Humble beginnings

How to Set Up the Best Home Office

The home office is the biggest step towards taking control of your life – you choose your work hours and control your work-life balance. Whether you work for yourself or you function as a remote resource for your employer, your place of work will play a significant role in the quality of your output. An uninspiring, cluttered workplace will reflect in your work by hampering your productivity.

While we all dream of having luxurious, well-lit studio spaces with fantastic views as home offices, in reality, most of us need to make do with cramped workspaces. More often than not, we throw in a desk and use our bedrooms for work. The key to an effective home office is to separate the ‘office’ from the ‘home’. In order to improve efficiency, it is important to take the following aspects into account while planning your home office.

Kind of office

If you work partly from home and partly from your employer’s office, you can get by with a bare minimum desk-chair-filing cabinet combination. Use a screen or a large book case or even a curtain to separate the home and office areas.

A consultancy or a lean organization may need a single, large room or even a couple of rooms. A home-based ‘manufacturing’ business – arts and crafts, catering/food preparation etc - will require dedicated work areas for storage and ‘manufacturing’.

Businesses like hairdressing or catering will require specific ‘wet’ areas – you will need to look at plumbing and lighting requirements for your business and choose to shift your office to be closer to but separate from these spaces.

Space for employees

If you have employees joining you at work, then you may need to provide separate rooms, desks and equipment as well as refreshment and washroom facilities for them. You will need to decide if you will open up your private living quarters to them, or if you can afford to expand or renovate your house to accommodate a dedicated washroom for your home office. You may want to provide a coffee machine, a water cooler and a snacks counter as an informal interaction space.

Office front

If you have clients visiting your office, you may want a separate parlor for receiving them. You can display samples or photos of your work here. This area will be the front for your business and should be furnished to impress, even if it is small. Your professionalism and competence should be reflected in your choice of furnishings. If your budget allows it, invest in premium quality furniture and fittings to make a favorable impression on your client. Keep refreshments close at hand for these meetings.

Storage

You will need to ascertain how much inventory and office supplies you will carry. Try to keep your storage area close to but separate from the office. For smaller areas, you can invest in floor-to-ceiling racks and storage boxes. You can use old packing cartons or baskets as containers. Be organized by clearly labeling your storage containers, religiously utilizing them for the identified purposes and impress this same discipline on your employees.

Equipment

You can use your personal phone for business transactions but it is recommended that you get a dedicated phone line, answering machine, fax facility, reliable Internet access and power backup. You may want a speaker phone or a wireless headset to attend to calls easily. You will also need a computer for communication, business planning and data management.

For your printing and copying purposes you may want to tie-up with a local service provider for a fixed fee instead of buying equipment. If you decide to buy, you could go in for a combined printer-copier-fax system. Do your research thoroughly and get multiple quotes for your equipment purchases. Try to time your purchases to coincide with stores’ sales. If you don’t want the hassle of owning, maintaining and later having to upgrade or dispose off this equipment, you should choose to lease it.

Take stock of your office supplies every month and try to purchase in bulk. You will need to track a diverse range of data including inventory, communications, payments, dues, deadlines, appointments etc. There are plenty of free software options available online. Familiarize yourself with the various functions of the software and be disciplined enough to keep updated records of all your transactions and action items to have a firm control over your operations. Always back-up your data.

Environment

The workplace has to be well-ventilated, well-lit and easily accessible. You may spend a lot of time here and you should make it as comfortable as possible. Try to sit by a window and use natural light as much as possible.

To keep expenses low, you can buy used furniture and spruce it up or explore rental options. Invest in a comfortable chair that provides firm support to your back. If you use the computer extensively use an anti-glare screen to reduce eye strain.

Go Green by minimizing use of paper in your office and by maintaining electronic records; this also helps to minimize clutter on your desk. File your paper records and organize them neatly in boxes or filing cabinets for easy reference.

Organize your equipment and stationery neatly at your desk; use a vertical rack if necessary for your server, CPU, printer, copier, fax, telephone and answering machine.
 

You can make small or dark spaces appear larger and brighter by painting the walls in a light color. 

Your work area doesn’t have to be dull – enliven it with artwork, indoor plants or even an aquarium or an indoor waterfall. You can spray subtle perfumes or use decorative flower arrangements to improve the ambience.

If you have multiple work areas in your office, all of these spaces should be easily connected without barriers obstructing your movements. Always keep your work area clean and tidy. Have your meals in your kitchen or in a separate area. If required, employ a cleaning service.

If you have clients and employees at your home office, there has to be a separate access route to your office. You may also need to provide parking spaces for visitors.

Strive to achieve a harmonious work-life balance and remember that the sanctity of your home and your office needs to be preserved separately. Your office is where you make your living, where you contemplate, dream up and implement your ideas. This is a sacred space and it is important that you accord it an appropriate degree of respect.

This was an article I wrote for a freelancers' website. We all have to start somewhere. 

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