The possibility of working from home, however, isn't an option available only to secretaries and bookkeepers. Many self-employed people, in the early days at least, use their homes as a business base. Others, with ageing relatives or children to care for, have little choice but to explore the possibilities which working from home can offer. Some teachers, for example, use their homes to offer private tuition and coaching to examination entrants. Music teachers, in particular, often prefer to work from a home-based studio. A large number of health workers establish consulting rooms in their own houses, and many parents of young children supplement their income by becoming registered child minders.
But it isn't only the self-employed who are able to work from home. Some companies rely on large numbers of home-workers to undertake particular tasks for them - sending out mailshots, labeling envelopes, compiling statistics or other information from surveys, or generating business through direct telephone sales. Some companies even employ home-workers in aspects of the manufacturing process. Goods or raw materials are regularly delivered to each 'outworker' from the factory and then collected and returned to the factory for finishing at a pre-arranged time. Each worker has a quota and deadline to meet and is paid accordingly.
Home-working has many attractions but there are some pitfalls for the unwary. Don't think of home-working as an escape from the rough and tumble of the outside world. As a home-worker, you still have bosses and customers to please and deadlines to meet. When you work from home, the pressures can be more intense - not less. As a home-worker, you cannot drop everything and go home - you're already there! Be careful too to make sure that your work doesn't take over the entire house. You need space and time for yourself, so you need to be able to put your work away and enjoy the wider aspects of your life from time to time. Most important, as a home-worker you will need to be highly motivated and disciplined. At home you set the times for work and you determine the pace. But home is full of distractions; you can stop for coffee whenever you want, pop out to the shops, or spend an extra 15 or 20 minutes watching the lunchtime soap; and if you don't make your quota you have only yourself to blame.
As a home-worker you can request an income tax allowance for the use of your home in the course of your business, but check out first that there is nothing in your deeds or tenancy agreement which prevents you from earning your living or operating a business from your home address. You may also need to check the views of your local council about the activity you intend to engage in. If you do decide to make an income tax claim, it should be based on an appropriate and reasonable portion of the total cost of the heating, lighting, cleaning and maintenance of your property, just as if you were claiming tax relief on the expense of running an office. Keep your claim 'general', however, and try not to claim for the exclusive use of any particular part of your house or flat for business purposes. If you identify a specific area of your home as business premises, you may find that you are building up capital gains problems for the future.
If you are seriously thinking about taking up a home-working job, check it out just like any other employment. Look at the rates of pay and speed with which you will be expected to operate. Try to calculate the costs of home-working - extra heating and power, telephone charges, etc., and set these expenses against the income you feel you can generate. If it is the self-employment aspect of home-working which attracts you, all the usual advice on self-employment applies here.
