There is statistical evidence that many more people now prefer to work from home than in a regular office. Apart from wanting to cut down on commute time and overheads for office space and sundry expenses related to renting a conventional office space, many people now enjoy the work schedule flexibility that working from home provides. As many more people are getting involved in working and earning a living at home, some are making very many common mistakes which if not checked on time can actually reduce their productivity and incomes. That is the reason why everyone who is interested in working from home must watch out for these mistakes so as to be able to check them or eliminate them altogether. The truth is that home business brings with it its own peculiar challenges even with the enormous flexibility involved. Here are seven common mistakes to avoid when working from home.
01. Allowing employees to abuse your home. If you can not operate your business alone, it is inevitable that you will have to engage some other persons to work for you. That means bringing perfect strangers into your home. If you give your workers unlimited freedom around your home, you risk misuse of your home equipments/appliances and even damages to and in your home. You must therefore establish and enforce strict working rules to guide your workers around your home.
02. Working round-the-clock. Because you are working in your home environment, there is always the tendency to act as if you are always at work thereby making yourself work round-the-clock. This should be checked. Even if you work from home, it is good to set aside some hours for work. That is the only way you can have sufficient time for work as well as other activities related to maintaining and keeping the home.
03. Allowing interruptions from family members. Of course this is unavoidable if there are kids to look after. Since you do not have a big boss breathing down your neck, it is easy to get distracted from serious work by young family members and even friends. You can avoid these disruptions by setting aside some definite hours of the day when you do not want to be disturbed. You should make your family members and friends to be aware of these "sacred" hours. There must however be exceptions of course for clear emergencies.
04. Spending too much time at home. Moving out of the house to go to work has its own advantages. Staying at home to work can at times be very lonely. You may get bored very easily. You can therefore create time to meet with customers and even suppliers outside your home. It is not prudent to bring all manner of strangers into your home all in the name of business. You can plan to have some business meetings in coffee shops or restaurants as a way of avoiding spending too much time at home.
05. Failing to create a separate work area in your home. Even if your home is a very small one, you should set aside some space reserved almost entirely for work. If there is not enough space, you should deliberately create one. Let every member of your family and your workers know that the space is reserved strictly for your business and it should be so treated.
06. Depending too much on family members. It is easy to forget that family members are not your employees. If your workers are not around, you may fall into the habit of falling back on your spouse and children to help you out on some jobs. Your family members may as a result become weary about you and your business. This can be avoided by depending less on their help except of course they too are your employees.
07. Disorganized work environment. If you work at home, there is a tendency to mix work and home business interchangeably. With that, things could really get disorganized once in a while. The remedy is to be clear about work time and space at all times. That way, you will always know where to be and what you should be doing at any particular time of the day. Sliding into disorganization becomes very difficult with this kind of arrangement.
There is statistical evidence that many more people now prefer to work from home than in a regular office. Apart from wanting to cut down on commute time and overheads for office space and sundry expenses related to renting a conventional office space, many people now enjoy the work schedule flexibility that working from home provides. As many more people are getting involved in working and earning a living at home, some are making very many common mistakes which if not checked on time can actually reduce their productivity and incomes. That is the reason why everyone who is interested in working from home must watch out for these mistakes so as to be able to check them or eliminate them altogether. The truth is that home business brings with it its own peculiar challenges even with the enormous flexibility involved. Here are seven common mistakes to avoid when working from home.
01. Allowing employees to abuse your home. If you can not operate your business alone, it is inevitable that you will have to engage some other persons to work for you. That means bringing perfect strangers into your home. If you give your workers unlimited freedom around your home, you risk misuse of your home equipments/appliances and even damages to and in your home. You must therefore establish and enforce strict working rules to guide your workers around your home.
02. Working round-the-clock. Because you are working in your home environment, there is always the tendency to act as if you are always at work thereby making yourself work round-the-clock. This should be checked. Even if you work from home, it is good to set aside some hours for work. That is the only way you can have sufficient time for work as well as other activities related to maintaining and keeping the home.
03. Allowing interruptions from family members. Of course this is unavoidable if there are kids to look after. Since you do not have a big boss breathing down your neck, it is easy to get distracted from serious work by young family members and even friends. You can avoid these disruptions by setting aside some definite hours of the day when you do not want to be disturbed. You should make your family members and friends to be aware of these "sacred" hours. There must however be exceptions of course for clear emergencies.
04. Spending too much time at home. Moving out of the house to go to work has its own advantages. Staying at home to work can at times be very lonely. You may get bored very easily. You can therefore create time to meet with customers and even suppliers outside your home. It is not prudent to bring all manner of strangers into your home all in the name of business. You can plan to have some business meetings in coffee shops or restaurants as a way of avoiding spending too much time at home.
05. Failing to create a separate work area in your home. Even if your home is a very small one, you should set aside some space reserved almost entirely for work. If there is not enough space, you should deliberately create one. Let every member of your family and your workers know that the space is reserved strictly for your business and it should be so treated.
06. Depending too much on family members. It is easy to forget that family members are not your employees. If your workers are not around, you may fall into the habit of falling back on your spouse and children to help you out on some jobs. Your family members may as a result become weary about you and your business. This can be avoided by depending less on their help except of course they too are your employees.
07. Disorganized work environment. If you work at home, there is a tendency to mix work and home business interchangeably. With that, things could really get disorganized once in a while. The remedy is to be clear about work time and space at all times. That way, you will always know where to be and what you should be doing at any particular time of the day. Sliding into disorganization becomes very difficult with this kind of arrangement.
Article Source:/EzineArticles.com
No comments:
Post a Comment