Chiefs and Indians. Some lead and some follow. One is not higher than the other; in fact they are on a level playing field. However, there are 5 great reasons why you should start a home business. And in this article, we will delve deeper into why you should start a home business.
In this home business article, you will soon discover:
* #1 Reason To Start A Home Business – Motivated By Performance
* #2 A Home Business When You Want To Create Wealth
* #3 Want To Leave A Legacy?
* #4 You Are A Self Starter
* #5 You Are A Goal Setter
* #1 Reason To Start A Home Business – Motivated By Performance
I remember my past jobs I have been in. I remember doing telesales, and I loved it. I loved computers and became Microsoft certified, and got an IT job. But, that did not serve me, and I soon left to start a home business.
Are you motivated by performance? A wage that is set by the hour is great. It seems great; you feel secure that every hour you are there, that is how much you will get. But, what about motivated people like you and me. What if we do double the work of others? Should we not get more? This usually comes in a raise, but this is not always what turns us on.
A home business has a lot of opportunities for you to shine. A home based business gives you that chance to meet your full potential.
* #2 A Home Business When You Want To Create Wealth
What is the ways to wealth? You can’t get rich by working for someone else. Will a day job ever give you the chance to make a million dollars in a year? Yes, we may not do it ourselves in a home business, but you at least have a chance to rise to the occasion.
* #3 Want To Leave A Legacy?
Do you want to leave something for future generations? Even though a day job can give you a chance to leave a legacy to humanity; could have Bill Gates ever have given the world a chance to have a computer on every desktop if he worked for someone else?
* #4 You Are A Self Starter
Can you get up and go? Can you take action without others telling you to do it? This is one point, where if you have it, a home business can really help you achieve your full potential.
* #5 You Are A Goal Setter
Look around you. From the roads in the street, to all the homes, to the power that lights your home, to the light bulb that illuminates your home – all these are the work of goal setters. They see something, and bring it to reality. If you have it in you, start a home business, because some day, you could leave a legacy, create wealth for your lifetime, grow to become something great. And reach your full potential.
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5 Great Reasons To Start A Home Business
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010Four Common Tax Myths All Home Business Owners Should be Aware of
Monday, April 12th, 2010The home office deduction gets a bad wrap. There are so many rumors out about the home office deduction that you may want to avoid the whole subject. But if you have a home office and aren’t deducting it, you could be missing out on some very valuable tax savings. Let’s take a look at the truth behind the myths about the home office deduction.
Myth Number 1 – The home office deduction is a red flag for an audit.
Twenty years ago, this might have been true, simply because it was unusual. Now, the home business seems to be almost as popular as home ownership! Millions of individuals operate some kind of business activity out of their homes. Others telecommute, and deduct their home office expense as an itemized deduction. The home office deduction is no longer an automatic flag for an audit.
The key to avoiding an audit is reasonableness. The IRS uses computer analysis on all tax returns. Any deduction that is excessive on your income and the benchmarks for your industry may be questioned.
Bottom line: Deducting a portion of your home expenses as a cost to operate your home-based business is expected!
Myth Number 2 – If I take a home office deduction, I can deduct all the costs of my home.
You deduct a portion of your home expenses as a home office expense based on the square footage of your home office space. If you have a 2000 square foot home, and a 200 square foot office, you could deduct 10% of your home expenses.
Unless you operate a day care center, your home office space must be exclusively used for business. Your kitchen will not qualify as home office space simply because you use the table to complete paperwork. If you use the space for personal and business, it does not qualify.
The easiest way to keep track of this is to designate a room or rooms for home office purposes. If you don’t have a complete room to use as office space, use furniture to separate the personal part from the business space.
Of course, there is an exception to this rule. If your business is wholesale or retail and you do not have any other fixed location, you can include any space you use for storage of inventory or product samples as part of your home office. This space does not need to be used exclusively, but must be used regularly, and be suitable for storage.
Bottom line: Calculate the square footage you use exclusively for business and the square footage of your storage space for inventory to determine your home office deduction.
Myth Number 3 – I can only take the home office deduction if I work at home exclusively.
Old rule! Congress expanded the home office deduction to allow business owners without any other fixed business location to take a home office deduction regardless of the number of hours they spend at home. If you provide services to customers or clients at their location, you can still qualify for the home office deduction. You simply must use your home office for administrative and management duties.
