Home Works

Tech Savvy
Having the amenities of home close at hand doesn’t mean sacrificing the advantages of the highest possible technology. Although it does mean serious upgrades will have to be made in older homes and even added to new construction to make a home office operate on the same level as a multi-million dollar corporation.

“First and foremost, structured wiring is a must. This basically gives you the ability for multiple PCs to tie into one server,” Goering says. “And now most home offices do wireless Internet connections, so you need a spot for the air station.”

Once your home is corporate-grade, it’s important to assemble the necessary tools that recreate what you used when you were part of the outside world. That can mean color printers, multiple phone lines and a professional phone system, conferencing equipment, computers, file backup system, scanner, fax machine—there’s a reason they say the devil is in the details.

To make sure telecommuters hit the ground running with all the proper tools intact, Kerry Hage, owner of Hage & Co., Inc., in Rogers, says taking time to consider daily work needs is important. “People who work at home have to give a lot more attention to what their own individual work station needs are, so it’s important to spend time understanding what it is people do, what their needs are going to be, so we can really customize the space around those unique needs.”

Beyond the Cube Walls
Along with the freedom to make your own schedule, work in your pajamas, and take a three-martini lunch, working from home also means you don’t have to stare at gray cube walls for eight hours a day. Adding color, wall art, and different materials allows telecommuters to personalize their offices for optimum comfort and style.

For Goering, home offices are a favorite because formerly restricted employees get the chance to make their ideal workspace outside of corporate boundaries. “Companies can be very restrictive about personal style in offices, but when it’s at home, everything is fair game and people like to spend money on so many different creative things. You don’t have to adapt to the space you’re assigned, so we can really customize to people’s needs and explore fun materials to create the space.”

For most home office owners, that means modern, clean lines and experimenting with colors and materials to create the ideal office. The initial urge may be to make the office décor similar to the rest of the home to preserve flow, but deviating in small areas—such as using different finishes or woodwork than in the rest of the home—means the office is set off as a space specifically for work.

But Goering warns that making an office too appealing can be detrimental. “You don’t want an office to be so comfortable you use it as a retreat from family—that’s the danger. When your office is at home you can find yourself gravitating toward it and you work too many hours.”