I am very quick to promote working from home; whether you are self-employed, a freelancer or telecommute, I believe that working from home can be the lifeline that many small businesses need.

Having said that, working from home can prove difficult for many people, with a number of pitfalls coming in to play. In this blog post I’m going to look at a few of the main problems caused by working from home, and offer you some solutions to these common problems.

Problem 1: My productivity is reduced working from home.

This is usually a problem to do with focus, and for this there are a few easy to implement solutions. Primarily, have a designated workspace; somewhere you go specifically to work. Make it comfortable but work-orientated. This is your workspace, when you’re on a break, or on lunch, leave this area. That will help you maintain focus while you should be working.

Don’t try and climb a mountain in one go. One reason for decreased productivity is trying to achieve everything all at once. Break down your tasks in to manageable chunks, focus on one at a time and tick them off as you go.

Problem 2: Working from home has an impact on my whole life.

This problem is usually caused when there is no real distinction between work life and home life. For some people this element of flexibility works well, for others however it can cause unhappiness and tension within families.

The main way to solve this problem is by having designated work hours, as you would if you were commuting to an office. If you set yourself regular hours and stick to a schedule your work will rarely have an impact on your family.

Make sure that when you have finished for the day you don’t end up returning to work. It can be all to easy to just quickly check an email, or write a quick blog post – but if this is impacting negatively on your home life these are habits you need to break.

Problem 3: My household is too distracting.

This is a problem that is very easy to empathise with! The children are noisy, the dog won’t stop barking, or your partner continually interrupts, all of these things can accumulate to making it nigh on impossible to work.

Make sure you set clear boundaries for the other people in your household; shut your office door and let them know your timetable of working hours. Where possible fit your work schedule around you family, perhaps meaning you take a 20-minute break when the children come home from school and are eager to speak to you. You working from home has to work for your whole family.

If you are distracted by your telephone or personal email account, turn them off! Even if it’s just for a couple of hours you really will be amazed at how much you can get done.

I believe that working from home really can work for nearly all small business; if you have a problem that stops you working from home leave a comment and I’ll see if I can help!

For the latest information about SME Technology, follow me on Twitter or become a fan of WinWeb on Facebook. I look forward to connecting with you!

As regular readers of my blog will know I strongly believe that working from home is one of the best ways to do business. Not only have I worked from home for over ten years, but the majority of my staff at WinWeb.com also work from home. Working from home will change your life, and here are just a few reasons why…

Your business will save money – If you can manage to run your business without the need for an office you could save thousands of pounds a year. Imagine having that weight lifted from your shoulders!

Increased staff efficiency – Working from home means that there is no long commute for your staff. Not only does this reduce their stress levels, but it also increases the amount of available time for them to dedicate to work. This can increase efficiency hugely saving your staff time, and you money!

Financial security – Having the reduced overheads that come with your staff working from home means that during times of economic slowdown your business is well-protected. While your competitors have to pay out for expensive office space that they don’t need as clients dry up, your business can continue to thrive.

Beat the fuel hike – With fuel duty set to increase steadily over the coming year what better way to save you and your employees money than by cutting out the commute? This will not only save money but it also reduce the carbon footprint of your small business.

Tap in to an undiscovered work source – There are groups of people for whom working in an office is not a practical. I consider these groups to be an untapped work source that could be an asset to your small business. An ideal example of people in this category are parents, childcare is hugely expensive and allowing people the flexibility to work from home means you can gain the staff others are missing out on!

There may be genuine reasons why your small business cannot have its staff working from home, but I believe that for every problem that prevents people in working this way there is a solution; which is why I began my business WinWeb.com. Working from home can save small businesses money, and if that can help reduce that awful small business mortality rate I spoke about last week then I’m all for it.

There are so many great home & small business blogs out there to give you inspiration and new ideas. Here are my top 10 reads for today – as usual you will find these and more good reads also on my twitter feed. I would encourage you to go and have a look at these blogs as they will give you a different perspective on some of the same issues I have covered on my blog.

