So far nobody has seemed to care that I work from home, but one issue that occasionally comes up is my “office hours”. Sometimes clients expect me to be able to receive and act on their emails and calls, so long as they arrive between 9 and 5… even if I haven’t otherwise heard from them for weeks and have no contract with them to be on call at a particular time.

One client had access to my home phone number, because reception on it was better for conference calls than my cell. He was in a time zone 3 hours ahead, and would often call me during dinner hours and occasionally as early as 6 a.m. with no prior notice.

That’s a challenge, when you work with someone who works 18 hours a day and expects you to as well… fortunately, most of my clients are not like this.

Anyone else encounter this – the “office hours” thing being hard to explain to others? The whole reason I choose to work from home is for fluidity and flexibility to not HAVE to have office hours, but instead, to work when it works best for me, and when I can be the most productive.

But there are days it would be nice to have someone else to answer my calls or chat to while I eat lunch (or procrastinate). I can definitely see the appeal of a co-working space at those times!

Bette, in the scrapbook industry it’s not garages, it’s kitchen tables that are cool. We don’t even get our own room!

I do use a PO box and separate phone line for the reasons given above. Since we host business’s websites, I make it clear that our servers are located in a separate datacenter. Running your business from home can be a selling point. Many of my clients are running their businesses from home. They appreciate that we share their values of frugality and work-life balance.

Still, I don’t like having the sounds of home life playing in the background of my phone conversations. The doorbell sound is probably my biggest peeve. It used to be worse when the doorbell would set the dog to barking and my son to shouting at the dog “Quiet Toby…Mommy’s working!” (doggie is deaf now and my son is 11 so we don’t have those 3-ring circus outbreaks as much).

Maybe I’ll try to find a doorbell chime that has an “office” sound…like a buzzer or discrete electronic ‘ding ding ding’.

The notion of “why hide working from home” may not apply to all: Some work-from-home professionals and home-based-business owners may still require a presence outside of the home, and there is nothing wrong or insecure with that choice.

For instance, if you are a solo-practicioner attorney working from home, you typically will need a business location outside of your home. If you value “seperation of church and state” as it applies to business, you may want to incorporate your company at an actual physical commercial location and use the address of such. Or you may just want the security which comes with that….or in some cases you may just want to have offices and meeting rooms outside of your home, to be used on an as-needed basis, or to plugin to a network of other for co-working or to have a watercooler conversation with.

The company I co-founded, Office Divvy, provides virtual office solutions to compliment one’s home-based business or professional practice. The matter is not as clearcut as being insecure about working from home, but in some cases how to run a smart-business with professional image (if that’s the choice).

Day in day out, we see dozens of clients operate more efficiently, with less stress and pressure, and increase profitability…

A salute to all fellow Entrepreneurs…

Ky Ekinci
Co-Founder
Office Divvy

I have a 2 year-old and another one on the way. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I’m talking business with someone and they have to stop to yell at their kids. So I’m very conscious about keeping kid noise out of the background. And if I have to stop and shoo a kid out or keep him from banging on my door I find that the mute button is incredibly useful. “Hey John, can you hold on for just a moment?” Then I mute the phone and go apply some fatherly discipline and then I’m back to work!

If I’m too busy to pick up the call, I let it go to vox. Otherwise, I like to at least talk with the client, and remind him/her that email is probably a very efficient way to get me the information.

Jon, that’s one of the reasons that I have chosen not to use my cell number for my business number. I figure that too often I would be away from information I need and in the middle of something that shouldn’t be interrupted to make it practical.

I love the idea of the sign on the office door. I’m a scrapbook industry trade journal editor, so I should probably make myself a really crafty one!