Do you really have what it takes to work from home?

Do you really have what it takes to work from home?

Are you thinking about working from home? That’s a nice idea but many people don’t have the space and the discipline to turn this plan into success. In the following article you will find necessary conditions for a successful “home business” – from the perspective of a person running a coaching business but also applicable for every other profession.

Working alone from home

Managing yourself is a crucial part of running an executive coaching or any other kind of practice. It will be a radical change if you have never worked from home before and have been used to quite a structured working day.

Self-awareness is the key to learning early on from any mistakes you make as you adjust to what suits your style of working and personality.

When you are not going out to client facing meetings, you can often spend a lot of time alone.

Common problems of working alone at home

Having no one to bounce ideas off
No one to share a high work load with
Temptation to do other things around the house
Getting involved or distracted by other people in the house e.g. partners working from home, children in school holidays, unannounced visitors.
Cycles of self-doubt and anxiety on “bad” days
Over working and not having separate work and life time
Not taking enough holidays

Temptations and distractions : if you are not typically self-disciplined can be an issue. If it’s a sunny day you may want to go outside and drink a beer. If that is your way of taking a break, then that’s great as a way of balancing your work and home. However, if you know that this is a tendency of yours to procrastinate and may end up in you not completing work (plus feeling guilty about it), then you may have to limit this.

The benefit of working for yourself is about flexible hours and taking time off which you wouldn’t be able to do as an employee; however you have to find a way that suits you.