Q	Where do you work at home?
A	I am fortunate enough to have an office in our house, the children know that's Mummy's work & generally keep away.

Q	What is the best thing about working from home?
A	The best thing about working from home is the flexibility it allows me. With two children at school there is always a cricket match to watch or a school play to see. Working from home means I can schedule my day around them.

Q

What are the negative points about working at home?

A

Occasionally I miss the inspiration that working in an office or working with a team of people can offer, but I have joined the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce and BNI where we meet on a regular basis, a lot of the people at these groups run their own business and work from home, its good to talk to others who understand the situation of working alone or from home. I always leave our meetings feeling uplifted & inspired.

Q	What was the deciding factor to help you to decide to work from home?
A	Basically the flexibility, but also I like working for myself. I get a great since of achievement when I have helped someone with their mortgage, if they are happy then I am happy.

Q	How do you cope with distractions at home?
A	I lock myself away in the office and just get on with it. But one of the downside of working from home is that friends & family think you are always available for a coffee & a chat. However I do find working from home less distracting than working from an office, you just tend to get on with the work. I can condense a 9-5 job, into a 9.30-3.30 job if I have no distractions!

Q	Do you manage to keep your work and home life separate?
A	I do find keeping work life & home life difficult to keep separate sometimes. It's not so bad when the children are at school, but I have to be very strict with myself after that time not to pop into the office to check emails etc.

Q	How did you manage financially when you first started working at home?
A	I used the money from our savings account. It costs quite a lot to set up a business from home. Computers, software, stationary. Then there's the advertising, website design etc. Things like the extra telephone lines, fax machines soon eat into your working capital.

Q	How do you manage your time?
A	I tend to work 4 days a week from about 9.30- 3.00. That gives me time to do my household chores in the morning before I start & then when I pick the kids up from School I try to make that their time. On my 'day off' I catch up with friends, do the shopping, ironing etc. Weekends are family times.

Q	How do you cope with the isolation of working at home?
A	) To be honest I do not feel isolated working from home. I talk to a lot of people on the phone to do with work. Adrian my husband works from home as well restoring vintage cars so we tend to have our 'coffee break' & lunch together.

Q	What sort of work did you do before you worked at home?
A	My background has always been in sales. I used to work for a large financial company selling credit information on individuals & companies to Banks & Building Societies.

Q	Homeworking is a very individual way of working and what is right for one person may not be right for the next. What advice would you suggest to someone considering working from home?
A	You must be self motivated, if you do not push yourself to do the work no one else is going to do it for you. Get into a routine, delegate certain hours of the day for achieving certain things and stick to it! And enjoy reaping the rewards working from home.

Q	Anything else you feel needs to be said?
A	Keep with it, sometimes working from home to take off, but persistence pays off eventually. And if you think its going to rain you can get the washing in instead of coming home from the office to find a line of wet clothes!