Work From Home

Home Office Command Centre by Zach Beauvais via Flickr Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0

If you’ve set up a home office recently you’ll know it’s really easy to spend thousands of dollars on those old basics, a good chair and desk.

And why not, if money is no object? Especially if you are working full time from home and are going to be spending a lot of time in that chair, at that desk.

I have in the past spent that sort of money on home office furniture. With what I know now, I wish I’d economised on the furniture and put the money I’d saved into marketing and lead generation.

“But”, you may be asking, “what about the ergonomic considerations? Shouldn’t we take all the care we can to create a healthy working environment?”

No question about that. I’m just saying you should not feel you have to spend thousands to cover that aspect of creating a healthy environment.

In fact, from some research I did for an article I wrote a few months ago, Designing an Ergonomic Home Office, I was able to establish to at least my own satisfaction that you could set up a whole, ergonomically sound home office for less than $1,000.

Including an ergonomic chair + desk combination.

So before you head off to buy up big at your local office suppliers, do yourself a favor and consider what’s essential for an ergonomic office chair and desk setup. You’ll find it all spelled out in that article I mentioned above, on designing an ergonomic home office.

Make sure you note the tip there about using a laptop or notebook computer on your desk. Using a simple stand – as I mention in that article, I bought mine for under $50 – will work wonders for your posture, because you actually won’t be able to slouch without affecting your ability to read the screen. Of course you’ll need an external keyboard and mouse, but they will not be budget-breakers.

Image Credit: Home Office, Command Centre, by Zach Beauvais, via Flickr, Creative Commons CC BY-SA

Coffee Time picture by antwerpenR on Flickr CC BY 2.0

One thing I regret about how I handled the early phase of setting up and managing my home based business is that I did not put enough value on catching up regularly with friends and former colleagues for a general chat.

I did meet up with people, but too often that was an excuse for a pitch session on my part, looking for business either from them directly or from people to whom they might refer me.

Not that there is anything wrong with pitching.

It’s just that it took me a while to realize that when that was the purpose of my invitation to get tother, the courteous thing to do, the proper business etiquette, was to be upfront about the fact that I wanted to pitch my ideas or business proposition.

But what I really want to talk about here is not so much about that kind of pitch session, but more about the catching up that is focused on maintaining bonds of friendship and collegiality and where the expectation of both parties is about stimulating conversation, the exchange of ideas, a bit of gossip and general good fellowship.

If business flows from that, so be it. But in such a getting together there may be very little direct reference to our business, or none at all.

We are social beings and much as I love social media I also love maintaining face to face connections.

I get great stimulation and support from my worldwide circle of friends and colleagues on social media, but I also put a high value on the enjoyment and value I get from meeting up with people face to face and having good, free-ranging conversations about whatever takes our fancy on the day.

It’s good for a balanced social life and in my book having a balanced social life helps us be and remain fully functioning human beings. That can surely be only beneficial for our business, at least in the long term and often in the short term too.

And even if we may want at times to meet with the same people to pitch a product or a service of ours, that will surely be better received if there have been other times when there has been no such agenda.

As I explained in a post I wrote recently for the MYOB blog, 3 key challenges in running a business from home:

It’s also important to not restrict such catch ups to when we want something from the other person, or want to pitch something. It’s not necessarily helpful to be always in full-on pitching and selling mode. And it’s my experience that great ideas and great referrals can come from very relaxed, “agenda free” get-togethers.

But my experience is that weeks and even months can slip by without our getting together with the people whose company and conversation we know we would enjoy if only we made the time.

So it’s important to schedule these meetups.

By the way, although it can certainly be agreeable to join in group meetups, for a different quality and depth of conversation we should make sure we have some one-on-one meetups in that schedule.

Do you make a practice of meeting up regularly with friends and colleagues, just to keep in touch, as distinct from talking about your business?

Image credit: Coffee Time, by Roger Price, antwerpenR on Flickr, CC BY 2.0