How to Manage Home and Business under One Roof

When you opted to set up your home business, chances are that you went from being managed to being a manager. The good news was that you could look back at the happy demise of the bossed-around era and welcome your freedom to come and go as you wish, be close to your precious family, and do your dream job the way you had always wanted to.

While this is true to an extent, these blessings can also turn your business into a nightmare. You will come to realize shortly that the close family is too close, the flexible hours are easily misused, and you may miss the absent boss and quarterly reviews that kept you in line.

If you prepare yourself to face this eventuality, chances are you will succeed in your home business venture and live to tell the tale.

Prepare your family

You cannot run your business from home without family support. This venture involves your significant other and your children. Discuss with them the demands that this business may put on your time, availability, and family resources during the first couple of years until your business takes off.

Are they willing to help you by getting involved or standing by the boundaries that you may have to set?

Establish boundaries

Create a workspace; ideally, a room with a door. If you have a large house, a furnished basement or room that can be accessed from outside the house may be better suited for your office. Confine your business activities within this space and avoid taking it into your living space.

Family signals that mean 'do not disturb me now' or 'you can come in and see me now' are invaluable when you have children and you want them to know they are important. However, when you are engaged in something important they need to come back later or wait for you to finish your task.

Separate phone lines for your office and home would be ideal. Instruct family members on how to answer calls if at all they answer calls for you in your absence. As far as possible soundproof your office.

Put up a daily family schedule and personal business schedule in a common area in your home (above the telephone) where all members are welcome to jot down any event or errand that needs to be attended or be run.

This schedule should also include preplanned holidays, weddings to attend, and weekly socializing or networking plans, and school events. This will help you and your spouse organize family time around your business commitments well in advance as well as make sure nobody misses out on important commitments.

Open a separate business account. Do not mix your family finances with your business' expense account. Opt for a good business accounting software to help you with your business accounting tasks. If you are up-to-date on your accounting you will not have to hire expensive accounting services later.

A well-adjusted family life is probably one of the main factors that motivated you to start a business on your own. Your success in your business is also linked directly to this sense of family well being. If you set up a profit-raking business but lose your family in the process then, you need to reconsider if all the travailing and long hours were worth the profit.

Conversely, your chances of success are minimized by not establishing good boundaries between business hours, space, and finances. Pay attention to the people in your life, your friends, and acquaintances.