15 Smart Tips For The Remote Worker’s Home Office Setup

The idea of setting up and designing a home office inspires enthusiasm among people who’ve run out of patience with tiring home-to-office commutes and inflexible working hours. In fact, it is expected that 50% of the UK workforce will become remote workers by the end of 2020.

If you’ve dismissed working from home as a fad, think again! Online jobs and freelance opportunities offer not just the convenience of working remotely but also the opportunity to earn money online.

Wonder how to set up a home office? In need of some home office design ideas?

This beginner’s guide will provide many home office ideas and tips to create your ideal work space within your own four walls.

1. Do the homework first

The key to setting up a home office is clarity of thought. You need to be absolutely clear on your work profile and its requirements.

It is very important to identify your needs before you jump into creating your dream workplace. Ask yourself questions like:

Why do I need this home office?
How will I be using the remote workplace in the future?
Do I plan to employ people soon?
How will I conduct meetings or conference calls?
What kind of work environment is conducive to me for better productivity?
What is my budget for setting up a home office? How much money do I have to set-up the home office?

2. Give the location a deep thought

It’s ironic but the location of your home office is very important to get the work environment and productivity quotient correct. Here are some pointers to help you decide on the location of your home office:

Consider a room or space that is either close to your main door or can be accessed from outside without disturbing the other members of your home.
If you have kids or infants at home, you may want to consider a room away from the nursery. This ensures that you are not disturbed by unwanted chatter during important calls and meetings. And you may use a mobile-cam to monitor them and ensure their safety.
Try to plan your remote office away from the kitchen to avoid the urge to snack or eat when not needed
Go for a room that offers good natural lighting with big windows.

3. Pay the extra penny for business communication systems

A home office or virtual desktop requires its own phone line, internet connection, and communication devices like router, and broadband cabling. It may seem unnecessary during the initial days but as your business picks up you are sure to need a different phone line and internet connection for your work.

4. Furniture is more than just a table and chairs

A lot of people try to save money by buying cheap furniture or worse still using their dining table and chair for their work. Don’t fall for this trap!

Invest in good quality office furniture to improve your productivity as well as protecting yourself from posture-related problems like chronic backache, text-neck syndrome, or even diseases like spondylosis. It’s also advisable to choose eco-friendly home office furniture and gadgets to save energy, money and eventually this planet.

5. Think beyond the desk

A professional office is much more than just a fancy office desk and a swirling chair. Here are some office essentials that you need for your home office when working online:

Stationary—pens, pencils, folders, staplers, binders.
Modular cabinets—invest in some good quality folder drawers or modular cabinets to keep clutter organized and out of sight.
Coffee machine – get a little coffee maker for your workplace. After all, great ideas start with coffee.
Little refrigerator—a little refrigerator for cold water, healthy juices, cans of cola, and chocolate milk.

6. Pay attention to the décor

The décor of your home office really does matter. Give special importance to the background walls and lighting especially if you have frequent video conferences taking place. Personalise your background with your business logo, tag line, or business details for a smarter way to market your business even while you are doing calls. It also helps to have motivational posters, pictures or slogans up to keep your mindset positive.

7. Plan for contingencies

Business contingencies can occur even if you are working from home. Think in terms of creating a conference space for unexpected clients or an overnighter with team members for an unanticipated deadline, or a child falling sick before an important presentation! Keep space and resources handy for managing such stressful situations better.

8. Security features

While most people think about the safety of their home and loved ones, they may not invest in special safety features for their office space. Don’t rely on home security for your remote work safety.

Work security is different from home safety. Call an expert to install CCTV cameras, a doorbell camera, sensors, money safe, and other safety features in your home office.

Also ensure that your office systems are adequately equipped with security features like—antivirus systems, firewalls, high-quality encryption, VPNs (virtual private network), and corporate filters for attachments and emails. And that confidential files and documents can’t be accessed easily.

