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Should Your Office be at Home?
Many small businesses are run out of the owner's home office, at least initially. Sometimes this arrangement is beneficial for the business but some businesses just are not suited for home offices just as some types of people do not do well in the home office environment.
The most successful home businesses are professional service businesses such as consultants. The consultant has to be disciplined if he is going to be successful in his field and such discipline stands him in good stead when it comes to getting down to work and keeping projects although there is no one to look over his shoulder. He also works mainly in his clients premises and thus has few customers visit his office. Finally, his image depends on himself and not on his facilities so that his home office is an appropriate location for him.
Most retail operations can't be run from the home. Zoning laws limit the location of such businesses in residential areas and customers expect to find you with other retail outlets. As soon as you have to have employees, it is a big disadvantage to use your residence from a liability and insurance point of view and also because both customers and employees won't take you seriously. The same is true of most businesses which manufacture products. As long as you are only selling your ideas, shipping and suppliers are a minor concern but when the product has a substantial size and weight, you should be in a commercial or industrial area.
Back to our services business: it used to be that when you grew, you had to rent an office to accommodate your secretary and partners but this is no longer true. Now you can keep your home office and, when you grow, the other members of your company just have to have home offices as well. With today's technology it is easy to keep in touch and you can set up a virtual office on a corporate web site where you can share files and keep company documentation.
The bottom line is that, if you won't be generating a lot of extra traffic or activity, you should be looking at operating out of a home office first. Once you're on your way and growing and once you see how well you yourself handle working at home, you can continue or make the appropriate changes.