How to work from home
The benefits of working from home are obvious. If you’re a regular employee: you skip the commute and there are no office distractions for the day. If you’re an entrepreneur: reduced overheads, no commuting and a congenial working environment.
When I ran the computer games company I had a big office. Actually, it was so big it would have embarrassed Mussolini. I had secretaries and receptionists and security guards and all that. I don’t miss it all.
I like working from home like and according the Office of National Statistics so do 1 in 20 of the UK’s working population. Take Bellwether, an engineering consultancy. It’s a long-established but completely virtual company. They ALL work from home. It’s not just for small businesses either. For example, more than 50% of IBM’s 25,000 UK employees work from home, a customer site or more than one IBM location.
But it takes a bit of planning and work to get the perfect home office. Here are my tips:
- Separate phone and fax. You need a phone that you can switch off when you stop work. Although I have two landlines, I use an Skype phone more and more. It integrates with my PC better than a regular phone, I get free calls in the UK and a central London phone number for people to call me on. I use a Plantronics CS60-USB handsfree headset so I can talk and type. I also use HotRecorder to record interviews.
- Keep work and home separate. Ideally, you need a separate room or outbuilding for work. It’s good to shut the door on work at the end of the day. It also shuts out distractions. I also use Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones with noise-canceling but no music to shut out sounds from outside. (See my earlier post on how to concentrate).
- Stay green. I got the local council to give us a couple of recycling bins for our block of flats. Direct.gov.uk has links to all the local councils in the UK and you can check what arrangements are available in your area. I get my electricity from Good Energy, which supplies 100% renewable electricity (unlike many so-called ‘green’ tariffs from other suppliers). Finally, I used Carbon Neutral to offset my car, gas and flying with trees.
- Office stuff. Just because you’re not in the office doesn’t mean you don’t need office stuff. Get a stationery cupboard, a shredder, a filing cabinet and even a water cooler. A good filing system is vital. I don’t use it but friends swear by Paper Tiger filing software. I sold my lovely Aeron chair cheap on eBay and now I regret it. The flip side is that if you want a lovely Aeron chair cheap, go to eBay.
- Business class IT. Here’s my set up: I have a Dell server running Windows Small Business Server 2003 in my kitchen cupboard. I also have an HP DAT72 backup drive which runs every night to backup my email and work files. I do a full server backup over several tapes monthly. I also have an 250GB external hard disk attached which does a full server backup once a week. The whole setup cost me under £1,500. I set it up myself but you can get a techie for half a day for a few hundred pounds to do it for you. I have friends who use Cobweb, who provide the Exchange Server functionality on a fully outsourced basis. Get Safe Online has useful IT security advice for small businesses.
- Everywhere is your office. I use a local club for interviews and meetings. Starbucks or Cafe Nero are just as good. Other people rent meeting rooms from local serviced offices, such as Regus. I also use my server to give me mobile email on my Orange C600 smartphone. This means I can synch inbox, diary and contacts anywhere.
- Be businesslike. Just because you work from home doesn’t mean you have to be amateur about the way you run your business. How I do my marketing is probably another post but invoicing on time and chasing payment needs to be done in a professional way. (I really like MoneyClaim.gov.uk for collecting very late debts - it’s an online court service from the UK government. Very efficient. Very effective.) For time tracking, I use a great online application called Harvest. One of my clients has got me using OB10 for online electronic invoicing. I’ll see how it works in practice but it could be a great way to send and receive all my invoices.
- Be like a small big business. Most of my work is for very large companies, like HP, MessageLabs and Microsoft, and I spend a lot of time thinking about whether there is anything they have that I can replicate. I have a company website (Articulate Marketing), this blog and a client-only Extranet (provided by Basecamp). Between these sites, my server and my communications, I’m not sure there is. Apart from a shiny reception and a parking lot.
- Build your network. Well, actually, there is one exception. I don’t have lots of employees. This is a very deliberate choice for me. When I sold my last business I had something like 65 people on the payroll. They were good guys, but the payroll and overheads became the tail that wagged the dog. I spent more time dealing with personnel issues than I did with growing the business. D’oh! Now I prefer to work with other free agents on an arm’s-length contractor basis. Finding a good contractor takes at least as much work as recruiting and training up a good employee but the relationship is much more businesslike and less paternalistic. I work with designers, web developers, photographers, other writers, PRs and my excellent proofreader on this basis. I haven’t tried any kind of contractor introduction agency website yet - I wonder if anyone has any experience of working with them.
