Create a Professional Home Office

Many freelancers have some dedicated space in their home in which to do their work. And setting up a great home office is key to your productivity, sanity, and professionalism.

Of course, some people don’t have an entire room in their home dedicated to a home office, but if you are serious about being a full-time freelancer, having this space makes business sense. Heck, I know people who have actually moved to a different home just so they could have a home office for their business. If this is something you are considering, read on…
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Office Design that Optimizes Worker Productivity

If only it were possible to design your office space in a way that would increase and optimize your worker’s productivity. Luckily for you, there is an easy fix to this problem. Using the ancient Chinese methods of Feng Shui and the basic principles of space, openness, and lighting, you can have your office looking great and your worker’s performing even better.

When most people think of the most important elements of an office, they think about desks, chairs, computers, and other office equipment necessary for day-to-day business. Many businesses give little thought to the design and layout of the office, but this is a mistake. A well-designed office will boost productivity and help workers feel better about their jobs and the com pany. Using the basic principles of Feng Shui, it is possible to optimize any work environment with a few simple design changes.
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How to Make the Most of a Small Workspace

Whether you’re a college student or city dweller, most of us have workspaces and offices much smaller than we’d like. Here’s how to get the most from your workspace, no matter how small it is.

Before we get started, we’re going to throw our most helpful tip out there. If you can empty the space that is, or will be, your workspace before getting started, your job as office makeover engineer will be much, much, easier. It’s less stressful to start with a blank slate and add items in than it is to try and work around the existing workspace. You’ll be fine either way, but if you can, start from empty.
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10 Tips for a More Beautiful and Functional Home Office

If you work from home, you owe it to yourself to set up a proper office space. It’s vital you have somewhere to concentrate that’s separate from your home life — and is hopefully a nice space to spend time in. A good working space is even more important if you operate your small business out of your home.

To help you out on this rather specific front, we have pulled together some useful tips from experienced home-workers and chatted with home office expert Lisa Kanarek, founder of WorkingNaked.com. Also keep in mind that having a home office can entitle you to certain tax breaks, so your investment can end up right back in your pocket.
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Freelance Offices of FreelanceSwitch Readers – 2012

Where a freelancer does his or her job is important. Some people prefer to work outside of their homes while others try to create a home office that gives them some space to be creative.

We recently asked our readers to send us photos of their home office to see where the magic happens. As you will see, no two offices are the same—and why should they be! We received photos from people who are freelance writers, designers, and web developers from around the world. Let’s see where our readers are working, shall we?
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5 Ideas for Choosing Your Home Office Equipment Setup

Now that you’ve made the decision to become a fulltime, stay-at-home freelancer, it’s time to start thinking of ways to outfit your home office. There are a few things to consider when choosing home office equipment – form and function being part of it, but personality is important, too. The equipment in your home office needs to fit a set of criteria; such as: be supportive, ergonomic, useful, durable, affordable and yes downright cool. Let’s look at a few ideas to consider as you setup your home office.
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10 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Home Office Cheaply

While most of your freelancing hours should go towards billable, client projects, it is also important to spend some time making your working life better. For me, nothing makes me feel happier at work than sitting in a nice office environment. Although I would love to have a really spectacular office filled with expensive designer furniture, the reality is what it is. Like any design project, you have to accept your constraints and work within them.
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The Top Myths About Working From Home

I found an article on startupsmart that I couldn’t resist reading and sharing with you. The story is about the top home-based business myths and I know you freelancers out there will be able to connect with at least one of these.
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Make Working at Home Work for You

If you work from a home office like me, I can almost guarantee that at some point you will have heard these words from the mouths of friends and/or family: “You work from home, how hard can it be?” or “You have the easiest job in world!”

You and I both know that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Working from the comfort of your own home isn’t easy. In fact, it presents a whole set of challenges that people who have the benefit of separate work and home environments never even consider.
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Five Tips for Running a Successful Home Office

There are a lot of stories written about home-based businesses—trust me, I just did a Google search. Working from home has changed drastically over the years, thanks to technology.

“If you think back not even 20 years about home-based businesses, you might envision a low-tech service business such as a daycare or landscaping company. To run a professional business, you needed to be located in commercial office space. Not only did commercial space provide the technical services you needed, but it also provided a professional atmosphere appropriate for meeting with clients.”—seacoastonline.com

Luckily, for us freelancers, that is no longer the case.

I have a computer, high speed internet, printer, and cell phone that allow me to do my work at home. And I have a nice office/laundry room to do it in. I know a bunch of people who work from home and I have some tips on how to run it right. See if you agree.
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9 Home-Office Hints: How to Achieve Healthy Separation

Working at home is the dream job for many, and why wouldn’t it be? Strolling around your living room in your pajamas after a successful conference call, working in the comfort of your favorite chair, and who can beat the zero-minute a day commute?

It’s easy to get into your work zone and forget that the other members of the family have the right to be there, too. I made the mistake of getting in the habit of bringing my laptop with me wherever I went in the house until my husband asked that our movie nights were a people-only event.

The key to a happy work-at-home life is separating your work from your life and respecting the other members of your family who didn’t agree to live in an office. Remember the three R’s: establish rules, get in a routine and put up roadblocks to avoid crossover.

Here are nine ways to keep a happy home-office/life environment.
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5 Techniques for Guarding the Sanctity of the Home Office

Undeniably, one of the most difficult things about working at home is keeping people from perpetually distracting you during the workday, simply because you’re right there and they have nothing better to do. Or want you to take the trash out right then and there (hey, it has happened to me!).

To get anything done, you’ve really got to guard the home office and its status as a distraction-free zone. You’ve got to guard it so fiercely, you might even call it guarding the sanctity of the office. Here are five methods I use for keeping distractions at bay.
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