I can personally attest to the difficulty of working from home. I have 2 dogs…who bark and run through the house (while I’m on the phone with a client), I see dirty dishes in my sink – a pet peeve, and of course, whenever I’m feeling a bit tired, the couch is calling my name.
Although some of us are very well equipped to work from home, a good deal of entrepreneurs aren’t. And our businesses suffer for it. We lose productivity, we lack a schedule and we can often lose motivation and momentum.
At the end of the day this boils down to discipline. But let’s just keep it real about discipline. Most of us lack it in multiple areas of our lives. If you show discipline in the gym, maybe you’re disorganized. Or you may be superbly organized, but always seem to overextend yourself and have a hard time saying no. Whatever the area(s) you lack discipline in, it’s a highly likely that areas causes you some sort of grief in your life. But what does this mean when your livelihood depends on your ability to discipline and control your time and your activity?
When it comes to working from home, I really only have one basic tip that starts with you making a very real and very honest assessment. Assess how distracted you are when you are home. Assess how productive you are. If you find you could do better in a more conducive environment, I highly encourage you to find that. There is more than one option for this but the two most common are:
- Local coffee shops or libraries are great for working outside the home. They often allow you to bring in your own beverage and they provide free WiFi. This is often a good place to host a client meeting as well.
- Virtual Office Space is another option, which is more costly, but is also a wonderful option that often has additional perks to include conference and classroom space, brick and mortar address/box rentals, sometimes they have a receptionist, and coping/printing services. These spaces range depending on the size and how often you need it. You can set up a permanent shop or rent on a daily basis.
I love these spaces as work from home options. They get you into a work mode surrounded by others who are on the same mission as you…financial freedom. These options do not need to be utilized daily but I would recommend budgeting out 2-3 days a week you can use a space such as these to ensure your productivity stays on track. There are many options available, from very main stream locations that have virtual offices set up all over the country, to local options where some businesses want to share their office space in order to bring in additional revenue. Those smaller spaces can be a win-win for both businesses involved.
If you found this information helpful, don’t forget to like, share and comment.
~JMJ
