When you’re all alone in the privacy of your home office, Surrounded by your
computer, your phone and your business idea, have you ever Asked yourself,
“Where’s the line Between me in my business and the business in me”?

With Hundreds of Thousands of home-based Businesses starting Every year, and FEW
ever flourishing, the topic of branding you Become hot, hot, hot. And thanks to
Experts touting the Need for a brand in sole proprietor staff the Businesses
confusion is growing. It’s no wonder. Business … personal … personal … business -
what IS the big difference Any way?

Last week, I Was guiding a client (a service-based sole practitioner) Through the Same
step-by-step process Every Company That I take (sole practitioner, entrepreneur or a
Any size of business) to Develop Their brand-through and I Noticed That as we got
Deeper and Deeper Into the process, she WAS HAVING coming more and more trouble
Up With answers. The very answers That Would Separate her from other people
Engaged the Same exact Distinctly Establish business and her brand.

In the middle of working on the MOST important step in the branding process – the
brand statement – I Asked her the simple question, “Why does she do business she
does? “she burst Into tears. Halfway Into the box of Kleenex she finally, reveal the
most amazing answer as to why she WAS CHOSEN in her field in the first place.
Honestly, I think she stunned herself. We sat silent for Both over a minute in awe of
She Had the power tapped Into With Her discovery. (Do not let anyone fool you, this is
From Where the true power of branding eat.)

Then Doubt ugly head STD rear like a butterfly and a new Emerging from cocoon to
series of questions pour out of her: “Is this my business or is it me?” “Is why I do
That what I do really important? “” Why is it so hard for me to stand in the power of
my business and really make something of it? “

You get the picture? You May Even be standing in a similar picture, Even wrestling
With The Same questions yourself. Bless you if you’re not. Let’s look at the
Difference between ‘your business’ and ‘you the person’ and see if we clear up dog
This question Once and for all.

A business (be it Niketown or Bob’s Shoe Bonanza)
Delivers a product or customer service to Fulfill a need.
You:
Deliver a product or customer service to Fulfill a need.

In business:
A Certain Established That a customer value Can Rely On With Their contact from home and
product or service.
You:
A Certain Establish That a customer value Can Rely on me picture from your home and
product or service. (If not, get on it immediately!)

In business:
Consistently Communicate to reach the customers That Have A Need For Their
product or service.
You:
Consistently Communicate to reach the customers That Have a Need for your product
or service. (If not, what are you waiting for?)

In business:
Enjoys a reward equal to the Financial amount of customers it That server, AND a
reward staff for the creator / C.E.O.
You:
Enjoy a reward equal to the Financial amount of customers you serve AND YOU That
staff get to experience the reward yourself.

If you look at just four basic These, bottom-line points, the Difference between a
business as a sole and you business owner is … nothing, unless you count the added
bonus of you getting to Financial and reward staff.

At the start of home and business single, THROUGHOUT history, There’ve Never Been to
separation Between the person starting it and the business itself. You Asked If Any
figure-head business today, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com or, or
If They Took over a company like Meg Whitman for Ebay, or Carly Fiorina for Hewlett-
Packard, They Would Tell You That There is no difference in who ‘They are’ and what
‘They bring’ to Their business. Why? Because there ‘s no room for a difference. It’s the
That Makes it possible alignment to reach the Highest of the heights.

These articles Will Provide a step by step guide on how to start and run a home based business based on my experiences and other home business owners. This is part 2 in a series of five articles. They are written in a basic format and where Possible main points are summarised in an attempt to be Understood by all. I have tried to mini-mise the technical jargon as much as Possible.

So lets jump right in and see what we need to know about starting and running a home based business.

Regards,
Alvin

http://www.parttimeincome.org

I publish Home Business Tips, a fresh and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people like YOU! If you’re looking for the best rated home business opportunities, latest time saving tools and helpful support from a friend in the business, come by and grab a FREE subscription today at a: http://www.parttimeincome.org

Legal Structures

The legal structure of your business is very important as it is a function of liabilities and tax deduction. The most common structures are:

§ Sole Trader
§ Partnership
§ Company
§ Trust

Sole Trader

When you are a sole trader you are Personally Responsible and liable for the business and its activities. Comm Only You May Start out as a sole trader, and as you expand, you need to seek out willing partners or investors. Your accountant is the best person to advise you if this is the best structure for your business.

Partnership

This package is where you and your partner are liable for anything related to your business. It’s a very good idea to get a solicitor to write up a partnership agreement to avoid disputes down the track.

Company

This is a legal entity liable for the debts incurring it and paying tax on income. Your accountant can help you set up a company, or you can buy one off the shelf, Which May Be more cost effective.

Trust

Depends on your Personal Circumstances, and the country you live in, trusts can be useful in business and estate planning. They can be quite complex, and again, your accountant is the best person to speak too.

Registering Your Business Name

You can operate a business under your own particular or register a business name. Registration of a business especially Allows you to operate under That particular.

