Creating the Right Environment to Work from Home
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on economies across the globe. As the virus spread from country to country, governments in every country made decisions on how to implement lockdown and restrictions and social distancing.
Not all countries put in place the same measures, some were much stricter than others. But one thing that has been commonplace is an increase in the number of people who are working from home.
Why More People Are Working From Home
Gyms and fitness centers were one of the first types of businesses that had to close because of the pandemic. Due to the nature of the activities that take place in these places of business, it was understandable that governments made this decision.
The logistics of keeping communal spaces and equipment clean, hygienic, and virus free would have been complex and the chances of the disease spreading in these locations would have been high.
Fortunately, the work of fitness instructors translated easily to the work from home model from both the supply and demand side.
Coaching and Training From Home
Starting with the supply of services, the coaching and fitness community was quick to realize that they could continue to do a lot of work with their clients even if they weren’t physically together. Virtual workouts have become a norm as coaches and trainers have adapted their own lockdown premises into professional workspaces.
Obviously most clients will not have the range of equipment that their gym offers, so instructors did have to display some creativity in order to adjust their workouts to something that their clients could still do at home. But as long as you have a webcam and an internet connection, online workout classes via Zoom were a distinct possibility.
On the demand side, people found out quickly that being in lockdown was not fun. There are many mental health issues from having to stay at home and not see friends and family members. The disruption to people’s lifestyles left many people looking for an outlet – for many, the outlet has been exercise. As a consequence, there has been a huge demand for online workout classes.
Work-Life Balance for Remote Business Owners
For coaches, consultants, and trainers, working from home is by no means the perfect situation though. It doesn’t matter what type of work you do from home, there are challenges that are common whether you sit in front of a laptop or lead a workout class.
It is incredibly important that you maintain a good work-life balance if you are working from home. Normally, when you leave the gym, you can switch off from work to a large extent and your home is a sacred place that you can isolate from work stresses. This is much harder when your home is in your workplace. Which is why we stress the importance of designating spaces within your home that are for work and for personal life. By establishing clear boundaries, it is much easier to keep a good sense of work-life balance.
There are also potential challenges depending on who you are living with during lockdown and if you have to use communal spaces in order to do your work. It is hard to give general advice here because everyone’s situation will be different.
If you have young children who are excited to have their parents at home all day, it can be difficult to tell them that you need to still spend a good portion of the day working and not playing with them. Likewise, if you living with a housemate who also needs to use parts of the house as their workspace, then you will need to make an arrangement that works for you.
It is fortunate that technology has advanced enough in today’s society that coaches, consultants and fitness professionals are still able to work during a nationwide lockdown. However, it is important that we recognize there are challenges to working from home and we encourage coaches, consultants, and fitness instructors to think about how they can best work from home during these difficult times.
What Next?
If you’ve been thinking about going online, or if you tried before and just lacked the needed skills, this is the time to get everything you need to become highly successful. The Online Coaching Certification is your step-by-step blueprint to build a highly profitable online coaching business.
Between NESTA and the Spencer Institute, we have well over 25 courses, certifications, and business systems to help you build a totally customized career and business. You have the choice to add and combine the programs in any way which serves you and your clients best.
Our team is here to help you thrive during this crisis and provide our members with constant support during this unprecedented time. As always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the coaching industry.
Stay healthy!
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