouldn't
expect you out of the office until an hour later than usual.
Don't Do Chores
It can be tempting to do the laundry or the dishes when there's
a load of them to do and work seems slow, but don't give it
to it during your working day. Chores eat up an amazing amount
of time. One thing you can do to help resist the temptation
is to wear better clothes than you usually would when you're
working -- not a suit, but something business-casual that you
wouldn't really be willing to wash dishes in.
Have a Business Phone Line
You need a phone line that's just for business to let clients
leave messages for you when you're not in the office. Say exactly
that in the message: 'I'm not in the office right now, but
please leave your name and number and I'll get back to you'.
Whatever you do, don't be tempted to take business calls after-hours,
or give out your personal number to business contacts -- this
is a sure-fire way to never stop working. Turn off the ringer
on your business phone when you leave the office for the day.
With Children, All Bets are Off
If you have children at home during the day (if they haven't
started school yet, or it's a school holiday), it can be very
difficult to maintain a sensible work pattern. They will come
and bother you at every opportunity, because they miss you
and want to see you. They'll even cause trouble just to get
you to sort it out. They wanted to come and bother you at your
office job too, you know, but they had no way of getting there.
So what can you do when there are children in the house? After
all, it's harsh to just ignore them, isn't it? The best answer
I've found is to hire a babysitter, who can keep the kids entertained
while you work. It could get expensive, but it shouldn't be
for long, right?
# # # # # SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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