• Be very sure what you can and can’t deduct. Tax software is great but it isn’t foolproof so do your homework and still read the tax booklet for all the deductions about home businesses and perhaps consult a tax accountant. However, using software is a good idea. It really does help you calculate.
• There is a notion, which may or may not be true, that home business deductions can flag you to the IRS. It used to be more true as home businesses weren’t as prevalent. But it’s still somewhat of a flag, thus –
• Have specific, thorough documentation about everything.
• Your home office cannot be used for any personal use at all. No personal emails, writing a letter to your Aunt Sue that’s printed on your home office’s printer unless it’s specifically about business. We’re talking the IRS here. It’s not a good idea to fudge it, even a little.
• Too, you can’t have anything of a personal, non-business nature in this office, not even in the closet.
• After you do your research, you may find that claiming certain deductions for your home business isn’t a good idea. Weigh your options carefully.
• If you have claimed certain deductions in the past, make sure the rules are the same. The IRS changes things sometimes, so make sure you are clear on what’s what for the year you are working on.

Here is what it says on the IRS site:

Whether you are self-employed or an employee, if you use a portion of your home for business, you may be able to take a home office deduction.  Here are six things the IRS wants you to know about the Home Office deduction

1. Generally, in order to claim a business deduction for your home, you must use part of your home exclusively and regularly:

• as your principal place of business, or
• as a place to meet or deal with patients, clients or customers in the normal course of your business, or
• in any connection with your trade or business where the business portion of your home is a separate structure not attached to your home.

2. For certain storage use, rental use, or daycare-facility use, you are required to use the property regularly but not exclusively.

3. Generally, the amount you can deduct depends on the percentage of your home used for business. Your deduction for certain expenses will be limited if your gross income from your business is less than your total business expenses.

4. There are special rules for qualified daycare providers and for persons storing business inventory or product samples.

5. If you are self-employed, use Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home to figure your home office deduction and report those deductions on line 30 of Form 1040 Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business.

6. If you are an employee, additional rules apply for claiming the home office deduction. For example, the regular and exclusive business use must be for the convenience of your employer.

For more information see IRS Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home, available at http://www.IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).
Links:

• Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home (PDF 214K)
• Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home (PDF 64K)
• Form 8829 Instructions (PDF 29K)
• Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business (PDF 111K)
• Schedule A, Itemized Deductions (PDF)

Do your homework and take the deductions you can. It’s worth it.

However, with the internet, many people are finding a solution to these concerns: starting their business online and working from home. An online business means that you have all of the advantages and benefits of being your own boss and setting your own hours, without the hassles of running a brick and mortar establishment.

By using the power of the internet, it has never been easier to turn your ideas into reality. When you look through the companies listed in a business directory, you may be surprised by how many are small businesses, with owners working from home. You can sell virtually anything online, and by doing so from the comfort of your own home, you get to set your own hours, take vacation and sick time when you need it, all while having the freedom to run your company your own way.

Many people who work for someone else often times feel that their ideas are neglected. Often, employees have great ideas to improve a product or service, but their bosses simply ignore them. By running your own company online, from home, you have the freedom to be an innovator in your industry. This means that you get to take things in the direction that you want, instead of the direction someone else wants.

Now, this is not to say that starting a business online and working from home is as simple as putting up a web page and expecting customers to arrive. Running a business in cyber space requires just as much hard work and dedication as running a business in the real world. You will need to advertise and market your business, as well as manage your time.

If you choose to have others working with you, you will need to be in close communication with your business partners at all times, just like running a brick and mortar establishment. You will also need to keep up with market trends in your industry. Essentially, when running your own business, you take on the role of boss, financial manager, corporate executive, and advertising executive, all in one. For this reason, it is very important to do you research before beginning an online business.

However, running your business online, from home, does have many distinct advantages over a real world business. First, the cost of starting your company, as well as the cost of doing business, is significantly lower.

As you do not have the overhead costs of managing a storefront or an office, as well as the added expenses that come with them, you get to enjoy lower bills each month, meaning you can offer your products and services at a discount over the competition. Furthermore, by running your online business from home, you can still maintain obligations to your family or friends, without having to sacrifice time at work.

If you have considered starting a business, but you think it would simply be too hard, you may want to consider starting a business online and working from home. Running an online business from home allows you to control the destiny of your company, all while allowing you the freedom to enjoy life.

Author Profile

Keith Barrett offers a search engine marketing service, aiming to help small business owners benefit from selling online. He’s spent more than 10 years looking at the world of online business.

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. – Nolan Bushnell

Are you taking action today? Are you a “do-er” or a “some day-er”? Success requires action on the part of the dreamer. Take action today!

There are many ways in which to keep a really tidy living room, such as using cable tidies, adequate storage and taking five minutes each day to pick up all the clutter.

