By Stan Sauerwein
My first home office had no walls. Strictly speaking, without them to define the work space, I guess my home office was actually nothing more than a 'spot'. It was in my basement beside the furnace.
My desk was an interior door propped on two wobbly saw horses. I nested amid confused piles of paper that were mentally sorted according to age like musty casks of wine. The telephone was upstairs in the kitchen. On sunny days there was a faint yellow glow on the other side of the smudged basement window. Otherwise, my light was a single 100-watt bulb.
Golly, how have things changed.
The advent of fax machines, cell phones, computers and the internet have given workers the freedom to decide where and how they'll work. We can communicate with customers on the other side of the world as easily
as those next door. Strangely enough, and despite the technical advances made with equipment, that dingy basement scenario is still the starting point for many home businesses.
Almost 17% of the labour force in the Central Okanagan is self-employed. More than one out of every 10 of us works from home either full-time or as a way to augment our income. The Economic Development Commission pegs the number of active home businesses here at 9,450.
Susan Sutfin, a bookkeeper who has a home office in the converted basement livingroom began her business in a spare bedroom. She shared the work space with her husband who also has a home business doing typsetting. It was cozy but it did nothing for the image of professionalism she tried to maintain.
Now she counsels anyone contemplating a home office to avoid her mistakes.
Peter Chataway, who has drawn plans for upwards of 400 buildings in his 25 year-old practice as a building designer in Kelowna, says all it requires is some common sense.
If you are only considering a home office to use for paying bills and writing the occasional letter, you can treat it like a den project. You're biggest concern in that case will be planning the decor.
Building or renovating for a home office -- an occupational place - is a different matter.
"A home office is a fairly new item in that it's been recognized in the zoning bylaws in the City of Kelowna," says Peter. "You will need a business licence before you build and for that you have to meet the criteria." That could include the type of business, adhering to maximum number of employees and having some token parking.
Planning for the home office is where the fun begins. Put that dingy basement scenario out of your mind.
"Offices can be from very modest affairs to quite palatial," says Peter. "In terms of size you can go from 150 square feet to 500-600 square feet or more," depending on need and budget.
First try to make an existing space work for you. If you will use a bedroom, for example:
- Consider the basics. If you never expect to have clients visit, you needn't worry about access;
- Remember comfort. Simplify your image of what you'll need to work in your home office and still be organized. Then search the house for the furniture, lights and decorations you like most. It's your space. Make a statement.
If you need to build your home office, then all the rules of good architecture apply. Peter says you have to consider a variety of things, the first of which should be access, which means a visible entry.
"Most people who are self-employed at home try to have a separate entrance or someway to get access. It keeps your business from your home because you want to look like a business. You don't want it to look like its too casual a thing. You want clients to take you seriously," says Susan Sutfin.
The president of the Central Okanagan Home Based Business Association agrees. Bruce Falkins runs his home business, Falkin Advertising Specialties, from a converted bonus room over his garage. "You should be looking at separating yourself from your home as much as possible. In our case I can't hear anything in the house...so the home office is part of the house but its separate from the house."
"You need some remoteness from the family portion of the house to get separation both physically and psychologically, " adds Chatatway. "Zone the building design in such a way that it has inherent remoteness from the family portion."
You're trying to ingrain the right attitude, says Susan. "Even if you don't have people come to the house you should plan your home office as an office. It's the attitude that you have to develop. It's a mind set for work. You have to get it off the dining room table and in a separate room, not only because it's good for taxes but because it's also good for your self-image."
Chataway recommends a sound rated wall so that you don't get home sounds in the office and vice versa. "Good architectural rules on lighting should also apply. You want natural light from two directions, preferably opposite. You want some sunlight and view for general comfort so you have a sense of what's going on outside and for natural ventilation."
Susan Sutfin stresses windows too. The home office "should be very bright. Without windows it's very depressing and plan for lots of shelves and that kind of thing so that you're really, really organized".
Once you've got your license and permits as necessary, Chataway says you need to plan your office layout on paper. "Offices are usually bigger than bedrooms. People think they can put the office in a spare bedroom but desks are fairly large and then with the filing cabinet and the layout table and the computer workstation etc. the equipment you need can take up a bedroom very quickly." The minimum office size, he thinks, should be larger than a bedroom.
Renovations are a big part of David Chatham's business at Chatham Contracting Ltd. but home office renovations are not a high demand item for renovation contractors in Kelowna. He doesn't know of a contractors who specializes in home office renovations.
Relay on your good sense. Planning your home office is "pretty basic stuff," he claims. He suggests using the same approach you would if you were building a house.
"Make sure you have all your needs figured out first. A lot of people just build and then ask themselves where they should put the wires and cables and by then it's too late."
Bruce Falkins puts a lot of emphasis on telephones when he talks about planning.
"You have to keep your phone separate. It's got to be part of your business. If you have your kids answering the phone that doesn't portray a good image. You need to sound like you are a $50 million business. In our case, we talk to customers across Canada and the United States. They don't know they are dealing with a home business and I don't go out of my way to tell them."
Once you've done your planning, how much should you expect to pay? David Chatham says there are too many variables so he won't to hazard a guess, but Chataway is less uncertain.
"If it is new construction," Chataway says, "it is basically in the $90 to $100 a sq. ft. depending on how well it's decorated. An existing alternation is much less, maybe $30 or $40 a sq. ft.," he estimates. Design fees and permits are in addition to that price.
When creating a home office, you are integrating two functions. "Remember it's two functions in the same building. It sounds efficient but it is really more complex because the design has to accommodate both," Chataway adds.
"It's important that you make your home office comfortable for both yourself and any guests that may be coming into it," says Falkins.
Lyle Stoneman, another member of the COHHBA who runs a home-based web design firm, concurs, but you don't have to go to great expense. In his case he uses his livingroom to meet the occasional visiting client.
Lyle works in what used to be his dining room. He started with a corner in his unfinished basement but moved upstairs quickly. Since he is a one-man operation it suits him though he admits a 12 x 24 space with room for a few desks who be preferred.
"Ideally, your office would be a place where you could shut the door and separate home activities from business activities," he says. "I don't have that. I've got to try and just turn off the outside distractions."
There are plenty of ways to make your home office comfortable. As long as you address the main elements of planning your space, you're more likely to enjoy being in it every day. Consider privacy, the efficiency of the equipment layout, the amount of lighting, providing adequate storage and having sufficient phone service.
Consider the little touches that add to your comfort or make a statement about you. Then, when you're in your office, be a rigorous, almost ruthless organizer. Plan your layout to include plenty of storage and filing space.
Since my days in the basement beside the furnace, I developed five rules to that make my home office someplace comfortable. Live by these organizational rules and no matter how big your space is, you'll enjoy occupying it more.
1 - Write everything down. Don't trust your memory.
2 - Devise a method to remind yourself like a calendar and a chalk board that holds daily work assignments.
3 - Group things and give everything a home.
4 - Have an incoming station. Everything that arrives goes there. It's like triage. Send the incoming to its home or the shredder.
5 - Never keep anything you can find somewhere else.
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