Work at Home Mom

If you’re considering the possibility of a home-based business, don’t let the challenge of setting up a work space scare you off. Yes, you need some kind of “office”. No, it doesn’t have to mean an addition onto your house. Being a work at home mom gives you all kinds of flexibility in setting up an office.

Where you locate your home office is an issue that can have income tax ramifications (consult a tax professional for details). But tax concerns aside, I’d like to encourage you to think outside the box when it comes to your work at home office needs.

There are a wide range of home business office options. I know some who have moved a pile of folders to and from the kitchen table repeatedly depending on whether it was meal time or work time. I know of some work at home moms who have a separate room – with a door that closes and locks – that functions as an office.

And then there are the in-between alternatives. A desk somewhere in the main living flow that serves as business headquarters. A filing cabinet dedicated to your home based business with a telephone nearby. One shelf of a bookshelf unit, one drawer of the filing cabinet, one set of stack-em trays on the counter, and one planner/organizer. These are all home-based business office options. And they can all work, depending on your business needs and individual tastes. I’ll bet there are lots more varieties of home office set-ups out there!

There are no “rules” as to what your home office has to look like. Here are some things to consider:

First of all, what you have to work with, of course; the layout of your home, the various family dynamics, the space available and the like.

Also key is the type of work your home based business entails. Do you need long stretches of uninterrupted time for complex, lengthy projects? (That office door may need to be kept closed.) Or can you integrate your work into the happenings of the family: an e-mail here, a phone call there? How much work space do you need?

And don’t overlook this factor: What do you like? What enables you to be in “business at home” mode? What office set-up makes you feel like the best work at home mom (as contrasted with just a worker at home) you can be?

Above all, be flexible. Be willing to adjust your work space as you develop your home-based business, as it evolves. If you never have to change your work environment, then it’s possible your business is stagnant.

And lastly, a couple of pragmatic tips for stocking your home-based business office: (1) Decide on some type of activity management system – computerized, the pen and pencil variety, file folders, or the like. Whatever will help you prioritize your time and activities. Sometimes the creative impetus for beginning your own home based business supercedes the organizational streamlining that will enable a business to survive long term. Creativity can carry you a long way (and is wonderful for a business) but it can’t alone provide the organization that achieves various business essentials; and (2) Don’t make the mistake of not stocking seldom used resources if they will be used more than occasionally. Identify some key tools you will use repeatedly (even if not very often) and get an ample supply of them. I consistently use small package mailers and mailing labels. Not all that often. But at least every other month. And because I don’t use them that often, I did not stock up at first. I put it on my shopping list whenever the need arose. Wrong move. Having a ready supply has saved me tons of time. It goes without saying, of course, that another essential part of setting up your home office is to stock up on the things you will use frequently (paper clips, stamps, pens etc.)

A work at home mom coming from the corporate world may have to adjust her perspective of the ideal office, but she has lots of options, room for creativity and plenty of potential no matter what her home situation.