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Home Based Business Definition

Sunday, January 28th, 2007

From Entrepreneur.com:

Definition: A business whose primary office is in the owner’s home. The business can be any size or any type as long as the office itself is located in a home.

Two out of three companies (of all sizes) begin in a spare bedroom, garage, basement or sometimes even a bathroom. That’s how companies as diverse as Apple Computer, Baskin-Robbins ice cream, Electronic Data Systems, Hallmark cards, the Lillian Vernon catalog, and Purex began. Of course, the internet makes operating a virtual company from home more feasible and popular than ever.

If you want to hang your shingle at home, either permanently or temporarily, here are some things you must consider:

First, is it legal to hang your shingle or sign at home? This is one of the many possible restrictions on your being permitted to make your home a working castle. Whether and how flexibly you can operate a business from your home is covered in local zoning ordinances and also by the covenants, codes and restrictions (CC&Rs) of homeowner and condo associations.
How are you going to separate your home and your workplace? While the demanding hours required to start any business affect an entrepreneur’s family, when you bring the workplace into the home, your family’s needs must be taken into account even more.
How are you going to establish and maintain a professional image? This is especially important if your address is on Cow Path Lane, your dog loves to bark, or your teenager loves to play his drums in the room next to your home office.
Most cities and many counties have zoning ordinances that limit, to one degree or another, whether you can operate a business from home. While many communities have modernized their zoning ordinances to recognize that a computer-based business isn’t like a noisy auto body repair shop, an odorous hair salon or a 6 a.m. gathering point for a construction or cleaning crew, many communities ban certain kinds of businesses and prescribe limitations that may handicap some businesses. Here are some common activities communities don’t like and may restrict within their zoning code: [Read More]

Legitimate at Home Employment

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

Legitimate home employment brings a great career and a custom lifestyle right to your doorstep. All you need is your opinions and a computer, and you have all you need to earn a great living. Never has juggling a career and a home life been so easy.

The new phenomenon of legitimate home employment is all about rewarding the intelligence and enthusiasm of the worker. You and your opinions are valuable! Big companies need what you have, and will pay you well for it!

Forget tough compromises. Now home, career, and outside interests can exist in happy harmony when you take a job working from home. When you create your own schedule; you create your own life.

Let legitimate home employment work for you. I have found my days to be so much more relaxing and incredibly more rewarding since I began working from home. We deserve the best lives possible.

Work at Home Tax Deduction Help

Thursday, January 18th, 2007

Book Review: “Home Business Tax Deductions: Keep What You Earn”

Work at Home Tax Help
Tax deductions are essential to any business, but even more so when your office is also your home. You can spend thousands on an accountant — or you can turn to Home Business Tax Deductions and do it yourself! Home Business Tax Deductions will help you write off:

*your home office *start-up expenses *operating expenses *vehicles *travel *entertainment *meals *health insurance *medical bills *inventory *equipment *and much more

Home Business Tax Deductions is comprehensive yet easy to read, with many interesting and relevant examples. It also provides basic information on how different business structures are taxed and how deductions work. Best of all, it keeps you on the straight and narrow, helping you avoid run-ins with the IRS.

Working for Yourself: Laws and Taxes

Monday, January 15th, 2007

Book Review: Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independent Contractors, Freelancers & Consultants:

Work at Home TaxesBe your own boss — easily, efficiently and successfully — with this bestseller! Whether you’re an independent contractor, freelancer, or consultant, it all adds up to the same thing: You need to be more aware of laws and taxes than the average person.

Fortunately, Working for Yourself provides all the information you need to stay on top of it all. An independent contractor himself, Stephen Fishman shows you everything you need to know to:

*meet business start-up requirements *pick a business structure *set up home or outside offices *obtain permits and licenses *price your services or products *comply with strict IRS rules *establish sound business relationships *avoid unfair contracts *draft good agreements *keep good records *get paid in full and on time *and much, much more.

Learn More About Home Business Taxes.

Change to Grow Your Work at Home Business

Monday, January 15th, 2007

“If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten!”

