The home office may sound great with all of its perceived advantages, but reality will soon set in when motivation levels drop,

the children get home from school and being alone all day with no one to discuss ideas with begins to effect business performance.

While technology has allowed the home office set up to be easily achieved, it is often the intangibles of working from home that are not considered.

The arrival of the internet in the late 1990s and the ease of setting up a small business from the home office or garage has now lead to a new growth industry and the next step for many home based businesses – Serviced Offices.

“There are 3 main reasons we get inquiries about our serviced offices”, says Steve Lawrence, owner of Noosa Boardroom serviced offices at Noosa Civic.

“Distractions, procrastination and isolation are the themes I always hear when asking why a potential client is considering moving into one of our offices.”

“Whether it is the children wanting attention, the neighbour’s lawnmower, the morning shows on the TV or the barking dog, these distractions are all mentioned as things getting in the way of being productive in the home office.”

Distractions do not need to be negatives either, with procrastination often cited as a reason for seeking an offsite office.

“When there is a hard task to be done in the business, the laundry can all of a sudden seem urgent and before you know it you have done 3 loads of washing and vacuumed the house.”

“My wife recently worked from home for about 6 months, and I would regularly come home from the Boardroom to find all my shirts ironed and the house spotless.  She would then be up until midnight finishing the business task she was going to do during the day.”

Isolation from other like-minded people is also a factor when considering a home office.

For most of us, there is a natural tendency to want to interact and discuss what we are doing in our lives.

When you work for a business in a team environment, you get feedback and the feeling of a job well done when the boss says so.  Small business can be hard on the psyche as praise is rare.  Generally, the only questions you get asked are, “When will you be finished and how much will it cost?”

By being around other business owners in a serviced office, there is a feeling of “we are all in it together” as well as the sharing of stories, business experiences and marketing ideas.