Regardless of the size of your studio, you will spend most of your time in the control room. If you have a small studio, this won't be a separate room, but more of an area where the main gear is. From your command post in the control room, you have one or two jobs to handle. The first is engineering duties. The other might be producing.

Engineering

The role of the engineer is to set up all the equipment and generally run the sessions. The engineer (you) places all the microphones, sets the levels, runs the mixing board, operates the recording equipment, and performs the mixing, editing, and whatever other duties come up. The client expects to take advantage of your knowledge of how all that works. In a typical engineering role, you have limited interaction with the music. You might be asked for opinions, but in many cases, the client will have a clear idea of what he or she wants from the sessions. You're there to help capture and preserve the music the way the client wants.

Producing

The role of the producer is varied in the recording industry. Basically, a producer is involved with bringing an idea of music to life. This might involve booking studio time, hiring players, arranging music, and so on. In the home studio, your production duties might come as a result of the artist's lack of concrete ideas. Or in many cases, an artist will come in with a basic framework and look to you and your studio to fill in the gaps. This can mean finding players to perform the music, or programming the music into a sequencer to provide a backdrop.

Don't assume that only garage rock bands come into studios. Electronic music, rap, and hip-hop rely heavily on producers to guide the sessions. It's not uncommon in a rap session for an artist to have only the rhyme committed to paper. The backdrop and beats are usually the collaborative responsibilities of both the producer and the artist. It's up to you as a producer to be familiar with all parts of your studio to help facilitate this. If you're set up only for recording sound, make that clear to all prospective clients.