Home Work : As Home Offices Increase, Workers Overcome Obstacles of Transforming Living Space to State-of-the-Art Business

The home office, once considered a haven for those unworthy of rigorous corporate life, is on the cusp of its own Golden Age.

Nearly one-third of America’s work force earns extra or full-time income out of spare bedrooms, attics, converted garages and kitchens. A lengthy recession that yet lingers in Southern California has helped spur the trend toward home businesses, telecommuting, moonlighting and employees who take home unfinished work.

“Working at home has progressed from a stigmatized activity to one where home workers are regarded as essential, dependable members of the corporate world,” said Thomas E. Miller, vice president of New York-based Link Resources, a research and consulting firm. “People have always had to juggle home and life at the office. Home-based work makes that easier. It’s about working smarter, not harder.”

New technology, a rise in dual-income households and baby-boom demographics have helped the numbers of home workers increase at an annual rate of 10% since 1988, according to Link Resources, which conducts an annual work-at-home survey.

Most entrepreneurs launch businesses in their late 30s and early 40s, after they’ve accumulated up to 10 years of work experience. “And the median age of baby boomers is now 37,” Miller said. “They’ve reached the age where they’re motivated to work on their own. Surveys show that at least 55% of those who start businesses will do so from homes.”

The risks of staying home can be steep. Many novices are sandbagged the first year out by the dreaded self-employment tax, a 15.2% federal tax that feeds the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Others have ill-suited temperaments that can’t resist the lure of refrigerators, weather the isolation of spare bedrooms or endure the loss of an Avenue of the Stars suite and its attendant professional identity.

Hurdling such obstacles, however, produces more time with family members, one-minute commutes and the freedom to chart an independent career as distinctive as one’s own thumbprint.

Consider Cheryl Poindexter of Poindexter Design, a graphic design firm launched 25 years ago in a spare bedroom. Six years ago Poindexter’s business reached an apex--14 employees toiled in style at a 5,000-square-foot Poindexter-owned Hollywood building. Sensing an industry shift toward down-scaling projects, Poindexter slashed her overhead last year and moved into even roomier quarters--her new 6,000-square-foot Studio City home.

A self-described workaholic, Poindexter has transformed her three-level home into a humming network of offices packed with a small fortune in state-of-the-art business equipment. “At one time it was important to have a presence on Sunset Boulevard,” Poindexter said. “Now no one cares where you work as long as you produce superior quality.”

Poindexter heeded the first rule of home-based businesses: Keep work spaces professional, especially those areas that clients are likely to visit. For Poindexter, this meant banishing personal effects from her entire home, except for a kitchen and living suite she shutters off with room dividers.

At first glance, her rooms, with soaring ceilings and expansive views of the San Fernando Valley, seem normal. Closer examination reveals that the stunning artwork on walls is really Poindexter-produced advertising campaigns for Capitol Records, CBS Television and MGM/UA, among others. What appear to be whimsical art boxes in recessed shelves are seasonal packaging designed for See’s Candies. China cabinet drawers are lined not with silverware, but paper and graphic design samples.

Visiting clients, who pass through a dining room that doubles as a conference room, are ushered into a living room dominated by a 60-inch Mitsubishi rear screen television replete with printer that copies images for clients preparing film and video promotions.

While Poindexter’s concern was sealing off living spaces from clients, most home workers need to seal off work spaces from distractions. Attics, basements or an entire level in a split-level home make ideal offices because of their contained space. Converted spare bedrooms or dens should have doors to ensure privacy.

Part-time home workers often employ movable, hidden or convertible work spaces, such as roll-top desks, closets with bi-fold doors, rolling carts, alcoves or even niches beneath stairs.

Poindexter removed the doors from her walk-in closets, creating easy access to hundreds of reference books and stacks of project files. She also uses a refurbished garage attic space to hold acres of paper samples, tax records and large job folders.

“It’s extremely important to set up both physical and mental boundaries,” said Bernadette Grey, editor of Home Office Computing Magazine. “Mental boundaries are the hours you set and the ability to confine work to your office and not have it spill over into living areas.”

For an even greater sense of boundaries, some of the nation’s 39 million home workers convert detached structures on their properties, such as garages, into offices.

“A self-contained office offers greater privacy and a chance to get more work done,” said Larry Kohn of Kohn Communications, a business consulting firm in West Los Angeles. Kohn moved his office into his garage after liquidating his financing company in 1983.

“It was a major transition, going from a corner office in Westwood with a secretary, receptionist, big overhead and big payroll,” Kohn said. “Now when I need a quick break, I sit in my back garden and smell orange blossoms and herbs. I’ll never go back.”

