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player ready...Here are some suggestions from consultants and home-based workers:
– Keep your business life separate from your home life. Your home business can create a negative impact on your home life and vice-versa. Set specific business hours and limit your work, as much as possible, to the hours you’ve set.
– Insist that family members respect your business hours and limit nonemergency interruptions. Tell personal callers who phone during business hours to call back after hours or when you plan to be on a break.
Also, choose office space where you can avoid distractions and interruptions from your children and other family members. Find a separate room, if possible, with carpet on the floor and a solid-core door to keep out noise.
– Maintain a professional image. Running a business from home requires an extra effort to make sure customers take you seriously. You may want to meet customers or clients at their business location or at a neutral site if meeting you at a home office will compromise your image. Dress as you would if you were doing the same job outside your home to reinforce your professional identity.
– Be aware of tax angles. A Supreme Court decision last year limited the tax deduction for home offices to people who do at least 50 percent of their business from home. The home office deduction allows business people to deduct the cost of home mortgages or rent and utility bills according to how much of the home’s square footage the home office occupies.
You can write off 100 percent of the cost of your business telephone bills, equipmentlike fax machines, computers and software-and business-related services like bookkeeping.
You can also deduct the cost of an auto lease or loan and auto repairs according to the percentage of the time you use the car for business, said Janie Olofson, a Danville tax preparer and enrolled agent.
– Be aware of zoning laws. Zoning may limit the number of customers that may visit you at your home office or may limit the kind of business that you do from home. Some cities ban home-based businesses entirely or require business licenses for certain businesses. Call officials in your city and find out the rules.
– Consider several factors before deciding whether to make the leap. If you have a full-time job and just have a business interest you want to pursue, start the business on the side part time. It takes an average of about three years before a small business starts to take off. This is true for businesses based both in and outside the home. Don’t quit your job until you begin bringing in sufficient income and growth seems promising, said Benson Goldstein of the National Association for the Self-Employed in Washington.