One of the biggest mistakes most newly self-employed people is overthinking things and focusing on the smallest detail. You don’t necessarily need everything to be perfect before you can start your business and get working. In fact, as long as you have the basics in place, you can build upon it.
Plan A Proper Layout
Before you start buying any furniture, you need to have a plan and make a layout. If you don’t you might run into the trouble later down the road such as furniture design, color scheme etc not matching with the overall design and theme you were going for.
Like a business, having a long-term plan and the vision you are going for is important.
Usually home office renovations have these 6 steps from my personal experience. You can click on the links, to get an in depth idea of how it’s done.
- Cleaning and preparing the foundation
- Painting / Renovating the roof or ceiling
- Fixing the doorways, kitchen, bathroom, and other miscellaneous stuff
- Painting the walls or gluing the wallpaper
- Carpeting and fixing the flooring
- Putting the furniture in place
It Does Not Have To Be Expensive
If you have the budget and the means, feel free to buy your desired furniture and make it as nice looking as possible. However, for most small time business owners, we have a limited budget and need to make the best use of our cash.
One of my personal mistakes is getting rid of old furniture I already had and replacing it with brand new ones. The old furniture, while had some minor blemishes, were in perfectly good and usable condition. Looking back at it now, maybe I could have just made some cosmetic and small repairs which could have saved me hundreds of dollars in extra costs.
Buying old or second hand furniture is perfectly okay as well. As long as it’s clean and looks in good condition, you can get a much better value out of them.
Craigslist or your local facebook group for buying selling goods is a good place to start.
Sometimes people are even getting rid of old furniture and giving them away for free if you happen to be lucky. There is nothing wrong with being practical and making the best use of things. You just have to lower your ego.
Know When To Hire A Professional
You won’t be able to do everything yourself. You have to consider the opportunity cost for how much money you can save vs how much time you lose. In some cases, it is better to have a professional do it for you at a higher rate vs doing it yourself.
If you are good at something or if you learn things easily and don’t mind getting your hands dirty you can do some of the stuff yourself. You can perform the tasks such as peeling off the wallpaper, painting the walls, making some of the interior design etc.
It pays to have good friends and family as they can also lend some manpower and help you get some manual labor done. Heck, if you have nephews and nieces, pay them a few bucks to take out the trash, clear the dust, etc.
However, it is probably a better idea to hire a professional if the task you are performing requires knowledge and skill. In most home office repairs, experienced professionals have a better understanding of tasks related to actual renovation such picking out best glue for wallpapers, concentration for how much paint to use, what kind of material is best for long term etc.
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