Should I Set Up A Home Office Opening Time?

Working from the comfort of your home has its fair share of challenges. One such issue is coming up with a schedule that allows you to get your work done without necessarily getting in the way of your activities or duties at home. Open your office only when you have effectively handled the issues that need your attention. For a parent with school-going children, you will be required to first prepare them and ensure they have left for school before settling down to start your work for the day. This can, therefore, make you wonder if you “Should I set up a home office opening time?”

The simple answer is yes! Setting up a home office opening time is essential, especially if you achieve a healthy work-life balance. A well-thought-out home office opening time allows you to create a good work plan.

You can create a schedule for the day in advance before you start attending to your clients. This puts you in an excellent position to make more room for your personal life. In this way, your professional life does not overwhelm your personal life. Your set operating hours will be distinct from your leisure time.

We shall explore some of the positive effects of setting up a home office opening time. This post will show how this can lead to increased productivity and reduced chances of burnout. It will also show you why creating a reasonable office opening time can allow you to produce higher quality work because of reduced distractions.

To set up the best opening times for your home office, there are a few pointers that you need to take into consideration. If you abide by them, you will realize many benefits from setting up a generally good opening time for your home office.

How To Create A Home Office Opening Time

1.Be Consistent And Reliable In Your Opening Time

Consistency and reliability are two of the most desirable traits that you can leverage to significant effect. Let’s take a case in point of a situation where you offer consultancy services from your home office. If a particular client dropped by your office on Monday and found you open and already operational at 8 am, he or she would expect to see you available on Wednesday at the same time for more consultation.

Another instance is when you set up an appointment with your client. Your client should find your office open after you have settled on the time for your appointment. They should find you ready to serve them and their fellow clients. Finding your office close may show unreliability on your part. You will give them the impression that you are not dependable. If your clients know that your office is operational for 8 hours a day, religiously stick to that.

This is because your clients will book their appointments to your office based on this fact. Your credibility will take a massive hit should a client find you unavailable during your operating hours.

2.Conduct An Analysis Of Your “Competition” Opening Times And Hours

Go on a “necessary” spying spree to establish your competition’s opening times and operating hours. Clients are more inclined to procure services from people who prioritize their needs.

Consider a situation where your office has fewer operating hours than competing companies that offer the same services and products. This means that rivals operate for longer durations.

They are thus in a better position to generate more revenues and earnings. This is a massive opportunity that you miss out on. Try not to open your office later than the competing businesses. If possible, also avoid shutting down earlier than them.

Therefore, it is imperative to set up suitable and advantageous opening times that are intended to beat the competition. When effectively done, this offers you a bigger target audience to work with. Here, you have a better opportunity to make your company more profitable.

3.Clients Are King

This fundamental principle should dictate the opening time of your office along with your operating hours. When setting up your home office opening times, always remember to consider your client’s needs. Their needs are your lifeline, the fuel that drives your business.

Their suggestions about what time may be most suitable as your opening time for office is extremely crucial. For example, a client a majority of clients may pick 8 am as being most suitable. This is because they would be on their way to work.

Therefore, they find that making a stopover while en route to their workplace is convenient. Set your opening times in light of such client views. In this way, you will be offering them unparalleled convenience.

Doing the contrary only shows that you deem them less necessary than yourself, your personal life, and your business. This is detrimental to your brand and can make you go out of business faster than you came in. This is because most people do tend to believe what they hear from fellow “customers”.

Therefore, when you disappoint a client with your unavailability or inaccessibility instead of being present and taking care of their needs, you will lose sales and credibility.

Importance Of Having Good Home Office Opening Times (And In Extension, Opening Hours)

1.You Can Get More Sales (And Subscriptions)

This is one of the most apparent benefits of having a good opportunistic home office opening time. Early home office opening times ensure you are in an excellent position to serve more clients.

If you are in the business of selling products, this could only mean that you realize an increase in product sales. On the other hand, if you are offering services such as consultancy services, you can get more subscriptions for the services you offer. This, in turn, results in more profitability.

Also, as a compliment to having a good home office opening time, you can realize an increased sales volume by coming up with a great working schedule that has adequate operating hours that will seek to take advantage of the numerous selling opportunities available to you.

