Start by establishing boundaries, as this will help you achieve a healthy work/life balance where you ‘go to work’ in the morning and ‘come home’ at the end of the day.

Even if you can’t have a separate room for your office, create an area within your lounge or dining room where you can work and resist temptation to work in your bedroom – you will find it hard to switch off if you can see your ‘office’ from your bed. If possible, have a phone line installed for business use, or at the very least a work mobile phone, so you don’t have to field calls from clients and suppliers 24/7.

If you have a family, ask them to respect your workplace and not interfere with your paperwork or office equipment. A daily to-do list will help you stay focused and stop you from getting distracted by non-work related tasks or visiting friends and relatives. Unlike an office where you have social contact and regular breaks such as talking to colleagues, having a coffee, going out for lunch etc, when you work from home you have to plan time away from your desk. Living and working alone can be especially isolating, so make sure your week has lots of variety – meetings with clients and associates, walks in your neighbourhood, a visit to a local café can all help keep cabin fever at bay.

Health and safety checks to consider
Much of what is included in the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act applies to home workers too. So if you are working for an employer, he or she must ensure you have received training on how to use equipment at home and that you comply with regulations governing VDUs – taking regular screen breaks and having a workstation that is ergonomically sound.

If you are working for yourself you still have to consider health and safety issues, starting with a risk assessment, in which you should consider how members of your household and visitors could be affected. For instance, if you have small children you will need to childproof your office area with socket guards. As a general rule, do not overload sockets as this could lead to overheating and pose a fire risk. You will also need to check with your home insurer (to check the cover provided), mortgage provider or landlord (your mortgage or tenancy agreement may not allow you to run a business from your home), and HM Revenue & Customs (to find out how your tax position has changed).
You should talk to your neighbours too if there is a chance that they may be affected. Your local Health & Safety Executive (www.hse.gov.uk) can advise you on the health and safety aspects of running a home business and how to carry out a risk assessment. If you want to make any structural changes to accommodate your home business, don’t forget to get planning permission before you start.

Looking after your office equipment
Before you embark on working from home, contact your Contents Insurance provider to find out if your office equipment is covered under your current policy. If it isn’t covered you will have to extend the policy or buy a specific one that covers business activity at home. Direct Line offer cover for office equipment including computers, faxes etc. up to £5,000 as standard. This brings us to IT – the information technology behind our new-found freedom to work from home. If it goes wrong it has the potential to bring a fledgling home business to its knees. To ensure that IT trouble doesn’t threaten your home business it’s definitely worth investing in an IT support service, so if your system goes down you can get it up and running quickly. And always, always, back up all your work.

To find out about Direct Line’s range of home insurance and business insurance to suit you – and to get a quote in minutes – just visit our website.