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Twenty Tips to Home Office Success

by Jeff Zbar

* Get psyched. In the beginning of a home-based business venture, it was easy to get dogged by perplexing questions like "what if..." and "am I nuts?". Instead, many solo flyers forget the questions of sanity and focus on "what if" from a positive perspective. "What if" I succeed, outpace projections, need to move into a larger space? This was a promotion from employee to entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs are positive thinkers. Now that the honeymoon is over, take it to the next level. A mantra to live by: B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E! Passivity is OK if you're Swiss and there's a war. But
not in business. Be competitive, agile, sharp and unswayed by the initial slights and jabs that might come from peers, family and friends. They're just jealous and don't understand the plan. Once you're successful, they'll get the picture -- and admire you for it.

* Avoid chaos. Where's the nerve center of your business going to be? Hopefully, not where the nerve center of the household is. The best home offices operate from behind doors that close. That way, you can drown out the sounds of family, dogs, doorbells, televisions, stereos and the assorted din of household life without miffing the family. Even if you live alone, an office set up in a spare room provides the quiet time solo that flyers come to appreciate. Closed doors also hide mid-week's messy office, when the desire or rationale to clean it up just doesn't exist.

* Create a transition. When you commuted, the time in the car or on the train was your transition from home to office. But the home office has no such passage to speak of. By creating a dedicated office, home-based workers are able to walk across a real threshold and create a mental and physical transition from home to place of work. They can close the door and immerse themselves in the structure and solitude of the office and become more in tune with the office mindset.

* Look sharp. Create attractive stationary -- especially business cards and Rolodex cards with your name or subject on the tab. And spread them freely! Marketing will be essential to your new venture, and your stationary is your calling card. You'll need to learn how to sell yourself and your product aggressively and inexpensively. So read, learn and absorb from every available source.

* Determine and capitalize on your biological-home office prime time. When are your best times to work on the computer, make telephone calls, or be creative? Do you need to spend this Wednesday calling clients and sources around the country? Should Thursday evening be spent working on the computer with some soft music playing in the background? Some people who have limited client contact (on either a daily basis, or project-by-project) work best with an eclectic schedule. They may, for example, work from dawn 'til noon, break for a few hours, and return later in the afternoon to work in solitude and silence as the phone quiets and the brain hums along. Office hours can be as pliable as words yet to be put to an blank page. Make of them what you need them to be.

* Make the home office home-like. "Home office," after all, begins with home. Unlike the cubicle farm at the downtown office tower, the home office should say who you are. Hanging personal items around a workspace is an excellent way to keep the brain inspired. Make the office warm, inviting and personal. Enliven it with pictures, posters, family photos, momentos and knickknacks that brighten the office. Tape some of the kids' drawings to your wall or shelves, right next to your occupational license. As long as the office doesn't lose its functionality, then you can go wild with the visual stimulation.

* Lay down the law. Possibly the hardest facet of working from home is getting the family and friends to understand that this isn't "that little thing you do from home." This new venture ultimately will put bread on the family table, clothes on the kids' backs, and cash in the pocket for life's little extras. Indoctrinate family and friends about the rules of this new work arrangement -- when the office is off limits, when not to bug daddy or mommy, when not to call for some impromptu afternoon plans. Become a flexible enforcer who's willing to cut loose when the schedule's light and you could use a break.

* Enlist help from your mate, partner or significant other. They have a vested interest in your success. Enlist his or her understanding of and support for your enterprise. Do they have skills (bookkeeping, invoicing, filing or record-keeping) they can contribute to help you do what you do? If not, teach them to handle certain rote chores. This way, they'll shoulder some of the burdens of home office management, while removing them from your schedule. And they might even qualify for a paycheck and some company benefits.

* Call all acquaintances. If word of mouth is the best form of advertising, then get talking. Spin the Rolodex, cruise through the contact manager software, open the little black book. Let people know you're on your own. Before you quit, tell confidants you'll be making the move; after you've quit, tell the world. Call friends from the old job and anyone in a related field and let them know you're flying solo. Schedule meetings with potential clients, customers and others who can steer business your way. This will help keep you motivated, and give you something to while away the initial slow transition period as you seek out work from potential clients.