Bottom line: You can deduct your home office as long as you don’t pay for other office space to run your business.
Myth Number 4 – The home office deduction will make me lose my tax exclusion on the sale of my home.
The rules have changed here, too. If you use 10% of your home for business purposes, you no longer have to recognize 10% of the gain on the sale that could have been excluded if you meet the requirements for the sale of your principal residence.
What you do need to do, however, is include any depreciation deduction you took in prior years as a taxable capital gain. You still benefit, because your capital gain rate is most likely lower than your ordinary income tax rate. You are able to take the original depreciation deduction at ordinary income tax rates, and bring it back into income when you sell your home at the lower capital gain rate. Your depreciation deduction can also reduce your self-employment taxes.
Bottom line: You can still save taxes overall by taking the home office depreciation deduction each year.
Operating your business from home is a very smart move financially for the new or small business owner. You can save yourself thousands of dollars in rent by operating at home rather than renting business space.
But the cost of housing your business is an expense, and should be treated that way. You would not hesitate to deduct rent expense for your business. Treat your home business expense the same way. The tax money you save can be used to grow your business, or even to fund your family vacation! Talk to your tax preparer if you have more questions, and get ready to take that home office deduction on your next tax return!
Online Home Business Office for Away From Home Dads
Monday, April 12th, 2010If you have a successful home based, online, Internet business there may come a time that you need to choose to take that office elsewhere if only on a part time basis.
You can possibly avoid this situation with training and give and take with your spouse children and pets. If you are hearing the, you do not love me, line from your spouse children and pets maybe you can meet somewhere in between.
Acts as simple as having your children and pets set on your lap and be quiet while you are working will frequently satisfy them. Take pre arranged breaks for activity with your family to also satisfy them.
Taking agreed on and scheduled breaks to play and work with your different family members will also help. Remind them that you need breaks for yourself to chill out also.
Write a contract with your spouse and children that they help make, sign and agree to the terms. Train your pet to know that they will have play and walk times. Have the family help with tasks so they appreciate your business more.
Ideas will come from your subconscious at these rest times. Some will be good.
Do you find yourself too tempted by the TV in the next room or the refrigerator close by? How many modestly success entrepreneurs would you guess succeeded using these useless tools? Correct. None!
If you have not left your job yet you must clearly lay out what your family, pets and friends can expect. If you do not do this clearly before you leave the job, disaster will follow. Got it? Good. Let us keep going.
This is only if you can not get your family to agree to cooperate and work with you. Explain that you worked hard and left your job to be home with them. If this fails you will just have to work away from home.
Loneliness could be a factor in moving the home base Internet business from the home. This will be true if you have no family or pets living with you.
An office environment may mean that other business people who run other entrepreneur businesses, like you, are down the hall.
The knowledge that you will run into people with similar business issues and conflicts at the copy machine or in the community break room can be good and helpful.
Perhaps just a partial move out is all that is necessary. You will still need to draw limits on your future growth at this time to control your life and happiness.
Friends and relatives will feel they can waste your time by dropping in during your working hours. They will say you are free to play now and even ask you to help them with their chores because you have more time now.
With business growth you might grow out of home office space. This is a common fact. When you hire employees, you need more storage, PCs or other equipment. You may start to have local clients that want to stop by your office.
If this happens once too often and you get tired of finding excuses to meet them for coffee at the local Tim Hortons you might start thinking you need a real office. If you have a family, bring them in on this carefully before you move out.
At this point you need to decide if you want to grow anymore. Is your business becoming the awful job you escaped from?
A friend of mine moved his home based Internet business to a location where the fax machine kept going off in the middle of the night and calling him.
Cell phone calls can be disruptive at odd hours as well, as clients and business colleagues anticipate getting your voice mail, not realizing they are waking you at home. Email is the answer here.
Set hours that you can answer the phone and let your customers know your hours so they know what to expect. If someone wants to call you at unfair hours, even a customer, you have to draw the line of respect.
Sometimes you might have to let a good customer go. I have had to do this myself. Your sanity and peace come first.
You will have the added expenses of furnishings, leasing, utilities, insurance and more stress you left at your old job.