Making rules and keeping them essential
In a perfect world, owners of home-based businesses would be the masters of their time, workload and the precarious balance of work and family. For some, however, it’s not that simple, and there are many pitfalls to avoid when taking the step from the office to the home.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
“How do you balance family and business; that’s the primary issue,” said Marc Silverman, a home-based businessman, family business consultant and executive coach. “How can you be home and do work?”
For Liz McKenna of Providence, owner of EM Designs, a graphic design company that does work for print and the Web, balancing work, kids and family has just taken time. McKenna does graphics for items like annual reports, brochures and newsletters.
McKenna struck out on her own in 1996, after having two children and working from home for periods of time after her son and daughter were born. As a former art director for a printing company and a graphic designer for a graphic arts studio, McKenna had the fortunate luxury of taking work home with her and being able to work at home while on maternity leave.
“I discovered how much I liked working at home,” she said of her situation when her children were younger. “I want to be available to my kids and I like the flexibility of being at home.”
According to Silverman, who has a Ph.D. in organizational consulting, the key to a successful home business and a separate family life is communication, both with the outside business world and with the family, time management and flexibility.
Constant feedback from family members ensures that any problems or gripes will be voiced, and staying connected with the business world will provide support from other colleagues and organizations, Silverman said. Flexibility allows most owners to make do with the resources they have and boundaries prevent the work and play from melding.
“For some the family invades the business or the business invades the family,” he said. Setting physical and social boundaries is also vital in ensuring the success of the business.
The first step in establishing a home business is to “get it clear in your own mind what you want to accomplish, then talk about it” with the rest of the family. This way everyone is involved and can make decisions about what will work and what won’t. For example, Silverman said, the business owner might want to establish a house rule that he or she not be disturbed from 8 a.m. to noon every day. The rules depend on each family’s living situation and whether they have young children or other duties.
“Sometimes physical boundaries are great if you have the space,” Silverman said. It’s also important to keep the office very separate from the rest of the home. “You don’t eat dinner in the office.” If space is at a minimum, he suggested temporarily commandeering a space for a few hours each day to get work done, such as the dining room table. After that period of time is over, it’s converted to a dining room table again, keeping the division between work and home, he said.
For McKenna, one rule in the house is not to disturb her when the door to her office is closed. And the graphic designer said she gets the bulk of her work done between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., when her son and daughter are in school.
“It’s a little bit of a thin line,” she said of the division of work and home. “The trick is to be disciplined about when it’s the best time to work.”
“It’s balance, balance, balance,” said Silverman, a Rhode Islander, who coaches small business owners all the way up the corporate ladder to top executives, all over the country. For those who seek his guidance, Silverman works to determine the needs and goals of the owner and his or her business and maps out a business plan to guide him or her.
Obviously, a home-based business is not for everyone. It takes self-discipline and a certain type of person to have the stamina and patience that comes with working from the home, Silverman said.
“It does take a kind of person who is comfortable with that,” he said. On one hand, you are in control of your time, but it is also very easy to become addicted to work – or to play – when you are home alone during the day.
McKenna said she has no problem walking away from her work when it’s time, but said she often works longer hours when she knows she has to get something in for a deadline. A workweek could range from 30 to 60 hours, she said, depending on what projects she’s working on.
Silverman said he thinks coaches and similar resources are useful tools for the owner who isn’t sure about starting a business from home, for those who are having trouble with theirs and need guidance. And fortunately for Rhode Islanders, there is the first home-based business organization, the Home-based Business Association of Rhode Island, a subsidiary of the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce.
According to Lauren Slocum, president and CEO of the chamber, the association works to guide home-based business owners through the process of deciding whether to take the step, what businesses might be successful, and to “steer them away from those that are too good to be true.”
“Research shows that the average home-based business owner works 61 hours per week, the equivalent of a top corporate executive,” an information brochure from the association states. “However, they gain at least four weeks per year that they would have spent commuting to and from their work. Most business owners say they are less stressed than when they were employed by another.”
McKenna said she received resources and guidance from the chamber, and was able to market herself and get clients through networking and joining five organizations to keep herself connected. And although she’s hit a few bumps along the way, the graphic artist, wife and mother said it has all been a learning experience.
“You have to have a lot of faith and [know that] everything will work out,” she said. “Sometimes I hit the slumps, but the next day always brings me a surprise.”
For the complete current issue, visit our subscription Web site, or call (401) 273-2201, ext. 227 or 234.
