When you start your first business, working from home can seem like an attractive idea. After all, it’s much less expensive than renting an office somewhere, and it’s more convenient as you won’t have to commute at all. Many businesses are choosing to allow their employees to work from home, knowing that they have chosen the right people thanks to biotechnology recruitment agencies and other specialists, and it can be a great idea, boosting productivity and employee happiness.
Yet it’s not for everyone, and it doesn’t have to be your only option when you’re starting. With the right business plan and finances in place, you can find an office space that suits you if you find that working from home just isn’t what you want. Here are some of the reasons why working from home isn’t a great option for some people.
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Running a business can be a lonely enterprise at the best of times, and if you opt to work from home, you really will be isolated. This can help people to focus and be productive, but it can also have the opposite effect; it can make people feel very lonely, and they won’t push themselves forward as much as they should and could.
If you enjoy having company around you, then working from home on your own is a bad idea. Instead, if you have no colleagues as you are just starting out or you don’t need to hire anyone because of what you do, you could hire a space in a shared office environment and hot desk, for example. You then have the choice of whether to use that space or to work from home, and when you are out of the house, there will be lots of people around you to bounce ideas off and stimulate thought.
If you work from home, you are going to need a dedicated office to do so. It’s almost impossible to run a successful business if you are sitting at a kitchen or dining table and your family is carrying out their everyday lives around you. Also, having a desk in your bedroom is just as tricky and can lead to lower productivity and an issue with getting the right level of the work-life balance; work would never really stop, and boundaries would be hard to put in place.
If you don’t have the space to work from home from a separate study, it can be better to search outside the home for a comfortable workspace. Alternatively, you could have a building built in the garden to house your business, giving you the best of both worlds and offering much more flexible working for when your business grows.
Even if you have the space and you like being by yourself, working from home on your own can be problematic if you are a natural procrastinator. It can be beneficial to be around other people as they will push you to work and not allow you to be distracted.
No matter how hard you try, keeping yourself focused on your work when you are on your own and in your own home with the TV, radio, internet, and other options only a moment away is much more difficult than you might think.
