Where Do You Work?

If Einstein was right (he had a habit of being right!) then the world is not that complicated. There are only two components - you and everything else! Now consider that in the “everything else” category, work encompass about one half of all waking hours or a full third of your life. Where you do that and the success you experience are inseparable.

Technology has provided nearly unlimited opportunities for working in places that are not conventional offices. The promotional specialty advertising industry has always had a significant number of home office based businesses. The scope of those offices run from formally laid out offices with all the necessities a conventional office has, to the front seat of a car complete with coffee stains on almost everything, stacks of catalogs and samples overflowing the back seat. The majority of home offices generally fall in between these extremes.

If you are an employee working from home there are guidelines your employer should be observing. A formal agreement covering working environment, hours and duties is a minimum. Statements regarding workplace safety and health are also generally included. If you are an independent business operator you can find greater proficiency and profit by observing similar procedures. Many people love the freedom of working alone at home because they get along with everyone, are always the employee of the month and can meet with the boss any time they want to! But there are some realities that can make a difference.

Working in your pajamas is a no no! “Getting dressed for work” is referred to as a transitional activity that takes you from being at home to working from home. It starts the process of changing your attention from emptying the dishwasher to getting that rush order processed. Keeping regular business hours is another important rule to impose on yourself. In B2B (business to business) marketing and sales, you have to be a business! Your clients can’t worry that they are waking you up if they call first thing in the morning!

Avoiding clutter, a problem for virtually everyone in this industry where every conversation, quote, and order involves product samples, is critical for the home office based business. With limited space most home offices occupy, an orderly office is an efficient office. Some estimates say that a disorganized office can cost you 20% to 25% efficiency which equates to a significant loss of profit. You will be working longer for the same result, effectively lowering your income and increasing your workload.

The “freedom” working from home gives also comes with responsibility. If you need to be away, be sure you have adequate communications systems set up. Today that means automatically forwarding calls or if you use a message system, use one that alerts you to calls rather than one you have to check when (if) you remember.

Be mindful that dogs barking or children playing/crying in the background is not the best ambiance for your phone calls! If your call has been forwarded to your mobile, let the caller know and apologize for any extra noise there might be.

After many conversations with work from home distributors, I found that there is little concern for how meetings are conducted, not too much with clients but with suppliers. While you normally will visit your customers/clients in their office, suppliers who do visit with you come to your office. What they experience will go a long way to how they conduct business with you. If your surroundings are cluttered in a disarray of samples, papers, catalogs, empty soda cans, and food containers, it reflects on the level of professionalism they perceive.   

If however they meet in the portion of your home designated as your office and see orderly use of the space, well-organized samples and catalogs and a desk that is ready for the next big order to cross - it will serve you well as you go forward working with that supplier. Here is an example. A supplier was complaining to me that a ‘one man’ distributor made a $1400 error and was attempting to blame the supplier. All she kept saying was that the home office was such a complete mess that it is no wonder the mistake was overlooked. She said the distributor insists he has “proof” he didn’t make the mistake but can’t actually find it.

While keeping an orderly home office is always a good thing, it might be better to meet both suppliers and customers away from your home office. Simply stating that “I work from home so let’s meet at Starbucks” is perfectly acceptable in today’s business environment.

The final comment for this article is about ‘other people’ - the people that think when you work from home you are not really working and show little or no respect for your work environment. These people need to be made aware of the office hours you keep and to be respectful of your time. Here again, being dressed for work rather than shorts and a tee shirt can help get that message across.

Gregg Emmer is chief marketing officer and vice president at Kaeser & Blair, Inc. He has more than 40 years experience in marketing and the promotional products industry. His outside consultancy provides marketing, public relations and business planning consulting to a wide range of other businesses and has been a useful knowledge base for K&B Dealers. Contact Gregg at gemmer@kaeser-blair.com.