It’s vital you’re comfortable at work – and that’s just as important when you’re working from home. Having a well-equipped home office is essential to your productivity.

Let’s start with the basics: every home office needs a desk, a chair, a telephone and a computer. Everything else depends on how much space you have and the specific job you have to do.

There are plenty of companies who can design a home office (a bit like buying a fitted kitchen), supplying a desk and built-in storage tailored to your individual requirements. Or, if you want to save money and do it yourself, chains like IKEA have a range of basic desks and office chairs – just make sure the chair supports your back properly and the desk has adequate space for all your kit!

Storage is a key issue for homeworkers and there are all sorts of solutions available – including the traditional vertical filing cabinets and the lateral (short and wide) type, designed to fit under work surfaces and tables.

It’s also worth making time to properly label your hard copy files, so you can find important information quickly and easily.  Brother’s P-touch electronic label printers are an ideal choice for producing identification labels quickly. For more information please see their extensive range on www.brother.co.uk

No matter how well equipped your home office is, never cut corners on that vital business tool, the humble home telephone. Today’s telecoms equipment comes with many useful features such as built-in answerphones, conference call capability and multiple speed dials. Your telephone company can offer useful add-ons like caller ID, voicemail and deals on business calls.