Select a name for your business to your customer That Describes what you do. A particularly descriptive promotes and advertises your business more effectively.

Licences And Permits

Depends on your municipality, you need licenses and permits May. Do the right thing and check with your local council. Doing the right things now Will save you a lot of work Unnecessary explain later.

Insurance

Often Looked about, insurance is an important part of your risk management plan. There are two types of insurance: general insurance for loss / damage of assets and risk insurance which is your personal insurance cover.

Ensure your business insurance is separate to your personal insurance.
To establishe the type and Amount of insurance you need for your home based business, check with an insurance broker.

Managing Risk

You must have a risk management strategy for your business. Your SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis from article one, willing to show what Could expose your business to stand-and what actions to take to reductive That loss.

Marketing

As a home business entrepreneur, you must understand what your customers and give it to em since. You must Strive to have a service or product That meets your customers needs and Excel and expectations. This is what makes em come back to buy from you, and this is how you grow your profit. Try and think like your customers and you Will They find because:

Setting up your own business is not that it is really Difficult and Not necessary to pay someone to do it for you if you are computer literate and savvy Relatively. However, before Proceeding, there is something you should know about Incorporating, the most reason to Incorporate Significant liability is. If you own a store on the strip mall and a customer Could walk in the front door, slip and fall, injurer Themselves and wind up with mountainous medical bills then yes, you have a liability issue and you need to be incorporated. But what if you are just inputting medical records on your home computer? Where is your liability? If you wanted to, Could you get errors and omissions insurance for inputting any mistakes you make Might. That in the situation there really is liability issue. With That said, there are other Reasons You May Want to Incorporate. Many of the businesses not want to enter into Contracts for services or materials with an individual, rather They want to deal with other businesses. You May Be in a situation where the company you work for will not deal directly with you but They will sign a contract with your business. Then you need to be incorporated. May you have lined up financial backing for the venture but the backers will not fund a person, only the business. Then you need to be incorporated. There Are Other Reasons to incorporate, but the fundamental issue you face is the Fact That Becomes your tax situation much more complicated and expensive after you have incorporated. Complication and expense and That Can Be Justified only if you do it Correctly: if you and Conduct Correctly Incorporate your business in the “proper fashion.” The problem you face is summed up in the term “pierce the corporate veil.” Here is what happens, you incorporate, you Conduct your business in the “proper fashion,” you of everything Correctly, the Far As You Can Tell, and then the unthinkable happens and a liability event occurs. The event is Significant enough liability lawyers That Become Involved and the whole thing winds up in the courts. During the proceedings, the defense attorneys will try to “pierce the corporate veil.” They will force you to prove That You Conducted your business affairs in the proper, legal fashion by demanding to see 1) your Employer Identification Number (EIN) assignment letter from the IRS, 2) your Articles of Incorporation (or Articles of Organization if you are the Limited Liability Company – LLC), 3) your Form 2553 election Considered to be the small business corporation by the IRS, 4) the IRS ‘letter approving That election, 5) all of your business tax returns, for each year the business existed, showing compensation of officers, 6) your personal tax returns showing years Same For Those That inclusion of business income, 7) all of your filed, state-required, yearly annual reports, your county and municipal tax receipt numbers or tax registration numbers or certificates proving That You are legally registered to Conduct your business at your location and 9) last but not least, your business checking account showing That all of the income from the business That was deposited in to account and all expenses of the business That Were Withdrawn from account.

If you fail any one of These tests, or can not Provide one or more of These documents, the defense lawyers will have Their job done, then declare That They Can your business is not legitimate, you did not Conduct your business in the “proper fashion , “the” veil “of business liability protection has been” pierced “and now you are Personally Liable for All of Those mountainous medical expenses. That is what you face. So you have to make a decision; since you are going to go down the path Incorporation, do you want to do it Correctly or not? After spending all of That extra money and all of Suffering That extra complication in order to be incorporated, do you want to do the job Correctly or not? Sure, Probably you will never need to prove it, but you have to Spend the money anyway so why not do it as best as you can? If nothing else, just to Know That You Could Prove Yourself to a higher authority like a court of law.

Let’s rank business categories from a tax point of view. The easiest is a Schedule C for Self-Employment Income, included right along with your Tax Return When You have a business. When your self-employment income is high enough, the Schedule SE is generated automatically to pay your Social Security and Medicare taxes. You Do not even need an EIN. By far it is the easiest and least complicated. And a note about tax years, it is best to have a calendar year tax year. Fiscal tax years Should Be used only if there is an over-riding business reason. The VAST Majority of the tax preparation profession is geared up for calendar year tax payers and businesses, so staying in That cycle is beneficial from a business-support point of view. Second, Could you just get from the fictitious name or your State Department’s Division of Corporations website. You can not protect a fictitious name, Could someone come along and using Incorporate That Name, and force you to stop using it, but still You Could Conduct a fictitious business name on the Schedule C. Fictitious names expire and usually have to be Renewed in three to four years.

