Small Business Struggle For Nonfinancial Considerations – Part 2

The convenience

So far, we’ve looked mainly at the downside of working from home. For many entrepreneurs, however, this arrangement works well and allows them the flexibility to balance work and family responsibilities.

Having a home-office will definitely save you commuting time – time that can be spent more effectively on managing and growing your business. It also can allow you to be home when your children get home from school (thereby saving you child-care fees) or when service people have to come to your home to make repairs. If you can discipline yourself well enough, having a home-office will let you structure your day more efficiently around family needs.

The flip side of the convenience coin happens if you are a natural workaholic. It may seem natural to slip downstairs to your home-office “just for 15 minutes” to work on something that didn’t get finished during the day. That 15 minutes (especially for a workaholic) can turn into an hour or more. Of course, there will be times when you will need to put in extra hours, but having a convenient home-office can allow you to be overworked and make it difficult to put limitations on your time allotted to work.

Willpower

When you work at an office outside the home, you have a clear division between work time and home time. You know that when you are in the office, you are there for one reason: to work. This is not so clear when you have a home-office, and if your willpower and ability to monitor yourself are weak, you may find yourself doing more lounging than working. Taking “just 15 minutes” to catch Friends or to take a quick swim in the pool can often turn into the majority of the day.

To corral this problem, take some time first thing every morning to plan your day. Make a list of everything you need and want to accomplish that day and prioritize things. Block off time in your calendar not only for your scheduled appointments but also to work on your tasks. For example, if you want to get a quote out to a client by 5:00 p.m., block off an hour (if that’s how long you think it will take) to work on the quote. This will help you make sure you are not over-committing yourself and setting yourself up for failure. It also helps you to structure your day so that you are being as productive as you are able.

Time management is important to all small-business owners, as time is a commodity in short supply, but it is even more critical for small-business owners who work in a home-office environment.