Work at Home Leads BusinessAwesome words of wisdom. Think about that for a minute. Realize that your work at home business will not grow magically and if you have been struggling in building your home based business you are not alone.

Too often, we get stuck on a great idea or strategy that just does not work for us. But rather than change what we are doing, we continue to do what we have always done.

Unfortunately, most of us also expect a greater result. We get stubborn and refuse to change what we do. Then we become frustrated because we are not getting the results we expect and deserve.

So how do you get the results you know you should get and the results you deserve. The answer is simple. But simple is not always easy. We are often afraid of challenge or difficulty in change, so we continue to do what we have always done.

The bad news is unless we change and start doing something different in our work at home marketing, we will never achieve our desired results. Change MUST take place in your attitude and in your marketing plan to help you become the success you want to be.

Begin with a 30 day plan of action and track your progress. Even if you are uncomfortable, that is okay. Changing habits and forming new ones is often difficult. Well, after you track your progress for 30 days, create a 90 day plan of action. Use your statistics to help you plan and forecast your work at home business.

Realize that no one can change you or your habits except you. Building your home based business and becoming successful in all you do is YOUR responsibility. Keep in mind that you must make change and form new habits of success if you want the results you desire. Know that no matter what you do, “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten!”

Home Based Business Blogging

Friday, January 12th, 2007

Article excerpt from Startupnation.com:

Home Business Blogging
“Blogging puts a personal face on home based business in a world increasingly focused on impersonal Internet advice and e-mail. “If I can’t spend as much time with someone as I’d like,” Shenker says, the blog “creates the impetus for dialogue.

“It forces a business owner to focus on their philosophy. It’s like when you were in elementary school and the teacher said you have to write about an experience that changed your life.” Maintaining a blog keeps business owners sharp, “making them articulate on a regular basis what it is that they do. It keeps them very, very focused, very sharp and hopefully very compelling.”

Learning the Steps to Dance the Blogging Boogie:
Once you decide to jump in, take these tips and use them well:
1. Choose a host. Bodnar says outside hosts like TypePad, WordPress and Blogger are easy and cheap, “but you’re limited to storage size and features.” You get what you pay for, he says, when it comes to adding audio, video, links and content other than text.
2. Hire a dedicated blogger. “Find someone who’s interested in it and will oversee it,” Briguglio says.
3. Collect links up the wazoo. Both inbound and outbound links are vital - collect some “link karma” by directing your traffic to relevant sites, and you’ll see it coming around in the form of inbound links to your blog. The more inbound links, the more traffic and visibility you get. Briguglio recently blogged about Hershey’s Kisses and linked to the Hershey site.
4. Set up an RSS feed. Really Simple Syndication is a code-based system that allows Web users to “subscribe” to their favorite sites – including your blog – for up-to-the-minute action and updates. On that note…
5. Update constantly. A blog’s success depends on the regularity of its posts. “We have so much information on our blog that we rank very high on search engines,” Bodnar says. Searches find frequently refreshed, keyword-rich sites first.
Read other blogs and comment on the posts. Get involved in the blogsphere to learn what makes a good one. A great way to start: enter “entrepreneur” at Technorati, a search engine now tracking 56 million blogs. You’ll find more than 200,000 examples of how it’s been done. ”

Read More from Startupnation.com

Home Based Business Money Sense

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007

Article Excerpt from BusinessKnowHow:

Money Making Secrets
“Like many aspiring entrepreneurs, you may have decided to break free of your job to live your dream of working from home. You’re ready to seize the opportunity for freedom, unlimited earning potential and chance to live your life exactly the way you want.

One of the biggest challenges you will face during the first two years will revolve around cash flow and money management.

In order to give yourself the best chance possible of surviving the first two years so you can thrive from that point on, it’s imperative that you achieve mastery in five areas:

1. Gain control over your spending today
2. Create a personal and business budget
3. Increase your financial IQ
4. Explore sources of capital
5. Think like a successful business owner…..”

