I know from speaking with freelancers like me that sooner or later working from home stops being fun. It’s certainly a novelty to start with but that wares off eventually and it just drives you nuts. Cameron Moll wrote about this today as he quits freelancing with lessons learned:
Secure office space within 6-12 months. One of the most challenging aspects of freelancing is you can’t turn off work. It’s always there; omnipresent in the forefront of your mind, any hour of the day, just about anywhere you are. You need to separate work and play, business and pleasure. Regrettably I never did. I worked entirely at home, and I now look back and wish I would have provided a physical and mental partition between work and family simply by finding office space outside of the home.
Office space can be quite affordable if you look in the right places. The Guinness Enterprise Centre provides space at about €50 per person per week. The Digital Hub offers similar at about €70 per person. Both of these include lighting, heating, cleaning, security, etc. The Hub also throws internet access and a few other bits and pieces into the deal.
Anyone know of other similar places in Dublin? Any tips for maintaining my sanity while I’m still at home?
7 Comments
Just signed for our first real offices today, we have been like a team of nomads, living in rented and borrowed space and have now taken the plunged.
We have signed a leasefor unit 1 @ The Webworks Cork
We should be in there in three weeks and I can’t bloody wait.
Roam4Free must be doing really well Pat, I heard Webworks costs a pretty penny :-) And the traffic, dear god the traffic.
Working from home is difficult with kids and I’ll stop doing it as soon as the first external hire comes along but for the time being it is fine. As everything is outsourced right now, I can really be located anywhere with a decent internet connection. For the minute I just adjust my work hours to the reality of the situation. Hence bug testing at 10:26pm!
Have you tried the Docklands Innovation Park on the East Wall road?
Pat: I’m dead-jealous. That’s a cool spot.
Conor: “I just adjust my work hours to the reality of the situation.” I think that’s the problem. If you were elsewhere (outside the home) you wouldn’t have that option. But I know it’s just a stopgap solution for you.
Stewart: No I haven’t, but I’ll call them right now. Thanks.
I actually enjoy working from home, but then again, I often work at night when my creative juices flo best, so office space could not be a solution. Can’t imagine The Hub allowing me to work till 4 -5 am…:) And yeah Michael, the cost is something that puts me off the idea.
I’m working from the garden shed at the moment and it’s quite comfy and (more importantly - quiet). It’s a proper shed too with heating, electricity and broadband (thanks to a high-gain antenna which is probably slowly microwaving the wife and kids). It’s big too - I could probably fit another two desks in here if I had to. It helps to have somewhere you won’t be interrupted. It’s a stop-gap solution though. I’m hoping to get a place on the Genesis programme and move into the Rubicon center on the CIT campus in April.
Walter, you could try the Pamela soultion (Creating passionate users) which is having a mobile home in her back yard.
Not too sure if she gets her post delivered to her other door, but I know she has the door bell wired (wireless) to the office.
I’ve been told the most important part of working from home is to have a commute (walk around the building) just to get your mind in to “work” mode. Not too sure how lunch works out.
4 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] Eoghan McCabe is from Ireland and is a web designer and programmer. He echoes the sentiment that any good freelancer needs to get office space within 6 - 12 months of opening up shop. […]
[…] Advice to Freelancers: Don’t Work at Home! - Good advice? I’m sure it is… but having somewhere else to work costs more than I’ve got at the moment. […]
[…] I’d love to have you around because it gets quite lonely here. Say you’ll stay. Please? Posted on 5 March, 2007 at 10:29 am and tagged with eoghan mccabe, design, web, blogging, business, competition. […]
[…] Four months ago I wrote about working from home and it generally driving me nuts. But one month ago, just before I cracked for real, I found the perfect spot for my little startup: in the Trinity College Enterprise Centre. The photo above shows the partitioned bliss I live in 60 hours a week (and the guy in the shot is Dave Jeffery, my recent hire, working on our new web app; more on that later)! […]