Working From Home Advice

[adrianh]

Working at home a I do has its lighter moments though. A lady phoned at about 8:30 this morning asking hwhether we are open. I said no, but asked her what she was looking for purely out of curiosity. She said that her daughter woke up this morning and told her that she has to complete a little electronic project of tomorrow. The lady sounded quite deperate and said that she couldn't find any hobby shop open on a Sunday. I directed her to a hardware shop that is open on Sunday that does sell all the bits that she needs. I said to to her that if she doesn't come right he should phone me because I have al the stuff at hand anyway. People sometimes just need a bit of guidance which is good for PR and also the soul.

ps; I agree woth everything Dave said, we have work stuff spread all over thenhouse so we never really get away from it.

[pmbguy]

I run my business from home, I have a garden flat which I converted into my office/workshop. Allot of what I would like to say has been mentioned in other posts above. But the one thing I would like to stress is this: Separate your work environment as much as you can from your “after hour life”. I often find myself working way too much. In my case I am a bit of a workaholic and I enjoy the sweat and blood a bit too much. This causes me to neglect my wife and daughter from time to time. Lately I have my wife helping with some of the admin that’s why you won’t find me posting late at night as much as I used to. When I started my business I used a room in the house and this drove me crazy, my personal life and business were one entity. I would fixate on work way too much. Since we moved and I have a separate office I am much more balanced. However my wife still catches me looking out at my office before we are supposed to sit down for one of her ...uh...really really good movies.

[iLLuDeano]

Hay guys. Sorry been away this week with some weird bug. Had no internet since Mweb politely throttled my line down to nothing!

So the idea that my fiance had was opening a make-up agency. Helping marketing students get work etc etc. I guess the long term idea would be to expand into doing all sides of beauty; hair, nails, make-up, clothing. Luckily this is a industry that won't die down very soon, so it can work. I don't know, however, how the location will pan out since we stay in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town. I showed her the ropes around social media and how digital can make your business these days. Since she fine tuned all her social accounts she has gained a lot of business. My projection of growth would be that she'd need at least 5 employees (Make-up artists) to help her within 6-12 months. The only problem we are facing is space since we still stay in a flat.(Bringing clients to the flat would NOT be ideal) So would it be better to just rent a shop? I guess the only concern would be that the person who would be lending us the money for a shop wants to have the business showing profit within 3 months...TBH, I have to start setting up the basic business plan but I'm not to sure as to where the best place would be to start this venture without it crashing and burning. Loadz of info here, any advice would be awesome

[Peter Johns781]

You can't build if you do not have land...what do you want to venture into first of all? Find fields that you are interested in so that when you begin working, you can do something that motivates you to work and all.

[iLLuDeano]

You can't build if you do not have land...what do you want to venture into first of all? Find fields that you are interested in so that when you begin working, you can do something that motivates you to work and all.

What is this about building and land? I'm going to rent (Point 1) If you read my post you would see the venture is to open a make-up agency and expand on it. Thanx for the reply tho

[wynn]

How much more would it be to rent a house in the same or a more suitable area, a house that offers more of what you need.

Perhaps a smaller house with a roomy granny flat, you can run the business from the flat while you stay in the house to start then move into and stay in the flat and run the business from the house when you need the space.

By the time you need more space in the house you will probably be in a financial position to buy and renovate the perfect property.

[iLLuDeano]

Good point. The flat we stay in atm we don't pay for since it was given to us as a gift from our parents. Renting a house in my area,,, mmm, id say about R12000+- a month, that is my guess. I will go find out tho, you have a good point Wynn, thanx.

[adrianh]

A lady friend of ours runs a hair dressing salon from home. She has a nice client base and earns a good income. One of the big issues with working from home is that your clients get to see your lifestyle. Most of my clients are average people like ourselves who work from home themselves but some have a lot to say about our house looking like a workshop. I don't really care because the clients buy our products and services and not anything else but I do think that if you are trading in the "arty" industries then you will be judged on appearance.

[pmbguy]

Adrian why dont you build a wood wendy house. I helped a friend put one up in two days. He paid about 30k if I remember correctly. But spent extra on insulation and air conditioning. Later he attached beautiful wood cladding on the front face so it does not look like a toy house. This way you can get those dam machines of yours out the lounge.

[adrianh]

I've already got 2 wood Wendy houses up. They are both full.

I'm closing the shop as of today. I've spread myself too thin and I do not have enough cash to put in enough stock to create enough turnover. Both lasers are now running 24/7 at the house and my builders work at the house anyway. We didn't make an emotional decision, its pure economics. The damn thing just wastes too much time and energy which can be better spent finding more big customers so that I can buy more lasers.