Article Continues Here

Avoiding Work at Home Scams

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

Article excerpt from BusinessKnowHow.com:

Best Business Opportunity
“Working from home is a great way to supply the additional income often needed for one spouse to stay home and raise their children. Sadly, many people are scared away from doing so because of the many scams that are so prevalent today. While it can be hard to tell fact from fiction, it is possible. With so many excellent work-at-home opportunities available today, it’s well worth the time to explore so you can be able to start your own business and enjoy the many benefits the business provides.

Here are several tips to avoid work-at-home scams:
When researching companies that hire home-based workers, the best place to start is the Better Business Bureau (BBB). The BBB will have information on that business if there have been disputes or other problems. You’ll want to look for a pattern of “Unresolved” or “Unanswered” disputes, which will be an indication that there is a problem with the company in question. The business does not need to be a member of the BBB to have complaints filed against them.”

Read Full Article

Professionalize Your Home Based Business

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

Excerpt from StartupNation Article:
#1 Home Based Business
“So you’ve started up that home-based business and can’t wait to make calls and seal deals in your slippers and sweats?

Nothing wrong with that, but the fact is it’s not going to inspire confidence in your clients, customers, referrals or anyone else in the outside world if they know you’re proofreading your key presentation while accelerating on your NordicTrack.

For you to function best as an entrepreneur, it’s probably necessary to set up some borders between your business and home life by creating a separate environment that encourages focus, efficiency and professionalism while you’re on the job.

Here are some ways to create a professional structure, inside and out, for your home-based business:

Organize your time….
Present yourself and your home-based business professionally…..
Maintain good records and credit for your home-based business…..
Make your home-based business high-tech…..
Keep in touch with other professionals….

Read Full Article Here

Home Based Business Integrity

Monday, January 8th, 2007

Home business leads

One of the most important ingredients of home business leadership is integrity. It is the integrity that lies within you which can fuel your home based business toward developing leaders who follow your lead and duplicate downline.

With all the hype in the industry, it is easy for us to fall victim to taking on approaches to building our business which tear down any integrity we may have built up. It is extremely important to take a stand today and begin building with integrity.

You should not approach building integrity by telling others you have integrity. Integrity MUST be earned. To build integrity, it begins with you doing the things you say you will do. You must live your work at home business by taking on personal responsibility for your success before you can lead others.

Keep in mind that the more credible you become by leading with action, the more confidence people will have in your ability to lead them. The more people are confident you can lead them, the greater the results you will begin to have and the more duplication you will begin to experience in your business.
Know that you must never waiver from a solid core belief within you of who you really are. Do not lead with hype nor mislead your prospects or downline. Integrity comes from within and leading from the heart is where it begins.
Integrity not only builds confidence, but it also builds trust. Integrity has a high influential value and can facilitate high standards. Don’t wake up and say, “I have integrity” ~ Rather wake up and Earn IT!!

TIP - Integrity is a part of your character and without good character, you can never build long and lasting relationships.

Home Based Business Money Management

Friday, January 5th, 2007

Home Based Business Money
Here’s a great article excerpt from BusinessKnowHow:

“One of the biggest challenges you will face during the first two years of your home based business will revolve around cash flow and money management.

In order to give yourself the best chance possible of surviving the first two years so you can thrive from that point on, it’s imperative that you achieve mastery in five areas:

1. Gain control over your spending today
2. Create a personal and business budget
3. Increase your financial IQ
4. Explore sources of capital
5. Think like a successful business owner

First things first. Gain control over your spending today - Honestly evaluate your spending habits and identify where your money is going. Are you living beyond your means and buying things you don’t really need?

Read Full Article Here

Home Business Tax Red Flag Write-Offs

Tuesday, December 26th, 2006

Entrepreneur.com


“From guard dogs to Las Vegas-style showgirl costumes, there’s no limit to what people will try to write off at tax time for the sake of their business. But where do you draw the line? Which write-offs you’re trying to write off go too far?

We assembled a team of three leading tax attorneys to get their advice on how far is too far in the land of tax write-offs. Our team of experts include Cliff Ennico, a Connecticut-based business attorney who specializes in advising small businesses and entrepreneurs; Donna LeValley, a tax attorney and contributing editor to the J.K. Lasser annual tax guide; and Alvin S. Brown, a tax attorney who formerly worked with the office of the chief counsel of the IRS for more than 25 years.

