Working from home is becoming the ideal for many people – a 2003 report stated that more than 50% of the incomers to one particular area in Wales were intending to work from home. As readers of this book on downshifting, you probably have similar plans – not dreams now, you’re thinking positive! As someone who has done it since 1985, first in London, then Wiltshire and now in the Scottish Highlands, I can commend it highly, but there are some considerations we must take on board. Let’s review these now, in some detail.

Working from home successfully

Working from home involves:

• establishing a workspace separate from your living space;
• designing or acquiring the facilities to help you work efficiently;
• keeping on top of your paperwork by having and using a system;
• being firm with yourself in setting and sticking to a work schedule;
• being equally firm in switching off and maintaining a domestic life;
• acquiring (and learning how to operate) the necessary technology;
• building up a range of local suppliers and tradespeople you can trust;
• identifying your different roles and maintaining (or delegating) them.

Let’s consider the implications of each.

Establishing a workspace

You really need to be able to close the door on your workspace and walk away from it. If you have children, whatever their age, you equally want to have a space which can be decreed out of bounds if you want. You need to be able to concentrate when you’re in work mode, so you’ll have to think carefully about arrangements if you have young children around. It’s also valuable to be able to shut out family pets if there’s any danger that they might hit the delete button with their paw or get their tail caught in your lathe, potter’s wheel or other equipment.

Then there’s the question of whether clients will be coming to visit you. Where this is fairly infrequent, it can be acceptable to hold your meeting in the sitting or dining room. For consultancy types of work, the visiting client will expect you to have a functional office, even though you might choose to meet him in your dining room (your version of the ‘boardroom’). Have your materials and paperwork to hand and dress professionally. If necessary, excuse yourself and go to your office to get additional materials – it reinforces the fact that you have one.

Your workspace may be more workshop than office, in which case you’ll want to keep it separate to cut down on noise and dust entering your living space. Each situation will have slightly different requirements, but in all cases you will have some set-up which allows you to keep your business affairs separate and in order.

Take advice on health and safety issues – it’s best to keep visitors out of any area which involves working equipment (your insurance may stipulate that anyway) and these visitors will include family members. Don’t get careless just because you’re working at home. Business rules still apply.

Designing or acquiring the facilities

If you’ve already worked as an employee doing similar work, you should be fairly clear about the facilities you’ll require, from the absolute necessities through to the total luxuries. Let’s focus on office space for a start.

If you’re planning to work as a consultant, writer, designer or in some other activity which is largely thinking/writing/communicating, this is likely to be your entire work space. If you’re involved in activities which require more of a workshop environment, or work out and about, running a market garden, holiday cottage business or estate, you should still have a separate, although smaller office area to allow you to keep your paperwork under control.

So, what do you need in your office space? You’ll need:

• a desk with enough space for your computer, phone and writing room;
• a comfortable chair;
• suitable lighting;
• filing and storage cabinets or cupboards;
• book shelves or, preferably, closable cupboards;
• table or workshelf space to spread work out (dependent on your job);
• technological equipment (expanded in a later section);
• potentially, a sitting area for thinking/meeting clients.

Additional facilities will be important to individuals – heaters, if a warm atmosphere helps your concentration, and a music system, for similar or creative reasons. Clock, calendar, inspirational or motivational picture, large pot plant, kettle – it’s up to you.

When designing your room layout, you may be in the situation where you can specify the location of power and communication sockets. To avoid trailing cables, it’s an idea to have at least one double socket on each wall where you are likely to install equipment. Your phone socket and any additional internet/fax link-ups you may have should be accessible from your desk. Basically, if you need to use any piece of equipment or facility on a regular basis, it should be available and ready for use in your office. The key tools of your trade should take priority place.

If you need a more practical workshop arrangement to carry out your vocation, the positioning of equipment, storage for raw materials, tools and accessories should again be arranged for most convenient use. Where your work will create dust or fumes, consider the need for extractor fans. The positioning of power take-off points and sockets will also be important. As we’ve already mentioned, try to have a separate, clean area for your office administration, to maintain a positive, professional standard and appearance.

