Working from home? Pro's and Con's

Hi All,

Bit random but lots of small business owners on here so thought I'd get the opinion on those with experience operating exclusive home offices.

Basically I have an office in the city, but find despite being only 8km's out of the CBD it takes on average around 45 mins each way at peak hour just to commute.

My business is not a go to business as I generally meet clients at their offices or a coffee shop, so the only purpose of the office is clerical work. The nature of my business means virtually all my employees are remotely located anyway and the couple which aren't easily could be.

So the crux of the questions is, does it work? and What are the con's?

Assuming a completely separate room with no distractions tv's etc and all the necessary office equipment.

I just think 45mins commute x 2 (each way) x 5 days x 48 weeks (allow 4 weeks for annual leave) equates to a crazy 360 hours a year saved or 15 whole days. Which are essentially spent polluting the earth more, adding to congestion + fuel + tolls.

It seems the obvious move if I can do it, but as they say "the grass is not always greener on the otherside". Or is it?
 
It's also possible to get a virtual office, where the phone is answered for you and you have access to real office space when you need it.

Working at home can be a challenge sometimes. I've never ha an office but I've just completed a full time diploma at home via internet.

One problem is other people at home. Despite all efforts, your children/flatmates/significant other may find it very difficult not to interrupt you.

Neighbourhood noise can be a problem.

Or it can be difficult when you're in an environment which has always been a place to relax and take it easy. Getting up and starting work can be a motivational problem.

Financially you may be able to avoid the rent of your main office and travel expense. You may wish to claim a portion of your home running costs against tax, but if you own your home, that will reduce the CGT exempt portion of the house when you sell.
 
I have worked from home for the last 2 years - job involves interacting with colleagues in Asia and the US so working working flexible hours.

I love not having to sit in the traffic and the flexibility it allows. I have a separate office in a separate part of the house and a much better setup at home than I would have if I went into the office. I spend at least 1/2 my day talking to people so I don't miss the people contact which can be a disadvantage.

I don't get many interruptions as no kids and partner goes to the office - when he is home often we are both working in our separate offices so no problems there.

I am quite disciplined with my work practices but do take advantage of the flexibility. Watch point is you can work even more hours than if you are in an office job.

Its great to be able to manage home activities - deliveries, tradesmen, preparing the dinner etc and its improved my lifestyle and reduced my stress levels considerably.

My friends are generally working and no close living relatives to drop in.

If you can give it a go - and give it a few months to adjust then I would go for it.
 
I used to have my office at home. Only had an hour or so of work to do there and the rest was on site. Problem I found was because it is in your face you find yourself sneaking in there at odd times to do things. It sounds like a dream scenario to work from home but it kind of sucks because you are always at work then. It's good to be able to walk away from all the $hit at the end of the day.:cool:
 
It depends on the nature of the work and the person. I suspect if your job is reactive as opposed to proactive it might be easier e.g. if stuff lobs by email and needs to be dealt with quickly.
I can't do it - not because of the work, but because of me. I last about half an hour working at home and then I want to get the tools out and work on a project or do some stuff in the garden.
I met a mortgage broker once who had a home office and not much discipline. The only way he could make it work was he sealed the entry to the office from the rest of the house and put in an external door. Then every morning, he got up, put on a suit, got in his car and went down to the shops to get the paper and a coffee, and came back home and entered the office through the external door.
We have a few people who work from home, but I make myself go to the office most days. I also like being in the city.
Noodle, you mention you travel to the city in peak hour. Why? If it's your business, perhaps you can choose the time you travel and work from home part of the time.
Scott
 
I can't do it - not because of the work, but because of me. I last about half an hour working at home and then I want to get the tools out and work on a project or do some stuff in the garden.

This is why hubby could never have worked from home (or me for that matter). He would want to build a billy cart for the kids and I would be wanting to hang the washing out or mop the floors, or watch telly.

