Home Based Online Business-Handy Hints

Handy Hints For Your Online Home Business

At long last, you've found that fantastic home based business  you want to pursue but you haven't a clue where to begin, from a business owner's perspective.


Having personally stumbled through the darkness to discover how to be a bit more organized and  efficient, I thought I'd share some things you might want to put on your 'to do' list.

Spending Money To Make Money

It doesn't matter what kind of home business you're setting up online, you'll need to spend money. It's a necessity and there's no getting around it.

One good thing is that there are a lot of tax advantages to having your own home business so you'll want to have a chat with an accountant to make sure you're keeping all the right records.

Another point here is to set yourself a budget. It's easy to over-spend so know what you can afford, decide what's necessary and what isn't.

Remember that you will always have to invest in your education to be a success.Investing in your ongoing education is so important it bears mentioning twice.

Business related education can also be a tax deduction, so once again have that chat with your accountant.

Keeping Records For The Tax Man

To make this type of record keeping simpler, you'll want a separate credit or debit card for the business and maybe even a separate bank account.

In the early days, I tried using the personal credit cards and accounts but it all got too complicated, especially at tax time. So, get a card with the lowest interest you can find and a bank account.

 

Organization Is A Must

 
One of the biggest obstacles many new home based online business owners have is organization. Organization can have a number of challenges.

One of the first is the organization of your time. You work from home so if there are kids or family members around who want your attention, it might be a good idea to  first, schedule the time you'll be spending on your new online home business. I find that if you don't  schedule the time, it's easy to let the distractions of family life take you away from your goals.

Make a schedule and you can even put a copy on the fridge so the family knows when you're "at work" and not available except if really, really important.

Keep Track Of Everything

The next suggestion for organization has to do with where you put everything on the computer. How will you keep track of articles you write, where did you publish them, who did you link them to?

There are a couple of options here and my personal favorite are excel spreadsheets. Now I have to give some credit to my friend Barbara Silva for reminding me about this and it's really helped me stay organized.

I have spreadsheets for just about everything you can think of. Articles I use as content for Renegade University. Articles or content I submit to MarketingMerge for publication and branding.

Then I have ones for the Hubpages,Squidoo Lenses, and Ezine Articles, along with the social bookmarking I've done and in some cases even the keywords I used.

Believe me, when you have these created your life will be easier.

If you don't know how to use excel and you're more comfortable with Word, you can create a table in word as an alternative.

Try To Keep Work Separate

Getting back to the distractions that happen when you have your own online business at home. If you can, find a place to work that is reasonably distraction free. There are a couple of reasons why this is a good idea. One is the obvious, fewer distractions equal more work done.

The second reason is that it's good to keep work and home separate, as much as possible. It helps you 'shut off' when not working and helps to clear your mind. Life can become even more complicated if work and home are intermingled.

I know this isn't always possible but when it is, I know you'll be glad you did.

If you aren't sure that Having your own home based online business is for you, Check out Lane Romero-Reiss'article,Top 5 Reasons to Consider A Home Business.One of those reasons might be yours.

If you happen to use your car in your business Barbara Silva has a suggestion or two about that. You can find her suggestions at her New Business Checklist.

Comments

[KT]

Nice site, Deborah with solid ideas. Is this a Hub Page? I'm on Squidoo but not certain what a Tiny URL means? Dr KT

[Deborah Marsden]

Hi,
Thanks for your comments. This is my blog, but a Tiny URL is an abbreviated URL. It's used frequently when a URL is very long. It also disguises a URL which can be both good and bad.
Twitter often uses Tiny URL if you place a URL in your 'tweet' that's long. This is what happened this time.

Cheers,
Deborah

[Barbara Silva]

We should gather up all these handy hints and put them in a book, Deb. I think you managed to "stumble out of the darkness" holding a big old search light to help the rest of us find our way as well.
Looking forward to more!