Working from home has many benefits. You can get up later, be flexible with your hours and most importantly save costs on travel and office space. Many people have started businesses from the comfort of their homes. But can you ever truly maintain a professional business without eventually having to fork out on office? How do you run professional meetings with clients and how do you employ staff? And how do you receive business calls and post without giving away your private details.
Fortunately there are solutions to all these issues that make running a professional business from home totally viable. Here are some of those solutions.
Hire remote employees. Without an office, you can still hire staff remotely, so long as their work only involves a phone and a computer. You can keep tabs on them via email or phone call, or even video-calling if face-to-face communication is required. Cloud technology has made it possible to share huge numbers of files so that you no longer have to be in the same office together. This includes work schedules, calendars, training guides and rotas, all of which can be updated in real time. Not only will it save office costs, but also the cost of equipment and office safety features. Hiring on a freelance basis can also prevent you having to pay insurance schemes and other payments legally enforced by a contract.
Hold meetings in coffee bars. Thanks to video-calling technology, there’s no longer a need to meet clients in person. However, it can make some transactions more personable. Some clients may also request it. In these cases, you need somewhere to meet. You can’t invite people to your house, but how do you admit you don’t have an office? Well, you don’t have to, simply by meeting in a coffee bar. Many professionals meet in this setting, some even doing all their work in a coffee bar, coining the word ‘coffice’. Make sure that your coffee bar has Wi-Fi in case your clients need it and that you visit during a time that is not too busy so that you all get seats.
Use a virtual address. If clients need to post information to your address, your personal home address might not be appropriate. In some cases it could be a giveaway as to the size of your business (even worse it may encourage them to visit). To keep your work and home address separate, it may be worth using a virtual address. There are many companies that offer this (for example https://www.hoxtonmix.com/) collecting your post at a more official-looking London address and alerting you so that you can collect it.
Set up a cloud phone system. Working from home, you may also want to keep your home landline and work phone number separate. Instead of setting up two landlines, you can get around this issue by paying for a cloud-powered phone number for your business. This is operated through your computer, although you can set up a handset to use for it so that you might as well be using a normal phone.
Mia Guerra
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