- Insurance and tax. In the UK, you need public and employer’s liability insurance and you need to figure out how to treat your home office from a tax perspective. It’s different for different people so I won’t give advice here. However, Business Link has some useful tips.
Technorati Tags: productivity, GTD, home, office, mobile, flexible, working
Info Worker Brief 11-07-06 « GGTD-Geeks Guide To Getting Things Done wrote:
[...] Matthew gives us some tips on how to work from home. The benefits of working from home are obvious. If you’re a regular employee: you skip the commute and there are no office distractions for the day. If you’re an entrepreneur: reduced overheads, no commuting and a congenial working environment. [...]
Posted on 07-Nov-06 at 11:05 am | Permalink
Moments of Clarity wrote:
Great General Synopsis on Working From Home…
Matthew Stibbe posted a great piece today on working from home. The key take away that I believe many home workers don’t get is to be businesslike. The concept of the home worker being a smelly, unshaven, unwashed lump is…
Posted on 07-Nov-06 at 3:46 pm | Permalink
nic mitham wrote:
Great post Matthew. You’ve really highlighted the importance of working smart if you’re working from home. I think the concept of homeworking for professionals is under appreciated and undervalued in the UK.
Posted on 07-Nov-06 at 7:29 pm | Permalink
Robert wrote:
Now this is a post that is seriously good advice.
Any budding entrepreneur should have this post nailed to his PC, front door, the car dashboard, the Cessna dash, the bed headboard, the cash register - just about anwhere that he or she can refer to it at a glance.
Helpful tips blended with common sense mixed in with great experience makes for great advice Matthew. And best of all , no need to search Google for the suppliers ‘cos Matthew provides all the links. Bonus!!
Posted on 08-Nov-06 at 12:34 pm | Permalink
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[...] “如何在家工作”－来自Bad Language (信息来源lifehack.org) [...]
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Bookselling Online Blog » Briefly Noted… - The #1 resource for online booksellers wrote:
[...] Blog Buzz: How to work from home… Bookmark on del.icio.us | Permalink for this article | Email this [...]
Posted on 28-Nov-06 at 1:39 pm | Permalink
studiomaqs » Reading: November 06 wrote:
[...] How to work from home - Productivity / tips [...]
Posted on 29-Nov-06 at 10:56 am | Permalink
Yurma wrote:
I just want to add. Couple of month ago I was in search of the phone and fax service that I can manage myself and be able to forward all my customers calls to where I am. Now after I signed up with Ring Central http://deccod.com/RingCentral_Review.aspx I am forwarding my main business line to my house if i am at home, to my cell when I am on the road or I can transfer all calls to my assistant while on vacation. This staff works great! The cost is $24.99/month and I’ve got free 800 numbers plus free 866 fax number. Also if you sitting in front of computer it will notify you about who is calling through little applet and you can decide how to manage your call. This service has all the futures of fancy PBX for the fraction of the cost. They have a free trial and there is no obligation. I wrote a little review here http://deccod.com/RingCentral_Review.aspx
Posted on 10-Dec-06 at 2:03 am | Permalink
Lauren wrote:
If you’re thinking of doing consulting from home, I’ve found ConsultantJournal.com to be very helpful.
Information on setting fees: http://www.consultantjournal.com/blog/setting-consulting-fee-rates
How to avoid “work from home” scams:
http://www.consultantjournal.com/work-from-home-scams
Posted on 14-Dec-06 at 2:09 pm | Permalink
Romer!can wrote:
Very nice points and I’m glad I read your piece.
#1 - I don’t use a landphone or fax at all. I run a paperless off for the past 3 years and I find it makes me FAR more efficient. Instead of digging through files, you just search on the computer. Perfect.
I use a mobile phone and Skype, as well. If people want to fax me, it gets sent directly to my computer as a PDF. Again, paperless and instantly searchable.
#2 - Thanks for the Bose tip. I’ll think it over because I traditionally use music to both drown out other noises as well as ‘motivate’ my pace of work. Perhaps you’re right about effectiveness of silence and I’ll consider that point of view.
