When the daily grind gets too much, the commute becomes insufferable, and seeing your boss every day makes you miserable, sometimes all that’s left for it is starting a business and working from home. More and more people are making the move from the city to their home office every year, and it’s easy to see why. Dictating your own working hours, commuting from the bed to a comfortable desk, and being solely responsible for your own work load makes it a very attractive prospect. If you’re considering the move, here are your first few steps.
Create your office
Setting aside a space specifically for working is important not only for productivity but for your own sanity. At the end of a working day, you still need to be able to leave work behind, which is particularly tricky if your workspace is your couch. Also, a space exclusively set aside in your home can be deducted from your taxes, something which many home-working Americans still don’t realize they can do.
Take some courses
If you’re moving to self-employed, as well as a home-worker, you’re going to want to get a few qualifications under your belt to help you along the way. If you’re planning on using computers and video for any marketing or advertising, a course such as the Premiere Pro Training course will enable you to get all the skills you need to create your own advertisement and information videos, rather than spend money on outsourcing to build your brand. Accounting and bookkeeping courses for personal finance are also really useful for people who are becoming self-employed.
Maintain a routine
It can be far too easy to fall into a regime of working every waking hour. Whatever your career, if you’re continuing to work mainly for one employer, be firm about your working hours. If you’re planning on going freelance, it’s up to you to dictate your working hours, so be completely fair on yourself. It can also be particularly difficult to self-motivate when you’re working for yourself from home, and there’s nobody looking over your shoulder. So you need to have good time management skills, but also the ability to push yourself when you’re just not feeling it. Make sure you’re honest with yourself over your ability to do these things before you make the leap into working from home.
Start a blog
If you’ve decided to go freelance, you’re going to want to start a blog. This is a great way to reach out to new clients, build up a name for yourself, and prove your expertise on a given subject. It will also help you to be pushed higher in the ratings on a search engine, as a regularly updated website is ranked higher by Google. Try to make the content interesting but relevant, regular, and use social media to push it to new readers – it’s a great way to help your business off the ground.
There’s a lot to consider when you start a business from home, or move your current employment to your house. The main thing to remember is to stay organized, and make sure you still get outside for exercise and fresh air every day.