Creating home office tranquillity was Ingrid Elsel’s first priority after quitting her job as a Ventura County planner in 1987. Elsel launched her land-use consultant business by planting tulip bulbs outside her spare bedroom office that overlooks a garden. “I do all my reading outside,” said Elsel, owner of Ventura-based Ingrid Elsel Associates Land Use Consultants. “I also take weed-pulling breaks. It’s a real stress-reducer.”

Tranquil home environments topped the list of advantages of home-based work in a 1992 Home Office Computing survey. Home workers not only felt more relaxed, but had healthier diets, took more time off, exercised more and had better marriages and sex lives.

What did they miss most about the corporate world? “Nothing” ranked high, along with paid benefits and office socializing.

Time that home workers spend socializing with their families, however, scored high on the survey. Although Kohn nearly doubled his work hours when he moved into his garage, “I found I was able to spend more time with my family,” said Kohn, whose career as a business consultant tops the list of 10 best businesses on Home Office Computing’s survey. “Commuting to an office can be a real time waster.”

Kohn, however, had to set ground rules for his children, Jeffrey, now 12, and Jamie, 15. “For young kids, the fact that Dad is around the house means somehow he’s there for them, no matter what else Dad happens to be doing,” Kohn said. “We developed methods of communicating when I was on the phone, like hand signals.” When it’s imperative he not be disturbed, Kohn now flicks on a red “On the Air” sign he salvaged from a former job at a radio station.

But when background noise prevails during phone calls to clients--whether it’s a whining child or the thump of a washer--home-based workers say that pretending they’re in a 27th-story suite overlooking City Hall is really a cop out.

“Simply disclosing that you work from home solves the problem if you have a few distractions,” Kohn said. “The prejudice people once had about home offices has disappeared. Now clients want you for your talent, not your location.”

The home office, however, can at times be deafeningly quiet. Grey said her surveys reveal isolation to be one of the greatest potential drawbacks of home-based work. “It’s a big fear that people have, being out of the loop, so it’s important they stay connected to people in their field,” she said.

Kohn, Poindexter and Elsel have developed their own equivalent of hanging out at the water cooler for home-based workers. Kohn has a network of 20 home-based associates that provide his clients with free-lance public relations, graphic design, writing and marketing services. They gather to swap notes every few months and make frequent conference calls when working on projects.

“That’s the way consultancies have always worked,” said Miller, adding that members of such networks have been termed “open collar” or “gold collar” workers. “We’ve had this huge shedding of middle managers into the ranks of home workers. It’s natural for them to discover that form of teaming up. It’s the way they’ve always worked.”

With the addition of computers, fax machines, modems, cellular phones and innovative software, such networks can now replicate the efficiency and professionalism of large corporations.

Home office owners spent more than $25 billion on electronics and telephone services last year, an 18% increase from 1991, according to Link Resources. Today, owning the right equipment often means the difference between getting new business or losing it.

Poindexter said she becomes annoyed when home-based workers don’t have fax machines or operate a fax off a phone line instead of installing a separate line. “And call waiting is death,” she said. “It’s so chintzy. Spend a few bucks and get an extra line so callers don’t hear that damn clicking sound.”

It’s also wise to install a separate business line with its own number and answering machine. “I give friends my personal number and business associates get my office number,” said Elsel. “I can choose to ignore either line.”

Protecting large investments in equipment is a common sense move many home workers overlook. Elsel said her first priority when setting up her office--after planting tulips--was to install circuit breakers and power surge protectors at her computer’s power supply and phone lines connected to her modem and fax machine. “An electrician charged me about $200,” she said. “I have them on the outside of the outlets too for double protection, but it looks better to have them installed.” Check to see if your homeowners policy covers business equipment. You may be able to add such coverage for as little as $20 to $50 a year.

Home workers also advise buying phones that are packed with such features as hold, mute, redial and speed dialing. And a good cordless phone can be handy should a client call while you’re pulling weeds out back. Phone headsets are essential for those who spend long periods talking or doing interviews. Phone company services such as call forwarding, conference calling, call transfer, long distance bill sorting, 800 numbers and an intercom service can also streamline work.

Equipment that saves time usually saves money and should eventually help make money, experts say. Miller suggests leasing or renting the right equipment if the cost is prohibitive. Modems can be had for under $100, linking users to on-line services that maximize time spent gathering information. Print buffers save time by storing documents sent to a printer, freeing up a computer for use while the buffers feed the information to the printer.