It’s been only a few months since I took on Home Biz Notes, but I have enjoyed it tremendously.  But my own home business is taking off, and I need to devote more time to it.  In addition, I have been doing the daily Small Business blog on Bizzia, b5media’s business portal.  It’s time to move on. I have enjoyed learning about home businesses, writing about the joys and challenges.  I hope you enjoyed it too, and that Home Biz Notes gave you some ideas for your home business, kept you out of trouble with scam artists, and provided support when you wondered if your family was for you or against you. The opportunities for home business owners are tremendous, limited only by your imagination and your willingness to work hard... [Read more]

If you are proficient on the computer and you want a great home business job, consider operating a typing service.  Now, the word “typing service” is kind of a misnomer these days, since no one uses a typewriter any more.  So a typing service is really a service that produces documents on a computer. I had a home typing service when my children were young, and it was a good way to combine family and work.  I could work when I wanted (and when my children were sleeping) and get a lot done.  None of my clients came to the house; I delivered documents to them (no email back in those days). What kind of documents? A home typing service can produce many different kinds of documents: Theses, term papers, dissertations for students Turning... [Read more]

Do you run your home business from a PDA?  I don’t mean that you have a PDA, but that your entire business is managed using that PDA. My new hairdresser runs her shop from a Blackberry.  She uses it as her business phone, she keeps appointments and all her customer contacts information on it, and she uses it for paying bills through online bill pay (although she does have a laptop where she has her accounting program). In the same way, I have a PDA that I use as my main phone and I keep my appointments and contact information on it, and I can check email from the PDA when I am not at home. There are both benefits and drawbacks to using a PDA for everything. Benefits: It goes with you everywhere.  My hairdresser said she is taking it... [Read more]

If you plan on getting a refund, you may have already completed your income tax return.  If not, I have some suggestions to help you get through this process with minimal pain: Gather Business Information. This is probably the most difficult part, if you haven’t been keeping track.  When I did my business taxes, it took me weeks to figure everything out, because I didn’t do all the accounting as I was going along last year. The best way to do your 2008 books is to shut the doors, turn off phone and email, and just git-er-done.  Then when you emerge, vowing to do better next year, you’ll be ready to prepare those taxes. Figure out which form to use. The tax form you use for your business taxes depends on the type of business. ... [Read more]

A few days ago, I talked about the easy part of starting a new business - getting the legal and financial part setup.  Today, the difficult part – getting your first customers. The first customers are the most difficult to get, because you don’t have anyone to tell them about you.  So you’ll have to do that yourself.  Here are some tips for finding your first customers: Swap testimonials. I have been working with another new business owner; I’m helping her start her professional organization business, and she is helping me get my office organized.  Neither of us is getting any money, but we are giving each other testimonials.  She can honestly say that I have helped her and I can say the same.  Having testimonials... [Read more]