As COVID-19 continues to impact our world, many businesses have asked their employees to work from home to protect themselves and their community. Many of those working from home have never done so before, and believe it or not, it’s not as simple as waking up and just not going to work. Working from home is a skill, and practice makes perfect. Here are five tips to make working from home work for you.
Stay on Your Routine
Even though you no longer have your commute, it’s still a good idea to get up at or around the same time you usually do. Make coffee and breakfast, get dressed (more about this later), and go through your morning routine. It’s important to get yourself into a work mindset before you sit down at your computer. Remember, you’re now going to be working in a place that’s previously been reserved for relaxation and retreat. It’s important to remind yourself that you’re still going to work, just in a different place than usual.
Set Up Your Environment
Rearrange a small portion of your home, even if it’s just a corner of your bedroom, as an office area where you can sit and get some serious work done. You don’t have to stay there all day (one of the perks of working from home is the ability to change scenery – the kitchen in the morning, the back patio after lunch, and the couch in the late afternoon), but you should create a place where you can block out distractions for a short time and really focus. Pay attention to what it looks like behind your chair when you set this area up as well. You’ll likely be taking a few video calls, and having a professional backdrop for them is essential.
Dress for Success
This one doesn’t come naturally to many people. Working from home sounds like a great time to wear pajamas or workout clothes around the clock, but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you do. If you stay in your PJs all day, you’ll work like you’re in your PJs all day. You don’t have to get dressed up like you’re heading into the office, but put enough effort into your appearance to signal to yourself that you’re going to be doing work that needs to be taken seriously and that you want to get right.
Invest in Technology
This is a difficult time for many people to be taking on new expenses. That said, ensuring you have the tools you need to run your business from afar is critical to your success. Make sure your work from home setup has a computer that’s in good working order and that’s fast and current enough to meet your needs. If you’re used to using several monitors, an ergonomic keyboard, or any other tools, bring those home from the office with you if at all possible. You want to feel as much in your element as possible when working from home. Finally, now is the perfect time to consider switching from cloud-based to local software to run your business. Think of how much easier it would be to keep things running smoothly if you could access your software from anywhere you have an internet connection.
Set Up Remote Payments
Unless your business is shutting down completely to customers, you’re likely coming up with ways right now to continue to bring in revenue. An important piece of that puzzle is figuring out how you’re going to actually collect payments. Ask your credit card processor about setting up a virtual terminal so you can take payments from anywhere or consider a self-service payment option like 360 Payments’ Text-to-Pay product for the automotive industry. Make it as easy as possible for customers to pay you throughout this period of uncertainty.
Go Easy on Yourself
Working from home isn’t like falling off a log. Not everyone can do it, and not everyone who can enjoys it. It’s OK if working from home isn’t a dream come true for you. This is temporary, so just do the best you can. If you need any help setting up the remote payments piece of working from home, give us a call at 1-855-360-0360 or drop us a line on our website. We’re ready to help make this as simple for you as possible.
PS – Check out our guide to navigating coronavirus for business owners here.
PPS – Thinking about setting up an ecommerce store? Read these tips first.