If you’re tired of waking up, going to work and wading through traffic only to be met by obnoxious supervisors, catty co-workers and a 401k that more closely resembles a child’s lemonade stand stand proceeds than your future, consider working at home.

Even if you don’t run out to start your own business, know that you could. Here are a few simple ways to transform your home into a functional office with little to no expense.

Go Mobile

Log Me In

The first thing you’ll want to do once you set up your beautiful, fully functional home office is find a way to get out of it. Being able to access your files from anywhere is a serious advantage for anyone who spends a great deal of time on the road. LogMeIn is a great solution to the robot access problem, it allows you to get your files anywhere that you have access to the internet.

Google Documents

I am not absolutely certain that we should be encouraging open and collaborative spreadsheet creation, but since the technology allows for it — why not? Google Documents is a great way to take some of the power of Microsoft Word anywhere. You can create calenders, spreadsheets, a general word documents and collaborate with co-workers all across the globe.

Mozy

Everyone should have external, off-site storage. If you don’t and you have anything of value on your drives, then you should go out right now and correct that. While you’re out there saving your data from thieves and pirates, take a look at Mozy. They offer 2GB of free storage that automatically backs up the folders that you choose while your computer is idle. I’ve been using it for months now and have never felt more secure.

Nuts And Bolts

K7

Ever since you bought that Treo to replace your aging Blackberry and put a backorder on the iPhone and Gandalf you may have realized how irrelevant a land line is. K7 takes the last remaining use for the telephone cord and makes it mobile, allowing you to receive voicemails and faxes through a web interface. Incoming faxes are sent to your email as .TIFs, never be without a fax machine again.

Post Office 2.0

Did you know with just a little work you can send packages without leaving the comfort of your home? All you need to do is make a label and arrange for a package pick up. Since your mail carrier doesn’t have to make an extra trip, this service has no charge.

VistaPrint

Business cards. They are portable gate-keepers to your brand identity. If you are on a budget, take a look at VistaPrint. You can choose a template, upload a design of your own and for the price of shipping you can get 250 basic business cards for no additional fees.

Manage Your Business

SugarCRM

Need to keep track of customers? Finding a CRM tool to do so can be prohibitively expensive for the small business. Enter SugarCRM, a fine alternative to enterprise solutions for small to medium sized businesses.

Basecamp

Basecamp is another great piece of software from the people at 37 Signals. It offers a fully functional project manager, allowing you to keep of tasks, delegate responsibility, view upcoming milestones, share needed files and collaborate in a dead simple environment. In its most basic form it is completely free, as you expand your enterprise you can upgrade to some of their affordable premium packages.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Before you go out and outfit your new home office with the latest in tech, here are a couple of tips to help you make the most out of working at home. Come back and find out more.

Schedule. Try to start working at the same time everyday, you want to keep yourself focused and not start putting things off.

Limit distractions. Create a workspace, the worst part of working at home is the inclination to feel that you aren’t actually “at the office”. Do everything in your power to limit external distractions while you’re actually working.

Take breaks. For every 20 minutes of work, take a 5 minute break to think about something else. It will go a long way to keeping your mind fresh.

Create milestones. Plan for the near term so that you can complete “real” tasks instead of pondering over long term goals.

Be consistent. Start and end work at a specific time of day. Get dressed, get up and get moving.

[Note, the Mozy link contains my referral tag -- be aware. Photo credits: Splorp, txkimmers]

If you enjoyed that why not find a job or read our guide to working in the 21st century. You can also join our Kiva team or hire me for your project.