Judy Heminsley is the founder of the How to work from home blog and author of Work from Home
When friends and family interupt your working day: "I think the only way is to politely but firmly keep reinforcing the fact that you are working, and offer to contact them later to make arrangements for another time. You might have to do it repeatedly before the penny drops but it's worth it. A surprising result of a survey I carried out on my blog was that neighbours were a frequent source of distraction."
You don't need to work nine to five: "The 9-5 convention runs a lot deeper than we realise and often it takes a while for people to take advantage of their new freedom when they start to work from home. It's always worth experimenting with different times - you might find your best times surprise you!"
Sara Hall is co-founder of Lonetree Cards
Resist the temptation to always be on call: "We have found that if we manage our customers' expectations and they get used to our lead times for deliveries and responding and so on then they are pretty tolerant. To begin with I would be responding immediately to any issue or query and I quickly realised I was setting the bar too high. I now have my own rules on how quickly I get back to people. Within three hours for the urgent but up to 24-48 hours for those queries that can wait."
Stuart Saggers is underwriting manager at Direct Line for Business
Make time to keep on top of paperwork: "Keeping on top of admin makes the tax return easier at the end of the financial year and it's good to know how the business is doing. With respect to insurance, it's what protects you if the worst happens. Though that may seem remote, a half hour spent upfront organising the correct insurance is time well spent should the worst happen."
Ute Wieczorek-King is a mentor and business coach who runs Success Network. She has juggled a home-based business for more than 20 years
Recognising burnout can be difficult: "When you run your own business from home, it is common to experience really busy or stressful times when we simply have too much to deal with. It can then be quite difficult to stop and assess what's happening. But learning to recognise our limits, stopping to rest or carry out activities that energise us - all these are very important. Building a support network of other home-based business owners can be helpful too - just to have people to talk to outside your home can make all the difference to some people."
Decide if you need a separate space for work: "I find a dedicated work space (for my client work and writing) makes all the difference. I need to be able to really concentrate for certain tasks and it's nice to be able to shut the door!"
Hannah Martin is the co-owner of Talented Ladies Club
Limit time spent on social media: "Social media has for me been the biggest learning curve. In the early days I was a slave to it, thinking I had to thank or reply to everyone immediately. Now I check it a couple of times a day usually and it's made for a much better work-life balance."
Matt Franks runs social enterprise Connected Roots
Know when it's time to stop working: "I plan events, meetings with friends, sports to be at certain times of the day to force an end to the working day."
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