You don’t need to deal with any tiring commutes, you can have whatever snacks you want whenever you want, you can maintain a schedule that suits you instead of trying to get things done between semi-arbitrary times of day (like 9am and 5pm, for instance) — and most importantly, you can save a lot of money through avoiding expensive office rental costs.
Sold on the idea? That’s completely understandable, but you must remember that it isn’t perfect: there are some areas in which it’s actually harder than using a regular office. To manage those areas and make the most of the situation, you need to arm yourself with some relevant tools, and we’re going to look at four that are absolutely essential. Let’s get to them:
A rock-solid internet connection
This is something you can’t do without, even if your business isn’t ostensibly an online business. Internet access is essential for research, client communications, account management, and many other things besides. If possible, go for a fibre-optic connection for faster speeds and greater reliability than you’d get from a connection based on your phone line: fibre broadband from the Post Office is a solid middle-ground option, not being overly expensive but hitting speeds that should be more than adequate for business purposes.
An intuitive accounting solution
Knowing not only when your incoming payments are arriving but also how your outgoing payments are stacking up (going towards everything from software subscriptions to lunch expenses) is vitally important when running a home-based business. Without a dedicated financial manager to keep things in line, you can easily run into issues otherwise. HubSpot has a good roundup of viable accounting tools, so take a look through the list to see which one might best suit your unique needs.
A phone-connected doorbell
This might sound like an odd tool to consider essential, but the reasoning is sound, and here’s why: running a business often means getting deliveries, whether they contain gifts from clients or pieces of equipment ordered for the company, and part of the appeal of working in an office building is having the reception area there to serve as a delivery buffer. When you work from home, you don’t have that luxury, so you need to stay on top of deliveries — and when you’re busy working, you might not hear a traditional doorbell. Having something that connects to your phone (the Eufy Video Doorbell, for instance) can save you a lot of time and effort
A straightforward time tracker
Without oversight from a manager or HR team checking up on your progress, it’s surprisingly easy to lose track of what you’re actually doing and how much time is going towards it. This is why you need a tool to help you track your time. You don’t need anything too complicated, just something that lets you start a task, pause it when needed, and complete it when you’re finished. Zapier has a great list of different time trackers, each with a slightly different approach, so take a few minutes to read through it.
This list isn’t exhaustive, and you’ll likely need to pick up various other things to get your home-based business working smoothly, but these four tools should serve as a solid foundation to build upon. Good luck!
