There are many benefits to working as a freelancer, but it is important that you are able to make it work in terms of where you are working.
The nature of work is evolving as we head into the 20s, and one of the biggest changes that we are beginning to see is a rise in freelancers. Regardless of whether you are freelancing due to the nature of your work, or you are looking for more flexibility in your life (and work) there are many benefits to freelance working.
There are also a number of challenges, and one of them can be to be able to separate successfully your work and home life. Many freelancers do the majority of their work at home but this can lead to issues such as difficulty with motivation and distractions.
By adapting your home to accommodate your freelance business you can help to eliminate these difficulties.
Here are some ideas of what you can do to adapt your home for your freelance business:
Create a Working Space
It is a good idea to create a physical barrier between your home and work life. You can do this by creating a space that is specifically designated for work. You could choose to adapt a spare bedroom, study, shed or convert a shipping container, for example. According to shipping container suppliers, S Jones Containers, some of the benefits of shipping containers are that they are “quirky, secure, weatherproof and you can avoid the cost of paying rent as you would with a shop, making it a more cost-effective option long term.”
By creating a separate workspace, you can both shut the door on your work at the end of the day and separate your ‘home’ from work when you are supposed to be working.
Make your Workspace Somewhere that You’d Like to Be
One of the benefits of not going in to work for someone else every day is that you can work in whatever environment suits you. If having a lot of light is important to you, this could be incorporated, you can add plants, music, a relaxation area, whatever you feel that would work for you. Embrace the fact that you have complete freedom about the environment that you are working in.
Enjoy your Flexibility
One of the biggest benefits of working as a freelancer is that you can have total flexibility about when and where you are working. Take advantage of the fact that you can choose your hours – being a freelancer means that you can take the kids to school and pick them up, start later and finish later or work weekends if that suits you better than 9-5, Monday to Friday.
Just because you have a workspace at home, depending on your work, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get out when you want to. Many people enjoy working around others, so there’s no reason why you can’t nestle into the corner of a café, library or shared workspace from time to time – or as often as you like. This can help some people to be productive and sometimes provides good networking opportunities.
Be Clear about your Boundaries
Just because you are working at home doesn’t mean that you don’t have to put in the hours. You might know this, but this can sometimes be difficult for other people to understand. It can be tempting for children to interrupt you whilst you are working, friends to ‘pop round’ for a chat or others to see you as a solution to their childcare problems, for example. Whilst being a freelancer does allow you a degree of flexibility, it is also important to make it clear to people when you are open to distractions and when you aren’t.
There are a number of ways that you can demonstrate this in your home. A simple rule about not disturbing you when the door is closed or if you are wearing headphones can help, although some people have other systems – some like to have red and green lights or other signs which can convey the message, for example.
Technology
You will almost certainly be going freelance for an easier life. This does mean, however, that you are now responsible for everything that you need in order to do your job – whether it is a computer, fax machine or super-fast broadband.
This might mean putting in extra phone lines or internet boosters to your home but try to look at these as an investment into your freelance business and not an expense that you don’t need.
Your physical environment can make a big difference to how productive you are and by adapting your home for your freelance business you can begin to ensure that your new business venture is prosperous.