2.Your Customer Base Grows Exponentially

Testimonials and positive customer reviews are extremely vital in the growth of your venture. Now one would ask, what is the relationship between good opening times and opening hours and positive customer reviews? Referrals!

Think of an instance where you can regularly open your home office early and at consistent times. Couple this up with the provision of high-quality services. Your clients will be singing praises. They will refer you to the friends of their friends. Referrals on their social media platforms will also increase.

Also, you will experience a massive boost in the word of mouth referrals. This is because of the high levels of customer satisfaction that they can get from your office.

3.You Can Be Able To Stay Ahead Of The Competition

Conduct a careful but discreet analysis of your competition’s operations regarding their office opening hours. It will give you a clear insight into how to structure your schedule. You can tweak your opening times to effectively take them out of the equation.

Let us say your competing party typically opens its office at 9.00 am. You can do better by setting your opening time to 8.30 am. This guarantees that you can have all the early risers, all the clients that wish to be served very early in the morning before they proceed to their jobs.

4.Consistent Opening Times Helps You Develop A Positive Work Culture

Good habits are what will make your business grow and be successful in the long run. One such practice is opening up your home office at a set time every day without fail.

Over a long time, this will unconsciously help you to develop a culture of waking up early with the motivation to serve your clients efficiently and to their maximum satisfaction. This positive work culture and attitude can be translated to your employees, thereby building a productive work culture.

5.Good Opening Times May Boost Your Overall Productivity

Setting up an early home office opening time means you start your working day early. What does this imply? It means that you can get a lot of work done.

Researchers and numerous surveys and studies have also shown that the morning hours are the most productive part of your day. This is because you are refreshed and full of energy. Take a considerable volume of work before fatigue starts creeping in.

This way, you can be able to get a lot of work done and serve more clients, and, as a result, be more productive. Couple this up with a great work plan that is made up of sufficient operating hours, and you have yourself a recipe for massive productivity.

What Makes Setting A Good Home Office Opening Time And Office Hours So Necessary?

1. Setting up a good home office opening time and generally great operating hours for business is essential.

It can be the difference between failure or growth of your business. By opening early, you put yourself in an enviable position to generate a lot of sales and oversee plenty of transactions for your company. This is because you are available and have the time to serve more people.

2. Home office opening times are very beneficial as they can enable you to be productive at the right time.

For example, after establishing what your business’s peak hours are, you can always aim to be open around these times more often. If you have to shut the office for whatever reason, you do not do that at these “peak hours.”

For example, if you have established that your operations’ peak hours are between the hours of 8 am to 11 am, always strive to have your office open by 7.30 am. If you have other pressing matters to handle, take care of them later in the afternoon.

3. If you have a consistent and constant home office opening time, then you will know how to arrange your schedule to cover all the activities that demand your attention.

If you have a family, a reasonable opening time for your home office of 9 am would mean you have ample to prepare breakfast and drop kids to school. You can comfortably return ready for work by setting up your daily schedule and start on time.

4.By having a good home office opening time, you can control your stress factors better.

This is mainly because there is a clear distinction between office hours and personal time. Let us say you have set up your home office opening time to be 8 am. This implies that you have to complete all your obligations by around 7.30 am.

Thereafter, you can use the remaining minutes to set up your workplace and begin your working session for the day. Undefined boundaries between your work hours and leisure time can be a massive source of stress.

Think of a situation where you have picked 6 am as your home office opening time. At this time, your kids still need you to prepare them for school. Your spouse may still require you to help them out in some way.

The office work and clients also need your attention. These conflicting demands will wear you down rather quickly and cause you a lot of stress.


Conclusion

In conclusion, a good opening time for your home office can be a secret weapon that can result in the massive growth of your business venture or company when effectively leveraged.

It can grow your customer base to unforeseen proportions. Setting your opening times in light of your competition’s opening times and operating hours is also critical. T

ake note of the peak hours for your operations and listen to your clients’ suggestions about suitable opening times and working hours for them By catering to these important factors, you put yourself in a winning sit in your business.

Demanding aspects that exist in your personal life, such as spouses and children, should also be taken into account.