Your home office, or lack thereof, has worked fine so far for managing your career, but as your client base expands and you require more organization, you’ve been thinking about looking for an office for rent.
It’s not that you don’t like working from home or from another smaller space, but you’re being constantly distracted by household tasks and allow your mind to wander too much instead of working.
Even if you have the focus of a Buddhist monk, there are a million things that fight every day to steal time from your work when you’re still hanging your shingle at home. Is the time right for an office outside of home? Can you justify the expense? How will you know when you’re ready?
Here are a few signs that it’s time to upgrade your working environment:
Family or friends don’t consider your work time sacred. If you’re like some people who work from home, you have at least one friend or family member who doesn’t believe you’re actually working when you’re at home. They call during the day, interrupting your workflow, or ask impossible favors that you have to refuse. It’s frustrating and it’s unfair, but once you’ve rented an office and made that your primary workspace, those people will soon stop their shenanigans.
You need a more professional image. Face it, meeting clients at Starbucks isn’t exactly creating a vote of confidence for your business. In fact, many types of businesses that need to protect client information can accidentally open themselves up for risk by meeting clients in a public place. By choosing an office for rent, you can give your clients the privacy they need and protect your business, too.
You’ve hired employees. Your new assistant doesn’t want to tell you this, but she’s really allergic to your cat and your shared space at your home is just too small for her to do her job properly. It’s nice to include your employees in your life, but many don’t feel comfortable working in your home, especially if your family or pets are always zooming through the office. Create a more functional work environment with a rented office — it’ll go a long way to boost employee productivity and morale, too.
You need to leave work at work. One of the hardest things about having a home office is the urge to keep working even after your workday is over. It’s also the quickest ticket to burnout for workers in high stress fields. If you find that you’re not leaving work at work, you definitely need to check out an office for rent — otherwise you may find yourself professionally crashing and burning.
There’s no perfect time to look for an office for rent, but if any of the above scenarios sound familiar, it may be time to at least start thinking about moving out of the house. Some workers can thrive in a home office environment, but others struggle — don’t be afraid to admit that you need a more professional setting in order to make your business the best it can be.