The Dark Side Prepare yourself for being homebased by understanding the downside.

QUESTION: I hear a lot aboutthe advantages of working at home. What are some of thedisadvantages--and how can I deal with them?

ANSWER: Over time, we'vekept track of the problems people have written to us about andcombined those with survey results. Based on this information, hereare the top 10 problems of working at home:

1. Separation of work and family life, both in relation to spaceand time
2. Not enough space
3. Not being taken seriously
4. Distractions
5. Lack of privacy
6. Strain on family relationships
7. Tendency to work too much
8. Feelings of isolation
9. Poor self-management or self-discipline
10. Zoning; home- or condominium-association regulations

You'll notice half these problems involve mixing--or notmixing--work with home life. Personally, we've found thesolution to most of these problems is creating a physicallyseparate space for our office, usually a separate room. When thatwasn't possible, we used a screen or other means to separatework space within a room from personal areas. Paul wrote hissections of the first edition of Working From Home from a divided livingroom. But when we recently conducted a national survey with LisaRoberts for our book, The Entrepreneurial Parent, to oursurprise, we found more than half the people working from homeprefer to mix or integrate their work space with their nonworklives. We call such people "Integrators," and theyoutnumber the "Segregators," like ourselves, 55 to 33percent.

Work-at-home Integrators thrive on meshing their business,child-care and household tasks. They work in multiple rooms oftheir homes and keep flexible hours. Segregators, on the otherhand, thrive when the business and personal facets of their livesare separated physically, intellectually and by the clock. Eithertype can work successfully with a homebased business. The importantthing is to determine whether you're an Integrator or aSegregator, and structure your time and your space accordingly.

Segregators need to set up a dedicated home office away from themain traffic flow of the house. Having fixed business hours alsomakes sense, as does getting other family members to agree to helpyou keep them. Even Integrators should establish one desk at whichthey do most of their work, and designate other spaces in the homefor additional work. This helps you keep your papers in dedicatedspots so your business doesn't take over your entire house.

Paul and Sarah Edwards' latest book is Why Aren't You Your Own Boss? Leaping Over theObstacles That Stand Between You and Your Dream. Sendquestions to them at www.workingfromhome.com.