Tax Write-Off: Home Office
Home office deductions used to be a big red flag for an audit back in the 1990s. These days, you just need to use the deduction with caution. A basic rule of thumb to follow? “Anything that’s unusual and disproportionate to your level of income is something the IRS will check out,” Alvin Brown says.

So how do you determine your actual home office space? This is the area in your home dedicated solely to the running of your business. Once you figure out the percentage of your home office compared to your overall home, then you can go back to your heating bills, electric bills and all other bills that go to supporting your home, and figure out the amount you can deduct for running your business.”

Read the Rest from Entrepreneur.com

Ultimate Home Business Start Up Directory

Friday, December 15th, 2006

Ultimate Start-Up Directory - Book Review

Home Business Start Up DirectoryUltimate Start-Up Directory is the most authoritative and comprehensive business start-up book available. This book gives you the control to identify the right new business venture for you. Harness the power of this book and unlock the secrets for starting and running your own profitable business.

In this book, discover:

*1,350 great business start-up ideas representing more than 30 industries, everything from home based moneymaking opportunities to high-tech Internet start-ups.
*How much will it cost to start each business, how much money you can make and the special skills or legal requirements needed to operate each business.
*Hundreds of handy resources to get you to the next step toward self-employment success.
*Secrets to successfully starting and running a business from home on a full or part-time basis.
*Real business advice, plus thousands of useful business, marketing, sales and advertising tips that the pros use to start and run winning, money- making businesses.
*How to market your business, secure paying customers and build competitive advantages.
*Real business advice and real business opportunities that people from every walk of life are now effectively operating for a profit, and so can you.

Most important, one of the 1,350 business start-ups featured in the Ultimate Start-up Directory will be the right new business enterprise for you.


Ultimate Home Business Book Review

Friday, December 15th, 2006

Ultimate Homebased Business Handbook: How to Start,Run and Grow Your Own Profitable Business
Everything You Need to Know to Start, Run and Grow Your Own Profitable Business—Right From Home!

Ultimate Home BusinessAre you looking for ways to minimize the cost of starting your own business? Then why not run your business from home—some of the most successful companies were started from a kitchen, a spare room, even a garage. Here’s the toolkit you need to move your venture from startup to profitable.

Inside, you’ll find comprehensive, detailed information on every stage of business creation. Combine that with how-to tips, ideas, tools and hundreds of print and online resources, and you have the required one-stop guide to starting your venture at home.

Whether you’re in the early dreaming stage, planning or have already begun, this guide helps you:

Start smart
Choose the best business
Set up your business legally
Learn the basics of management, operations, marketing and sales
Organize your home office
Develop winning business processes
Attract and keep customers for life

Even if you have no prior business experience, you’ll get up to speed fast using step-by-step solutions for business problems and challenges. From operations to collections to increasing sales and profitability, this guide provides you with quick and effective answers on running a homebased business.

Don’t put your dreams on hold. Start, run and grow your dream business from home now!

Experienced homebased consultant James Stephenson’s third book in Entrepreneur magazine’s “Ultimate” series focuses on solutions and results, including proven ways to get and keep customers for life. He shares 15 years of business and marketing experience here and in his other books, Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Start-Up Directory and Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide. Small-business clients thrive on his creative, results-based marketing solutions.

Click Here to Learn More

How to Keep Your Home Business Running Smoothly

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006

“Leaving corporate America to run a homebased business is the ideal situation for many people: There’s no boss breathing down your neck, no boring meetings to attend and no 45-minute drives Home Based Business Ideasin rush hour traffic. Working from home can be a rewarding experience, but it’s easy to forget the basic rules of running a successful business when it’s 10 hours of just you, your computer and the distractions of home.

To help you stay on track, we’ve contacted homebased business expert Rosalind Resnick, CEO of Axxess Business Centers Inc., a New York small-business consulting firm. Resnick is a former business journalist who has regularly contributed her expertise to Entrepreneur.com. She’s put together eight helpful tips for keeping your homebased business running smoothly.

