Working From Home

Many people dream about working from home but how practical is it? About ten years ago I gave up the 70 mile round trip to the office and started working entirely from home. So how did I find it? What were the problems?

The new edit studio when the garage was first converted.

For many people, working from home simply isn’t an option, it depends on the type of work you do. I was a director of a medium sized video production company serving the ‘high end’ corporate market. We had very presentable offices in a rapidly growing commercial centre with all the facilities we needed close at hand. Even so, most client meetings were held in their offices or else at a convenient location in central London. A number of developments within the company provided the opportunity for a radical change in my working life and I decided to take the plunge.

The first consideration was where in our standard for-bedroom house would I base my office? After several crazy schemes involving large conservatories (freezing in winter and baking hot in summer) we finally settled on converting the double garage. Unlike most people, we did actually use the garage as a garage not a store room but we knew there would be plenty of room on the drive for the cars.  We had two cars at the time but we soon realised that one would be sufficient because commuting would be a thing of the past. We were concerned about having to scrape the ice and snow off the windscreen on cold winter mornings but on most days the sun had done the job for us before the car was needed.

Even with the car in the garage, we had managed to fill it with a great many garden tools and other ‘useful’ items. By building a fairly large shed in the back garden, we were able to accommodate these and what couldn’t, we recycled at the local tip. The conversion of the garage into a workroom was handled by a local builder and was the only major expense of the plan. This required building regulation approval but not planning permission. It is worth mentioning that if you use part of you home exclusively for business purposes there may be Council Tax implications and also a Capital Gains Tax liability. However we use our new workroom for general family activities as well (it’s the grandchildren’s favourite room) and other rooms in the house are also used for business purposes on occasion.

One of our initial concerns was that clients might consider a converted garage to be an unprofessional venue for meetings and edit sessions. In fact, one of the first clients to attend the new ‘studio’ were staff from an international  “magic circle”  law firm and they were delighted  to be away from the city and in rural Hertfordshire. Parking is easy and we are close to the motorway network, factors that are probably more important to most people than the origin of the meeting room.

Working alone at home does require a certain amount of self discipline,  either to get motivated and start a task you’ve been putting off, or to stop working and switch off the computer when you are really into something. Either way you need to think about whether you are the kind of person who is happy to work, possibly alone, all day without the comfort (or irritation) of others. Not everyone can do it. There is no companionable trip to the pub at lunchtime, although there will be stuff to take to the post office and what better way to get a bit of exercise (now you’re the office boy, too!) and possibly meet your neighbours over a cup of coffee.

It isn’t going to be right for everyone but with rapidly improving  information technology and every increasing rail fares and traffic congestion, working from home becomes more and more tempting. I have certainly never regretted making the change.