Starting a new home-based business can seem like a daunting task. The transition from working in corporate America to working inside your home
can often lead to the downfall of your business before it has even begun. The first thing you need to do is get organized. It’s important because you need to put yourself in the best position to be successful.
To ensure that you make this switch to spare room tycoon successfully, try to follow the 7 golden rules for a new home-based business.
Designate an area
When you work from home, it’s often hard to stop work activities taking over your personal space and home life. To prevent this from happening, try to designate an area of your home that’s specifically for your work. This could be a spare room, garden office or even a section of another room. Try to keep this space solely for work activities and materials. This should help you to keep a healthy work/home life balance as you can ‘shut the door’ on your work at the end of the day.
Invest in the right insurance
When you first start working from home, there are some insurance considerations to think about. Firstly, if you’ve started a business from your home, be careful that you’re not invalidating your home insurance. Most standard home insurance will not cover you if you’re using the property for business purposes (which usually refers to having stock or clients at the property).
In addition, you could require some business insurance for your home-based business. For example, if you provide a professional service to paying clients (such as accounting, legal or marketing consultant) it could be wise to think about professional indemnity insurance. This could help you cover costs if you ever faced a negligence claim. If customers or clients visit your home business, you may also need to put public liability insurance in place too.
Get dressed
Sitting about in PJs and slippers in not conducive to a work mind-set. If you feel like you’re dressed for bed or lounging on the sofa— that’s probably what you’ll do. Get washed and dressed as if heading out to the office — it will make you feel more alert and ready to get started in the morning
Watch your posture
In professional organisations, particularly larger companies, they’ll be obliged to provide a workstation that is not detrimental to your posture. Adjustable chairs and monitors, adequate desk space and hand supports are common elements of most offices. When starting work from home, ensure you have a comfortable work area that supports good posture and doesn’t put regular strain on your body or eyesight.
Set a start and finish point
Are you fit to work from home? When you work for an employer, you’ll have set working hours and structure to your day. Having a set start time and finish time for your day can give you more focus and ensure that the work doesn’t spill over into your domestic life. Try to stick to the start and end times you assign yourself. Make sure you switch off the computer and turn off your email alerts at the end of the day.
Eat a proper lunch
Without a designated lunch hour written into your contract, it can be quite easy to forget about eating altogether when at home, or you could find you end up snacking your way through the day. Make sure you dedicate a full hour for lunch and have enough food in to make a healthy, filling meal. It will give your eyes a rest from the computer (if you use one) and will make sure you have enough sustenance for the afternoon’s tasks.
Check your car use
If you’re running a business from your home, you might also use your car for business purposes. For example, you may move stock or make deliveries to clients. If this is the case, make sure these activities are not invalidating your car insurance. A standard policy may not cover your vehicle for business use — so it’s worth checking with your provider.
Do you have any more tips for home-based business success?
This article was written by Policy Expert who are insurance specialists, providing house insurance to homeowners in the UK. You can use their website to compare quotes and buy online.
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I want to start a home based business. Which one is the best?
“Watch your posture” – great advice. If your back does start to hurt when you have one of those marathon on the computer days, I suggest checking out an exercise ball to sit on. You can get one on a chair, or you can just try one of the $25 ones from Target. I have one by Gaia.
“Eat a proper lunch” – funny, one of the things I love about working from home is it is easy to eat a healthy meal. I often make soup for my family at night, so a frequent lunch is heating up a bowl of soup. My only warning is this could be dangerous to the health of your computer (if you get into my habit of working and eating) – you don’t want to spill soup on it.
Really great advice! I agree that is very necessary to have the right insurance and get dressed is really good. I also agree that getting dress is essential. It really does change your mindset.
This is a great post, Melinda. I wasn’t even aware of getting extra business insurance coverage because insurance companies may not cover your home if they find out that you’re using it for business.
Awesome tips here. Thanks for sharing.
Along the lines of watching your posture, you can switch your positions and chairs more often to stay comfortable. We use large yoga balls as backup chairs and alternate between them and a good office chair. And don’t forget to stretch your eyes! looking into a computer screen all day is not good, every so often, look away at something further so your eyes can exercise too 🙂 Aloha!