Is Your Home Ready For Work?
Unless you have built yourself a home office in your new home, or you can set up a custom-made office system, you may have to be creative in designing a productive, safe, and power-efficient space for your home office.
Space Management
When you step into an empty room, what do you see?
You may see a 100 sq ft floor area, period! With some creativity and organisational skills, you will learn to see a working/storage space ten times, or even 20 times its floor area.
Managing physical space is a challenging task. More so if you are working from home where you have to find extra space within your existing environment.
* Tidy up and you will discover a lot more space than you think you had. Get rid of anything you don’t need. If these items are still in good condition, consider selling them to junk shops or at flea markets.
* To maximize your space, look up, down, sideways, in, out and vertical.
Up – See if there is any storage space above your bed, your windows, and wardrobe.
Down – look for unused space underneath your beds, sofas, kitchen sink and staircase. Store your things in well-labelled boxes.
Sideways – Push all the furniture against the walls. If you need extra work surface, consider table tops hinged to a wall.
In – Maximise space inside existing cupboards, wardrobes, cabinets and chests by adding hooks to hang things on, and using plywood to create storage shelves.
Out – Look around and see if there are any areas that are not in use. Put rows of shelves on a wall using simple do-it-yourself material to instantly increase your storage or display area.
Vertical – Make best use of the height of your walls. This way, you take up a lot less floor space. You could build shelves or stack things against the walls.
Don’t forget safety considerations when you stack boxes or make any other changes to your home.
Psychological space is also something to consider:
- Is there a comfortable buffer between your workstation and the family hall or bedrooms/ beds? You may need to partition off your work area with potted plants, bookshelves or decorative screens.
- Will your home office disturb the daily routine of your family members? Do they end up having to answer your telephone calls for you?
- Do you need total silence in your home while you work?
- Will you be intruding upon their privacy or vice versa when you work at home? Does shuffling furniture around create an inconvenience for your family members? Would this create resentment or misunderstanding in the long run?
Remember, we have to strike a balance between self imposed isolation and home distractions such as the television and entertaining guests. Your children won’t like the idea of your self-imposed isolation while you do some serious work. Then again, you may need the relative silence as you try to meet deadlines.
Workplace Layout
When you are considering how to fit equipment and tools into your workplace.think in terms of a logical workflow.Your home office set up should be based on the nature and flow of your work. Keep things that are frequently in use within your easy reach, e.g. business records, files, computer diskettes and business cards.
Make sure your home office offers a safe environment for you to work in: For example, is the wiring in place so you wouldn’t trip over a printer cable? Safety is an especially important consideration for pregnant women and those who use wheelchairs.
Use natural light where possible to save on electricity expenses.
The Right Ambience
Creating an atmosphere of a business is important if you are going to receive clients or customers at home. In fact, when you run your own small office home office (SOHO), it is hard to keep customers out as you will often invite them in when they come by to pick up their orders.
If you want to project a good image, consider these ideas:
If you provide ‘SOHO’ services such as graphic design, accounting, financial consultancy, secretarial services, copywriting, translation, desktop publishing and web design:
- Your customers or potential customers may be interested in your office set up, capability, reference material, qualifications and industry recognition. Always be ready to show them your work samples and a list of prominent clients.
- A few well-placed items such as a pin-up board can enhance your office space without hampering your work productivity.
- Add a plant or a few small artistic touches to give your office some life.
If you provide event management services such as organizing birthday parties, wedding receptions, corporate functions, ethnic gatherings or any special activities:
- Hang photographs of past events in your home office. Get your potential customers interested by helping them visualise the functions you are going to host for them.
If you sell clothing and accessories from home:
You will need a fitting room for your customers. The experience of trying on clothes must be both relaxing and pleasant just as it is in a mall. Keep your brochures within your customers’ easy reach.
If you sell products such as handicraft, handmade gifts, or floral arrangements,
- Display your products attractively with appropriate props for a coordinated mood. A cluttered surrounding may undermine the products’ visual appeal.
If you provide home-based services that involve care for the young and infirm:
- Your paying customers would be interested in safety, hygiene, good lighting and ventilation.
Remember, your home office is your domain. You can easily design an office that reflects your personality and style, within the existing space constraints and your budget.
Katharine Yip has been running a homebased translation business for the past decade. She can be contacted at: kyip@asia.com