Then we get to true with Incorporation Articles of Organization for an LLC. Can you file your Articles with the state but if you limit your liability of not at the federal level, you only did half the job. The IRS considers an LLC to be a “disregarded entity.” An LLC Is Not Recognized One of the business entities in the eyes of the IRS. But the IRS does Recognize an S-Corporation or “Small Corporation” (although the “S” does not stand for “Small”). And liability is limited (provided you of everything Correctly) at the federal level When You are an S-Corp. The way to the this is to file a Form 2553 “Election by a Small Business Corporation,” see more at the step below.

Then there are Articles of Incorporation for a corporation. The not-for-profit corporations and partnerships are not Considered here. This set of Instructions is written for the single individual who has a need or desire to form a business entity, Typically single-owner. The Form 2553 is required again for a state-registered corporation to protect from liability at the federal level.

For most first-time entrepreneurs, there is a bootable recitals lag or time between thinking about starting a business and actually taking the first steps Toward turning a business idea enter reality. Usually this time is spent rationalizing inaction – that is, thinking about all The Reason That now is not the ideal time for a startup. For the most part, thesis justifications Fall Into one or more categories:

* Lack of Time
* Lack of Money
* Lack of Product or Service Idea
* Concerns About Security
* Concerns About Personality, Knowledge and Skills
* Not Knowing Where to Start

These are all valid concerns while, none are factors beyond your own control. One management expert once said shaft, an entrepreneur “… Does not see risks, he sees only factors he can control to His advantage.” Each and every excuse you can think of to resist taking the plunge enter entrepreneurship is just that – an excuse. If you are serious about working for yourself and building a successful company enter your idea, there is a way to start Immediately On That Road. Working opportunities, obstacles Writing is a basic skill or successful entrepreneurs, and now is a good time to start honey Those habits.

Time

Lack of time is a common reason for delay the startup of a business idea. For some, there just Is not any time today to work on the business idea. For others, the thought of taking months, or even a year, to start a business and too overwhelming Seems far off. INSTEAD, many potential entrepreneurs put off scheduling Their business idea Until They Will have enough time. The Problem Is That life has a funny way of never leaving us with enough time to do everything we need to do! The trick to getting started with your business idea is now to organize your time effectively.

Many potential entrepreneurs have a great business idea or two but can not find the time to write an actual developement thesis ideas business. Particularly this is true for Those Who Work for someone else full time and have significant personal and family obligations. The Reality Is That a little with effective time management and commitment you can find at least a few hours a week to work on your startup. Many of you are thinking, “Sure, i could find a few hours a week, but it would take a year to get my business off the ground at That rate!”

So what??

Will pass the year whether you work on your business idea or not, but by scheduling just 3 hours per week, Will you have put in nearly ONE FULL MONTH of work hours by the year end or That! For most business ideas, a full month of work is enough time to complete just about Everything That needs to be done to launch!

The trick to getting started on your business idea with limited time is available to organize your time effectively and Responsibilities. Use a daily planner to schedule all of your current commitments, alongwith time dedicated to your startup. Which part of your plan for startup Will you work on constantly Each work session, include clear objectives. That is, identify the specific tasks you accomplish consistently willing Each session startup and hold yourself accountable for getting tasks completed on schedule Those.

Try Using a 90-day planning strategy for managing long-term goals. For most people, it is Difficult to accurately predict how much can be accomplished from within-a full year today. It is far Easier to estimate what can realistically be accomplished within-a 90-day window. If you can spare three hours a week to work on your business, a 90-day plan would include the work you think You could accomplish in one full work week (3 hours x 12.5 weeks = 37.5 hours).

Just remember, time will go by whether or not you move forward with your business idea. Do not wait any longer for your independence – get started today!

Money

Lack of money is, by far, the most common argument for not starting a business. Obviously, business ideas to Vary the Amount of capital required to successfully launch, but most can be modified and boat trapped enter manageable startup costs. Most first-time entrepreneurs developement an “order of magnitude” estimate of how much They think they need to start Their business, based on nothing more than general ideas of what the big things Should cost. Without detailed research and planning your business or idea, there is no way to gauge whether the cost of startup is too much. In Addition, it is far Easier to raise the capital you need do once you have planned all aspects of Thoroughly your idea. A well-thought out idea and accurate financial projections Will convince potential investors family and friend, and Perhaps the SBA, are serious about succeeding That You.

Even If you work through your idea and find That You are Unable to finance the full startup, You Will Find It Easier to modify much and bootstrap your idea write smaller, less costly niches That You can ultimately grow Into the company you imagine. You can start out part time, with other small business owners barter for needed goods and services, or pickup side consulting gigs to the early stages increasefontsize income consistently. The Internet Marketing Provides significant opportunities for free – it takes a little more time and effort than paid advertising, but can be extremely effective over the long run in building your brand and customer base. Once you know where you need to spend money to get your business off the ground, it is far Easier to find the places to bootstrap.