(Image artist: Tim Holt)
Working in a home office environment can be… well, for lack of a better word, self-defeating. I mean, not only do you have to deal with the constant reminder from your postal carrier, clients, and friends that you are not a real business, but you also have to deal with the wife, kids, pets (probably your best employees out of the bunch), and a host of other financial unpleasantries. But before I go off ranting incoherently about my own office blues, there’s a knock at the front door. Perhaps the ghost of home office Christmas past to offer an affordable 900 square foot office rental?
Nope, just my retired next door neighbor dropping by to share some of his fresh made, heavily alcohol endowed egg nog. It may be two in the afternoon, but the home office knows no boundaries when it comes to neighbors, family, friends, telemarketers, cable guys, plumbers, carpet cleaners… and the list goes on. I am, after all, a technically unemployed businessman, absent of the taste and touch of a real business.
One of the biggest challenges on a day to day basis, is not balancing the spending charts, or coordinating schedules with my clients, but yelling “phone!” whenever the telephone rings to make sure all stereos and Playstations get turned down, remembering to put my robe on before I answer the door in my underwear, and finding the beginning and end to my day since it seems like I am always working. I guess if you think about it, I am always at work. I can’t get away from it unless I am either mowing the lawn, washing the car, or shoveling dog bombs off the back porch.
But the true Holiday Home Office Blues doesn’t officially attack until once the bills of Christmas present begin to pile on top of the ones from Christmas past. I am kidding here of course, but for many of us this is an unfortunate reality. If this does sound like your current situation, perhaps it is time to pay a visit with Tiny Tim (a.k.a. The National Association for the Self Employed).
NASE can give you advice on Tax deductions, affordable health insurance, methods of screening and hiring new employers, and keep you informed of the latest trends and developments of small business. On the same note, SOHO (Small Office Home Office) will give you access to discount coupons, calling cards, and articles on marketing, financing, debt, credit cards, and creating a business plan for 2011.
Last night upon logging out of the NASE website I was at last visited by the ghost of home office Christmas past. I was reminded of the nights I did not get home until both the wife and kids were in bed, sitting in a meeting when I should have been cheering the volley ball team to victory, traveling the countryside with my briefcase instead of my family, and suddenly I saw things in a different light. Holiday home office blues no more, I am actually a very lucky man… a very lucky man indeed!