Structure your day. The problem a lot of homebased business owners have is that they no longer have a boss standing over them making sure they get their work done, or a tangible start and end of each workday. It’s easy to let time slip by as you head to the refrigerator, catch a few minutes of TV, or dive into a project first thing in the morning, neglecting the other tasks you need to perform to keep your business running smoothly.

Create a structure that mimics what you had in the workplace. Structure your day so you have a start and finish time, with certain hours set aside for specific activities. A general rule is to spend the first hour of the day prospecting for new clients. Send your emails, write your letters and make your phone calls first thing so you don’t forget to do it later.

Use Outlook or some sort of contact management software to serve as a visual reminder of what you need to accomplish that day. Live and die by your to-do-list. Try to have everything crossed off by the end of the day. Even my own children know that if they want me to do something for them during working hours, they have to put it on my to-do-list or it will never get done. ”

[Read Tips 2 - 8 from Yahoo Small Business]

Most Home Businesses Start with No Capital

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Inc.com
Half of U.S. businesses are home-based and almost two-thirds are self-financed, according to a pair of new Census Bureau reports.

Bizopp Opportunity
Nearly 2.5 million firms were interviewed for the two reports, which were released Wednesday as part of the bureau’s ongoing 2002 Survey of Business Owners.

Home-based businesses collectively generated a remarkable amount of economic activity, especially for women and minorities, Louis Kincannon, the Census Bureau’s director, said in a statement.

The survey found that 49 percent of the nation’s businesses were home-based. Fifty-six percent of both women- and American Indian-owned firms were home-based, compared to 33 percent of Asian-owned businesses.

Companies in certain industries were more frequently run from home, with professional, scientific, and technical services, construction, and retail companies topping the list.

In addition, “most businesses are started by people and families who dig into their own pockets,” Kincannon said.

Seventy-seven percent of companies with paid employees were started by entrepreneurs who used their own assets, or those of their families. The figures were slightly lower for companies with no paid employees, at 59 percent…. Read Full Article from Inc.

Home Business Startup Phase

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Paying Yourself During the Startup Phase from Entrepreneur.com

During the home business startup phase, it shouldn’t be surprising to find yourself asking, “Where’s my money?” over and over again. That’s because salary–or a lack thereof–is one of the main frustrations small-business owners experience during startup. You’re most likely working harder than you’ve ever worked, but I bet you feel you’re not really receiving adequate monetary compensation in return. Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship!

Make Money Working at HomeWhen it comes to paying yourself a salary, you’ve got to remember an important point: You’re in this for the long haul, and your rewards and compensation will come once you’ve got your business established. You’ve got to be patient, because paying yourself too much too soon is a sure recipe for disaster.

Every business consultant and accountant will tell you that your compensation needs to be a secondary consideration during the startup of your business. Focusing only on how much you’re going to pay yourself will detract from the overall purpose of the business and could drain the company of necessary cash resources during critical growth phases.

Of course, that’s not to say you don’t deserve compensation–you just need to be realistic that it may take awhile before your business can provide it to you. That’s one reason entrepreneurs are often advised to start a home business part time while maintaining their current “job” so there are other sources of income to help carry you through the startup phase. When it comes to compensation, having patience will allow your company to grow to the point where it can support a reasonable compensation package for you.

There are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind when determining when and how much you can expect your business to compensate you during the startup phase….[Read Full Article]

Gas Tax May Help Home Business

Sunday, December 10th, 2006

Falling fuel prices may seem like good news for entrepreneurs. But a properly designed gas tax could be even better.

(FSB Magazine) — Like many entrepreneurs, Tedd Saunders finds most taxes annoying. He co-owns seven East Coast hotels, including the Lenox in Boston, and would love to see the estate tax gutted. He also rankles at a hotel room tax levied by lawmakers in his home state, dubbed “Taxachusetts.”

Gas Tax Helps Home BusinessYet Saunders supports a higher tax on gasoline - even though it would raise costs for his employees who commute to work by car and might boost prices charged by his suppliers.

