Home Office Design Blog

We are all seeking ways to reduce costs to help weather the current economic storm. This is particularly true for those of us in business for ourselves. One of the simplest ways to reduce significant overhead costs from many small business owners is to work from home. There are ample dollar-related reasons to work from home; working from home eliminates rent or mortgage payments on a separate office, eliminates commuting costs, and reduces electrical, water utility, and internet fees. In addition, working from home recovers time lost to commuting, avoids office politics and distractions, and can allow for a more flexible work schedule. However, the idea of working from home makes many business people worried about how it will affect the balance between their professional and personal lives. They also worry about the professional image it portrays, their ability to avoid distractions and resist the temptation to stay in pajamas all day, and the amount of space that the home office will occupy in the house.

One simple way to mitigate these concerns is to set up your home office outside of your home in a separate outbuilding. By moving the home office just outside, and detached from the home, you can create a perfect setting that requires you to get dressed before leaving the house, keeps work (and that always nagging email) out of your personal space, and distances you from distractions found within the home. It also provides a professional setting for meeting clients and to have phone conversations without distractions in the background.

You can read the full article here.

Ms. Peck is a Historic Preservation Consultant with over 12 years experience working with historic Florida homes. She is President of Preservation Resource, Inc., which has recently introduced a specialized product line for historic homes at www.HistoricShed.com.

As you may or may not know my actual business that I run from home has to do with affiliate marketing. If you’ve never heard of affiliate marketing that’s ok. Basically I sell stuff on behalf of other companies through websites that I build and promote. I never handle any products - I just “arrange” the sale and get paid a commission for that. The commission is between say 5% and 10% per sale.

A really, really critical part of running an online business is having great web hosting. Why? Because folks if your web host is offline your websites are offline and you’re not making money. It’s a very simple equation but something that people overlook all the time when they’re setting up their first website.

What most people want is the cheapest web hosting possible. Mistake! With web hosting if you pay peanuts you get monkeys - a cheap web host will normally cause you more problems and cost you more money than you ever could have imagined. Trust me there’s nothing more frustrating than looking for technical support that just doesn’t exist. Tick tock - every hour of downtime is costing you money. Bad mojo!

So who do I use? Well I have a few web hosts that I use but the one that consistently keeps me smiling in terms of features, support and uptime (the opposite of downtime and a hugely important shopping factor!) is Hostgator.

Hostgator have served me very well over the last several years and are currently top of my lists of web hosts that I use (and I have several web hosting accounts).

So what do I like about Hostgator?

Fast hosting

Great set of features
(including the Fantastico package of applications.)

Very well priced

Everything from beginner hosting to dedicated servers.

Great support

Very little downtime

So if you’re looking for a great, easy-to-use and reliable webhost then I can put my hand on my heart here and recommend Hostgator!

Just came across this article on working from home - gives you a good general gist of what you can expect or opportunities that are out there for you.

Read the full article here.

The current global recession is seen as a sign of doom and gloom by far too many people.

Yes a recession is generally bad news for the economy of any country. That being said if you look at any recession in history one things seems consistent - after any recession comes a great amount of prosperity. Vast in some cases. At the end of this recession you’ll see a new generation of millionaires and billionaires. That’s just how it goes. Swings and roundabouts so to speak. An economy can’t stay in a permanent nosedive - it will eventually improve.

So what does this mean if you want to start your own business? Be prepared mentally and financially. Don’t take silly risks and don’t take chances with your finances. Be practical about the fact that a recession makes starting a business that bit tougher.

The good news is that any business that can thrive during a recession will also thrive during booming economics. You’ll also notice that the world doesn’t stop turning during a recession. Business continues on. Another way of looking at it is this - a recession will “kill off” all the businesses that weren’t in good shape in the first place. Financially “unhealthy” businesses and banks will go under - the only thing keeping them afloat was an overinflated global economy.

I’ll leave you with the words of wisdom a friend gave me when I doubted working for myself. He said “What’s the worst that can happen if it doesn’t all work out? That’s right you’ll just have to get a job again. No big deal”.