9. The right gadgets matter

Any office whether from home or in a commercial building needs sophisticated gadgets. Technology is the backbone of productivity and profitability. Don’t think of technological devices as an expense when you are setting up your home office. They are your investments that will reap big returns!

Go for the bigger screen, better Bluetooth speaker, faster internet service provider, state-of-the-art printer, and superior laptop or desktop system.

10. Some me-time space

One of the greatest benefits of a home office is that it gives you the opportunity to plan a me-time space. Calming exercises like Yoga and meditation help boost your creativity, motivation, and productivity.

How about a calming corner in your home office to do away with stress? A little cozy couch, or beanbag, or rocking chair to read a book or enjoy a cup of coffee before you head back to work. It’s important to still separate work and privacy within your own four walls.

11. Plan for the future

Home offices are conventionally smaller spaces for freelancers and beginners. But let’s not forget that your business is sure to grow. With growth, you need to plan for expansions until you are able to afford a commercial space. Have an expansion plan in mind while you are setting up your remote office to facilitate an easy expansion without disturbing your current setup.

12. Flexibility

A flexible workplace set up is very essential especially if you are unsure about your work requirements. You may consider easy to use modular furniture, folding furniture, stackable devices to help you better utilise limited space and plan for co-working requirements, as well as portability in the future.

13. Use smart technology

Smart technology is the way to work smarter. Connect your home office with smart technology and enable the features on your mobile phone. Imagine the convenience of starting your heater from your phone when you are returning to your office after picking up your toddler from school! It’s a small price to pay for making your work life better and easier. If you have a team to manage, ensure they all have access to a virtual desktop from anywhere they work for best efficiency.

14. Personalise to match your personality

A home office offers you the luxury to personalise your space, the liberty to design your home office in your own unique style. Try to create your home office decor that is a true reflection of your unique personality!

Be creative! Use your souvenirs, photos, art, coffee-table books, and other memorabilia to spice up your work space. Save money and add a personal touch.

15. Take The Help Of Motivation-Boosters

Research shows that plants and colour therapy are an important part of workplace productivity. They are inexpensive albeit tried and tested ways of ensuring that your creative juices keep flowing.

Add indoor plants to give your home office a living and lively vibe. If you are looking for colour choices, here are some pointers to keep in mind while choosing the right colour for your décor:

Blue: represents intellect, logic, productivity, and concentration.
Red: represents excitement, vibrancy, and spontaneity.
Green: represents nature, tranquility, and harmony.
Yellow: represents confidence, positivity, and emotions.
Grey: represents neutrality and objectivity.
Orange: represents warmth, coziness, and comfort.
Purple: represents royalty, luxury, and spirituality.

Remember your home office is all about you and your work. Give it your personal touch and enjoy your work life to the fullest.

Best Side Hustles To Start Making Money Online

There are dozens of ways to make a little bit of extra cash. Who needs little when they can lay their hands on a lot?

That is why we have listed the most profitable side hustles that can net you thousands of pounds every year. If you do well at them, you could even give up your day job and make money from home with no hassle.

None of our advice is guesswork. All that you have to do is search on the internet, and you would find each has made someone live a comfortable.

Best Side Gigs Online In 2020

1. Affiliate Marketing

This is a hugely profitable way to make tons of money online with minimal effort. How does it work?

It is easy since all you must do is redirect traffic to an online store. Let us take a practical example – Amazon Affiliate Program. The AAP lets thousands make a living from their kitchen table. You write a blog on your niche topic or produce a YouTube video. Now include a link to the product. Every time someone visits your blog and follows the link to Amazon for a purchase, you are paid a 4-8% commission depending on the category.

It is not only restricted to blogs and YouTube. It can be anything your creativity stirs up, even a podcast.

Is there a secret to success? Yes. The secret sauce is creating content that people trust, that ranks well on search engines and that drives a sustainable amount of traffic to your website.

If you seem to be pushing something for your benefit, that obviously won’t work at all. The other thing is that you must be in it for the long haul. No matter how much you try, you cannot get a top-ranked blog or video in 10 weeks (unless you are a teen pop sensation).

