Would you trade your soul to be a sole trader?

Breathing in the aroma of a fellow bus passenger’s sweaty armpit, only slightly filtered through a Gloweave business shirt, is enough to make anyone resign their briefcase and bus pass. Why waste precious hours and risk nasal shutdown travelling to the office, when you could roll out of bed at 8:58am and still be at your desk by 9 o’clock? 

Working from home is top of many business-owners’ wish lists, but it’s not all about pyjamas and eating Coco Pops for lunch. You have to be seriously disciplined and ignore household temptations designed to distract you. And your friends might be in for a shock too, as “mi casa es su casa” is no longer applicable during working hours… 

A few years ago, my friend the PR maven turned the bedroom her flatmate had just vacated into a home office. She was fully set up and her friends were excited that she was now home on weekdays! 

“At first, I tried to explain to my friends that I still had strict hours even though I was at home,” she says. “But when that didn’t work, I had to get tough. I started ignoring calls and I would ring them back when I had finished work for the day. If we organised a lunch date and they were late, I’d leave at the time I’d set myself, even if it meant I only had 10 minutes with my friend.” 

Discipline is key, as is being passionate about what you’re doing. Freelance journalist Guy Wilkinson enjoys the freedom of working from home and finds he works harder when he is not being dictated to. As he’s genuinely passionate about journalism, he’s able to ignore the pull of Fox Sports and push himself to achieve his goals. He does, however, miss office banter. 

For Smith and Nephew sales executive Andrew Jary, working from home is a way to beat to the tyranny of distance. “Due to housing affordability in Sydney, my home is an hour and a half drive from the office. That amounts to 15 hours a week sitting in traffic – almost two days’ work. It’s far more productive for me to log on from home and put in face time when necessary.” 

For mums who don’t want to give up their career but don’t want to be strangers to their children, the flexibility of choosing to work from home is appealing. Rachel Eldred, Editor of Living Well magazine, has an infant and a pre-schooler. While she finds the irregular hours she keeps often mean she can often still be found toiling away at the computer after midnight, she couldn’t stand having to be chained to a desk every day while the kids were farmed out to daycare. 

But are there any other pitfalls to working from home? If it was 100 per cent honky dory, surely we’d all be at home, claiming everything on tax left, right and centre.

Having a home office doesn’t necessarily save you money. You can only claim a certain percentage of the household bills for your workspace, and the percentage decreases if you use the space for anything other than business. Need to use your desk to write invitations to your birthday party? Take 20 per cent off your claimable deduction. Need to check out movie times on the internet? The taxman is a happy camper. At least in an office, you can claim 100 per cent of your utilities and internet and phone usage.

So, if you are as strict as Nurse Ratchett with your time and capable of telling your friends, family and partner, “No, wait until I finish work,” this could be a good option. But if you can’t help but watch an extra episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on your fourth tea break, you may be better off with a whip-cracking boss on your tail. 

Just hold your breath on the bus.