Working from home is something that more and more Americans are having to come to grips with as the coronavirus pandemic keeps us from venturing out into the real world outside. Time away from the office has given many would-be entrepreneurs a new vision of how they could make a name for themselves and their brand away from the strictures of their corporate life. If you’ve been thinking of striking out on your own or already run your own business and have leaned in to the transition to home based work, then this guide is for you. From decorations for home offices to essential hardware services that a home business needs, this article will walk you through the entire process.
Start with your corporate vision.
Even small businesses require what we might consider a corporate vision. Small and large entities alike have to identify their primary and tertiary goals for the short and long term, and then evaluate how they intend to achieve them. This strategy for success represents the core plan for your business. This might be a simple goal framework that involves a sales figure or viewership number. Nevertheless, in order to grow, eventually you will need to implement new and stronger guardrails for your enterprise’s vision into the future.
Going through an OKR coach certification program can help you create and implement this vision better than any other goal setting framework you might consider. Essentially, this strategy involves setting pen to paper and identifying a few primary objectives that your business seeks to accomplish. These might be large future visions or middle of the road growth opportunities.
The process of identifying these objective, though, will help your leadership team to better understand the direction of your company and the priorities that you have set out—even if you don’t already understand them yourself. Talking through the objectives for your future growth will assist you in fully fleshing out this long term corporate vision that will carry you into future success.
Once you have finalized your objectives it’s time to move on to the key results (OKR stands for ‘objectives’ and ‘key results’). These act as milestones for your projects. Five to six key results are recommended for each objective, and they form the midstream performance check feature of your continued progress toward achieving your objectives. With the OKR framework, an office—even a home office—can constantly evaluate the overall progress being made toward the completion of these performance goals. It’s a powerful way to set and track goals and progress throughout your business operations. There’s a reason that the OKR structure is utilized by Google to create a decision making framework for long term goals, and in countless other businesses and board rooms.
Keep your hardware in good order.
Nothing slows progress like a broken computer or a printer that has run out of ink during a critical task. Making sure that your hardware is always up to the task is an essential part of business ownership. Finding an outlet for computer repair Tucson is the best way to ensure that your devices are always performing at peak operability. Without this relationship you may be waiting for days at a time for a repair or replacement device. This downtime can really kill productivity and set you back in your business operations by weeks in the most extreme cases. Keeping your business computer free of viruses and functioning at its best is essential when you find yourself grinding out the final details of your business plan at 2 am or working to fulfill a new, large order as quickly as possible. Without this functionality, your business often has to tread water as you wait for a repair.
Similarly, keeping additional storage on hand is a great way to handle overflows or unexpected memory issues. Business owners with a bit of experience under their belts know that data and software installation begins to pile up at an alarming rate. Keeping an external hard drive that is designated for your business operations is a great way to combat storage issues that could have you waiting for a new device to arrive.
Don’t let your hardware fail you. Instead, keep a computer technician who you trust on speed dial in order to handle any hardware issues that arise as quickly as possible.
Take bold chances.
The best way to continue expanding your new or growing home business is to take risks. In order to find success you will need to stick your neck out there. Understanding the marketplace is crucial, but in order to grow and see increased sales—and cash flow as a result—you need to move beyond your research and planning in order to get your brand out there on the open market.
Take a page out of Vivek Ramaswamy’s book. He is the CEO of Roivant, a pharmaceutical company that has begun a campaign to revitalize older, scrapped drug trials that were cut off as a result of cash flow issues by other drug manufacturers. Rather than pursue these potentially life-saving medications, other testing sites decided to put them on the shelf because the costs of trials and research were cutting into corporate profits. Roivant is revamping some of the most important names in these trials in order to continue developing essential medical treatments for patients that suffer from our society’s worst diseases.
Taking a calculated risk doesn’t always pay off, but when it does you can take pride in the belief you placed in yourself and your brand. In order to grow you will have to engage in risks that range from small to massive. This is the way of the world, and it shouldn’t turn you off to the prospect of investing in yourself and your vision. Building a home business and an office out of your back room takes guts, but the payoff at the end of this long and exciting road is well worth the journey. Go all in on your dream and you won’t regret it.
