Starting a Business: Designing Your Home Office

There are many essentials that are basic to every home office. The computer is perhaps the most important. As the heart of your business, the computer must be up to date and reasonably powerful. It is not necessary to purchase the most expensive, however you should make sure that you can meet or exceed the system requirements for the software you will purchase. No less than 512 MB of RAM, a Pentium or similar processor with a clock speed of no lower than 2 GHz, and a 3D enabled graphics card should be considered minimum requirements.

Another essential for the home office is a fax machine. Though e-mail is becoming more and more common, many business situations still require the use of a fax. A very practical and cost effective solution is the all-in-one. Combining a fax machine, copier, scanner, and printer in one machine, these devices save both space and money over purchasing components separately.

In order to ensure maximum productivity, it is a good idea to go ahead and invest in wireless technology for as much of your hardware as you possible can. The freedom and increased productivity that is created by mobility may be surprising to you. If you can afford to build your office around a wireless network, do it. You will be glad that you did.

You will also need a variety of office furnishings. A comfortable desk chair will save your back. Rolling chairs are convenient but certainly not required. Your desk will need to accommodate your monitor and other devices, and storage space would be a convenience. General office supplies such as pens and paper clips should be within easy reach when seated at your desk.

A filing cabinet is highly recommended, to organize both your business information and your client files. The filing cabinet should have a locking capability. For maximum security a heavy metal fireproof filing cabinet is the ideal, however these are expensive. A mid-range filing cabinet will usually suffice at the beginning.

A shredder is an often-overlooked but highly necessary component to a home office. Identity theft is rampant, and simply shredding sensitive documents is an easy first line of defense. Remember to shred both company documents and client files.

Your new office is going to be where you spend the bulk of your time now. You need to make sure that it is a place where you are comfortable and where you can work without distraction. It is worth it to spend the money up front to design a workstation where you can be as productive as possible.