Working from home – a long term solution?

Our life as a small business started out nine years ago, initially working freelance in larger agencies before developing our own client base.

While building Lococo Creative it made sense to keep my costs to a minimum. So, just like many SMEs, I began working from home. It meant my overheads were low and allowed me to make my costs really competitive. However after many months/years, consistently working in the environment I lived in, I found it increasingly difficult.

Lone working

At the time I would literally be in the house on my own all day. Initially the idea of this sounds really appealing – all that peace, your own music, no one interrupting your calls… But as a really sociable person, I found that soon this wore pretty thin. I really missed the office chat, the chance to bounce ideas off someone else and another person to make a brew from time to time!

It was also the other aspects of home working (the ones that aren’t really talked about) that bothered me the most, the ones that weren’t work ‘per se’. For one, I got really irritated by my own house. Being there all the time I would see every fault, every DIY job that didn’t get done and be distracted constantly by the daily chores like popping on a load of washing.

Also, when I finished work I didn’t get that nice warm feeling of coming home after a long day. Home stopped feeling like a sanctuary and started feeling like somewhere I wanted to escape from! This led to a bit of a disparity with my home life. My husband, after a hard week of work, wanted nothing more at the weekend than to chill out in his own home, whereas I just wanted to go out and BE somewhere different.

Office move

So in 2014 I made the move to my first shared office space in the Canal Basin in Coventry. Bizarrely it was in the studio of one of my previous employers who had moved on. I had had many happy years there and many fond memories. For me it felt like a pair of comfy slippers, somewhere I was completely familiar with and thoroughly enjoyed as a place of work.

It was a space for creative businesses so although I was there as a sole enterprise I was surrounded by other creative minds and businesses. The difference it made to my business was huge. It was most probably in part a mindset shift for me. I suddenly had a business address and place to entertain clients which in turn made me more confident and proud of what I was doing.

Rightly or wrongly, explaining to potential new clients that I worked from home had always made me nervous. I worried that I would be dismissed out of hand as a ‘small time, one man band working from their bedroom’. I always felt that this was a huge misconception and where you worked should not be a reflection of the work you produce. 

The recent pandemic, which has forced so many people to work from home, only goes to prove this. There are many professionals, who have been in exactly this position over recent months, who have continued to produce the same amazing, high quality work they did when they worked from the office.

I think they’ll be a huge shift in thinking around this now. Our current situation proves that all levels of professionals are managing to produce the same standard of work from their dining room tables. Essentially, if you’re good at what you do it really doesn’t matter where you do it!

A return to ‘normal’

In October 2019, after another stint at working from home, I decided that I really wanted some separation, to create a better balance and have a place I could call ‘work’. So Lococo Creative moved to its current home, the Priory in Wolston. It’s a beautiful old building in a lovely Warwickshire village and I absolutely love it. While working from home does have its advantages, there has never been a moment in recent months where I ever thought about not returning to the office. In fact I can’t wait! 

So, while for now working from home for many people is still a relative novelty, I’m interested to see how this pans out in the future. Yes, avoiding a long and stressful commute could be a real bonus for some, having more flexibility over your time is another. However I do wonder how people will feel after a prolonged period of time of working from home if they haven’t done this before. Will everyone crave real life social interaction like me? Will everyone get sick of their home environment and want a change of scenery? Will everyone get fed up of always making their own cuppa?! I will be interested to hear how people feel in the coming months. 

I however, was very happy and excited to get back to the office today, see my happy face below!