Military Careers, Second Careers - Army Times

The right setting is crucial to your home office

You’ve no doubt heard the story of some successful business that started in the owner’s basement or garage.

The entrepreneur doodled a product or idea on a napkin and set to work making it happen, eventually hiring employees, moving into an office building and enjoying greater success.

But there was an early step, which probably came right after the napkin plan. It was a decision to open an office in the house.

“It is part of creating a viable business,” said Angela Harrington, a consultant with the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers. “If you can operate in your home successfully, it serves as a launchpad to grow and have success.”

Harrington said it’s important to find a space that will allow you to block out distractions, such as noise from the lawn mower outside.

Once you have the space, you’ll need proper equipment: a telephone line, computers, a fax machine, a copier, and cabinets and shelves for storage. And you’ll need office furniture, including a suitable chair, ideally with an adjustable height and armrests, wheels and a tilt seat, said Ken Souchek, senior manager of orthopedics and rehabilitation at Ocean Medical Center in Brick, N.J. You should be able to place your feet flat on the floor.

Middletown, N.J., resident Gloria Boudreau transformed a spare bedroom into an office when she started her company, Boudreau Fine Art Services, last year.

Boudreau worked in New York City for a company that arranged for the shipment of exhibitions and fine art. She started her own business after deciding to work closer to home.

She had to figure out the layout of the room and how it could be designed to suit her business needs.

Her business involves record keeping: “I had to figure out how to downsize that and use the space as efficiently as possible,” Boudreau said.

Her solution was to put filing cabinets and shelving in a closet and mount storage files on the walls.

Several months after she started, she learned an important lesson when her computer crashed and she lost her data. She spent $1,500 to recover it, then bought a backup system.

Tinton Falls, N.J., resident Brittney Jacoves, owner of Turning Leaf Solutions LLC, whose business helps people organize their offices, suggests that a home office have a door.

“You have to be able to leave work,” Jacoves said. “Every time you walk by that office, you are going to want to be drawn in. You are going to feel guilty.”

In her case, she has a door to the outside of the house, so clients do not have to walk through her home. The other bonus is that she only needs to keep one room clean.

Jacoves and Boudreau each got a business telephone line that was separate from their home number.

“You can always choose not to answer it if it is after business hours,” Jacoves said.