Copyblogger had a post yesterday called, Five Tips for a Successful Freelance Writing Career. It got me to thinking about how one could apply them to a home office business.

Tip 1: Create a division between work and home. Key point here, you are working at home. But, at the same time, you have to live there too. If at all possible, separate your work life from your home life. Use a separate room such as a spare bedroom or basement office. And if you are really lucky, put your office in an unattached shed out back.

Tip 2: Take off your pajamas. This one I hate!! But it is true. While I am not saying you should wear a suit and tie to work in your home office. You should at least get ready and go to work. “Putting on your work clothes gets you into the right frame of mind.”

Tip 3: Get to work on time. If I may be so bold, I disagree with this one. Take for example when I wrote this post. It is 7:31 p.m., not regular business hours unless you are working the night shift. Some of us work in what is called burst and not on a set schedule. In addition, I work with people all over the world. They are not going to always be working when I might be keeping regular hours. The main point here is you have to work when it works best for you. If possible and it works for you, by all means keep regular hours. If not, work when it works for you. There is an entire chapter about this in a great book I am reading right now called, Connect. I will be posting more about Connect in future posts.

Tip 4: Don’t watch TV in the middle of the day. Good point. However, I have a TV in my office and it is usually on. I have it on either the news or weather channel. It works for me, I have to have the noise. But, I don’t leave the office and go upstairs to watch TV. When I am working, I am working.

Tip 5: But do go out to lunch. Get out of the home office and network. Give yourself some human interaction. For me, besides taking time to go to lunch and networking, I have to spend some time each week in my favorite coffee shop.

While the five tips above are really “on the surface” tips for success. They will help. Be watching for more tips on how to have a successful home office business. With one warning, I am not going to give you hints, tips and ideas on get rich quick tips for the home based business. Quite frankly, there aren’t any. Success takes work, hard work. If you are looking for the quick fix, this is not the place to look.

Leave your comments with some of the similar tips you use to help you be successful in your home office. Lets keep the conversation going.