Category: Start a Home Business

    Home Office

    office

     

    Designing an Optimal Home Office
    Your home office makes a big difference on your overall productivity and work happiness. Having a great home office makes it easier to concentrate and will help you get more done in less time. Here are some of the many things you should keep in mind while you’re designing your home office.

    ==> The Space Itself

    Your home office should be separated from the rest of your house and especially the rest of your bedroom. If you don’t have a separate office space set aside, at least use curtains or other material to partition off the space.

    When you step into your home office, it should feel like you’re stepping into a workspace. It should not be an extension of your bedroom.

    ==> Designing Your Flow

    Place all the tools you’ll need within arm’s length. In other words, your phone, your keyboard, your printer tray and your notepad should all be in reaching distance if those are tools you use regularly.

    ==> Measure Your Space

    Before you buy any equipment, make sure you take a tape measure and measure everything out. The last thing you want is to buy office equipment only to discover that it doesn’t fit.

    ==> Make Sure Your Cabinets Have Room to Open

    This is one of the more common home office design mistakes people make. They remember to measure the cabinet’s space, but forget to measure enough space for the cabinet to open out. You don’t want your cabinet to hit anything else when it opens – including you or your chair.

    ==> Add Real Plants

    Working in a home office all day can be quite stuffy. Research has shown that nature and real plants can help people concentrate and boost mood.

    Add a real plant or two in your workspace to help lift your spirits.

    ==> Invest in a Quality Chair

    Sitting in a low quality chair can result in back pain, aching shoulders and other kinds of body pains. If you’re going to spend money on anything in your office, spend it on your chair. Get a quality chair that supports your spine and allows you to work for extended periods of time without undue pressure.

    ==> Lighting Is Important

    You don’t want to work in dim lighting. Having good lighting helps reduce strain on your eyes, promotes better mood and helps improve productivity.

    The light in your office needs to appear diffused, so it can’t just come from one source. Ideally you’ll have three or four different lights that all contribute to an overall sense of having a well-lit room.

    These are some of the many things that go into designing the optimal office. Your office space has a big impact on your overall workflow. The time you put into improving its design will pay off many times over.

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    What is a perfect name for my business

     

    a smiling businesswoman holding empty card

    What is the perfect name for my new home business? Is there a reason I should pick a business name carefully? 

    When it is time to figure out a name for your new home business sometimes it can be something that you agonize over and wonder am I picking the right name? The idea that once you file the business name with the local government means it is “written in stone” can sometimes hold you back from picking one. 

     

    What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
    By any other name would smell as sweet;  

    from Romeo and Juliet

    Michael Fortin, in his book “10 Commandments of Power Positioning” says your business name should stick in people’s mind long after they have met you.  Make it unique. Have it reflect what you do in the name, be “Heather’s Wedding Wreaths” not “Heather B. Business”.  A person will remember a unique business name.  At the very least, have what you do in your name,  ABC Cleaners not ABC Enterprise.

    With my husband’s Structural Engineering firm, we called it Peak Engineering because Maple Ridge is below Golden Ears which has two peaks.  Also, whenever we tell people our name, we say Peak, as in mountain peaks spelling since peek is another spelling. It seems fairly easy for people to remember the name spelling though Brian is usually called Brain.  Or maybe, he just thinks it is an appropriate name for him.

    For my company, JGardnerMarketing, I took a business name that was my name + marketing since our local government registrars have stricter guidelines about business names.  I could not have called it The Business of At Home Business because it used the word business in it was too generic.  So, it is alway good to check with your local authority and see what type of business name they will not approve before you send in names for approval.  With our local government authority, you have to give them three choices for the business name and if they disapprove the first name, you’d better like the second and then third name.  So, don’t start printing up your business cards or letterhead until you get the business name approved by the government.

    Also, if you pick a name too close to a trademarked name or  it seems to come close and the other business can sue you and make you change your name.  So, no Burger Queen or Starebucks for you!  You can do a search through local Yellow pages, Google, your local Business registry and domain search.

    If you want to go put up a website using your Business Name, you had better check early before registering your business name with your local government.  It is not possible to have the exact same domain name in the internet and when you are looking at the world businesses up on the internet, the odds are good that there would be a ABCCleaner.com up on the internet already!  You don’t want to be known by the website domain of ABCCleaner2.com.

    Michael Fortin in 10 Commandments of Power Positioning had another good test for picking a business name that people remember.  Create about 5 business names and tell some of your friends you’d like to know what they think of the names.  Ignore this advice (just kidding).  What is important is to see them or call them up in an hour or two and ask them to recite the names.  See which names stuck in their mind and that will give you some idea on the uniqueness of the business name.

    When deciding on a Business Name for your Home Business remember to:

      • pick a business name unique to you
      • pick a business name that has what you do for a living in it as an action word –  Cleaning, Engineering, Marketing, Writing–  somewhere within the business name
      • check that the business name is not already being used on the World Wide Web
      • check with local government authority on their business name rules
      • test some business names by getting friends to remember the most memorable of a list after an hour
      • stay away from other businesses names who are already registered as they can sue you to change it ,if it is too close

    In the end, what your business name is will not define your business in your customer’s mind. Who you are and how you deliver the services or product to them  will be the reason customers will return to your business.  Micheal Fortin’s book “10 Commandments of Power Positioning” has some other great ideas about keeping your business name in top of mind of your customers so you receive a copy when you sign up for The Business of At Home Business newsletter.

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    Start a consulting business – Fred’s story

    Fred consulting paperwork to start his home business

    Fred consulting paperwork to start his home business

    What do you need to do when starting a home business as a consultant?    The continuing story of Fred, the home based business consultant.

    Fred had made the decision to work from home as a consultant rather than an employee. He had talked to his employer who was agreeable to them starting a new relationship with Fred as a part-time consultant.

    For Fred to be an independent consultant, some of the things he would need to do are :

    1. Set up a home office space and office equipment
    2. Define a business name for his company
    3. Decide on the type of business as to whether he wanted to be a sole proprietorship or have an independent limited company
    4. Apply for a business number with the government so he could remit his taxes and fullfill any other government requirements when running your own business
    5. Apply for a business licence from his town or municipality so that he can run a business from his home.
    6. Sign a contract with his client (his previous employer) defining his responsibilities and his hourly rate for his services
    7. Make sure that the relationship between him and the client  was clearly defined in the contract including:
    • The defined hours of work he would be available in his home office for communications
    • The number of hours he might be required to spend in the client office during the week
    • The  other expectations of work involved activities such as meetings or required paperwork
    • The easy access to the intranet system for email conversation and collaboration and review of documents

    Fred made sure he went to see a lawyer to see what should be in his standard contract to define his and his client’s role and responsibilities in this new relationship.

    Fred went to see his accountant to review all the government rules and regulations he would have to fulfill as a a self employed business.

    Fred also went on the internet and checked his federal government website on how to start a home business as the brochure listed the steps clearly on what regulations he had to follow whether it was:

    1. United States of America 

    2. Canada 

    3. Great Britain

    4. Australia

    All the governments have very good step by step guides on starting up a home business so check them out!

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