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What To Wear When You Work From Home

What should you wear when you work from home?

It's a question I'm asked frequently in my image consultant business, and one that bears thoughtful consideration. For just as your appearance matters when you report to work in the "outside" world, so, too, does it matter when your commute is just down the hall.

Now before you snicker at this notion, let's get a bird's eye view of the matter.

If you work from home, you credibility is suspect. While more than 90% of the population worked from home prior to the industrial revolution, people who work from home today are viewed as less serious than their commuting counterparts. Even with the number of home-based businesses expanding at an incredible rate, the question of legitimacy still remains.

So how do you combat this bias? By always being professional. One of the easiest ways to convey this is by simply dressing the part.

Of all the home-based businesses I've dealt with in my life, most of the successful ones understand this basic concept. The ones who struggle or fail, don't. It's such a simple element-but one that can have a huge impact on your bottom line. And I mean huge.

So how should you dress when you work from home? It depends on two critical factors:

1. Your line of work.

2. Your customer contact.

If you work in a business with little or no customer contact, such as writing, assembling products, composing music, running a mail order business, etc., your primary concern should be comfort. Jeans, shorts, sweats, in drag--if no one sees you, you can pretty much dress as you please.

But the instant you come into contact with others, you influence their opinion of you. Even if you're just dropping off or picking up something or you conduct all of your business at your front door, how you're dressed can influence your bottom line. If you want your business to grow and prosper, you'll dress to meet your customer's expectations. If you want your business to remain small and expand at a snail's pace, you can dress to please yourself.

Continued...

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Diana Pemberton-Sikes is a wardrobe and image consultant and author of "Wardrobe Magic," an ebook that shows women how to transform their unruly closets into workable, wearable wardrobes. Visit her online at www.fashionforrealwomen.com

All articles are copyrighted by Diana Pemberton-Sikes.