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Working from home - Interview with Emma Jones

Introduction

Sometimes, amid the dark, damp monotony of the daily commute to work, the idea of working from home can seem equally Utopian and impossible to attain. To find out not only how difficult it is to make the break, but also to get advice on the best way of going about setting up your own, the best thing to do is to speak to someone who has been through it all before.

BuyAssociation.co.uk Property Editor Paul Collins spoke to Emma Jones, who has set up her own business from home not once, but twice – the second of which, Enterprise Nation, is a website dedicated to helping other people start their own home business. Emma gave up her job at a major corporate firm to start working from home at the age of 27, and is to publish a book in May 2008 called Spare Room Start Up on the subject. Enterprise Nation.com now has over 250,000 regular users and Emma is often contacted for comment by radio, TV, and newspapers, so there are few people more qualified to talk about how to make a successful office in your home.

The beginning

Making your own way in the world of small businesses has always seemed to me to be one of the most daunting decisions to take in your career, but the logical and passionate way in which Emma describes her move out the high-powered world of corporate accountancy makes you feel as though everyone should be doing it. In some ways I suspect that the climb up the corporate ladder and the move into her own business were both bigger challenges than looking back on them today might suggest, but as she explains, Emma always felt it was part of her future.

“I grew up in a family that was quite entrepreneurial, and was raised by my mother, who had owned her own businesses for a long time. I had also done three years of research beforehand, which meant that I was well prepared, even though it was something of a leap to move away from the support of a large business.” After a successful launch, the business – co-owned between Emma and a business partner – grew to employ five home-based workers and was sold on within 15 months. Enterprise Nation followed as a logical step forward as she saw there was no real resource for those in a similar position of wanting to set up on their own.

The differences

Emma found that the initial set up of the business was a little strange to someone used to large city offices. She cleared out her spare room and put in a desk, a laptop and a telephone. “The first morning, I sat there in the office on my own and waited for the telephone to ring, until it dawned on me that I needed to go out and get the work.” Taking the first step to go out and get clients started the process of building the business, but there was always the temptation to save pennies where possible. “I went to use the internet in the library, as access was free. To this day, I still advise people to use Skype whenever they can to save costs.”

The change in cultures did take Emma some time to adjust to in the beginning, not least no longer being able to pick up the telephone and dial internally for IT support. Other changes involved in working on your own do need to be considered, but Emma points out that there are ways of preparing for these, and they should not be seen as an obstacle to making the move out of the corporate world.

“Isolation is often seen as the big problem, so it’s important to reach out and make contact whenever you can. Using Skype and instant messenger tools on the internet is one of the best ways of keeping in touch with people who are in a similar situation to yourself, and I often refer to it as the ‘virtual watercooler’.” In addition, sometimes Emma finds herself going out to one of the chains of coffee shops to be in the presence of other people. “These ‘third spaces’ allow me to get on with work without being disturbed, but still to have the buzz of activity around me.”

Friends and family can also be involved in getting the business started, and can often help out with their own expertise, meaning that people with their own home business do not feel that they have to carry the whole weight on their own. This has the added benefit of getting family members to ‘take ownership’ of the business.

The result of this deliberate interaction with other people, Emma says, is that people who run their own home business are some of the most actively-networked people she has ever met. They are driven by the knowledge that they have to make their own business and networking opportunities, and therefore make the most of every meeting and event they attend.

The office

When it comes to setting up the office itself, Emma advises getting the business started first, and then moving into getting an office space organised. “Many home businesses are started when the owners are still in full-time employment, so it can be hard to find the time and money to set up an office at home as well. This is known as the ‘five-to-nine economy’, and is an important contributor to the economy of the country.”

Emma also points out the worth of a dedicated office as soon as people start to work form home full-time, as it offers a definite separation and division between the different parts of life within the same building. This is important not only for the sanity of the person at work, but will also help to avoid conflicts within the house about working for too long.

Design is an important part of the process, says Emma. “Certain colours have been shown to encourage higher productivity than others, and you should try to have as much natural light as possible. One thing not to scrimp on is the quality of your desk chair, as you are likely to be spending hours sitting on it every day.” Don’t be shy about using different kinds of furniture for office storage – old wardrobes can make great filing cabinets – and think about putting in plant life to help improve the atmosphere.

A well-planned and well-executed home office space can add to the attractiveness of your property when it comes time to move on. In the same way that adding a loft conversion, garage or landscaped garden to your property can add value as well as make the property stand out from others in the same area, a home office or study is a huge advantage to buyers. In addition, Emma says, it can add up to £25,000 to the value of your property.

Other benefits

Aside from the clear personal benefits of working form home in terms of time gained with family and friends, Emma points out that there are plenty of other advantages to working from home. Savings are made on carbon dioxide emissions from public and private transport, and there are benefits to society and communities in people working from home. Home workers are proven to get actively involved in community projects, and have more time to get to know their neighbours. “They are seen as a positive role model for children, being around the house and spending more time with them.” All of this combined leads to most home workers being much less stressed than their office-bound counterparts.

“I even have one website member who used to have a stressful journey to work every single morning. Since starting his business from home, he tells me that he gets up every morning and watches the horror stories of the traffic reports with a smile on his face,” Emma says.

As a consequence of not travelling to the office, people who work from home have more time to be able to do things that are separate from their working life. Many people take the opportunity for personal development, partly because they have the extra time, and partly for a change from their business life. Home workers exercise more, spend more time with family and are able to celebrate their productivity on their own terms. Emma does have one warning on this topic though: “You have to be able to walk away and shut the door at the end of the day. Becoming obsessed and working too much will be detrimental all round.”

The future

Emma is seeing an increasing number of people working from home, either through setting up their own businesses, or through their employers becoming ever more open to the concept and benefits of having workers based at home. She quotes a senior director at banking giant HSBC bemoaning the fact that they have two huge buildings in London crammed with people, but that “all he wants are their brains.” Apparently, the bank is planning to reduce its permanent office-based staff to one building, with the rest based at home.

Will Emma ever go back to office-based work? Is there anything she misses from the office environment? “I like to go back into offices these days – it reminds me of why I wanted to work from home in the first place, and that I know I’ve made the right decision. Sometimes I wake up and hear my neighbour drive off to work. As I drift back to sleep for a while, I enjoy a small smile of thanks.”

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