It takes hard work and good skills to build a successful blog.

But with blogging online courses and SEO courses you can gain the cyber skills that will make all the difference to your future flexible online work.

2.Graphic Design

There are at least 100,000 self-published books on Kindle!!!

Almost all of them required a front and back cover. Many need illustrations, drawings, and cartoons. It is the task of a graphic designer to take care of the visual design and concept of images. All that you need is a flair for colours and patterns. To market yourself, you could either bid for jobs on freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork or set up your own website and approach clients. A website certainly offers many benefits to showcase your work. Social media offers fantastic opportunities, too, through visually based apps like Instagram and Snapchat to share your work. Of course, at the start, there will be a fair bit of outreach work involved.

You might face rejection and must do the first few projects for bottom dollar, but as your portfolio grows, so will your business. And if this is your passion, you will be excited to grow your side hustle every day.

The most significant advantage is you get to manage your own hours. You can work at any hour, whether you are a night owl awake till 2 AM or an early bird starting at 6 AM.

The other huge advantage is large and small companies spend heavily on brochures and other marketing materials. If you can get a toe hold in that market, you would never lack work or money. The same applies for Web Design with many more websites being created every day. Learn more about web designing and how you can become a web designer on our web design blog.

3.Blogging

This is the most established and popular form of online earning. Ever since Blogspot rolled around at the end of the 90s, people have taken to blogs to penning down their thoughts about every topic under the sun – from making the perfect chicken soup to losing weight after 50.

What you need to have is a laptop and a vivid imagination.

There are numerous blogging platforms now, and it will take you at most a day to design a website and about 4 hours to create one using Wix or Weebly. If you use WordPress, you can find many useful tutorials, tips and guides on the SeekaHost WordPress website.

Once your blog is launched, and Google bots have searched and indexed it, sign up for AdSense. It is Google’s advertising platform, and you do not have to search for advertisements. All that you do is rent out space on your web page. Google will plug in the most suitable ad, and if someone clicks on them, you get paid! What can be simpler?

Of course, the biggest factor is that you must be an avid reader and writer.

But that should come naturally if you know enough about a topic. No one is looking for a Nobel Laureate in Literature but for grammatically correct English that can be easily read, is engaging and fascinating. If you need guidance then the SeekaHost University has the perfect blogging course.

4.Stock Trading

You need a little bit of capital, at least a few 100 dollars ideally, and do a course in stock trading. But you could leverage it to earn over a hundred thousand quid a year by devoting at most 2-4 hours a day.

A 16-year-old turned £150 into £60000 last year. Surely you could do a lot more with a few thousand pounds, if you work out the system. How does it work?

You need a good head for numbers and learn about stock trading. There is no need to sign up for a course right away. There are plenty of free courses on YouTube, hundreds of free PDF e-books available too on sites like Investopedia. When you know all the basics, sign up for a course from a MOOC. Now try your hand at trading using stock market games. You could use the one that the London Stock Exchange hosts for free.

Also, it is essential to read the pink papers daily.

But you could access them on your smartphone on the way to work or uni.

After a lot of practice at simulation for 2-4 months, jump into the market. You should, by this time, know which stocks are over and undervalued. Next, open a Demat account with a broker. Most probably, your bank has a broking arm. You could liquidate all your holding in a day, hold them for a week, or a month. The best thing about stock trading is that it is immensely enjoyable if done right.

Online Side Hustles can become Full-Time Careers

There are many more – from trendy ones like a social media manager to complex businesses like dropshipping. With remote work becoming a reality, why not try your hand at a few of our suggested online jobs and find which one suits your attitude and goals?

Find more online opportunities reading our remote jobs guide.

And the beauty is many of these professions can simply be executed from home without even leaving your house as you can see in our work from home guide.

After all, nearly all of them need very little upfront investment. Of course, like any other line of work, you must have a passion and determination to succeed. But if it’s something you love to do every day, you are thrilled to get up to every morning, then you’ll make it work for you the way you want to.