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Ten Tips for sharing your home with your business Do you work from home? Do you want to work from home? Are you concerned about the environmental impact of commuting? Working at home has many bonuses and freedoms, but beware, it can take over your life, every corner of the house and every minute of your time. If you want to work at home and stay in control, start here, with Ten Tips for sharing your home with your business. Consult your family. Is it appropriate for you and your household, for you to work from home? How will it affect the dynamics of the household? Will you have enough physical and mental space to work effectively? Will everyone feel better because they know you are available to them? Plan your time. Don’t assume, because you are working at home, that you will automatically have more time and that working will be easier. You will have to structure your diary more carefully than ever before. Plan your holidays and days off first, and then work around them, otherwise they will never happen. Make it clear that you are unavailable during working hours. Exercise. Use the time when others are commuting to walk the dog, jog or dig the garden. Working at home can be very physically limiting and there is a tendency to live in front of the computer screen. So make an appointment with yourself to go the gym or play golf – and treat it as you would a business appointment. Insurance policies. The minimum requirement is a ‘working at home’ policy covering your home, business contents and public liability. If you employ others, within or outside your home, you will also need employer’s insurance. Dedicated space. The greatest survival aid for working from home is an office that is separate from the rest of the house. An extension with a separate entrance or an office in the garden is the ideal. A loft conversion or bedroom that can be closed away in the evening and at weekends is the next best option. Like the next best option phrase – well done!!!! Creating your office space. If you intend to extend your house to accommodate your business, consult an architect; don’t just rely on your local builder. Architects know how to utilise space, whilst builders know how to build. Loft conversions and extensions may not need planning permission, but they will need building regulations. An office in the garden may need planning permission and/or building regulations. If you extend, convert or build an office outbuilding without the correct permissions you may not be able to sell your house at a later date. Planning permission. Running certain types of business from home requires planning permission, even if you are not extending or altering your home. People working alone in the advisory sector are unlikely to need planning permission – unless your business creates extra traffic to and from your home. The government favours people working from home, so don’t be put off, but do check with your local planning dept. Employing others in your own home. If you employ other people, definitely consider a separate office in the garden; otherwise your home will no longer be your own. If you frequently have meetings with clients, the same applies. You need an office in the garden or an extension with it’s own front door. Use your money wisely. Working from home is cheaper than renting an office – even if you extend your home or build an office in the garden. Loft conversions and permanent, office outbuildings cost between £20,000 and £30,000. You can easily spend this amount in five or six years renting a small, commercial office. Business equipment. This is a luxury – but if you can afford dedicated machinery such as separate phone lines and computers, this really helps to keep home and work apart. A separate work number is a minimum and BT (I think) offers a service where you can have different rings for different numbers on the one phone line – which is a compromise. Resources Plan your time www.mindtools.com/What-FreeHelp.htm Exercising at home www.netfit.co.uk Insurance companies for working from home www.businesshome.co.uk www.icon-homeofficeinsurance.co.uk www.morethanbusiness.co.uk Extend you home – contact your local planning dept and ask for their list of local architects Build an office in the garden www.iobuild.co.uk Planning permission information www.planningportal.gov.uk Financing a home office email lynn@iobuild.co.uk and ask for finance fact sheet. Return to benefits home page	InsideOut - Home Offices for Professionals InsideOut architect-design and build sustainable garden offices and en-suite garden guest rooms Working from home, but not in the house Registrants benefit from a free garden survey and planning permission service Practicing from home is a sensible strategic choice. It yields extra moments for seeing the children off to school. You can walk the dog and wrestle with your bookkeeping. The rewards are reduced commuting, increased time for yourself, no office rental and smoother integration between your personal and professional life. Then, before you can utter ‘The dog’s eaten my diary’ work and home have somehow become inseparable. A computer has mysteriously appeared in every corner, unread post is hiding in the kitchen and the week’s washing has formed an orderly queue in your practice room. Working from home does simplify and enrich your life but boundaries can become blurred and unnecessary pressures start to emerge. When do you stop answering the phone and switch on the answer phone? Can you walk past your practice room on a Sunday morning and not think about work? When and how do you switch off? How likely is real peace and quiet? All these everyday distractions can be dealt with by being assertive and watchful. But does anybody have these skills 100% of the time? I used to run a textile design practice from my spare bedroom. Occasionally, at 2am in the morning I would find myself staring at my drawing board ‘is that flower big enough?’ ‘Will I meet the deadline?’ I would get out of bed to go to the bathroom, unable to cross the landing without being dragged back into the problems of the previous day. So, after 10 years I moved my work into a garden office. You can move forward with a purpose built office. As you commute down the path in the morning you are putting a small but valuable physical space between your work and your household interests and concerns. You can organise your office to enhance and simplify the way you work. Your choice of practice room, its furnishings and atmosphere are a subtle part of the dynamic between you and your client. In a garden office built specially for you, you have a unique opportunity to create and develop the way you practice. Homely, calm, alive, energetic, or relaxed, you can have a dedicated workspace that is safe and supportive for you and your clients. And then you can lock the door in the evening and go home. When you move your practice into the garden you renew an old friendship. Your garden isn’t quite the place you thought it was. There are new angles, new smells and new noises. You discover that it likes your company and has got something new to show you whenever you take the time to look. There is also less grass to cut, now that you have used up some of the lawn! There are many different types of buildings that claim to be garden offices. They range from cedar bicycle sheds to housing standard timber frame offices. Buy the best you can afford, it will still be cheaper than moving house! To be comfortable you need six to eight inches of insulation in the walls, roof and floor, combined with double-glazing. This will give you a building that will be comfortable all year round. A badly insulated building will mean big electricity bills and condensation in winter and over-heating in summer. An office built to the same standard as a house will last for decades and add to the value of your property when you sell. You may not need planning permission. The company you are buying your office from should be willing to help you with this. Garden offices are viewed favourably by planning authorities because of reduction in commuting and diversification within a neighbourhood. Even if you don’t need planning permission, a letter from your local authority saying that you don’t is useful if you decide to sell your house. Installing a garden office or practice room is less invasive that a house extension or loft conversion. It takes days rather than weeks. You won’t spend months with a wall missing from your kitchen or joiners bouncing up and down the stairs. The builders won’t disappear halfway through the job. You will need some simple concrete foundations and a source of electricity taken to the site of your office before the building can be put in place. Having a garden office lets you work from home without work taking over you and your house. Lynn Fotheringahm, Marketing director, InsideOut Buildings Ltd www.iobuild.co.uk lynn@iobuild.co.uk 01524 737999 Registrants benefit from a free garden survey and planning permission service Return to benefits home page
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