I met a mortgage broker once who had a home office and not much discipline. The only way he could make it work was he sealed the entry to the office from the rest of the house and put in an external door. Then every morning, he got up, put on a suit, got in his car and went down to the shops to get the paper and a coffee, and came back home and entered the office through the external door.
We have a few people who work from home, but I make myself go to the office most days. I also like being in the city.
Noodle, you mention you travel to the city in peak hour. Why? If it's your business, perhaps you can choose the time you travel and work from home part of the time.
Scott

I love your broker story. Our broker works from home, has a door from a hallway into his office, but also an external door. He does dress for work, and keeps work hours. We are friends, but I would never think to call him on the weekend or after 5pm (unless it was really urgent) because I respect his family time. I've called after 5pm and left messages and he gets back to me the next day.

We are friends, so if I really need an answer quickly, I would call his mobile (which he gives on his answering machine) or his home number because I know that number.

Without some discipline, working from home could be a disaster, but with some rules and if you can resist the urge to sneak off and make billy carts, you could make it work.

I've asked our friend if he ever works in his pyjamas and he just laughs. I notice he does honour casual Friday though.
 
I've been working from home for the past 14 years - it suits me and the type of work I do, but I know plenty of people who would go insane if stuck at home all day without the office dynamics and socialisation.

You definitely need a separate work area - in reality, a separate dedicated room where you can close the door on everyone/everything else while working. You really do need to be able to separate home from work.

I know some people cope with the temptations by making a point of getting dressed ready for work and saying goodbye to their SO & kids before making the "commute" to their office - then at the end of the day, they get changed out of their work clothes and revert to "home" mode. It's a good way of psychologically separating work life from home life.

Personally, I like to work in my most comfortable/daggy clothes, so I never go to that extreme.

It is a lot more difficult with kids around - I've had to train my kids to understand that Papa is at work when the gate to my office is closed ... I've had to train my wife too - just because I'm at home, doesn't mean you can come and ask me to help out with all the little things - you really need to act like I'm really out at work.

I have a child security gate across the doorway to my office so that I can leave the door open (for ventilation - my office is a sunroom and gets very hot!) but still have a "barrier" letting people know I'm working. I recently removed it temporarily while doing some cleaning and it caused all sorts of problems - once the barrier was gone, I had a lot of trouble keeping the kids out. My son has been old enough to open the gate for years now, but he still (mostly) respects the gate being closed means not to disturb Papa.

The isolation can be difficult for some people - but if you regularly go out to visit clients, that's not so bad. Being a software developer, there are a number of online chatrooms which I hang out in, and I socialise with other people doing similar work to me - which has proven to be very useful, since I can also bounce questions and ideas of them too.

An obvious downside to a home office is that you do need to furnish it - but the upside is that you get to choose the furniture. I suggest you don't skimp - get a good quality ergonomic chair, high quality external monitor / keyboard / mouse etc.

You can also try things like using a standing desk, or if you are into the extreme stuff, try tread-desking (treadmill under your desk, walk while you work).

I'm about to transition to a height-adjustable desk so that I can choose to work either standing up or sitting down. While my expensive chair and good quality external monitors has really helped prevent further neck/spine problems which I developed while using laptops for many years - I'm finding sitting down so long each day is getting uncomfortable, I feel much better when standing up or moving around - so I'm going to try standing as much as possible. I've just ordered a good quality anti-fatigue mat so that I can stand for longer periods in bare feet without developing foot/leg problems too.

If you have problems with friends/relatives dropping around - you need to politely but firmly explain that you are working and that they need to treat it just like you are out at your office.

I know a few people who tried working from home, but ended up moving to a co-desking arrangement (sharing a desk in someone else's office) or a virtual office (shared or dedicated office space which you hire by the hour/day/month etc), and I also know a few people who regularly work from a coffice (coffee shop / cafe which is laptop friendly).

Like most things, it is about balance. Working from home can really improve your lifestyle - less commuting, left-overs for lunch rather than expensive cafe food, more flexible work hours. And while the distractions and temptations are always there - if you have flexible work hours and can manage to fit in other non-work tasks during your day while still getting your work done, then you can hopefully achieve a much better work-life balance than if you were stuck in an office all day. You just need the discipline to make sure the balance doesn't tip too far either direction.
 
Thanks all really really helpful.

Nature of my role is that I will very unlikely be missing human interaction as I am constantly out and about anyway, in fact it might even motivate me to attend more BNI esque events.

