Is it Time to Set Up a Separate Space for your Home Office?
6 Great Reasons for Creating a New Home Office: by Building an Addition, a Separate Building, or Converting and Renovating an Existing Space
It does not need to be said that people are spending more time at home due to recent events beyond everyone’s control. But putting that aside, there has also been a great shift in the past few years of people leaving the traditional corporate environment and striking out on their own to start a small business. Others who may already have a place of business, are spending at least part of their day working from home. In addition, many people are employed in jobs that allow them to work remotely from home. For you, it may be the lure of creating income streams on the internet, turning a much-loved hobby into a full-time business, or following a long-term entrepreneurial dream of owning your own business. Whatever the reason for your venture is, there are many advantages to setting up shop at home.
1. Having an Office in Your Home is Cost Effective
An office in your home when compared to renting or buying a brick-and-mortar office is cost effective. Number one on the list of cost effectiveness is that a home office can spare you the cost of having to pay office rent, utilities, storage, office insurance, security and other expenses related to having an office away from home.
Working from home can also save you a tremendous amount of time, and time is money. It can save you the time you would normally spend commuting from your home to your office and back every workday. Another time saver is that since you are at home, you can work additional hours at unconventional times of day when the need arises. In addition, you can save time by preparing and eating lunch at home and have the added benefit of not having to stock separate supplies for coffee or meals at your office or eat out for convenience all the time.
Another great perk for having an office in your home is cost effective, is that you may be able share some of your home expenses with your business and convert them to tax write offs. These are expenses that you normally are not able to write off on your taxes, but you must pay them anyway. Some examples of home office write offs are expensing a portion of your home utilities, storage space, property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, mortgage, telephone, and other expenses (be sure to discuss this with a tax professional in relation to your situation and locality).
2. A Separate Home Office Helps you Create a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Working at home can create some challenges, and one of them is keeping your work from overtaking your personal life, and vice versa. A separate home office is the perfect solution for maintaining a healthy work-life balance. It allows you to draw a clearer line between work, home responsibilities, and your personal time, by providing a physical separation between them. Many people work in communal areas in their home that are full of noise, distractions, and interruptions from other household members. This kind of situation can make it impossible to effectively manage your work and personal time.
3. Creating a Separate Space for your Home Office Can Help you Keep your Work Organized and Protect it From Getting Damaged
Working from a desk or table in a dual-purpose space at home can create problems with keeping your work organized. Creating a separate home office, gives you the ability to create areas for keeping your work tools, office equipment, supplies, and filing systems organized. In addition, if your work is being moved around in areas of your home that are also used for other purposes like eating for instance, it puts your work at higher risk of getting damaged. Having a separate office space gives you a place to keep your current work that keeps it well organized and helps protect it from loss and damage.
4. An Office Space that Includes a Proper Desk and Office Chair Can Help You Stay Healthy by Preventing Back Trouble and Other Health Issues
Working at home, can look like sitting on your couch with a portable tray table and a laptop, or hunching over a coffee table. Even worse, it can mean propping yourself up in bed with your work all around you. Working in this manner can cause problems related to body alignment, like sore muscles, bad posture, back and neck problems, carpal tunnel, and tendonitis. Having a separate home office allows you to set up a proper desk and chair workstation that can be customized to be kind to your body and prevent these types of health issues and injuries.
5. Having a Separate Space in Your Home to Work Provides You With the Structure You Need to Be More Productive
Having a home office that is separate from the personal areas of your home makes it easier to create uninterrupted work hours. It gives you a separate place to prioritize you work and helps to create an environment that increases productivity. Organized systems and work areas can help you be more productive.
6. Creating your Own Home Office Gives you More Control Over Your Work Environment
From function to design, having a home office that belongs to you gives you the freedom to create a functional, comfortable, and even motivating and inspiring work environment. When renting an office space, you are many times at the mercy of your landlord when it comes to making functional or aesthetic improvements to create the environment that best suits the work that you do. Your home office is yours, and you can dream it up!
You have many choices available to you when creating your home office. You can add an addition to your home or remodel an existing space in your home. You also have the option of creating a separate space, by building a structure or building on your property, or converting an existing one like a garage for instance.
Brazen contracting provides all these services. Give us a call, we would love to discuss your project and options with you.
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