When Work From Home No Longer Works

If you’re amongst the growing number of people who work from home, you may have wondered if having your own office wouldn’t suit you better than being home based.

There are almost as many reasons why you should have your own office as there are reasons you could work from home in the first place. You may be a self-employed sole trader, or running your own small business with a couple of staff members. Both situations could have started successfully at home and served you well up to now.

There comes a time, however, when things aren’t quite working as they should and you start weighing up your options and eyeing solutions to rising problems.

Those problems could include:

Space Constrictions

As your business grows or your team expands, home working becomes more challenging. There’s just not enough space on the dining room table or in the corner of your bedroom. Or maybe your family is expanding and you need the spare room for a nursery or an older child’s private bedroom. Business and family life are suddenly no longer compatible when both are trying to exist in the same limited space.

You wonder about renting an office and start imagining how much better life could be.

Work/Life Balance

At first you celebrated the ultra-short commute between bedroom and workspace which you could make in your pyjamas if you fancied. But once the novelty wore off, you realised you missed the end-of-shift tension release and the dividing line between work and home.

No clock off, equipment everywhere

When you work from home the temptation to do just a bit more is ever present. In effect, it can feel like you’re always at work, and you may even start feeling a bit guilty about watching TV when there are emails to send or social media to attend to.

Apart from the mental pressure to always be ‘on’, your work equipment is probably always visible. The computer stares accusingly from the corner of the room, and the tools of your trade tap hypothetical fingers as they wait to be productive.

The constant silent pressure isn’t good for your mental health as it can lead to burnout or feelings of anxiety.

Family Considerations

As well as the need for family space at home, it’s also challenging to keep track of work tools that are probably very tempting either for little children to play with or other family members to ‘borrow’. No matter how many rules or out-of-bound notices you issue, things do go missing or get moved. Your frustration mounts every time you have to hunt for something that ought to be where it lives.

Professionalism

Do you sometimes look around a disorganised living room and despair because you’ve got a zoom call pending and scattered toys don’t scream professionalism? Does your cat like to get in on client calls, or your dog loves to bark their opinion of your carefully prepared presentation. It’s almost like they know exactly what they’re doing and relish the mischief.

Expansion/Growth

Having your own office increases your expansion opportunity. Whether you simply need more personal workspace or you could do with an extra desk for a staff member, renting your workspace can open all the doors that may seem closed when you work from home.

But maybe you don’t need an entire office on a full-time basis. If your need for a specific business space is sporadic, you could consider simply booking a meeting room to hold regular team updates and reporting, which is a brilliant way to solve recurring but temporary space problems. Your every need will probably be met, from a white board and WiFi, to tea and coffee or full catering.

Networking/Community

Being purely home based can impact your networking ability and your sense of community belonging. If you’re starting to feel a little isolated from society, renting an office in a space dedicated to providing professional services to business people might be exactly what you need to inject fresh vigour into your professional life.

You’ll get to know fellow business owners and entrepreneurs, recapture the energy that comes from the exchange of ideas with other creatives, learn what’s new in the community and what other businesses are out there, and maybe even pick up a new client or two or find someone offering a service you need.

Working from home has its advantages, but it doesn’t suit all business models all the time and sometimes you need to break free. When you reach that point in your business life, you’ll know.