Keeping on top of your paperwork

Administration – or lack of it – has been the downfall of many a self-employed tradesman. Compared with just 20 years ago, we seem to have become burdened with ever-increasing amounts of paperwork. Most of it is not too complex – it’s more a case of having a system and applying it consistently and constantly.

Remember, bigger companies have full-time admin departments. To you, it’s part of a wider job, but you must keep on top of it. You’ll be aware of the need to get, keep and file receipts for all your purchases which you can claim against the business. File them regularly, preferably on the day you receive them, because if you lose them you can’t claim against them. Where your total receipts are limited, it helps if you briefly note details of each numbered document on a front sheet. If you’re multi-tasking with more than one business operating out of the same office, try to keep the documentation for each business separate. For things like receipts, you can obviously claim only once against each receipt for tax purposes (for your petrol, for example). In this case, it’s a matter of sharing the bills/receipts between the different business books or charging different percentages relative to work completed.

As business develops, you’ll find yourself with more and more active files of work in hand and maintaining and prioritizing the flow of these jobs becomes increasingly difficult. Again a simple tool to use here is a ‘things to do’ list. This is another simple administrative device, which can give great satisfaction when you tick completed items. You don’t need any fancy personal planner system; a sheet of paper will do. Simple as it may seem, maintaining a ‘things to do’ list helps you keep on top of the job and appear professional to the people who count – both your staff and your customers.

Setting and sticking to a work schedule

We mentioned earlier about being able to physically close the door on your workplace and have a life. Increasingly, companies are allowing members of staff to work from home for a percentage of their time, although this mysteriously leans towards more senior management, with Friday being a popular day. You might therefore have already had some experience of maintaining the regularity of a business day while home-based.

If planning to work from your office on some form of consultancy-type work, you may be costing this out to the client on a daily basis. If you’re working professionally, this will encourage you to put in a full seven-hour-plus day (although of course it doesn’t have to be nine to five). Don’t be tempted down the 24/7 route – it’s totally unnecessary, in our opinion. You have flexibility over your working day – have an hour off in the afternoon and work into the evening a bit to compensate. After all, you are the boss!

In many jobs, you can work more flexibly still where you’re making your money from the output rather than charging by time. One of the beauties of being self-employed is that with a higher day rate or potential earnings, you don’t have to work all week to earn enough. It may take some time to come to terms with this concept if you’ve spent years as an employee but, once achieved, it allows you to enjoy your quieter times without worrying financially.

In our self-catering cottage business, our busy day is changeover day on Saturday. Once the new guests have arrived and have been settled in, we can concentrate on administration, booking and marketing matters, which still leaves plenty of free time in between. Take some time out – pause for a stretch, a short ‘thinking break’, a cup of something, even a quick stroll round the garden – they all help you to work more effectively during your active, creative periods. Don’t feel guilty, just think of all the interruptions you had when you were employed – and how many of them came at the wrong times, when you were in the middle of a creative phase.

With an awareness of your average working day and its expected output, you can gauge whether you have produced enough to personally declare your working day a productive success. You might create milestones for yourself – produce three turned pots, write ten pages of a business report, draft an outline design for a client’s home extension, for example. If you do, you’ll then be able to monitor how effective you’ve been. As a general observation, self-employed people tend to work longer rather than shorter days overall. The concern therefore is perhaps more regarding the alternative viewpoint: ring-fencing time for normal living.

Maintaining a domestic life

With our increased level of flexibility, we can for example include a visit to the cinema after a business meeting in town. You could take a break from work for half an hour to play with the children or dogs, progress some of the community activities you’ve found time to be involved with or sit with a drink and have a chat with your partner. Somehow, it makes the living that bit more delicious when you are able to do it while others are out there working.

I guess the issue we need to focus on here is the downshifting rather than your new self-employed existence. It’s natural for someone setting up a new business to perhaps spend an excessive number of hours working while building it up. However, we’re in the business of downshifting and one of the implicit things associated with this should be slowing down your working life a couple of notches. Find the time to live a little. Think about your family and those sharing your life aspect – and spend some quality time with them.

Work out what work/life balance really means to you. This will give you more direct control over the times when you work – and when you don’t. Keep refining and revising that balance until you find something that suits.

