Top 10 Reasons to Add a Home Office
More and more businesses are allowing their employees to work out of the home. They have found that not only does it benefit the employee, but also the business. With more individuals working from home, there has become an increased need for home offices. Here are the top ten reasons why you should add a home office to your house.

Tax Benefits:

When you are self employed, a home office is a great tax benefit. When you use your office solely for business purposes, your computer, telephone, and maintenance expenses can be written off as business expenses. However, when you don’t have a designated home office for your business, none of your expenses can be counted as write offs. A computer sitting in a bedroom cannot be counted as a business expense.
Read the full article here.

Most people would KILL for the opportunity to work from home. Not only do you avoid the commute, but you have a say in the decorating process! If you’ve spent any amount of time in corporate America then you know how every office interior tends to look the same. By designing your own office space you can choose everything from the type of office chair you have to the wall decor, rugs and lighting! You’d be surprised at just how much one’s work environment can affect productivity and quality of work. It’s also infinitely easier to “go green” if you are designing your own space. Here are some eco-friendly suggestions for creating a greener home office!

Read the full article on eco-friendly home office design here.

An odd thing happened today. I got tracked down by a fellow Irishman today who wanted to ask me some questions on my affiliate marketing business. For those of you who don’t know me that’s what I do to put bread on the table here

Anyway this guy had put quite a bit of effort into tracking me down and getting in touch with me to ask me some questions about what I did. Now I have zero problem with this – especially because he wasn’t looking for a handout; just some advice and to see if the concept of making money is actually real. 15 minutes later he was relieved to find out it wasn’t all hocus pocus and that you can make a full-time income from working online.

The point I’m getting at here is that we can forget just how much we know about a subject and how much that knowledge can help others – even in 15 short minutes. I didn’t change that guys life but I heard more hope in his voice at the end of our chat. That was more payment than others have given me for hours of my time!

Never discount what you know – it will always be of value to somebody else.  And give without hesitation and expect nothing in return. You will be rewarded in more ways than one.

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.

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.

They say that moving home is one of the most stressful things you can do and it’s been keeping me busy for the last 60 days at least. I’ve also had to deal with whiplash and a dislocated finger and battered shoulder – that’s a story for another day though.

For now let’s just say that I’ve been busy and flat out for the last month. Apologies.