Make Your Home Office Professional

Any special advice on how to do this "professionally"?

     The "Golden Rule" –treat others as you would want them to treat you – is a must for small businesses. You want to provide the highest quality service and responsiveness because that’s what you expect when you buy a product or service.
     The largely casual setting of a home office is no exception. Even if you work out of a spare bedroom and wear shorts while you work, you want clients to perceive you as a first-class operation. That means making sure you have the resources and approach to your business as good as your competitors in that shiny office downtown.
Here are some ways to make your home office as professional as possible:
     Get connected. Make sure your computer has the processing speed and capacity to meet your business needs. You cannot be efficient or provide fast answers if your system is slow and constantly crashing. The same goes for your Internet access. Faster modems and phone lines may cost a little more, but the added expense will be more than offset by the time saved waiting for web pages and long documents to download.
     Open the lines of communication. Consider having three separate phone lines – home, office and fax. Also install voice mail. Clients should never experience the frustration of getting a busy signal when trying to reach you or send a fax. If you receive another call while speaking on the business line, the caller can still leave a message. If you have call waiting, make sure you disable it if you expect the call to be lengthy. That persistent double click will be disrupting to you, the person you’re speaking with, and the third party trying to reach you.
     Create a "real" office. Set up your home office professionally. Make it quite, comfortable and organized. Place what you use most close to you. Use bright colors or dark colors, face away from the window or toward the window – in short, whatever works best for you and helps you to concentrate.
     Send it in style. Design your company’s letterhead either yourself or with the assistance of a professional designer. Use it for all business correspondence. It may be worthwhile to rent a Post Office Box for your incoming mail. Home street addresses don’t always convey the look of a professional organization.
     Stay informed. Keep on top of all the latest trends in your business, as well as in your client’s fields. Join your trade association and subscribe to all the key magazines that cover your industry. These resources offer advice and information as well as discounts on business expenses. Also, join the local Chamber of Commerce and attend their monthly breakfast/networking sessions – a good way to stay in touch with the business world in general.
     Self control. Now that you are on your own, it is easy to fall into a poor work pattern. Working from your home takes a lot of discipline. First, separate work time from personal time. Set hours for your workday and stick to them. After hours don’t sneak into the office to get work done unless you are up against a deadline. Likewise don’t sneak out to run errands during business hours. Think of time away from the office during the workday as money lost.

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