(Editor's note: This post continues a short series about using Office Live Workspace to help you work from home.)
For more than 25 years, writer Jeff Wuorio has operated a home-based business in southern Maine. Wuorio always does considerable research on his articles about running a small business, personal finance, and other topics he enjoys. But when he writes about a subject such as working from home, you know he has a lot of firsthand experience to back up his words.
In his article for Office Live Small Business titled, "How to make a good home office great," Wuorio discusses the importance of adequate lighting, efficient use of space, keeping clutter to a minimum, personalizing your office with plaques, awards, and other mementos that are upbeat and motivational, and, not surprisingly, making good use of technology.
But he doesn't just generalize on making good use of technology. He gets into specifics; see his bullet point in tip No. 5, "Consider digital storage."
By using an online repository such as Office Live Workspace, Wuorio suggests, you have the equivalent of an off-site storage facility to keep your documents, reports, and anything else you need to save. But this repository is free and easily accessed wherever you are via the Internet.
"It's not only convenient, but also is an added measure of safety if your home office is damaged by fire or other mishap," he notes in the article.
In Office Live Workspace, you have 5 gigabytes of storage space per workspace. If necessary, you can create multiple workspaces. That should be more than enough to store your business records, family schedules — anything you need to store related to business and personal use. And you can share parts of your workspace with whomever you want —and control what they see.
You can also collaborate online on speeches, spreadsheets, articles, and reports, without having to e-mail versions back and forth. (See this page for more info on using Office Live Workspace at home.)
Digital storage such as Office Live Workspace enables to you to use your home office space more efficiently and keep clutter to a minimum — two other tips from Wuorio. See the rest of his tips for making a good home office great.
Monte Enbysk