Says the hotelier: “We need to make tough choices to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to recognize this looming crisis of climate change and what it will do to our lives and our businesses.”

As FSB went to press, the cost of gas had plummeted 26 percent since July, to a national average of $2.21 a gallon. In the past that would have been considered good news, but the reaction today is decidedly mixed. In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 59 percent of respondents nationwide said they would support a gas tax if it would result in less fuel consumption and less global warming.

Read Full Article from Fortune Small Business

Home Business Success: Going the Extra Mile

Thursday, December 7th, 2006

Have you ever considered what factors play the most important roles in determining your home business success or failure?

Home Business SuccessIs it the compilation of the little successes in your home business or personal endeavors that make you a success in life, or is success in life something completely separate from success in business?

How do you define success, and what are you willing to do to achieve it?

Most of the top success coaches in the world agree that one factor that will help insure your home business success is your willingness to “go the extra mile”, but what does “going the extra mile” really mean?

Think about how many business opportunities you have each day to go the extra mile. You’ll find that there are dozens. “Going the extra mile” simply means doing something better than you have to, or going above and beyond what is expected of you in any given situation.

When you meet someone new, how you relate to them is a choice. You can do what is expected of a normal person, which is to introduce yourself and maybe force a smile. Or, you can go the extra mile. You can flash a big smile, pay the person a sincere complement and let them know that you are genuinely pleased to have met them. You can take interest in really getting to know them. Perhaps using your intuition, you can say or do something for this person that would brighten their day….[Read Full Article: Home Business Success - Going the Extra Mile]

Submit Your Home Business to Directories

Saturday, December 2nd, 2006

Links to your work at home website are extremely important. Without them no one will find your site, especially not the search engines. Start off your link campaign by submitting your site today to low-cost search engine directories.

home business directory submissions
The best links for your site are one way non-reciprocated links; in other words a vote for your site from another site that you haven’t paid for through a reciprocated link. Directories are ideal for this as they are authority sites that will provide non-reciprocated links to websites.

Learn More about submitting to Search Engine Directories here.

Start Business Even if You Work Full Time

Friday, December 1st, 2006

Work at Home People
Start your home business on the weekend!
Some say weekends are for relaxing, sleeping in or traveling. But if you’re a full-time employee and you dream of entrepreneurship, weekends can be for that, too. Take those 48 weekend hours (and, let’s be honest, those precious weekday evening hours, too), maximize your efficiency, and build your startup.

Brian Eddy and Chad Ronnebaum did that very thing when they built Q3 Innovations, a product design, development and distribution company that specializes in the personal safety market. These Eagan, Minnesota, entrepreneurs started in 1999 when both had full-time jobs–in fact, Eddy, 30, a lawyer, just recently left his law firm to work on the business full time, while Ronnebaum, 30, still works full time in the pharmaceutical industry. Friends since the sixth grade, the pair decided that even though they both had successful careers, they wanted to own a business and bring products like the Alcohawk, a digital breath alcohol screener, to consumers.

During their six-year startup phase, says Eddy, “We worked about 50 hours a week at our careers and about 40 to 50 hours a week at our business.” A typical weekday for Eddy was getting up at 7 a.m., doing business activities until 8:30 or 9 a.m., then heading to the office. After getting off work at 6 p.m., he spent about an hour with family and went into entrepreneur mode for the evening and most of the weekend.

Read Full Article from Entrpreneur

Finding Prospects for Your Home Biz

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

8 Opt-In Offers Your Visitors Can’t Refuse - Entrepreneur

These days, consumers know that their personal information is gold, and they won’t give it to you unless you give them a really compelling reason to opt in to your list. And it’s definitely worth your while to give them the incentive because a good opt-in e-mail list will start generating profits for your work at home business immediately–and continue to do so well into the future.

Email Marketing with AutorespondersThere are tons of different incentives you can use to encourage people to give you their personal information, but not every offer will suit every website or business.