Storage is the key ingredient here, however, as there are so many options – classic, modern, hidden etc. Whatever you want, and whatever fits in with the style of your home, you’re bound to find it. Here are some of just several of the types of storage on offer to you.

Bookcase
Pack away all those novels, encyclopaedias and magazines that are strewn about your living room in a stylish bookcase. These are also great for holding that pile of DVDs that just won’t fit on the DVD stand; in addition to any little ornaments or keepsakes you’d like to keep out on show. Bookcases are great because they generally offer a different depth on each shelf, so you should be able to fit each and every one of your books on it.

Chest of drawers
These are fantastic as their purpose is two-fold; offering a stylish, classic piece of furniture that can hide away all those bits and bobs that just don’t have a home. You can also stuff the kids’ toys, dining table accessories, magazines and glasses away in them; perhaps keeping the top drawer for miscellaneous items such as candles, candle holders, matches, corkscrews and any other bits you’ve got floating around.

Glass cabinets
These are great for when you want to store something away, but you also don’t want to hide it. Say you’ve got a hand-painted bowl from Mexico that you want to show off, but not get damaged – put it in your display cabinet! Or that renaissance lamp you’re dying for all your friends to see, but not for your teenagers to break – put it in your display cabinet!

There are really so many storage options that you should be able to get your living room looking spic and span in no time.

The cost of injury can be considerable to a business, so what measures can you take to improve safety within your factory?

Firstly, any good employer must have health and safety procedures and policies in place, which are well know and distributed to all staff. If not, these urgently need to be drawn up. Make sure employees know what constitutes a health hazard and how they should escalate any problems, should they arise.

Additionally, provide adequate training which instructs employees on the best way to use ladders or perform tasks at heights, among other matters. Ensure they sign a confirmation form to verify that they have understood the training.

Secondly, if there are any unavoidable hazards, make sure they are clearly marked. Yellow and black hazard tape is pretty hard to ignore. Stand up signs will similarly draw the right sort of attention to a problem, preventing accidents.

If a cable has to pass over a pathway, then make sure it is safely disguised in a cable tidy, a flat rubber cover which is strong enough to withstand human footsteps, does not slip and will ensure no one catches their foot and stumbles.

Heavy machinery, vehicles and general wear and tear over time can cause floors to be uneven and bumpy, so give them a new lease of life by painting them with epoxy coatings. These are hard wearing and dry to a seamless finish. Self levelling, the thick coating fills holes and ridges, leaving the floor smooth and removing any trip hazards.

If there are any carpeted areas, i.e. in communal staff areas or bathrooms, check that they are safe with no curled up edges, that there are no bumps or threadbare patches which could cause someone to take a tumble.

Ensure lighting is sufficient in windowless factories or for those that operate night shifts. Motion-activated lighting will keep bills down and employees safe.

These are just a few tips, but all are worth investigating if it keeps your factory workforce safe.

All roofing firms are required by law to comply with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidelines which clearly set out both the employer’s and the employee’s responsibilities in terms of education, the provision of safety kit and the carrying out of sufficient risk assessment.

Falls due to a lack of anti-slip roof coating or special matting, inadequate restraints, no helmets and strong winds or rain are sadly common with many novice roofers sustaining inevitably nasty injuries.

There are many dangers involved with working on a roof – slips are the least of it. Loose tiles and other unsecured items, including hammers and drills, have been known to fall and hit the people, cars or buildings below. Even where accidents have not happened, any firm found to be in breach of HSE regulations will be prosecuted and fined for up to thousands of pounds.

Botched jobs completed by amateurs can cause further problems in the future, like leaks and cracking due to adverse weather conditions.

One of the worst issues roofers face is the presence of asbestos which must be removed and disposed of under strict guidelines to prevent inadvertent inhalation by workmen and/ or members of the public. Asbestos inhalation, as it is well-known, can cause life threatening illnesses years down the line.

The roofing industry itself says that the sector is now being driven by the desire for energy-conservation and concerns about the environment. Many buildings are leaning toward eco materials for roofing that insulate, harness solar energy or are sustainable. A far cry from asbestos but still no easy job to carry out.

Don’t risk your life; leave the roof repairs or conversions to the professionals.

Business process management (BPM) has been claimed by some researchers to be a way for organizations to gain higher customer satisfaction, see better delivery and time-to-market speed, yet all the while increasing product quality. So given all the attributes and accolades awarded it, it’s surely worth finding out what BPM actually is?

BPM is a wholly different way of running and governing a business. Rather than looking at the individual components, BPM utilizes a holistic approach, which considers only the sum of all the individual parts, not what each of them does on their own.

In using this approach, BPM can align all individual aspects of a business to each pull in the right direction. It can consider the requirements set out by the clients of a business and begin to draw in the business values to focus directly on achieving those results.

