Some rural businesses will mean you have to find premises, especially if you’re planning any sort of shop or other retail outlet. If you’re offering a service, anything from a manicure to a dry stone wall, then the chances are you’ll travel to see your client. Otherwise you have the option of working from home. It could be a spare bedroom, study, converted garage or barn, or shed at the bottom of the garden.There are three big advantages to working from home:But there are three big disadvantages too:

Are You Ready For It?

Many people work well from home, settling into a routine and able to overcome distractions, everything from neighbours popping in for a chat to a crying child or a boiler repairman. For others it’s a total disaster. These are the people who can’t concentrate or motivate themselves easily and find they need the discipline of an office environment.

Unless you’ve worked from home before you probably won’t know which camp you fall into until you start. So before you commit yourself, some questions to think about:

• Are you disciplined and self-motivated or will you spend your days drinking tea and forcing the dog out for another walk?
• Are you independent and self-reliant?

• Can you think for yourself?
• Are you good at managing your own time or do you need someone to tell you what to do next?
• Do you prefer working in a structured environment?
• Will you miss office life, the gossip and the adrenalin rush when things go well?
• Will you get lonely?
• Do you need to bounce ideas off colleagues?
• Are you interested in new skills and able to pick them up quickly? A successful homeworker has to be flexible and able to turn their hand to most things.
• How are you technically? If you’ve previously only worked for companies that have in-house IT support teams, what are you going to do when your computer crashes, as it inevitably will?

The Practicalities

If you’ve passed those emotional tests there are then the practicalities to think about:

• Do you have a spare room in your home, garage, garden shed or barn which can easily be turned into your work area?
• If so, does it have enough space for you to work, store your products or raw materials, and keep your paperwork in?
• If the room doesn’t have them already, is it easy to install extra phone and fax lines and power points to accommodate a computer, printer, scanner, fax and phone?
• Is it far enough away from your family’s living area to escape from noise and small children?

• Is the natural light good enough (especially important for tailors, artists and designers)?
• Are you going to be generating noise which could upset neighbours? Craftspeople’s tools and heavy duty sewing machines could be a particular problem.
• Are you able to easily move stock and equipment around? It’s not ideal if your furniture workshop is at the top of a narrow flight of cottage steps.
• What’s road access like? Will customers and suppliers be able to find you? Will they be able to park? Is increased traffic going to be a problem?

Your Work Space

Working at the kitchen table is only a short term option. Soon you’ll get bored with getting everything out and then clearing it away again. Food and drink will be spilled across business letters and you’ll find the remains of last night’s supper congealing under your laptop. And after a while, as your business begins to grow, you’ll need somewhere to keep files, paperwork and receipts.

Think of converting a room and buying equipment as an investment in your future and not as a cost which will eat into your profits. A separate room also has the very obvious advantage of having a door to shut which should keep family out and allow you to symbolically leave work firmly behind you every evening. A separate phone and fax line should also help maintain a distinction between work and family life. You probably want to answer your business line professionally and not allow your five-year-old to get to it first.