Acquiring the necessary technology

The internet has revolutionized communication, both business and personal, and it’s important that you use the various facilities to the full. Broadband access is still patchy nationally but improving, and will extend the features you can incorporate. If your business will expand through thinking globally, an interactive website is another must – just make sure you keep it up to date and refreshed.

ICT specialists often say that your average computer user (that’s us, folks!) uses only a fraction of the equipment’s capabilities. While I don’t believe in using technology just for the sake of it, do take time to make yourself aware of the scope available. In addition, mobile phones have had an immense impact on the way small companies can do business, especially if your work takes you away from your home base and you don’t have anyone to answer your conventional, land-line phone.

The office copier of ten years ago has become an integrated multifunctional machine, while reducing in price fairly dramatically over the same period. One machine can now act as computer printer, scanner, copier and fax, although if you’re involved in a lot of bulk copying, it may still be worth considering a dedicated copier. Also pay close attention to the cost of the ink cartridges and printer supplies – and whether you buy colour cartridges singly or as a three-colour composite unit – when selecting your equipment. You could be seduced into buying a piece of kit because it’s cheap, only to find that the recurring inflated costs of the supplies soon cancel out any apparent savings.

Even telephones have advanced greatly over recent years. Digital systems with base units and remote pre-registered handsets can be used in separate locations around your property, reducing the need for additional wiring. Basically, it’s a case of sitting down and working out what your priorities are in terms of both equipment and facilities. It can be stated fairly confidently nowadays that the technology is available in a near perfect permutation to satisfy your particular business needs.

Building up a range of local suppliers

If you’re relocating to a new area, it will take time to discover the range of suppliers and related trades which you’ll require in order to carry out your new business. If you’re living in a relatively remote area, with the nearest major town or city many miles away, it makes it that bit harder.

It is likely that many of your potential suppliers are small to medium enterprises (SMEs) where you can still go along and talk to the guy who actually does the work and knows the fine detail about the job. Somehow, people tend to have more time to talk in country areas. Go with the flow – not only will you cement relationships which will be helpful in the future, you’ll also find solutions to many of your unanswered questions if you also listen.

Living in more remote areas, you’ll soon realize the benefits of the various catalogue companies which deliver services and products direct to your door. These cover business supplies as well as clothing and domestic equipment. The promised next day-service drifts a little when you live in these areas of the country using subcontracted local carrier companies, but it’s still a wonderful service.

There’s another point to bear in mind when building up your local network of business relationships. People in small communities talk to each other – there’s very little that you do that will not be observed and passed around the village before nightfall! Develop a reputation for being a fast payer of bills received for services rendered by these local companies. It will pay dividends when you finally need that emergency call-out.

Identifying your different roles

As we’ve already said, if you’re working from home as a very small business, you’ll probably be involved in a wide range of activities. One of the problems which you have to get to grips with is seeing ahead and keeping everything moving forward. However busy you are at completing the necessary work for today, you should always be thinking ahead towards future work. If you don’t have a next contract, what are you doing now to set up the next piece of work? Short gaps between work are OK, but long gaps represent no income while you’ll still have the monthly outgoings to meet. That’s a real recipe for stress.

Being aware of the different elements of the job and how well you can cope with them will help you make further judgements of your level of competency in the different roles. This allows you to identify the areas where you really would be better to delegate or outsource. There’s no failure in that. Instead, spend the time doing what you are good at; earn the extra money and then use it to buy in the specialist services you require. Unless it’s a unique, expensive service, you’ll probably finish up paying out less than you earned in the equivalent time – and get a better result.

Where do we stand?

So we have both the facilities and the people sides of setting up in your new business. We’re working on the general assumption that your move has probably involved a shift from urban to rural existence. We’ve underlined the fact that there are different ways of doing things out in the country, with variations in diverse country areas. Some areas have a stronger aversion to incomers than others; some have a greater ’mañana’ attitude; some are very dependent on tourism and visitors, with the implications on seasonal trade; some have become heavily grant-dependent from EU funding, which tends to have a negative effect on the entrepreneurial spirit.

As well as coming to terms with the human relations side of moving to the countryside, there are many physical, building-related differences which you need to be aware of, such as septic tanks, private water supplies and potential power cuts. It’s time to consider some of these.