The electronic cottage may not be as peaceful as the smiling faces in
photographs on the home business
websites might have us believe.
About 40 years ago, our self-employed family was featured in a local
magazine. The photograph was lovely. It depicted two shiny faced little
darlings perched on either arm of their mother's desk chair, as hubby
looked on smilingly and supportively. The reality is that it took over
an hour to get child number one to stop crying, child number two had
just thrown up on another part of the rug, the laundry basket was hidden
under the desk, and my husband and I hadn't spoken in two days. Just
kidding. Sort of.
In spite of that chaos, my home business has survived and thrived (so
have the kids and marriage!). But it has taken some planning,
organization, and creativity. And many of these strategies can also
apply to working at home if you are employed elsewhere, which is
becoming increasingly common for a variety of reasons.
The home business owner wears many hats and has to deal with many
conflicts between home life and business life, especially with
children at home. Spillover is the term I use to describe the creeping,
oozing migration of business into personal space and of family life into
business space.
Spillover is the Great Dane answering the door when a client arrives.
It's that final client report with happy faces drawn in the corners.
It's when your two-year-old beats you to the business phone and won't
give it up without a temper tantrum. It's when you want to work quietly
and your teenagers want to party with their music at full blast.
The solution is separation. I don't mean to divorce your spouse and
send the kids to an orphanage (however attractive that might seem some
days). I mean to create a separate workspace with a door, a lock, and
sound proofing if necessary.
Equip your office with technology to help you communicate a professional
image. The client really doesn't have to know you have just stepped out
of the shower, have a kid hanging on one leg and a kitten clawing its
way up the other and that the smoke alarm is just about to go off
because the toast is burning in the kitchen.
It may be difficult, but you will need to cultivate the ability to
ignore distractions if you plan to get any work done. Personally, I've
never had much trouble ignoring the dusting, but one home business owner
I know says, "When I worked in an office and went for a drink, the water
cooler didn't say 'clean me;' my refrigerator does. I have learned to
ignore it."
You also need to learn how to deal with people who think because you
are at home you are not working. Do not let friends keep you on the
phone for hours during your working day. Try to have family treat you as
if you weren't home during your working hours. Don't be available to
take out the trash or go to the grocery store...until you take a
scheduled break.
Obviously, the support of your partner and/or children is very
important. If possible, include family members in the planning phase of
your home business, so they realize what will be involved. Don't just
let them come home one day to find you have turned the TV room into an
office. Keep them in touch with your business successes, but try not to
bore them with extended dinner table discussions of the intricacies of
your enterprise.
Home business spillover is just one of the psychological issues that
challenge home business owners, such as loneliness and isolation,
motivation and procrastination, and workaholism. But keep the ooze in
control and you'll be well on your way to mastering the rest.
Wendy
Priesnitz is the editor of Natural Life Magazine and the author of 13
books,including
Bringing it Home (now out of print).