The Freelance Resource

Home Office Tips: How to Set Up the Perfect Home Office

While setting up a home office, keep in mind that the home office is your personal office within your home or wherever else you have set it up. While it is entirely up to you whether you set up your home office in the space where the water cooler was, or decide to dedicate an entire room to your home office venture, it is quite necessary that the home office should have a professional look and feel to it, when it is made. Here are some tips that you should keep in mind while preparing a home office:

Subtle Furniture:

Whether you are buying new furniture, or deciding which furniture to use from the one you already have, remember that the furniture should look sleek and gel well with the office atmosphere. So, out goes your grandma's curly legged sofa and in comes a more practical hardback chair.

Also, if you are buying new furniture, make sure that the color is a office furniture color and not something that kills the eyes or gives an unprofessional look to the office. So, refrain from using bright pinks and dark reds in the office furniture. Of course, you can make the home office look lively with some shades of red, yellow, green, etc, but you should be careful about what you are getting.

Marry the Electronics:

Electronics are a very important part of the Home Office, and most of your home office issues will be solved if you can set up the electronics in a nice area of the home office. While setting up the electronics in the home office, try to group up the machinery and place them so that the person who is using one machine can easily reach the other.

For example, if you have a scanner, printer and xerox machine separate, you are using a lot of office space for something that can come within a single machine, like an All in One. All in Ones were very expensive when they first came out, but there are several which are available at quite economic rates now. Try to do some window shopping and see which model fits your budget the best.

Moving Space:

Another important aspect that you should keep in mind while setting up a home office is the moving space. Make sure that you only put in the kind of furniture and machinery that is needed, and do not clutter up the office in such a way that there is no space at all. Agreed that you would be the only one who'd be working in that given space, but you have to consider those times when you would have to take help from someone else on some project, or even hire a person to work from your premises for a temporary period.

A cluttered office may even have a psychological effect on the person, and they may think that you are unprofessional in your work. Also, there are cases when a client would want to meet you in your office. Keeping these aspects in mind, you should make sure that you only have kept the furniture and machinery that is needed, and there is moving space in your home office.

Opening and Closing Space:

While setting up cabinets and other types of furniture, you have make sure that the furniture can be opened and closed with ease, and that it does not disturb the movement in the office. You can ensure this by deciding where to keep the furniture, like the desk drawer, or the file cabinet, and choosing a location that is the most udisruptive.

Decorations:

Your home office does not require carnations, but you should consider putting up some kind of pictures, or even framed posters on the walls. This not only adds to the ambiance of the office in general, but it also gives an idea to the visitor that the office is a completed structure now.

Try to get some cool and calming pictures, or posters with some positive messages, of course, if you are in a alternative profession like advertising and media, you would need to spruce up your office with some creative ideas.

Freelance Resource You Should Have: The All In One

Whenever we are about to set up a small office at home, we try to look into all the machinery and objects that we would need, then prioritize it, and finally buy it. In such a situation, it is surprising that we buy that great computer, that awesome computer table, that EPABX enabled telephone even though we do not have an EPABX at the moment, and even the extra large file cabinet storage for 'when we get more clients', and yet forget one of the greatest tools you would need for your freelance business - the All in One.

The All in One, also known as the AiO, is basically an enhancement of the first generation printers. Generally, the All in One is the single machine that has dual, triple or even quadruple uses, with some AiOs having upto seven uses. The AiO generally converts into a:

Xerox Machine

Fax Machine

Scan Machine

and also some uses that are prevalent in the everyday of the office.

While this is about the general usage of an AiO, here are some aspects where your AiO can be a lifesaver:

With the AiO, you can immediately create professional looking invoices, put in a corporate envelope with a printed out address, so that it just adds to the professionalism of it all.

Also, with the AiO, you could double it up as a scanning machine, which will enable you to scan and upload documents on the web, whenever they are needed for identification purposes, etc.

The AiO machine varies in cost and maintenance. Of course, the main maintenance of a AiO is the cartridge that is needed for the printer, and the cost of the cartridge depends on whether you have a laser printer or a deskjet printer.

There are several types of AiOs that are available at various prices. If you are thinking about which one to buy, you should first find out what kind of use your AiO would see. If you have several foreign clients, it is suggested that you get an AiO that has a fax machine as well as a scanning machine, while if you are someone who has only local clients, you would do well to buy just a scanner copier, because you would not have to send a fax to and fro intermittently.

Freelance Tips: Should You Quit Your Job?

There comes a time in everyone's life when they think that their job sucks, and that they really cannot spend even another day in their job. During these times, they look at the various options they have, so that they can try their luck at them - one of them being freelancing, or working from home. If you are at a situation in your professional life where you are being offered a plump work at home opportunity, you should definitely keep these aspects in mind.

Be a Good Ten Years into a Profession to Quit:

There is something known as quitting a job when you are the peak, and if you have spent a good ten years into your profession, or your job, you would be ready to get onto the next step, that is going solo. With ten years of experience, you are at a very good position to quit your day job and get begin your freelance or consulting career.

Don't Quit Before 2 Years:

Two years is just the minimum time that you would have to spend in a business and profession to understand the intricacies and what it all about. Also, if you are trying to work from home or even start a small business in the same profession, you would require a bulky portfolio, which would take at least five years to make.

How Many Bridges Have You Burnt?

It's ok. We all have had jobs where we would never want to go back and bosses whom we secretly fantasise of when we see a horror/slasher movie. But we also have to understand that we will always need a back up plan, if something goes haywire in our current scenario. Therefore, consider how many doorways to safety you have, if your freelancing opportunity does not work. If the situation looks glum, you should stay put in your job for a while more.

Are you getting Burnt Out in a Dead End Job?

There are several cases where you have taken up a job because your financial condition was bad, but the job did nothing to either use your talents, nor did it give you a chance to enhance your professional skills. Whenever you find yourself in such a situation, make sure that you get out of whatever muck you are and get a real job immediately.