Most people think of newsletters right off the bat, for instance. But for some businesses, a free newsletter just won’t work. Suppose, for example, that your site sells washers and dryers. You’re going to be hard pressed to come up with interesting, relevant information about laundry for your free newsletter every month.

Before you start a newsletter, think about how much relevant information you can deliver to your audience and how much time you have to put it together so it can be delivered regularly. If it turns out that a newsletter isn’t a good fit for your business, here are eight other ways to collect your prospects’ e-mail addresses: [Read the 8 Tips from Entrepreneur]

Tax Write Offs for Your Home Business

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Entrepreneur

Top Tax Write-Offs for Your Home Business That Could Get You in Trouble With the IRS

From guard dogs to Las Vegas-style showgirl costumes, there’s no limit to what people will try to write off at tax time for the sake of their business. But where do you draw the line? Which write-offs you’re trying to write off go too far?

We assembled a team of three leading tax attorneys to get their advice on how far is too far in the land of tax write-offs. Our team of experts include Cliff Ennico, a Connecticut-based business attorney who specializes in advising small businesses and entrepreneurs; Donna LeValley, a tax attorney and contributing editor to the J.K. Lasser annual tax guide; and Alvin S. Brown, a tax attorney who formerly worked with the office of the chief counsel of the IRS for more than 25 years.

Tax Write-Off:Travel Expenses
Here’s a write-off that’s sometimes difficult deciding just where to draw the line. Can you deduct the cost of going to see a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas if you’re treating your client? The answer is yes, as long as you can justify it as a business expense. And what if your spouse goes along on the trip? As long as they’re a partner or employee of your business and attended conventions or meetings on the trip you took together, then his or her travel and 50 percent of his or her meals are also deductible…. [Read the Rest from Entrepreneur]

Hot Market Opportunity or Passion

Monday, November 27th, 2006

When it comes right down to it, business owners fall into two camps: People who follow their passions, and clear-eyed folks who look for great moneymaking opportunities. Each side says its approach works best.

Part Time Home Businesses

On one hand, following a market opportunity has glittering allure: A great opportunity can make a lot of cash. On the other hand, following your passion has romantic appeal: All day long, you’re around a product or service you love.

But what are the downsides? Are people who follow their passions more likely to fail? There’s no hard research to support that claim. While the steady stream of bankrupt restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and golf companies does seem to suggest that the passionate approach is weak on results, reality is far more complex.

Beating the Odds
Miles Cook looked like a failure statistic waiting to happen: a 25-year-old guy who loved motorcycles and wanted his own motorcycle dealership. At first glance, he seemed to be headed for disaster. Even the banks thought so. “I was young, and a lot of banks didn’t even want to talk to me,” says Cook, now 32. After five banks declined his application, Cook read an Entrepreneur article listing the top banks for small businesses in each state. Sure enough, one of those banks agreed to loan him the money for his startup. Now Cook’s Rochester Motorsports Inc. in Rochester, New Hampshire, does a brisk business selling the most popular brands of Japanese motorcycles, with nearly $10 million in annual sales.

“It all comes down to passion. Blind ambition is better than 20/20 indifference,” says Cook. “If you’re passionate about what you do, the sky is the limit.”

Read Full Article from Entrepreneur.com

Start Your Home Business Part Time

Tuesday, November 21st, 2006

Nearly 1 out of 2 people in the U.S. work from home in some capacity…
as part-time entrepreneurs, full-time business owners, and telecommuters.

Make money blogging part time
At one time or another, most of them have had to work around a “day job” for an outside employer, with the work usually done from an outside office. Nearly three-quarters of all home businesses are started on a part-time basis. Most of them hope that their part-time ventures will one day turn into full-time ventures. Many also want a back-up income should they lose their present job or need to supplement their retirement income. Others start a part-time job to fulfill their desire for more creativity and satisfaction in their work. With today’s technology, almost any type of business can be started from home.

If you use the right combination of productivity, technology, time-management, and smarts, you can run your business while at your day job and do it in a manner that is both ethical but still allows you to maintain or even improve your day job performance.

The Pluses and Minuses of Starting Part-Time..[Click Here to Read Full Article]

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