Building & Home Articles Home Design Articles You Too Can Design the Home Office You Have Only Dreamed About
| You Too Can Design the Home Office You Have Only Dreamed About |
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Setting up a home office is one of the most important tasks you will face when you make the decision to work from your own home. Your home office can be a corner of your kitchen or living room or, if space permits, a former spare bedroom.
Setting up a home office is one of the most important tasks you will face when you make the decision to work from your own home. Your home office can be a corner of your kitchen or living room or, if space permits, a former spare bedroom. The size of your home office is less about the size and more about functionality. When you are deciding where to put your office, think about places that lend itself to being set up as the nerve center of your business. There are many factors to take into consideration when charting your home office organization. Is the area well lit? Proper lighting is extremely important. Spending hours at a time in a dimly lit workspace can create eyestrain that, after long periods of time, this could lead to serious problems with your vision. Electrical Outlets Should Be Considered You want to take into consideration electrical outlets available for the equipment that you will be using day-to-day. At the very least, today's modern home office has a light, computer, telephone, answering machine, monitor, scanner, printer and speakers (optional but still nice to have). You may also add a radio/CD/MP3 player that will need to be powered. Make sure you have enough electrical outlets to power your home office adequately so that you do not have play plug switch on equipment. Is the area well ventilated and dust free? All of that computer equipment needs to "breath" to remain cool and functioning properly. If you have ever, "fried" a computer you know how important it is to keep the fan clean and dust free. Telephone Access Is another Consideration Depending on your Internet access, you will need either one or two telephone lines in your home office. If you are on dial-up, you will need two phone lines - one for the computer and one for you to talk on. It is also much easier to track your telephone usage if you separate your personal phone line from your business telephone line. It is also important that your clients can reach you. If your clients have to compete with your teenagers' telephone habits, chances are they will call someone else. Make certain that this separate line is set up to receive phone calls while you are online. Most major telephone companies now offer that service. You may pay a few extra dollars a month for it, but it will pay for itself over the long haul. What Type Of Internet Access Do You Have? Most modern home offices will have a decent Internet connection - DSL or Broadband. Gone are the days when dialup access was sufficient, and while it can still be done, most home office business have a fast Internet connection. You may be already DSL-ready and only need to call your telephone company to get it started. If you already have a broadband connection, make sure you have access to the cable connection where you are located. If you choose to go with a wireless connection to your broadband access, be sure and secure and encrypt it with WPA encryption and not WEP. WEP encryption was hacked about 10 years ago, and if you are doing secure transactions online, spring for a wireless modem/router with the latest encryption available. Better still, you might want to stick with straight cabling for faster speed and safety. If you take advantage of a nearby WiFi hotspot where you can go wireless, be sure and avoid making purchases or conducting unencrypted transactions while wireless on a public wireless connection. If you go wireless at home, make sure you have encrypted your connection and you should be just fine. With all of these decisions made, you will have the basics for starting the setup of your home office organization. About the Author: |
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