Its the home human interactions which is the big unknown, but as SIM put so well its about training the little ones and wife that I have a strict door closed, Dad is working policy.

I'm firmly in the calculator kid club, so the chance of me wanting to be handy with tools or mow my non existent lawn are minimal.

I take on board the comment re traveling into the office after peak hour, but with school runs and the like from where I am it would mean leaving at 10am and coming back at 2pm or 7pm which I'm certain would create a discipline problem.

Thanks also for raising the money point, which unlike me is something I hadn't really considered.

The savings from:

No more office space
NO more office bills
Minimal petrol
Minimal lunches out
Minimal coffees out
+
Ability to write off home office proportionately against tax

= Massively improved return on investment.

Seems more and more like a no brainer to me :D
 
It's easy for us, since we rent the house we live in - no CGT implications.

My dedicated office accounts for just over 10% of the floor space, so claiming a proportion of rent, water usage, gas, electricity, insurance and cleaning - gets me about $3,500 worth of extra deductions each year. My business reimburses me for those costs and the business claims the expense in company tax returns.

Company also pays for my internet (it's on 24x7 for work, any personal usage is incidental), and I use VoIP for phone calls - I have a business and a personal phone number, my VoIP phone identifies which number is being called, so while I'm working and my wife is home, I generally ignore personal calls and let her answer the phone elsewhere in the house.
 
It's easy for us, since we rent the house we live in - no CGT implications.

My dedicated office accounts for just over 10% of the floor space, so claiming a proportion of rent, water usage, gas, electricity, insurance and cleaning - gets me about $3,500 worth of extra deductions each year. My business reimburses me for those costs and the business claims the expense in company tax returns.

Company also pays for my internet (it's on 24x7 for work, any personal usage is incidental), and I use VoIP for phone calls - I have a business and a personal phone number, my VoIP phone identifies which number is being called, so while I'm working and my wife is home, I generally ignore personal calls and let her answer the phone elsewhere in the house.


Ditto for me as well. With the ridiculous prices of freestanding houses in the Eastern suburbs, its far more affordable and tax effective to rent where I want to live, and invest where it will make me money. I appreciate there are pro's and con's with this also, but with a growing family this makes the most sense for me and completely avoids any CGT problems, with my exemption tied to one of my investments I used to live in under the six year ruling.
 
I had a work from home business a few years ago and struggled. I had my daughter at home with me and tried to work when she slept. That lasted until she went down to one day sleep and then trying to work was useless. I was also quite lonely and I didn't utilise my time well.

I've just gone back to working from home, although in a different field but have learned from my mistakes. My kids are in daycare on the days I work, I have regular coffee catch ups for both sanity and networking purposes and my office is not a multi-purpose space for any paperwork that enters the house.

The pros of working from home:

No commute - if there is a bad smell around I know it is me and not some random leaning against me who clearly doesn't like to shower.
More time to work - no wasted commute time
No suit wearing
Good excuse to have a good office set up
More flexible work - I can go to the kids' events without asking for permission from the boss

Cons:

Can't "just get a few things done" when the kids are around
Just because I work from home does not mean I can do housework so don't have a go when you get home from work cos "I've been home all day".
Husband decides he is going to work from home whenever he wants, then hogs the phone speaking to his colleagues all day and I can't get my work done.

Sounds like working from home will work well for you. Best of luck with it.
 
It's also possible to get a virtual office, where the phone is answered for you and you have access to real office space when you need it.

Working at home can be a challenge sometimes. I've never ha an office but I've just completed a full time diploma at home via internet.

One problem is other people at home. Despite all efforts, your children/flatmates/significant other may find it very difficult not to interrupt you.

Neighbourhood noise can be a problem.

Or it can be difficult when you're in an environment which has always been a place to relax and take it easy. Getting up and starting work can be a motivational problem.

Financially you may be able to avoid the rent of your main office and travel expense. You may wish to claim a portion of your home running costs against tax, but if you own your home, that will reduce the CGT exempt portion of the house when you sell.


On the subject of virtual offices - What is everyones opinion on the value of a prestigious address vs say a P.O. Box?
 
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