Operating a business from home does not mean that your life and your family is an open book for the world to read. The best thing to do is to set specific boundaries between your work life and your private life in order to insure that your family is not interrupted by your work. If you do not have a private or separated room you will need to establish specific working hours for your home business and at the end of the day go home. Don't let you your business consume every waking moment of the day, that easily can lead to burn out as well as causing problems with your entire family. Unless you have established from the beginning of your business that business comes first. But even so your family needs also certain privacy for family matters. It is always better to have a separate area in your home where you can have related to your business.
If you can afford at the start of your business, you should have a separate phone line installed that is strictly for business. Use an answering machine for after hours calls and unless a client or customer leaves a message that it is an emergency, call them back the next business day. If possible, do not give out your home telephone number as a contact number. You never know if little Tom or little Andrea will answer the phone leaving a bad impression on a potential customer.
There are a lot of services that will cross borders between your work life and your private life and understanding where they meet will help you keep your sanity when working from home. When you first start the business, it may be easy for your spouse to ask you to get things done around the house while they are at work. You will need to remind them gently that you will be working and you don’t have time to finish the dishes, or throw a load of laundry in the washing machine and you definitely don’t have time to paint the bathroom. All this has to be done after working hours even when working at home there has to be a certain regulation for your work and for the work with your spouse.
Unless the business requires you to meet with clients and there is no way around it, do not entertain business associates at your home. In fact, clients probably should not even have your home address. Using email and the telephone for client contact is in the best interest for privacy, as you don’t want an irate customer banging on your door while you eat supper with the family. A post office box is not overly expensive and can be used for most shipping and helps protect your family’s privacy. If your business requires meeting with clients try to meet them outside your home in a restaurant or maybe near your customer’s office.
Remember, this is your business and you need to remember that your spouse and children are not employees. You may be working out of a home office, but it is still your family’s home and you need to make sure you have definite boundaries established. Just as you do not want them crossing into your office space while you are working, you need to show the same respect to your family by not allowing work to cross into their private space.
Talk to you soon
To your online success
Anton Winkler
http://www.antonshomedealsolution.com
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