* Be transparent. Use communications technology and the right mental strategy to maintain "transparency," or the appearance of being professional and not necessarily working from a home office. Consider whether a poor mental impression from an aging answering machine with a faded outgoing message would hurt your clients' perceptions of you as a vendor. If done right, the home office can appear like any downtown tower -- or at least not like a home office.

* Plaster your name and info on everything that leaves the office. Every invoice, press release, brochure or other correspondence that leaves the office MUST have all of your contact data on it. Your name, address, phone, fax and electronic mail address or Web site also should be on every leave-behind you create -- including stationary, brochures, samples, even on your voice mail message.

* Don't just do it. Plan it. Start each morning with 15 minutes spent outlining the day's events. Make it part of your morning routine over coffee, juice, the paper or the TV news. Then take it a step further by spending a half-hour every Sunday evening outlining the tasks or jobs to be completed or advanced over the coming week. But be flexible. Unexpected events or issues will arise that will need tending to.

* Valuate your time. Working solo is a matter of managing and maximizing your time, prioritizing your tasks, and outsourcing when workloads peak. Delegating responsibility is one of the most difficult tasks for an entrepreneur, because most think they're the best at what they do. Get over it! You may be right, but does packaging goods, addressing envelopes, filling out invoices or some other mindless chore demand perfection? Besides, what do you value or charge your hour at? Do you think having a temp or a family member handle a rote chore costs less? You betcha!

* Increasing income by cutting costs. Boosting sales is the goal of every business. But essentially the same can be achieved by reducing expenses. Cut your monthly expenses by $100 and that's the same as selling another $100 consulting session, press release or product. Places to cut: Telephone expenses, un-used magazine subscriptions, even household costs that deplete either the bottom line of a unincorporated business, or that generally sap your paycheck.

* Don't ignore the law. Whether it's the law or zoning and how they affect the home-based business, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Many cities restrict or ban home-based businesses, signage, client visits or on-site, non-resident employees. Learn what's allowed in your municipality, then make your decision. Many home-based workers are "guerrilla" entrepreneurs, working without permits and hiding in the shadows for fear that their city will deny their application or shut them down. Don't lurk in guilt; Lobby for change.

* Become tax savvy. From the home office itself to everything that gets used in the daily course of affairs, learn how to use tax code to your advantage. Stay keen on current tax law. Don't rely solely on your accountant or other tax professional for
advice. Read the tax code, formulate some ideas of what you'd like to achieve, be an informed and knowledgeable tax citizen.

* Become a SOHO evangelist. Many in the corporate community still are inexperienced and downright resentful when it comes to the small office/home office trend. Help introduce them to the benefits of working with those who work from home. Tell them of the cost savings they'll experience from your decreased overhead (no more real estate and desk space, benefits, taxes and other incidentals). Convince them that you -- and those like you -- are more productive because you're more satisfied workers who can be depended upon to complete their projects.

* Become a cheerleader. Motivation starts from within. As with any business, everyday spent working from home won't be Christmas. Success and failure will come hand-in-hand. If only for your own psyche, learn to be up-beat -- from the message you leave on the voice mail to the way you answer the telephone to the way you conduct your daily affairs. A good attitude and positive outlook can be infectious;
spread the positive vibes.

* Don't become a workaholic. Did your corporate boss ever tell you not to overwork? In the home office, it's a very real problem. Not only does overworking consume one's private life, it can stifle all the other things that would otherwise promote a healthy mind and body -- like eating well and exercising regularly. Realize it can take over your life -- before it happens. Set limits on your workday, except maybe in times of a deadline crunch. Then adhere to them.

* Enjoy the ride. The whole idea behind working from home in the first place is being your own boss, setting your own rules -- and having the power to bend them when the spirit moves you. Is the home-town team playing this afternoon? If you can afford the time, take in a game at the ballpark. The youngster has a recital? What's more important in the grand scheme of things? After all, you can always burn some midnight oil to meet that deadline. Your child won't remember the time you spent on the phone or computer. But as the kids grow older, they will come to appreciate the quality hours you spent with them. This ride called life only comes around once.

Enjoy the ride.

Journalist and author Jeff Zbar has worked from his home office in South Florida since 1989. He recently published Home Office Know-How, a tips book on working from home. Get a copy at here at Father's World bookstore, or by visiting his Web site, www.goinsoho.com. His kids would appreciate it.

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