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Four Greatest Ideas for

  Working from the Office of Your Dreams

Introduction

For many people, working from home is a lifestyle thing. Gone are the rush-hour
traffic jams and missed buses and trains. Instead you only have to wander through to
the spare room - sorry, office - and you can always answer the office phone in your
jim-jams if you decide to read the papers in bed or just have a lie-in that morning.
But experienced home workers have found a few items of best practice to follow.

     If, however, you decide you do need an actual office, you will find that it is in
fact much cheaper in many ways to start up now. Telephone answering machines,
coffee machines and ever-cheaper computing - enabling everyone to do their own
typing - have greatly reduced the need for secretarial support. We are much more
streamlined these days and this reduces the cost of premises.

     But start with three ideas for working from home.

Idea 24 -Allocate enoughspace in the home

When my partner and I first set up business, we lived in a small flat with no spare
room. Within six months not only could you hardly get into the sitting room for
papers and files, but also the boots of both our cars were full of office stuff. It is
extraordinary how much space you use up to run a business; so allocate yourself the
maximum space you can consistent with the family still having a life, rather than the
minimum you could manage with.

     It is highly desirable to have a whole room for the business. Two main reasons
- you are bound to expand, and you need to be able to shut the door on your office
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