A functional home office is particularly important for freelancers and anyone who runs their own business. But if you are going to work from home, it makes sense to have your own proper working area- doing your tasks while lounging on the sofa or typing away at the kitchen table isn't ideal from a mental health or physical health perspective. Here's how you can get up, or improve your home office. 

When you’re working from home, chances are you’ll be sat at your desk the majority of the time. So it pays to get this area right, you need to be comfortable and have everything you need at arms reach. Start by finding the right desk, go with the biggest size that works in the room without it feeling crowded. this will give you plenty of space on the top to work from. The chair should be something you can comfortably sit in for many hours- this will depend on your personal preferences, so don’t just order online and rely on reviews. 

Does your home office need a makeover? What are your tips for keeping it stylish and functional?

Finding the balance between kids and career is something that most of us have to balance as women at one time or another. Staying in a traditional workplace can often be difficult, since these settings rarely give us the flexibility we need. When our children are unwell, or we need to attend things like dentist appointments it's usually not possible and we have to arrange childcare. Then there are the important school milestones such as sports days, nativity plays and other events we'd rather not miss as parents. This can make things difficult when you're a working parent as you often feel like you're not around when you absolutely want to be, but perhaps your financial position means you're not able to give up work completely. Setting up your own business, especially one you can run from home can be a fantastic opportunity for mums to young children. It gives you much more flexibility than traditional employment. It enables you to build your skills, and do something you enjoy all while earning money. Here are some ideas you could consider if you've been thinking about giving it a go.

If you're already a keen hobby baker then why not take the next step? Maybe you could take a short course first to improve or build on your skills, cake decoration classes teach things like sugar work and piping skills which is fantastic to know when you're selling your creations. You might need to make some changes to your kitchen such as purchasing a second fridge solely for your baking. And you'll need to register with your local council and gain a health and hygiene certificate. These things arent difficult to do, and are well worth the effort if you have the skills to make this work. You could bake wedding and occasion cakes. You could find your niche selling letterbox cookies and brownies, or you could go into baking cakes and bread and set up an afternoon tea company? Consider your niche and go from there. 

Blogging is a great way to make money. It does take time in the beginning to get established, but see it as a hobby at first and work on getting lots of good content up on your blog. Tweak the design so that it looks professional, you can buy premade templates on sites like Etsy if this isn't your forte. Take clear, beautiful pictures to go alongside your text and learn about white hat SEO practices to boost your blog in search engines. It's not massively technical and definitely something the average person can work out with a little research, so if you love writing and have passion about a particular topic then this could be for you. 

Whether you paint, knit, sew, upcycle, make jewellery, candles or anything else as a hobby- find a way to turn this into a business. Set up an Etsy shop and sell the items you make, while they take a cut of your earnings it costs very little to list items so it's an inexpensive way to start a business. As with any kind of business you'll want to find your niche. For example, if you're a skilled watercolour artist could you create hand painted watercolour logos for businesses? Could you paint floral designs to convert to digital files that designers could buy and use for things like wedding invitations? If you knit or sew, focus on one market to sell to. For example, you could make sports headbands or baby items. 

Finally, gardening might not be the first thing you think of when you're considering business skills but you can definitely turn your green fingers into cash. You could grow seedlings and sell starter plants from your home. If you have an allotment, you could grow fruits and vegetables and turn them into jams, jellies and chutneys. You could even grow herbs to make your own homemade organic beauty products.

Have you ever considered any of these ideas?