How to Create a Home Office - Physical Needs

We’ve covered the tax reasons why you should have a separate well defined space for your home office. There are mental and familial reasons as well. Commutes have two functions beyond getting you to work. First, they allow you time to mentally prepare yourself for a work day. Secondly, you are physically separated from your loving spouse and children who won’t burst in on you announced to disrupt your work flow. By having a separate work space at home, you can achieve the same mental separation from relaxing, eating, gardening, watching TV, sleeping and all the other uses of your home. You can also let you family know that when you are in your office, you are working and should not be disturbed short of an emergency. It’s important that you have an understanding with your spouse as to who cares for your children at what times, so your family doesn’t resent being ignored while you are under the same roof. Beyond that, here are the basics you should assemble.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Desk.
   You’ll be spending a lot of time here. Invest in good lighting, a comfortable chair, file cabinets with dividers and a well organized ergonomic workspace
2. Phone.
   Get a headset. It’s impossible to take good notes on a computer otherwise. You can’t have a business listing in the local phone company’s directory or yellow pages without a separate business line. However your calls will suddenly become billed at a unit rate. If you don’t have teenage daughters who make doing business on your home phone impossible, you can start with a distinctive ring, which is a separate number that piggybacks on your existing line. The ring pattern warns you to put on your best business voice when prospects call. You’d list this number on your stationery. Calls to this line would be forwarded to an answering machine or external voice mail that responds with the name of your business. Call waiting is an important feature. Nobody tolerates busy signals any more. Three way calling is a rarely used option, but is worthwhile to get clients “on the same page.” I also use call forwarding to move business calls to my cell phone when I'm away. My office phone is a fax machine, which is useful for accepting and forwarding signed contracts.
3. Computer.
   Don’t consider a dial up modem these days. It’s too slow and not much cheaper than a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). At the very least you want one of these, although a cable modem is noticeably faster. If your business takes you into the field, consider buying a laptop computer. They consume less energy, and can be bought for as little as $400-$500 these days. Always get an external USB or fire wire drive to back up your hard drive. The consequences of lost business data could be devastating.
4. Laser printer.
   Although I have an inexpensive color inkjet printer, my workhorse is an HP LaserJet that is still grinding out clear, readable black and white copies after several years. By tying it in to a scanner, I have a functional copy machine that also allows me to store documents in the Portable Document Format, PDF. Lasers print cleanly, consistently and are a key part to presenting a good image.