It’s a refreshing way of looking at fear no?

With the world economy in a recession and with factory closures and layoffs becoming a daily occurrence it’s time for anyone with any smarts to really think about earning at least a part-time secondary income. Off-line. Online. It doesn’t matter - start taking steps to protect the financial interests of your and your family. The recession will end and the economy will recover but over the next 24 - 36 months never, ever take your eye off that ball. One of the best ways to generate a secondary income is to have a home based business.

So what will your new home business be about? That’s the biggest hurdle which most people face. Most people go for the instant answer of MLM (bleh…nasty) or some other pyramid marketing fiasco that only makes others rich and poor people ever poorer. Then there are franchises and business opportunity fairs but you normally have to fork out thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to even get started in these ventures.

Remember we want to start generating a second income here. Make money. Not spend even more money you don’t have. It’s amazing how many people will max out their credit card(s) on a business opportunity that goes nowhere. Crazy!

So how can you generate ideas for a home based business?

Take a notepad and write down every single hobby, interest or skill you have. Don’t think about it too much. Just brainstorm it and write down anything that comes to mind. It could be surfing, flower arranging, antique collecting, owning pets, being a computer whizz, shopping on e-bay. They’re just random ideas that came to mind while I was writing this.

Keep writing for at least 30 minutes. Don’t stop. Don’t ring a friend to chat. Don’t watch some TV. Just write and keep writing until you have no more ideas left.

Okay now take the list you’ve just written and read through it.

Circle all the ideas that appeal to you.

Narrow that list down to the top 9 ideas.

Now narrow it down to 3 ideas.

Which of the 3 ideas or topics jumps off the page at you?

Which of them sets a fire in your belly and makes you feel passionate about it?

Which of them is something you’d love to do each day as a full time job?

That’s how you track down the perfect business idea for generating a secondary (or maybe full-time) income from home.

Oh and keep that ideas list in a safe place!! You’ve just done some excellent brainstorming - it will come in useful in the future.

If you’re interested in learning how I make money from home then I can highly recommend the following book for you to read:

How to become an affiliate marketer.

Ok folks. Something is going on here. Twice in the last 24 hours I’ve been contacted by friends who have just been infected with a new strain of computer virus. One female friend just reinstalled Windows Vista and was done with it (drastic to say the least but she’s stubborn and hates asking for help) and the other friend is leaving on holidays today and is going to have to leave her computer unplugged and locked up until she gets back. Why? Her 15 year old son managed to download a really nasty virus from a porno site that’s designed to steal credit card numbers and other financial information.

Am I bothered that friends called me for help with this type of computer problem? Not at all - I’m a total nerd at heart and always will be to some extent.

No my problem is that these people were using freebie anti-virus programs that are months out-of-date and of absolutely no use in stopping an actual virus. All for the sake of a few dollars they’re willing to risk losing hours of time (in one case a lifetime of digital photographs) and frustration just because they’re too cheap to go and buy a decent anti-virus and firewall solution.

The attitude I see is “It won’t happen to me because I don’t download pirated movies/mp3s/games”. That’s about as shortsighted an approach to computer security as I can think of. It’s just plain dumb to be blunt.

What I can’t understand is that these people have zero clue about the risks they’re taking getting hit with virus and spyware infections. Viruses don’t announce their presence on your system like in those dumb hacker movies - there’s no skull and crossbones on your screen. No cryptic messages or any of the other nonsense that Hollywood would have you believe. The best and most dangerous viruses are the ones that do their very, very best to stay hidden.

Listen up folks. If you are not using a firewall package AND anti-virus software then I can promise that you are going to get hit with a virus and probably a nasty one at that. You cannot use one and not use the other. You’d also be wise to download and run Spybot or Ad-Aware at least once a month also to clear up spyware problems.

If you’re happy to risk financial disaster and identity theft then continue on taking risks online. Soon enough you’ll become a statistic with the rest of the “It won’t happen to me because…” crowd.

Worst part is that I’ll probably wind up writing Part III of this series…. shame.