• thehouseholdhelper.com:- Quick Tips for Organizing Your Home office
• smallbizresource.com:- 5 Free Tools That Find Your Deleted Data
• gatorwademarketing.com:- Why Undersized Businesses are Using SEO
• thegreengirls.com:- Setting up your Green Business
• gatorwademarketing.com:- For All Jobless Out There – Work at Home!
• baronglobe.blogspot.com:- Why Working From Home is a Good Idea Today?
• articlesbase.com:- Five Ways to Find the Perfect Business Idea
• smallbizresource.com:- 10 Business Plan Gaffes You Don’t Want To make
• theladders.com:- Do I Need a Marketing Budget? How Much?
• powerhomebiz.com:- Top Ten Ways to Bring Holiday Joy to Your Small Business

Running your business from home has many advantages over renting an office or workspace. Today’s online technology allows you to run a professional business without the overheads, another way to continue the bootstrapping mentality.

The points below will give you another brief overview of the many benefits of running your business from home and how to benefit from them.

Find out how @ winweb.com

Starting a small business from an office or home is a great way to earn some extra money or make into your full-time occupation.

As we all know there are many things to consider and the take into consideration. WinWeb has compiled a great list of 100 tips to help you to check out your business idea. Have a read and find out how well you are prepared.

100 Small Business Start-Up Tips @ WinWeb Business Blog.

Over on our WinWeb Business Blog we just released a list of 100 Small Business Bootstrapping Truths. If you find running your small or home business hard and you are looking for ways to save some money, then you should go and have a look.

Spending money is easy, but will not always get you where you want to go. Bootstrapping will help you to get there without spending money, remember:

“Bootstrapper don’t spend money, they make money!”

These and 99 more bootstrapping tips @ WinWeb Business Blog.

There are so many great home & small business blogs out there to give you inspiration and new ideas. Here are my top 10 reads for today – as usual you will find these and more good reads also on my twitter feed. I would encourage you to go and have a look at these blogs as they will give you a different perspective on some of the same issues I have covered on my blog.

• sme-blog.com:- Selling Online – Your Questions answered
• score.org:- 5 Tips on building a Sound Business Plan
• sme-blog.com:- Small Business Start-Up Checklist – Marketing Plan
• bytestart.co.uk:- 30 Google marketing tips for small businesses – Part one
• bytestart.co.uk:- 30 Google marketing tips for small businesses – Part two
• businessknowhow.com:- Five Ways to Find the Perfect Business Idea
• businessknowhow.com:- 5 Free Tools That Find Your Deleted Data
• businessknowhow.com:- 10 Business Plan Gaffes You Don’t Want to Make
• score.org:- 5 Tips on How to Be Sure You’re Adequately Insured
• score.org:- 5 Tips on paying Yourself

If you are thinking about starting your own small business, or have already started your business, but maybe find the going tough, then this and the other articles in this series are for you. But before you start reading the other articles you need to be familiar with the term “bootstrapping”, to better appreciate the implications of the rest of this series.

Bootstrapping a small business means to start your business without external financial help or capital investment. You fund your business with money you earn and then reinvest into your business to grow. The average amount of money you would need to start a bootstrapped business is around $5,000 or £3,000, but often you can start a business with no money too. This assumes you already have a computer, internet connection and found room for a desk or use the kitchen table.

Ten rules to bootstrapp your small business start-up @ winweb.com

There are so many great home & small business blogs out there to give you inspiration and new ideas. Here are my top 10 reads for today – as usual you will find these and more good reads also on my twitter feed. I would encourage you to go and have a look at these blogs as they will give you a different perspective on some of the same issues I have covered on my blog.

• thebabyboomerentrepreneur.com:- Are You Breaking the One Rule No Entrepreneur Should Ever Break?
• score.org:- 5 Tips to Brand Your Business Online
• thebabyboomerentrepreneur.com:- How to Use Twitter to Build Business Relationships
• businessknowhow.com:- 10 Business Plan Gaffes You Don’t Want To Make
• factoidz.com:-Advantages of software as a service (SaaS)
• thebabyboomerentrepreneur.com:- Is Your Spam Filter Costing You Business?
• factoidz.com:-How to be your own boss
• score.org:- 5 Tips on Conserving Capital
• factoidz.com:- Expand your small business into international markets
• score.org:- 5 Tips on How to Get Closer to Customers With Technology

There are so many great home & small business blogs out there to give you inspiration and new ideas. Here are my top 10 reads for today – as usual you will find these and more good reads also on my twitter feed. I would encourage you to go and have a look at these blogs as they will give you a different perspective on some of the same issues I have covered on my blog.