Currently I am working for a hosting vendor. I want to start my own soon. However, for starting, I want to work from home first. I also want to have 2 other staffs. So, the question is how to manage a business likes that? Without any office. I see many hosts here working by that way very well, but not sure if there is any difference I can pay attention, comparing to working at an office?

Thank you.

Most peoples are working at their home. You can make an office any room of your home. But if your business too increases when you will need to open an office. Because then you will need staffs and management of them is hard from your home.

I'm currently working from bed. :D

We have 4 employees, and most work from home. We communicate over IM and email, and tasks are logged in a common database so everyone knows what's going on (i.e. who did what).

We have 5 all work from home, I find its easier, saves money and keeps them happy. Being able to mind their kid's at home.

We have a teamwork system installed in our ticketing system that allows us to keep track of what each of us are doing for the day and stuff.

The group of people that make up fumiNET, all work from home. We collaborate using various online/offline methods, and use an online call manager to direct incoming calls as necessary.

We were looking into opening an office, but realized that would eat a large chunk of our budget. In the end, I'm glad we went with this method - as the staff are more relaxed. :)

I know how good it is. However, my question is how hard to manage staff when they are doing work at home. IM, emails, phone that I am thinking already. Any document about this kind of business that I can take a look? Any collaboration software do you suggest?

I'm currently working from bed. :D

I don't think making an intimate place in your home into your office is not a wise idea. I suppose as long as your not meeting clients and everything is done online maybe. Personally, if I was a client meeting with a business to discuss business, the bedroom would not be a suitable place.

I don't think making an intimate place in your home into your office is not a wise idea. I suppose as long as your not meeting clients and everything is done online maybe. Personally, if I was a client meeting with a business to discuss business, the bedroom would not be a suitable place.

:) Thanks for post, i needed it

I know how good it is. However, my question is how hard to manage staff when they are doing work at home. IM, emails, phone that I am thinking already. Any document about this kind of business that I can take a look? Any collaboration software do you suggest?
I would suggest using exchange or GoogleApps (I recommend GoogleApps because it consists of email, IM and phone [googletalk]) and collaborate that way.

And there is nothing wrong with it. Some of the biggest companies like Cisco have their employees work 4 days from home and only 1 day they need to come to office.

But you have to have very strict, and I mean Jerk like(may be not too much of an ahole), guidelines to make this work. Meaning, they have to behave those 8 hours or whatever exactly like they do if they were in an office. if you send a message they cannot reply to you like 30 minutes later (if they were in office they would reply instantly).

But it depends on the company's style. Ultimately the job needs to get done.

well even in the office, sometimes you cannot get reply soon. Saying you are doing some works and don't want to stop temporarily, just for reply an email

I don't think making an intimate place in your home into your office is not a wise idea. I suppose as long as your not meeting clients and everything is done online maybe. Personally, if I was a client meeting with a business to discuss business, the bedroom would not be a suitable place.
How do you know Bob isn't an escort at night?

well even in the office, sometimes you cannot get reply soon. Saying you are doing some works and don't want to stop temporarily, just for reply an email
I meant you can just go over and talk instead of emailing and waiting for a reply.

I don't think making an intimate place in your home into your office is not a wise idea. I suppose as long as your not meeting clients and everything is done online maybe. Personally, if I was a client meeting with a business to discuss business, the bedroom would not be a suitable place.

i think he was joking ;)

How do you know Bob isn't an escort at night?


Hmmm... Emperor's club maybe? :cool:


The biggest problem with working from home are distractions if you have a family. Not to sound callas, but make sure your office has a door.




Regards,

I know how good it is. However, my question is how hard to manage staff when they are doing work at home. IM, emails, phone that I am thinking already. Any document about this kind of business that I can take a look? Any collaboration software do you suggest?

If it's business management and employee management you're worried about then it's all about your planning and how you handle the situations that will arise. From the absolute start everyone in your company needs to realize that sure they might be home but while on the clock your business is #1 priority for them. If this changes, so does their job. It sounds harsh but it's needed when you get a little bigger.

As for software, most of our company is family so we talk in person but I just added a friend from Missouri to our staff so we ended up making two communication changes.

1. http://www.37signals.com/ - This is a service that allows for the posting of projects, timelines, messages, etc. This has worked wonders for our company and really keeps things on track now. This isn't the only option of it's kind. I believe many people prefer other services... this happens to be the only one I have tried.

2. GOOGLE APPS! Talk about an awesome set of tools. Gmail, plus the google documents section and more will also make your daily management and communication much easier.

The biggest problem with working from home are distractions if you have a family. Not to sound callas, but make sure your office has a door.

Agreed 300% HOWEVER, don't let work become your life. I find myself stuck to the PC for 16-18 hours a day some days and for what? Well, money... but, family first :D

Working from home is the ultimate luxery. During the summer I normally work from the beach. (I connect to the internet with my cell phone and laptop.)

