Dubai, UAE, August 17, 2016:  With an increasing number of people opting to work from home or start up their own business, there has been a sharp rise in the number of home offices over the last five years.

While working from home is a dream for many and a perfect way to establish a better work – life balance, your home office needs to be carefully planned in order to create an efficient and effective working environment. 

As you are going to spend a lot of your day in office, it’s important to plan your working environment and design a home office that works for you. By following a few simple rules before setting up your office, you can create a cost effective, efficient and creative environment in which to work. 

1. Finding the perfect space: Home offices are often spare rooms converted into a work space. However, it’s important to have a designated place; preferably a room where you can work in isolation away from distractions to help optimize productivity. 
2. Save space: Very often home offices can be on the small side which is why optimizing your space is vital in order to avoid a cluttered and disorganized working environment. Therefore multifunctional devices such as Canon’s PIXMA MX7600 brings increased versatility to home office users while saving on space. A single unit that can service everyday printing needs, as well as producing laser quality marketing materials, the PIXMA MX7600 features high speed copying, scanning and fax capabilities, together with superior quality document printing, and photo lab quality prints in one compact device. Perfect for home offices and saving on space.
3. Think colour: As well as the overall appearance and feel, the colors you choose can also affect your productivity in your workplace. Before lifting a paint brush be sure to ask whether you want a relaxing environment or a stimulating workspace. Cool colors such as blues and greens are soothing and can help creating a calm working environment and boost concentration while a scheme that features a lot of white is ideal for a smaller work area as it will help create the illusion of a bigger space. Warm colours such as oranges, yellows and reds are great for people who need a bit of stimulation in their work zone.
4. Turn down the volume: Don’t underestimate the impact noise can have on your productivity. Always opt for home office equipment with noise reducing technology such as Canon’s I-Sensys. Any noise in a small place can be distracting. Equally important is keeping noise from the rest of the house to a minimum, particularly if there are young children in the house. Make sure your office door is always closed to signal that you are busy and should not be disturbed.
5. Save Money: Many people working from home underestimate the costs of running a business from home in terms of increased electricity used, consumables required for basic office functions such as printing. But with careful selection of office technology you could save yourself money and help the environment. For example make sure you get a printer that can print on both sides of the paper and thereby reduce the amount of paper consumed. Also look out for Energy Star compliant printers such as the I-Sensys range of printers which help to reduce electricity costs. The Canon LBP 3370 has been designed with cost cutting in mind and is ideal for start ups looking for cost effective professional print finishing.
6. Tailor your technology to your office style: Office technology does not have to be cumbersome and unattractive.  For every home office there is the perfect piece of office technology to meet your needs without compromising on style or taking up huge amounts of room. Look for products that have broken the design mold and which fit in with your vision for your working environment, whether that is an uber chic metallic look or a modern and fresh space, there is a product for you.  
7. Match your brand: If your home office is going to serve as a location to meet with clients or potential clients it is important for your office to reflect your brand and corporate identity. This is an important element of your business marketing and by doing something as simple as incorporating your company’s colours into your office, you can achieve a professional look and make a great first impression. 

Working from home is a great opportunity to achieve the work-life balance we all crave, yet designing an effective office requires more than a trip to the local DIY store to buy a desk, it needs advance planning and a vision of how you want to want to work. By following Canon’s simple seven step guide, you can create your ideal working environment and be the envy of many new start ups.