Your Home Office

When you become a tutor working from home, there are some challenges that go along with the advantages of being at home. One of those challenges is having a space in your home to call your office. Some people are lucky enough to have a room that is designated as the home office. The door can close, and even lock if necessary. This gives you somewhere to store your books, papers, computer, etc. where they will not be disturbed, used by other people or lost.

Well, not all of us can boast an office in our home. I am one of those people. There is not a room available, nor can we rearrange anything to make a room available. Consequently, my “home office” consists of my computer on a table in my bedroom, and a small (but mine!) bookshelf beside it to store my books and papers.

This may not be the ideal situation, but I make it work. Ideally, you have a room to call your office. That way, you can close the door to noise and/or distractions while you work. If you have a student online or on the phone for an hour, you don’t want a big distraction going on around you.

So this is how I make it work for me. My kids are older (9-18), and so they are good on their own for an hour or two. I can close my bedroom door and get my work done. If I have tutoring students coming to my home for tutoring, then we always use the kitchen table, and I have 1-2 of the older kids in the adjacent rooms. This is a safety feature for you. They are witnesses that no inappropriate behavior is going on. (These days you don’t want to be slammed with a lawsuit of some kind!) The younger kids go outside or stay downstairs in the family room.

I am lucky in that all my private tutoring students in my tutoring business are children of people I know, so I really don’t have to worry about the lawsuit thing, but I am telling you it is good practice to always keep your tutoring very public and open, as much as you can. If you don’t know the person and you don’t have anyone home with you, then arrange to meet at the library or university.

Well, back to the home office topic. I got a little distracted

The bookcase by my computer table holds my reference books, appointment books, important papers relating to my tutoring business. This bookcase is not for use by anyone else, and everyone knows not to touch or disturb anything in the bookcase or on my table.

It is important that there is a “space” that is your work space. This helps you to stay organized and focused on doing the best tutoring job you can, and making money at the same time.

Stay organized,
Peggy