Professionalism in the 'at-home' Business

I’m a stickler for professionalism. I like to receive good service, and go out my way to ensure I always give good, professional service to clients.

I know some people like to have a ‘homely’ atmosphere in their businesses (especially when working from home).


I think that’s fine, in fact I thing it’s always a great idea to make the client or customer feel special, and make them feel ‘at home’ when they are conducting business in your office. But there is a line which needs to be drawn between having a homely atmosphere, and being inappropriate or unprofessional.

In my mind, an example of crossing the line is bringing up personal problems while discussing business. I experienced this recently when I met with a client to discuss some work. I had never met this person before and in the first hour of our meeting, she was getting emotional and talking about her problems at home. 


Obviously this made me very uncomfortable and, although my natural instinct would’ve been to sympathise and console her, I had to abort the conversational path she was wanting to meander down, and revert our attention back to the business at hand.


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