I manage our helpdesk and staff from my "virtual office". All our staff also work from their homes.

Management of staff is not difficult if you are organized. I use a different email folder for different subjects/topics so that I can organize easily.

I see many hosts here working by that way very well, but not sure if there is any difference I can pay attention, comparing to working at an office?
My "day job" is for a Fortune 500 who has an extensive telecommuting program for its tech. workers. Most of its tech workers in fact work from home.

Like anything else, it has its pluses and minuses. Pluses are the easy "commute" to my garage/office (having two small children basically makes it impossible to work in the house and get any real work done), the reduction in stress from not having to commute, the saving on gas - and nowadays especially saving on fuel is a huge benefit, not to mention general vehicle wear-and-tear. Minuses are mainly the lack of face-to-face interaction with people--there's a lot to be said for basic social interaction I think--and your electric bill can jump up with the extra computer hardware. Some of my co-workers say their utility bills went way up after they started telecommuting, though I haven't really experienced that. Another minus is if it's cold outside, it's cold in the garage. I don't look forward to the hot weather as there are usually several days of 100+ degree weather. I mainly wish I had a better home office, but for starters my current situation works all right.

And I can and do still go into the office. Because I so rarely work there I actually enjoy going in and being around people other than my family.

While I do enjoy the benefits of telecommuting--and let's face it how many times did I dream about it when I used to have horrible 4 hour daily commutes in other jobs--I think the jury's still out on its overall value. I know HP for example pulled way back on its big telecommuting program and ended up bringing a big chunk of its workers back into its offices. Though we've all periodically get together to meet, the team I work on is fairly disconnected as we all live in different parts of the world. At times part of me really wishes we were all in the same building as I think each of us could get many of our tasks done more quickly if we were there or had the opportunity to sit down side by side and learn from each other and have quick pow-wows rather than just emailing and IMing and phoning back and forth.

In any case, certainly for small startup businesses it's almost assumed you will work from home for quite some time. I would think you'd have to get to 10+ employees at least before considering a real office. Even then so many operations have employees they hire from all over the country and world and with email, IM, and other groupware/sharing tools like Exchange available they can be very large and have many or most of their employees telecommuting. It enables your company to have a follow-the-sun support capacity pretty easily.

Actually, if a company decides wisely, they can choreograph a work place where most employees can telecommute and some of them just commute.

For example, sales, support, and billing can definitely telecommute. If a company has a research division, telecommuting is not feasible. Its much easier to gather and research at one location.

And the company can save in office space lease, electricity, equipment among others. And, as SM mentioned, employees can save in gas, tolls and even buying another vehicle.

I dont know, I guess it depends on each company. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Although, you can be environmentally friendly if you telecommute. I mean just imagine if most of exxon's, microsoft's, IBM's among other big companies employees telecommute when possible. Ah, the world would be in a better place, lol.

Did you think about centralizing your Team through your own private chat room from one server, at least you can control the communication between each members and at the sametime keep some logs that you can refer later on.

Working from home is the ultimate luxery.
I agree. I love working from home, or working from whereever I take my laptop and wireless broadband modem. I can be working in a coffee shop, visiting friends etc. I'm ready to work whereever I might be, and I love it. I make my morning commute (zombie like stagger) from the bedroom to the office, via the kitchen. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. It's always been the dream to work from a home office, making good $$ and having a good lifestyle. :cool:
During the summer I normally work from the beach. (I connect to the internet with my cell phone and laptop.)
Beach bum. :D

A home setup is nice. I'd recommend renting a shared office on the side for identity purposes (i.e. having an address you can use for business cards, letterhead, etc.). It's also nice to have the ability to rent office space by the hour in case you need to meet with clients.

working from home delivers in many terms of efficiency. a step further is working mobile, in which people really are liberated from time and space constraints.

Working from home is the ultimate luxery.

one may think.

you may not have noticed it, or may not have noticed it yet but there are tradeoffs.

first, after a while home is not as home as it is used to be before you started working home. while working in an office, you generally leave all business stuff at the office and when you come home, its really a coming home. you relax, get in the mood for stuff and whatnot.

the longer i work from home i noticed that i started to enter a mindset that is neither in home, nor in office, but in equal distance to both. its rather absurd. you dont feel the stress that is felt in an office, you dont get the extreme relaxation that used to be in home, but you always stand in an optimal mental state that is neither stressful or extremely relaxed. its like life has entered a course of continuous uninterrupted optimal existence that goes on and on.

this may work great for some people, not so great for some i believe. best is to try out and find.

i suggest that you need some rules. and you organize meetings twice a week .

Interesting, I tried once, but competition have become bigger so I guess that it need too much work and money