Home offices are great… until they aren’t. If you’ve been working out of a home office the past few years and suspect it may be doing more harm than good, it may be time to consider setting up a dedicated office outside of your home.

How do you know when it’s time to move your business out of the home? Writing for the American Express OPEN Forum, Pamela Slim looks at this question, and her first two points run to the heart of the matter for many small business/home office dwellers:

1. Your family members directly interfere with your ability to serve your clients. Teenagers refuse to turn down loud music. Toddlers refuse to get off your lap as you are rushing to finish a project on a deadline. Your dog insists on barking loudly as you are hosting an important teleconference.

2. Your business interferes with your family’s ability to lead a normal life. I learned that asking my 2-year-old to remain silent all day (with a babysitter) while I coached on the phone was not only impossible, it was unfair. Home should be a place filled with squeals of children and barks of dogs. I had visions of a therapist talking to my grown kids saying, “Tell me how it felt when Mommy told you to be silent all day.”

Read more here.