If you decide to start your own business or move your business to your home there are quite a few things to take into consideration:

1. Space for your office
2. Equipment needed
3. Communications

Taking each item in turn:

1. Space for your office

We have all had them, our own little space in the home for our own use, haven't we. Well not all of us have houses the size of a castle and it can be very hard to find that little space you need to run a busy office from.

There are a few ways around it that involves construction (or serious DIY):

Garage conversion, simply clear out the garage and turn it into an office. Simple to say but the pit falls and how to avoid them are;

Warmth, without a decent insulator for the walls, floor and roof you'll find that the room will become very hot during the summers and very cold during the winters. The cold can be taken care of with a simple heater but then the cost will be higher, when its hot, however, you will need either a portable air-condition unit or be able to sit and work in shorts.

The answer is to use insulation which also bring about the possibility of redecorating the walls, floor and ceiling, and maybe even a new lighting system!

You should use at least 200mm soft insulation in the roof, this will not meet build regulations for a house (250mm minimum) but will be adequate for an office need. We would recommend 300mm but that's because we are concerned about the environment!

Floor needs to be insulated to a depth of at least 100mm of polystyrene, the choice of a hard insulator is simple, you can lay your chipboard flooring straight on it (remember to glue those joints) and have a 'floating floor'. The chipboard covering should be cut back about 25mm from the walls so that no part of the flooring touches the walls (with reduce the chances of a warping floor to practically nil).

The walls needs at least 75mm of polystyrene this interwoven with a lattice of 2' by 3' stud work set at 600mm centre. As long as the main studs are at 600mm then you will have no trouble with plasterboards (1200mm) to be sent and fastened straight onto the studs.

This new room should be very cosy and should serve you for years ahead.

Attic Conversion or Loft conversion.

This option has proven to be very attractive to a lot of people, as a matter of fact, I think that this might represent a large portion of work to our friendly polish work force that's here now!

This is to hard for you to undertake without specialist input, you will need a good architect to draw it up, an engineer to verify the structural aspect of the build and you home and then you'll need to find a good builder.

The real advantage that this gives is that it does, if carried out properly, add real value to your home!

Mini office or Log Cabin in your Garden (serious DIY)

A lot of our members have taken this option after they did the loft conversion! It can be a real pleasure of getting out of the house in the mornings, beside you can hardly hear the family from out there (with the exception of summer holidays).

A office in the garden requires you to have enough space for it, this should be blatantly obvious to moist of us BUT saying that the main issue is that its better to go for a larger unit instead of a smaller one. I'm saying this because if your office grows your space in this office will be sorely missed if you haven got it and you know that you could have had it!

2. Equipment Needed

Vital equipment:

1. Computer
2. Photo Copier
3. Telephone
4. Fax (don't integrate the computer with one!)
5. security

List of Recommended small office home office equipment:

3. Communications

It is, also, vital to get your communications right. You will have to:

A Change your number (unless you can keep your existing one)
B GET A NEW TELEPHONE LINEforget trying to share it with your family it just doesn't work, no really, don't!
C GET A NEW FAX LINEforget sharing, why doesn't anyone listen to me
D Don't forget to put up a message on your old telephone line informing clients that you have this new one!

To own your own business or to start your own business go to www.forsoho.co.uk!