To Work at Home, Stick to Schedule and Rules

The plunging cost of a greater array of high-tech office equipment has enabled people to conduct all kinds of businesses from home, but if you think working at home means shuffling around in a robe and slippers all day, think again.

“You have to be a goal-directed person who knows what you want to do,� advises Sarah Edwards, a home office consultant who works with her husband Paul in their Santa Monica condominium.

Sarah Edwards, a former clinical psychologist, said most people decide to work at home when they want more personal autonomy or time with their families. But working at home can be a lonely and isolating experience if you are not prepared for the pitfalls.

“Even the most reclusive sort of worker, a writer for instance, needs to be out marketing themselves and meeting with clients,� Edwards said. She also suggests making frequent lunch and dinner appointments to keep in touch with the outside world.

In recent years, the couple have interviewed and written about home-based business owners, ranging from a Vermont knitter who tended her children while she knitted, to a computer consultant who earns $250,000 a year. They found other home-based business owners running a parking lot maintenance company, a playground equipment company and a computer repair business.

“Some people use their home as an incubator for the business and never intend to stay home,� said Paul Edwards, a former attorney who with his wife writes a monthly column for Home Office Computing magazine.

Ko Kiyohara and Gina Moffitt spent a year running the architectural and interior design business bearing their names from Moffitt’s 340-square-foot garage.

“We got pretty creative in that garage,� Kiyohara laughed. “We had four drafting tables, a desk, filing cabinets and a computer table. We also hid boxes under the desk.�

When the business grew to a point at which they needed to hire additional people, it was obvious that they had outgrown the cramped garage. At about the same time, Moffitt’s neighbors began to complain about the firm operating in their tony Los Feliz neighborhood. The neighbors were upset about the increased traffic on the street resulting from clients visiting the architects.

“When someone from our councilman’s office called to relay the complaints, we explained that we were looking for office space and were planning to move,� recalled Kiyohara. He said they were preparing to move to a 2,300-square-foot office in the old Pabst brewery near downtown when a city zoning inspector finally caught up with them.

Home office consultants say that the kind of business you operate and the kind of neighbors you have will determine how long you can stay at home. It’s best for people thinking of opening home-based business to check with local zoning officials, because regulations vary from neighborhood to neighborhood.

If your business does not generate a lot of traffic or require a lot of parking spaces, you can probably stay home for quite a while--at least long enough to determine whether your company will be successful.

Before you set up a home office, Paul and Sarah Edwards suggest asking yourself these questions:

- Do you like to work in isolation or do you like other people around you?

- Do you need a place exclusively devoted to your work or can the space be shared with other family members?

- Are windows a distraction or do you need them in order not to feel claustrophobic?

- Do you need room to spread out or is a compact space suitable for your work?

- Should your work space have a locking door to keep pets, children and spouses out?

Once you have determined the best place to work, the next step is choosing the equipment you need to run your business. Do you need a telephone answering machine? A fax machine? A personal computer system and printer?

Now that you have set up an office space and purchased equipment, it’s time to set up a schedule and stick to it. Having established work hours discourages friends and relatives from calling you in the middle of the day or dropping by for a visit. It also keeps you from working day and night, never taking a break to enjoy the family you wanted to spend time with.

Many home office workers also rely on rituals to help get themselves started in the morning.

“One man we knew would dress in a coat and tie, get into his car and drive around the block before going back into the house to start his day,� Sarah Edwards recalled.

Beverly Neuer Feldman, another Los Angeles consultant on home-based business, provides helpful suggestions in her self-published book, “Home-Based Businesses.�

Feldman believes that it is very important for home business owners to look professional when clients come to visit. She also warns against turning to the refrigerator for consolation when that big deal falls through.

“Eating a gallon of rocky road ice cream to celebrate, to drown sorrows or to stall returning to work could be a disastrous habit,� Feldman said.

She also recommends being firm with neighbors who want to send their children over to play with yours because you are at home during the day.

Feldman’s 215-page book is available from Till Press, Box 27816, Los Angeles 90027 for $9.95 plus $1.50 shipping and 6% sales tax (6.5% for Los Angeles residents).

“Working From Home,� by Paul and Sarah Edwards, is published by Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc. in Los Angeles and distributed by St. Martin’s Press in New York. It costs $12.95 and is sold in the business reference section of most book stores.