Working at home done right. My interview with a veteran work-at-home mom

Photo courtesy stockvault.net

I've been working from my home for about nine months now, and still figuring out the ins and outs of this new situation.  As it turns out, one of my neighbors has been working from home for over 12 years and has some great insight on how it works for her.  Here is my conversation with Andrea Cox of Highlands Transcription which she owns and operates with her husband, Stephen.

Describe your business.

We run a transcription business.  Most of our clients are in the medical profession, but we have some corporate accounts that we transcribe documents for as well. Basically, our clients dictate into a variety of'recorders', and we transcribe their dictation.

How long have you been working from home?

I started working at home after my third child was born in 1997. A little over 12 years.

How did you get into that type of business and/or working from home?

I started this ironically by trying to get my sister-in-law to do it.I found an article on how medical transcription was a good job for stay-at-home moms, which she was about to be.  I then thought, why don't I give it a try? I did some research, decided it was what I wanted to pursue and began an at-home course to learn how to do it.

You work with your husband, how is that -- working so closely together?

It's actually been great. My husband and I were working together when we met 20 odd years ago, so it wasn't very foreign to work with each other again.  It was one of our concerns that we discussed though before my husband quit his full-time job to work at home full-time, but we knew it was what we wanted to do, and so far, it has worked out great.  We basically spend 24/7 together and it has been just great for both of us to be home with the kids while they were growing up.

How do you separate work time/space and family time/space?

 That is definitely the biggest drawback to working at home. It is very difficult to have set work hours and set play hours.  When your work is the same place as your home, they are automatically intertwined. It's too easy to just stop working and go volunteer at your kid's school, or stop working and run a few errands. I end up working a typical 8-hour day, but those 8 hours can be spread out anywhere from 6:00 a.m. to midnight. Depends on the day.

What is your biggest challenge to working from home?  And how did you overcome it?

As stated above, my biggest challenge is trying to 'get it all done' in a day. I always have a heavy work load to do; in our business, we are never 'caught up'. So just trying to get the work done and manage the household on a day-to-day basis can be a challenge.  I have found what helps me is to make a plan.  If I go into it just trying to charge through it all, it creates more stress, but if I plan my day out, try to organize as best as I can what I will be doing when, whether it is work or play, my day goes much more smoothly.

As you business has grown, have you ever thought about getting "real" office space?

No. Our rather small office in our home is all we would ever need.  Our employees work out of their homes as well, so we do not need a bigger space.  Everything is done through our computers and that allows us to grow our business as big as we would like, without needing bigger or "real" office space.