It is over 10 years since I last had a ‘proper job’; you know, one where you get up at the same time everyday, travel from home to a place of work, finish at a given time and return to private life in the evening.

10 years ago, I took a break from a lifetime of working in the furniture industry to provide marketing services to house-builders, you must remember them. I fitted myself out with a home office in the loft and spent most of my time mailing and telephoning small companies to offer an ‘out-sourced marketing department’, with reasonable success, particularly with the aforesaid house-builders.

About five years ago I was asked by Options Furniture to take on the role of marketing manager, on a consultancy basis, and as the house-builder market has faded away, most of my time is now spent marketing bespoke fitted furniture from my home office.

So, how do you adjust to a life where you do not have to have a rigid daily timetable and no longer need to commute to the office, which is 30 seconds from my bedroom?

With the growth in home working, I now have several friends who run ‘cottage’ based businesses. One, a life coach, rises at 0.700, has breakfast, sees the kids off to school and college and then ‘walks to work’; round the block and back into his own front door.  I am not sure whether or not he walks home in the evening. We also hold a ‘virtual office Christmas party’ every year at a local restaurant from which our friends with proper jobs are excluded.

Two others, a wine importer and a surveyor meet regularly over coffee at a local café for some ‘water-cooler’ chat. One of them takes an afternoon power nap and that is one privilege of home working that I relish.

Me? I make sure that I have some time structured morning activities like breakfast Rotary and BNI to keep me in the habit of getting up and to provide some fellowship and camaraderie. I meet up with a bunch of guys at a different pub once every month for some proper man time and I do some volunteering for charity.

Otherwise, my working day is a bit solitary but compensated for by a comfortable working environment provided by beautiful, bespoke fitted home office furniture bought from Options Fitted Furniture.   Yes, I do get a discount!

Does anybody have other strategies?
Jun 09