As a result of this, BPM is a continuously evolving process. Rather than the stoic management hierarchy utilized by many businesses, BPM uses a more flowing approach, enabling it to be more capable of change. It is this capability which allows organizations using it to be more efficient and effective.

BPM however can take time in order to complete a job fully and successfully. BPM software has a learning curve just as we do, but forward-thinking businesses with their advancement already planned out should not find this a problem.

BPM software will typically be used on a smaller, initial project to start off with. Once the business is happy with the results it can then start expanding to other projects, all the while leveraging and sharing expertise in order to build a fully involved program.

Using software such as this can be a huge undertaking for many businesses. It can offer a way of working that people are not experienced with and are unsure of at first. However, if the business process management approach is used to its best and fullest effect, it can provide businesses with a new and successful way of trading.

With the recent news that workers are taking more and more liberties in the office, such as making personal calls and browsing the internet, employers might want to closely monitor staff to make sure they are doing the job they are employed to do.

Time is money, after all. If employees are taking time out without authorization from a line manager or not in a designated lunch hour, then businesses lose money. It’s that simple. With some automated IT software, managers can detect heavy memory usage on the firm’s computers, usually triggered by heavy-memory programs like video games a number of websites and processes open at the same time.

Accessing ‘banned’ websites at work recreationally could also pose a security threat to the firm’s network. Many websites such as ones with pornographic content or file-sharing content attempt to trick the user into downloading potentially malicious trojans or malware. This, in turn, could lead to stolen passwords, credit card numbers and sensitive company information. All of this because one employee decided to click a apparently legitimate link on an apparently legitimate website.

Luckily, anti-virus and anti-malware software is available in order to protect valuable information. Remote Control and Remote Access software can allow technical support staff to ‘take charge’ of the affected computer in an effort to target the virus or hacker and eradicate it from the system. While bemused staff may take a few seconds to realize why their cursor has a life of its own, the importance of letting computer support staff handle threats like viruses and malware is crucial. Other IT software, like IT Service Delivery Kits, can create automated procedures for clean-up and maintenance of computers, disk management and testing the network.

The moral of the story is that a quick peek at Facebook or any other hacker-targeted site could be putting your firm at risk. Don’t take liberties at work unless you want to run the risk of harming the business.

Firstly, make it easy for potential clients to get in touch. Carry a mobile phone, and make sure you publicize the number. Get an easy to remember email address, and again, spread it around so people know what it is. You could also consider promoting your Twitter handle, as it’s a great platform for networking.

Secondly, don’t be afraid just to ask. If you meet a potential client, ask them who is currently supplying whatever it is you’re supplying. You never know, they might be dissatisfied with their current service, and if they aren’t and say they aren’t interested, at least you’ve taken the initiative and they’ll walk away thinking what a confident salesperson you are.

Thirdly, be sure to ask existing contacts if they know anyone that would be interested in using your services. All you can do is ask, and all they can do is say no – you’ve nothing to lose.

Another thing to consider is employing an SEO expert to help increase the audience base of your website. These professionals can help your site become more visible in search engine results, thus increasing the amount of people who will visit, and potentially, sign up as a client.

Lastly, ensure any marketing materials you hand out – or publish online – are original, well-written and don’t waffle. If you are clear, direct and honest in your marketing, then more people will be prompted into investing in your product.

If, after all of these, you are still stuck, get out there and knock on some doors. It may seem old-fashioned, but it can work very well if you target the right areas, at the right time.

Many people will have heard the term ‘downstream access‘, but may have no clue what it means. However it’s actually a fairly simple process.

It basically defines the process of mail which is collected from postboxes and distributed into the right areas, but is then handed over to the Royal Mail to go through the final processing stages – wherein it is delivered to the right addresses by their postmen and women.

This service has only been around for eight years, after it was banned for some 350. Some very restricting limits were placed on the service when it first launched; but now it is fairly relaxed, and works well for Royal Mail and its competitors alike. Reports have suggested that DSA mail accounts for a significant proportion of all UK post.

The system has many benefits, such as cutting the cost to the Royal Mail, and therefore the government; and it can also increase competition amongst mail providers, so the cost to you the customer will ultimately be lower.

Mailbag tracking is another great benefit, as it makes for a reliable and transparent service; as mail can be tracked using unique codes. This ultimately can improve the service, as delivery people know they are being tracked, and can help users feel in control without having the hassle of actually collecting mail.

Some DSA suppliers even boast a 20 per cent saving using them as opposed to the Royal Mail, which can’t be anything but good.

Furthermore, users of DSA services do not have to cope with any of the sorting, filing and transport of their mail. Packages, letters, larger letters and parcels are all handed over to the DSA agent, who will then sort through it all. This means users can dedicate their time to something more productive. All in all, it’s a worthwhile and high-quality option for businesspeople and the public alike.