#3 - In some locales, you take what you get.
#4 - I disagree about most office gear. Of course, anyone can make use of sticky notes. On the other hand, if you’re an old school paper-addicted junkie, then you definitely want a nice shredder (the cross kind into confetti, not just strips) which is silent not loud.
#5 - For Business Class IT, I think readers should definitely strongly consider better solutions than dime-a-dozen Dell/Microsoft combinations. You may feel safe because you own the same pants as everyone else, but that doesn’t mean you have the best threads. Take a look at the Apple offerings with OS X server which is a fantastic arrangement that will boost your productivity to new levels that surprise you.
Or, for the cash-conservative, look into Ubuntu: it makes an excellent business desktop with all the software you could possibly want and it also comes in a server edition which can do everything you want. If you need help, you can find a very large community of knowledgeable geeks who don’t charge much to set up your linux. Your initial cost for software is lower. Your hardware cost is lower because you don’t need as powerful equipment (or, if you buy it, then you get more power out of said equipment). It won’t break. It’s fully interoperable with other software, like clients trapped in MS Office. And your long term maintenance costs/time will be significantly less.
In fact, a large EU study across 6 countries just confirmed this latter setup to be far most cost-effective than the ever-typical Microsoft stack.
#6 thru 10 - Excellent coverage of the basics.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Posted on 27-Jan-07 at 3:09 pm | Permalink
Bad Language / Ten (free) ways to get more business wrote:
[...] Related posts on this blog: How to be a freelance journalist and How to work from home. [...]
Posted on 02-Aug-07 at 8:42 am | Permalink
Sandra Maissin wrote:
Hello ALL,
I’ve been this interesting link today cause am actually looking forward to work from ‘home’. I would like to make use of my knowledge acquired these past couple years in the Freight industry..am deeply thinking of offering consultancy either within the freight industry or else starting something in another field such as organizing foreigners holidays in Mauritius or within the Indian Ocean. So if ever you have some tips to share with me..same are most welcome.
Thanks beforehand & hope to receive some good stuffs soon.
Take care,
Sandra M
Posted on 13-Oct-07 at 6:59 am | Permalink
My Weight Loss Team « High Energy Life Plan wrote:
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Posted on 13-Oct-07 at 9:51 pm | Permalink
sophie wrote:
Yes this is all fair enough, but I’ve just stopped working from home and got back into an office. Why? I was lonely - it’s worth the expense and a 20 minute commute to be able to have those shallow chatty office friendships when I go to get a cup of tea. Talking to the cat just isn’t enough.
Posted on 21-Dec-07 at 8:01 pm | Permalink
home Blog » Blog Archive » A Work At Home Community. A Valuable Resource For Anyone Who Works … wrote:
[...] Bad Language / How to work from homeThey ALL work from home. It?s not just for small businesses either. For example, more than 50% of IBM?s 25000 UK employees work from home, a customer site … [...]
Posted on 28-Dec-07 at 2:19 pm | Permalink
home interiors Blog » Blog Archive » Work at home Moms wrote:
[...] Bad Language / How to work from homePart-time or full-time work-from-home ideas. … We'll take it you've already tried the various work from home ads, considered envelope stuffing, … [...]
Posted on 28-Dec-07 at 2:21 pm | Permalink
Jeffery Morrall wrote:
My partner and I have a six and a half page reality type “work from home” article that would be perfect as a “freebie” for you to offer to your subscribers. We are planning on continuing this article on a monthly basis; more as a reality/hands-on chronicle of how our work from home business(es) develop and grow. Your subscribers will be silent witnesses as we traverse the many variations of the work from home business path. We intend only to present these articles in a positive and upbeat manner with never a slight to any specific opportunity or program.
Please contact me at the above e-mail as to when you would like me to send this free material.
MicMorEnterprises
Posted on 13-Jan-08 at 7:51 pm | Permalink
Sarah Hildyard wrote:
If business class IT is of particular interest to you, you may wish to visit: http://www.cobweb.com/mobile_working.aspx which provides more detail about mobile working which will provide you with some basic principles on making better use of your time, which could definitely be implemented by working from home.
Posted on 23-Jul-08 at 2:29 pm | Permalink