1. You get more done
Productivity can be a boring topic, so I’m not going to bang on about it.
Essentially though, you can get a lot more done running a business from home. There’s no interruptions or casual chatter to distract you from achieving some solid outcomes.
This is of course as long as you have a quiet room with a door on it that you can close while you’re at work.
And if the surrounding environment is never quiet, a good set of ear muffs have done the trick nicely for me in the past.
2. You save time and resources
There are many benefits of working from home. But one of the greatest privileges of doing so is not having to spend time (most importantly), as well as money travelling to and from a place of business or work every day. There is such beauty and joy in being able to close off whatever you’re working on, and less than one minute later to be relaxing on the couch. Or if you’re like me, stuffing your face full of chocolate in the kitchen.
Time is the one thing that all of us want more of, and getting an hour of extra time at the start and at the end of the day is one of the most beautiful advantages in the world for me.
3. Your business is about you, and so is your home
Running a business from a home office can make good economic sense in certain industries because you save yourself the costs associated with renting or buying business premises elsewhere.
There are also other advantages. Your home, whether you rent it or own it is a property you’ve chosen. It’s a space that you like, and it’s a reflection of you. This means that you’re working in a space where you’re comfortable and happy, and happy people are more productive.
Because your business is a reflection of you, it also fits that your home is the nerve centre of it. Even if you have business premises that you need to attend most of the time, working from home is super powerful when you need to do that regular “work on your business,” rather than the other “work in your business.” And you need a distraction free space to do this in.
4. You choose when you communicate and/or meet with people
Running my business from home still allows me to communicate with people when it suits me, instead of being distracted by them when I need to get something important done. When I need to talk to a human being, I can hop on the phone or I can go out and talk to prospective or current clients. There are always ways to get some human communication into your day and plenty of ways to avoid home office loneliness.
5. There’s a beautiful furry creature around
Animals are hands down the best company in the world. If you’re lucky enough to have a pet, running your business from home means you get to work in the same household as a beautiful furry creature. Being able to pat my beautiful cat during my lunch break is honestly the greatest mood boost known to humankind. I’m lucky, because I also have two chooks that scratch around the yard constantly doing their busy chook thing. They’re not keen on a pat, but just watching them busily fossicking about the garden at break time is absolutely awesome.
6. There’s privacy
If you’re like me and occasionally you have one or more scary large and weeping cold sores on your lip, you don’t have to worry because you’re working from home.
Do you need to ring your doctor about that nasty venereal disease at lunch time? If you work from home you don’t have to discuss it with strangers in earshot while you’re wandering along on a cold city street. Want to microwave a large bowl of tuna mornay or eat sardines without worrying about stinking up the whole office? If you work from home you can just go for it. Don’t feel like trowelling on six inches of make up before starting work? Don’t bother, you’re beautiful just as you are and you’re working from home anyway.
Summary: There are so many benefits associated with working from home
I’d just like to end on a super important note.
It took a number of less than wonderful workplace experiences to make me appreciate the benefits of working from home. I’ve worked in factories, and worked night shift in one for a short while. I’ve worked for an organisation where I was one of 20,000 employees. I was basically paid to sit in a cubicle and to cop a certain amount of abuse because of the organisation’s incompetence. I’ve worked in jobs where the endless and increasing amounts of work I put in never achieved a return, because there’d always be some other gigantic mistake made by someone else, or some hangover from the past that would rear its ugly head to drown me in more work and leave me exhausted. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
Running my business from home is an absolute privilege and a blessing, and I’m forever grateful for it.
© Annemaree Jensen