I consider myself very fortunate. I have a beautiful home with a beautiful view of the Rockies in a beautiful part of the country. I also have a great office staffed with fantastic people.
And the two are separate.
That isn\’t everyone\’s goal. I\’ve met lots of people whose dream is to give up the commute and start working from home.
I can understand that. I\’ve done that.
But I can also see the disadvantages, and they\’re important for every new Internet entrepreneur to be aware of.
When you work from home, you\’re never away from the workplace. Your email is always right at hand. Your stats are always available. Your spare moments can easily be swapped for time in front of the computer, expanding your marketing or creating new content.
It\’s just too easy to become a workaholic, especially in the early stages of an online business when there\’s so much to learn and so much to do.
Creating separate work spaces is one easy way to avoid that temptation and to keep your family first. If you can\’t – or don\’t want — to do that by using an outside office, then making sure you have a separate space somewhere in your home, even if it\’s only a corner of the garage, can be big help.
You can also set strict time limits on the day by forcing yourself to stop working at seven and telling your spouse that he or she can throw things at you (or at least, make you empty the dishwasher) if you go anywhere near the computer at the weekends.
But best of all, you can plan ahead. One of the biggest reasons that home-based business can be so appealing, even when their owners should be resting and playing, is that deadlines promised to readers and agreements with joint venture partners can feel so pressing.
That can be cured with careful and realistic planning and an understand of how long projects really do take to complete. That\’s always a good skill to have anyway, and when you get it right, it\’s the sort of thing that can make you feel very lucky too.