Tuesday's Tip:: Location, location, location!

Since many of us operate our businesses out of our home, I thought a great topic to visit would be creating a great home office space. The location where we complete our work is SO important! It needs to be functional and comfortable! Good office space helps us to be effective and to keep our sanity! Here are a few key components!

• Limited distractions! Your office probably shouldn’t be located in the center of your kitchen, or any busy room for that matter. Choose a room or location that is away from most of the home’s traffic. A spare bedroom or a basement make great options. If one of those isn’t available, you can still create an effective space by portioning off an area of a larger room.
• Adequate work space! If you need a table top or extended desk area to assemble products or mailings, make sure you have it. Use the top of filing cabinets or bring in a spare card table if you have limited funds or space to work with.
• Stay organized! Create a system that works for you! This goes for your hard copies and your digital copies! Keep your spreadsheets updated and in order and keep your filing cabinet the same way! Both you and your customers will appreciate it!
• Involve the kids! Making your office kid friendly will allow you to get some work accomplished while your children are close by. Set up a small area for them, with their toy computer, some quiet toys and books that will keep them occupied while you return a few e-mails and make a phone call or two.
• Details! Don’t forget about some of the seemingly small things. Good lighting, a comfortable chair and enough storage space are all critical elements. All of these can strongly effect your work environment!

Hope you are having a great week!