Institute of Internal Communication

Working from home has its advantages and disadvantages. The most obvious benefit is that you don't have to travel to the office.  Another is that you can set your office up exactly as you want.  On the minus side, home working can be intrusive – you are never further than a few feet from your work and paperwork can easily overflow into your living space. This can make it hard to ‘switch off' during evenings and weekends.

You may be lucky enough to have a dedicated study in your home or an out-building in your garden that you can convert into office space.  If not, like many freelances, you'll find yourself working out of your spare bedroom. 

Wherever, you choose to base yourself at home, you will need to ensure that you have enough space for a desk, chair, shelving, filing and any special equipment you need to do your job.  Most important of all - you need privacy.

Stationery
There are many tasks involved in setting yourself up as a freelance. One of the most important (and potentially more difficult to get right) is your stationery. Your business cards, letterheads and compliments slips reflect your ‘brand' so it's well worth spending some time and money on these items. 

If funds are limited, start with your business cards; you can improvise headed paper and compliments slips until you can afford to have them printed. 

Finding suppliers
Stationery always looks more impressive if it has been professionally designed.  If you don't know any good designers, now is the time to start networking. Ask your contacts if they can recommend someone, and don't forget to check out your Thomson Local directory. And we have a few on the Forum itself.

Once you have details of two or three suppliers, give them a call, ask for a quote and, if this sounds reasonable, ask if you can meet up with them to see samples of their work. The same applies to printers.

As it may take a few weeks before you are happy with the design (and stationery is very personal), make sure you start the process before you actually begin trading. There's nothing worse than meeting a potential client and having no business card to give them!

Any supplier research you do now could stand you in good stead for the future. As a freelance, you could be called upon to deliver a range of services from design and print to photography and the creation of websites and intranets (even if you don't have all the skills yourself).

The more people you know who can deliver these services, the more likely you are to provide client satisfaction.  It's often who you know, not what you know that makes the difference!

Kitting out the office
If you have been employed until now, your company will have taken responsibility for ensuring your work station is correctly set up with furniture and equipment suitable for your needs. Now that responsibility is yours.  As such, you should ensure that any furniture you buy (particularly chairs) combines functionality with comfort. After all, you are going to spend many hours in your office (and potentially many pounds on setting it up) so it's important that you get things right.

Furniture: At the very least you will need a desk and chair. Check out Yellow Pages,Thomson Local and the internet for suppliers of new and second-hand furniture.  Note that items ordered over the internet can often be cheaper than those you might buy in your local office furniture suppliers, so it is worth shopping around.

Equipment: Covered in more depth elsewhere in the freelance workshop but, again, it's worth shopping around for hardware and software.  Internet-based and mail order suppliers are usually more competitive than the large office supplies stores.

When it comes to setting up your kit, remember that you should sit square on to your monitor to avoid unnecessary twisting and strain on the back.  Also, position your monitor at eye level to minimise neck and shoulder pain.  Back and neck pain are the most common causes of time off work* so, as you won't be able to claim sick pay when you're ill, you should do your best to avoid self-induced health problems like these.

* Source: BackCare (formerly the National Back Pain Association)

Other useful items

• business card holder / file – you're bound to collect lots of business cards so it makes sense to store them in one place.
• Address/contact book – essential from day one.
• Filing cabinet or similar – it's amazing how quickly you build up client literature and general information. Start as you mean to go on by filing it away.

Telecoms
A dedicated business telephone line helps you keep work and home calls totally separate.  It also makes it much easier to identify expenses that you need to charge back to clients.  Check out the latest offers for business customers from BT; likewise with mobile phone suppliers if you don't already have one. 

If you live in an area that offers Broadband, check this out too.  Broadband is ideal if you want to access and download files quickly and it makes internet research much faster. 

Terms and conditions
Many freelances provide clients with printed Terms and Conditions (or a letter of agreement) setting out the ‘rules of engagement' for a piece of work.  This makes you look professional and provides you with a degree of protection in the event of a job going wrong or a client delaying payment.

Terms and Conditions are yours to define but will typically include rates to be charged (e.g. by the hour or day or a total figure), expenses to be charged, payment terms, any late payment charges applicable on invoices, and the limits of your liability.  If you want a professional opinion about what you should include in your Terms and Conditions, it may be worth consulting a solicitor who specialises in contract law. However, this will cost you!

Some clients may expect you to agree to their Terms and Conditions (particularly regarding payment terms). If you are unhappy about this, try negotiating. Companies are often prepared to bend the rules for ‘small' suppliers.

Setting out your stall
As a new freelancer, your portfolio of work to date is the best advert you have for your skills, so it's worth spending some time working out what you want to include. 

If you intend to market yourself primarily as a writer and your work has been mainly print-based, choose samples that best demonstrate your range – e.g. employee magazines, customer newsletters, press releases, direct mail pieces etc.  You can display these in an art case (available from any good art shop) or general display folder (from your local office supplies store). 

If you have worked in a more strategic/consultative capacity, it might be best to develop case studies of the projects you have been involved in, stating clearly the project objectives, the strategy you recommended, the tactics that were employed and the results achieved.  Depending on funds available, you might wish to set up your own web site where prospective clients can go for further details of your skills and experience.

Don't forget to ensure your CV is up-to-date. A separate summary sheet of your skills and experience might also be useful if potential clients just want a snapshot of what you can do/have done.

Insurance
When setting up your home office you should ensure that any particularly expensive items of equipment are covered by insurance. You may be able to include some or all of these in your home contents insurance. If in doubt, consult a reputable broker for advice.

There is some debate as to whether freelances need professional indemnity insurance. Some clients may require it as a condition of a contract, others will never mention it. 

Professional indemnity insurance limits your liability in the event of a job going wrong. One freelancer found this very useful when a client spotted a mistake in a brochure he was project-managing, even though several people at the company had proof read it. The client rejected the job and the freelance had to call on his insurance to cover the cost of a reprint. 

A lot depends on the sort of relationship you have with your client. If you are dealing with new clients, it is well worth specifying where responsibilities for certain tasks lie right at the start of the relationship, ideally within your terms and conditions.

Finally
Working from home doesn't suit everyone. It requires self-discipline and a never-failing ability to enjoy your own company. However, the pros can far outweigh the cons: a home office doesn't cost you rent, you can take your tea breaks in the garden on sunny days, you have the freedom to paint your office yellow if you feel like it and there's also the considerable convenience of having everything you need to do your job close by.

Now that's what being your own boss is all about!

© Margo Galvin Corporate Communications