Working From Home

[TheActualLiz]

My husband and I both work from home. We have one main business that we are trying to get out of as soon as some agreements have been met and that will take time.

We also have a collectibles business that we are trying to set up but that also takes time, money, and networking.

I am also working on a part time jewelry hobby/business that takes up a lot of space.

We are doing all of this out of a two bedroom apartment so there are a couple small issues we are running into.

1. It frequently feels (at least to me) more like we live in an office than we work in a home. I would love some advice on how to make home feel more like home.

2. Space and silence have become huge luxury items we can rarely afford.

3. Our main business is very stressful and draining. Unfortunately it is the only one established enough to cover our bills at this time... plus we have students and an investor that we cannot just drop.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Liz

[bl8tant]

I worked from home for 12 glorious years and would love to return to being able to do so. It is really hard to separate work and home, though, and it's good that you're trying to draw more of a bright line between the two.

Does your business give you time during the day when you're not working? If so, perhaps an inexpensive shoji screen (or, heck, even a drop cloth) that physically hides your desk or other office stuff might help make the switch between Work Liz and Home Liz easier. To the extent that you can keep all the work in one room, that would help, too.

Depending on the nature of your business, is it something you could occasionally do outside the home? For example, can you write (or create web pages, or whatever) from the local coffee shop/Panera Bread/etc? If one of you can occasionally work someplace else that will help provide a bit of quiet for whoever stays in the apartment, plus they can bring a snack back :)

Good luck!

[miztrniceguy]

It can be challenging working from home. My wife has been doing it for 7 years. Until recently doing medical transcription.She stopped that to concentrate fully on our publishing/media company converting other peoples books into different e-book formats for them to sell. Since people are lining up for her to work with them she doesn't get a lot of time. We are fortunate to have a house and have an office space.

Her biggest challenge is people who don't understand she is WORKING not just hanging around the house...."No I'm sorry Sister Smith you cannot drop by in 10 minutes for an unscheduled visit." "No I'm sorry Sisters, I cannot drop what I'm doing to go out with you to visit an investigator". Why don't people understand that? They wouldn't stop by anyone's office outside the home for the same request.

[TheActualLiz]

Thank you both so much for the advice!

We (well my husband mostly) did a lot of work separating things as much as possible. The CCG stuff is in the second bedroom, the bead work is in the living room (which I need to better organize), and the computer lab is in the dining room (actually it is a full blown office that takes up the whole room).

Some of the CCG work actually needs to be done outside the home at tournaments, conventions, and the local shop. A large part of the work at this point is walking around those locations with a binder and trading based on differences in value when dealing with different markets. Its kind of like a mini stock exchange.

Bringing my bead work to someplace like Panera would be a good idea because I could promote while working on construction. The only problem with that is some businesses get annoyed if you sit there for 4 hours working. I will have to think of a good location that would not mind.

I completely empathize with not having work space/work time respected. I have to admit that sometimes we are even guilty of that with each other! I will be working on a piece that literally cannot be put down without starting over or he will be on the computer doing math calculations that are way over my head and we will just forget that is not the best time to give a back rub or start chatting. I guess I should keep that in mind next time I have to decline an activity for work reasons and people get offended.

Thanks again for your help :-)