Establishing a Professional Environment
From Keeping Work Simple by Don Aslett

Whether we admit it or not, those of us who have our offices at home sometimes find it hard to feel fully professional. We have no audience to play our office role for: no one around to discuss work problems with, admire our efficiency and ingenuity, and help set a professional tone. Keeping your workspace neat and clutter free helps, as does paying some attention to what you look like while you are working. Informal clothes of obvious quality offer a good compromise between the office "uniform" and a bathrobe. (People do sometime drop in, even at the home office.)

Having a home office intensifies the problem of interruptions, one of the biggest reasons being that people fail to recognize that you're working. So they don't hesitate to stop by, hang around, or call. Don't you have time for a chat, a beer, or a cup of coffee? Your very own family who should be the ones that understand, are often no better. It doesn't matter what you may be in the middle of, if they need clean jeans for tomorrow or a glass of iced tea now. One solution is to do whatever you can to take the home office away from your home. Here are some suggestions:

• Put up a professional looking sign with your company name on it in a prominent place, such as the door to your office. No hand lettering here please, unless you're a commercial artist or calligrapher.
• Remove as much personal stuff as possible from your office space. This will help assure it looks businesslike.
• Don't make your office setting too warm and friendly-- slightly austere and professional is good.
• Put up a bulletin board or marker board in a very visible place and post work-related notices on it, such as, "Deadline March 19."
• Make sure your business machines, such as computer and fax, occupy a very visible spot, preferably where they're the first thing people see when they approach the area. Done right, this can have a mildly intimidating effect.
• Make people very aware of when you regularly work. It may take some doing, but they may finally accept that you're "at the office" during those hours.
• When people come or call during your work hours, greet them in a friendly but crisp and businesslike way.

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