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Set Boundaries Between Home and Work

All Play and No Work (or vise versa) Makes Jack and Jill Unsuccessful Business Owners

The success of your home-based business can be directly affected, not only by the boundaries that you establish to keep your home life separate from your work environment, but also by how well you enforce such guidelines. While some people have difficulties making these distinctions with their traditional nine-to-five job, it becomes even more critical for those who work from a home office where boundaries often blend.

Establish the framework of running your business from the very beginning of its creation. It will provide a serious tone to your endeavors that in turn conveys the need for those around you to work within such guidelines. It's easier for your family and friends to learn upfront what you consider to be acceptable during your business hours, than it is for them to get into the bad habit of doing something and then needing to be "retrained."

We're not just referring to creating boundaries between yourself and others. You also need to create divisions between your working space and your home environment, as well as delineate your personal time and the time that you commit to your business. We've discussed these issues in detail below, but we encourage you to take into consideration the specific needs of your business set-up, as well as your own home and family requirements.

• Unannounced Visits and/or Telephone Calls - A surefire way to reduce the productivity of your business is to allow others to infringe upon your scheduled work time. A "brief" visit from your sister, a "quick" telephone call from your best friend, or a ten-minute interaction with your child who's just returned home from school can quickly turn into a lost opportunity. Perhaps you'll be late for your scheduled visit with a valuable customer or you'll miss the telephone call from the vendor that you've been trying to resolve a shipping problem. While a true emergency warrants being interrupted while working, the need to share the latest gossip or simply to catch up on how one's day is going is probably best done outside of the business hours that you establish. If those activities could wait when you were holding down a "traditional" job, such should be the case when you're managing your own company.
• Separate Space for Your Business - Not everyone has the luxury of having an extra room or space on their property to set up their home business. Many people simply have to combine a guest room with a home office or use the kitchen table as their workspace. While that might be an acceptable structure for those who seldom, if ever, have their clients/customers/vendors visit them, it might not be suitable for home business owners that need their clientele to come to their office space. Make the best of whatever situation you have to work with by keeping the space you delineate as your work environment as neat, clean, and professional-looking as possible. Tuck the kid's toys in a different room and move the kitty litter box far from view (and smelling-range!).
• Separate Access for Your Business - Again, not everyone has a home that provides such a set-up. If you do, it's a great way to define your workspace from your home setting. The people you do business with will also probably be more comfortable entering directly into your work area, even if it is a multifunctional room, than they would be if they had to walk past your bedroom to reach your office. It's also easier to keep well-intentioned family and friends at bay with a closed door that serves as your business entrance and exit.
• Separate Communication Lines for Your Business - This includes having your own business telephone line, fax line, answering machine, email account, post office address, cell phone, and any other valuable lines of communication that your specific business requires. Face it, people want to hear a professional answer the telephone, not your six-year-old daughter and they certainly won't be thrilled about sending an email to hotmama@fakewebaddress.com when they'd rather do business with A1petcare@customerservice.com.
• Scheduled Work Periods - This is fair to not only your business contacts, but to you and your family as well. People want to know that you have an established time commitment to your work and that they can count on reaching you when you say that you're going to be in the office or reachable via cell phone, etc. On the flipside, your family wants to know that you're "all theirs" during certain hours of each day…no interruptions from customers calling or knocking at the door after business hours, no "I'll be back in a minute honey, I just thought of one more idea for my ad campaign," etc. Establishing a work routine gives you a time to focus on your business, time to share with others, and a chance to tend to your own needs. It's simply a matter of balance. If you're a morning person who thrives on being at your office desk by 4AM or a night owl who does your best work after 10PM, consider working during what others might deem to be non-traditional work hours. Do this only if you can still keep in touch with your clientele at times that are convenient for them and as long as you don't take time away from your own family or personal needs.
• Scheduled Break Times - All work and no rest periods can also make Jack and Jill very tired, frustrated, and all of those other nasty job burnout traits. Allow yourself at least to take a daily lunch break away from your office desk. Stretch your legs when needed even if it's simply to drive to the post office to retrieve your business mail (your personal mail can wait until later). Everyone deserves a break now and then, just don't allow yourself to go lay down for a "quick catnap" or to raid the refrigerator every hour on the hour. Stay focused, but be kind to yourself.

Don't consider the act of boundary setting to be a selfish one; there's nothing wrong with defining the environment that you perform the best. Ask for input from your family and friends, but set boundaries that you ultimately deem necessary. Let everyone know the guidelines that you eventually create and ask for their help in maintaining such boundaries. Those who care about you and wish you well with the pursuit of owning a successful, home-based business will not only understand but also respect your need to work within the confines that you have established.

Good luck finding the perfect home business opportunity!

PS - We'd like to hear from you!
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