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Staying Home
by Darcie Sanders and
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Top tips for your home-based business

Structuring your work environment to include children

Your business isn't the only thing that needs a structure--your work space will need organization, too. For instance, the electrical and phone wiring systems of most older homes were simply not designed to handle the current gamut of household gadgets (such as microwaves, multiple TVs, crock pots, and VCRs, to name a few) PLUS the basic home office setup of computer, printer, photocopier, fax, scanner, and answering machine. We heard of one home-based graphic designer who found that he couldn't use the microwave at the same time as the computer because they were on the same circuit!

It will be well worth it to you to pay for an hour of an electrician's time (of course, barter would be best, but if you have to pay cash, do it) to determine whether your business equipment list will overload your present system. You may also need a separate fuse box or circuit.

Virtually every home-based entrepreneur we spoke to insisted on the need for a separate, dedicated phone line just for business use. This line should have its own answering machine with a message appropriate to your enterprise; it should also be off-limits to other types of calls, which will allow you to deduct 100% of it as a business expense.  Another solution is a voice mail box. If you use a mail box system make sure your business' box is the first option offered--prospective clients may not have the patience to sit through a long list of names before they get to the one they're interested in.

The pleasures and pitfalls of working around the house with young children underfoot is one that many of our respondents had to address early on. Several told us they had to make radical changes in the number of hours they worked, or when they worked, because they had been way too sanguine about their ability to work while infants or toddlers napped.

"Invariably," one computer consultant told us, "my daughter would get an ear infection the day before a deadline. She'd be up all day and all night."

What was the solution? "Eventually, I learned to add a 25 percent What If? factor to all my dates. Also, I didn't ever schedule a client meeting until after 3 p.m., which was when a neighbor girl came home from school and was happy to baby-sit for me."

The good news is that older children's activities can often be incorporated into your business activities. Youngsters of four or five will happily sort, sticker, and stuff envelopes--as long as you're not too particular if everything is exactly straight. A computer whiz of eight or nine is fully capable of handling a mail merge program. Older children can help write, edit, and proof promotional materials, distribute flyers and posters, and learn the rudiments of bookkeeping. And the fairs, farmer's markets, and conventions that many entrepreneurs attend in order to keep up their skills and catch clients can be an outing for the whole family.

Physical adaptations you make to your work area will also change as the children get older. If you expect to have infants or toddlers in the office with you for large amounts of time a dedicated play area, where they can keep their toys and take a nap, is essential. Also essential are tall shelves--lots of them!--where important papers and equipment can be kept safely out of their reach.

You'll also want more than one way to close off your space. When your children are younger you'll want to be able to monitor them with everything: eyes, ears, and nose. Your standard door may need to be augmented by a baby gate, which later on may be changed to french doors for visual -- but not necessarily auditory -- monitoring of older kids.

The consensus among our repondents was that children are not an impediment to an entrepreneur, as long as you are realistic about their--and your--requirements.

A final tip about working at home--if clients will be visiting you at home, make sure you post your business hours or have a OPEN/CLOSED sign for your door. Otherwise, clients tend to drop in at all hours (and always if you're in your bathrobe).

The good news is that older children's activities can often be incorporated into your business activities

• personal computer

• dedicated phone line and/or voice mail

• review power requirements

• safe storage

• age-appropriate child area

• privacy

• realistic expectations