Working From Home

Working from home can seem to offer the perfect lifestyle. No bus or train to catch, no traffic jams, no bad weather to contend with. Get up when you want to, work when it suits you, and take time off whenever you like. Sounds too good to be true?

The workplace in your home

Working from home can seem to offer the perfect lifestyle. No bus or train to catch, no traffic jams, no bad weather to contend with. Get up when you want to, work when it suits you, and take time off whenever you like. Sounds too good to be true?

For some people, working at home is the perfect solution. For example, it can help people to combine a career with family commitments. Others find that they miss the company of work colleagues.

However, even if you have the space at home to create a work area, and even if you find the right business idea – there’s still a lot to consider.

Where to put your work area

The lounge, a spare bedroom, the garden shed, or the kitchen table – homeworkers establish their work areas wherever they can. Wherever you decide to locate yourself, you will need to think about how it will affect other family members.

If you need peace and quiet, for example, it’s probably not a good idea to site your work area where the rest of the family is constantly passing through.

You might also need to consider where the power points are in the room, if you will need an extra telephone point or line, or if you need a store-room – which could be your garage. Depending on the type of business you’re running, you might need to make major alterations to your home.

You will also need to consider health and safety issues such as making sure the seating and lighting are right for you. You might also have to consider making your work area secure.

Neighbours and permissions

Working from home will almost certainly have an impact on your family life. Depending on the type of work you do, it could also affect your neighbours, for example, if your work produces noise or fumes, or leads to large numbers of visitors or significant increases in traffic-flow and parking.

You may also need permissions, licences and approvals from, for example, your mortgage-lender, landlord or local authority departments such as planning. You may also have to review your home insurance arrangements.

You will need to check with the Valuation Office Agency to see if you will have to pay business rates on the part of your property that you work in.

In summary, working from home might involve:

  • building society/landlord permissions
  • local authority permissions
  • paying business rates on part of your property
  • food hygiene licences
  • fire certificates
  • a health and safety risk assessment
  • an insurance review.

If all this seems daunting, remember that there are people who can help with advice and information – some of which is free. Contact your local:

  • Business Link office (or website)
  • bank manager
  • office
  • department
  • library
  • Health and Safety Executive office (or see their website).

Other professionals such as accountants, solicitors, financial advisers and business consultants can also be useful if you’re prepared to pay for their services.

Dealing with interruptions

A common complaint of homeworkers is that just when they are trying to concentrate, someone calls – often friends or family. It’s wise at the outset to remind people tactfully that you are actually working at home.

You could try to establish certain times on certain days when you can be available for a chat over a cup of tea. In fact, as long as you can keep some control over when you’re available, keeping in touch with people is a good thing.

What you lose and what you gain

You could work from home and remain an employee of a company – in which case you may have the best of both worlds.

The company will still be responsible for paying you, and for your training. It will usually have to assess your health and safety and contribute to the cost of your equipment and running costs. You will also be able to call on support services such as IT help.

However, if you decide to work from home as a self-employed individual, your situation will change.

In return for your independence, you may give up certain benefits which, as an employed person, you may have taken for granted. For example:

  • You will be responsible for your own sickness pay and holiday pay.
  • You may not be able to guarantee a regular flow of work, or regular income.
  • You will probably need to arrange your own pension provision.