One of the major perks to having a home-based business is the relative level of convenience that it can offer. You don’t have to deal with hour-long commutes to the office and you have greater flexibility with your schedule should any unforeseen circumstances arise. At the same time, staring at the same four walls for 24 hours in a day can wreak havoc on your sanity.
As nice as it may be to have just a 30-second commute to the home office each morning, there will be times when both your sanity and your productivity can benefit from working outside of the home. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to go back to the cubicles of old, but it is valuable to step outside of your door from time to time.
Thanks to the lower price of technology and the greater prevalence of free Wi-Fi hotspots, you can walk into just about any coffee shop in a major city and be blanketed in free Internet access. Just pack up your laptop, head over to the local Starbucks (or other similar coffee bar), and get in a few hours outside of the home.
If your home-based business doesn’t require access to the Internet, your options are even greater. Try going to the public library for some peace and quiet. Head out to the beach or the park for some fresh air. It may even be valuable to work from your back porch every once in a while.
A suitable alternative that you may also consider is the shared office space that you can get from a place like The Network Hub. This shared workspace gives you in-office camaraderie, as well as full mail and phone service, without the pressures of office politics. If you spend most of your time working from home, you can also use The Network Hub for meeting room rentals so you don’t have to invite clients into your cramped (and possibly cluttered) apartment.
Whatever your situation and no matter how much you like working out of your home office, it is of paramount importance that you get away from those same four walls from time to time. This can boost your confidence, improve your productivity, and save your sanity.
Home office is overrated IMHO. People are meant to socialize, be with each other. If you don’t get a good dose of people you become the Unabomber.
I had to Google “Unabomber” to learn its meaning.
From your comment, I can see that you are a people-person.
🙂 Guess I showed my age with that comment. In this age of technology, even though that is my profession, I believe it is so much more important to get out and be with people face to face.
It’s nice to converse this way via computer, iPhone or other means but we become very insensitive to other peoples feelings when we can’t see them, see their reactions to our comments. It’s like being in a car and thinking it’s your own little world when you give the other guy the finger for cutting in front of you.
I don’t work 24/7 at home. I work at different places and working at different places really help me to develop new ideas and get me into the ‘work’ mood.
I work almost exclusively at coffee shops in the area. Problem is…a lot of people have caught on to how convenient it is to do so and my favorite Blenz is almost constantly packed now. Bean Around The World is within walking distance from my house but I don’t like their drinks.
If only I could concentrate at home…DAMN YOU, ALL MY AWESOME TOYS!!
Wait, what? You… work?
What…you think being this awesome isn’t work?
Trust is built on a relationship and what better way to earn the trust than by offering free goods and services.