If you’re like most worker bees in this modern-day hive, whether you work for someone else or you’re self-employed, you’ve probably asked yourself that question. Sitting on that train, or shaking your fist in traffic, you’ve thought “Wouldn’t it be great if my commute was from the shower to the sun room?” Take it from me, it can be. As many of you know, besides being a partner in a small law firm, I run a few other businesses, and although those businesses do have offices, 90% of my work is done from home. My wife is a stay-at-home mom, managing five kids, and my house is Grand Central. So if I can do it, you certainly can do it, too. But you need to ask yourself a few questions first.
Will My Business Work From Home? This is the threshold question, and one which you should give some thought to. Do you offer a professional service, such as writing, appraisal, some types of law, consulting, and so forth? Working from home may be a great choice. If you purchase and re-sell heavy equipment, the home office may not serve your needs. Does your clientele expect you to have an office? If you’re writing resumes and cover letters for job-seekers, it’s just fine to park your laptop and cell phone on the back porch and get to work. If you’re being paid millions of dollars to consult with federal government suppliers on aircraft contracts, you’d best get yourself a recognized address. Do you want your customers in your home? If you’re planning weddings, it might be a great personal touch to invite the bride into your home and start the planning. If you’re a criminal defense attorney, you might not want the accused strong-arm robber with the mile-long rap sheet knowing where you put your head down at night.
Am I Organized? Working for oneself, generally, requires a much higher level of organization than most people think. When there is no management team, placing deadlines in your in-basket, or boss inspecting your work queue each day, things have a tendency to slide on by. This problem increases geometrically as you need to work, answer the kids’ homework questions, deal with the cuts and bruises of the playground, pay attention to the needs of your spouse, lend the neighbor your lawn mower, make lunch, and so on, and so forth. If you are the sort of person who has a place for everything and everything in its place, remembers phone numbers and appointments with near-total recall, or if you are disciplined enough to get a great calendar system and follow it religiously, you’ll do just fine. If not, the relative quiet and solitude of an office away from home may be a better bet for you.
Can I Work Alone? By alone, I don’t mean in the absence of other people. That will rarely happen in your home-based business, courtesy of the spouse, kids, neighbors and occasional door-to-door salesman. Rather, can you work and perform well without the ability to regularly turn to a co-worker to discuss the project? Can you produce, whatever it is you produce, without a lot of feedback from people who do the same thing you do? Can you function in sporadic professional isolation? I do a lot of my legal work from home, and when I’m at home, the thing I miss most is the ability to walk into the adjoining office, and ask another lawyer what she thinks about a case I am handling. To thrive at home, you must be self-sufficient.
Location, Location, Location - While you may choose to work from home, there is a strong chance that a lot of your clients will not. So, while you don’t need that downtown office, can you easily access the downtown offices of your customers? In other words, home needs to be in reasonable proximity to the people you serve, or the places you need to go. Again, my own example: I don’t have an office right downtown by the courthouse, as a lot of Chicago lawyers do. But I can get there in 30 minutes from my home. If I was a hundred miles from a major city, I couldn’t practice the way I do. It wouldn’t fit my business. Make sure your home location is also a reasonably convenient business location, before you make the decision.
Legal – As a lawyer, I must add this. Some jurisdictions limit, by zoning or other types of ordinances, what type of business can be run from your home. For instance, in Illinois, you may not run a real estate brokerage from your residential address (I know, I tried…). Save yourself a lot of problems, and be sure it is lawful to run your business from your home before you start.
Running a business from home can offer significant advantages, and add to your quality of life in ways most people can predict, and in some you may have never imagined. But it isn’t for everybody, and it isn’t for every business. Asking yourself some of the questions mentioned here may help give you a feel for whether you want to further explore the possibility of running your business from your home sweet home.
