4heroes.co.uk

One of the questions I get asked very often is how easy was it to set up my own company at such a young age.  Now, although I am not based from home during office hours, I do have alot of knowledge into how to set up a home business.  There are many factors when thinking about setting up a home office, I am not going to list them all, but I am going to cover the basics in setting up your company from home.

Although figuring out how to set up your home office is just the first of many tasks in establishing your home business, you can figure out how to set up and organise your home office with careful planning.  Some people choose to out-source the work and hire a professional organiser such as a design consultant.

When you become a consultant, it often makes sense to start by working from home. When you work at home, your home office offers many advantages. These include the possibilities of deducting mortgage interest, maintenance, utilities, cleaning, and upkeep. You probably also have many resources already available in your home such as a computer, internet connection, telephone line and furniture.  For many people, setting up a home business just means putting a computer and a phone in a corner of the dining room, living room, spare bedroom, den or basement.  You’d be surprised how good it feels not only to start your own company, but to setup an office in your home seeing the project through from start to finish.
So what do you need to start your business running from home?  Consider these points before you start planning your home office.

Planning your home office needs:

• How often will you work from home? Will you work for a couple of hours at night or are you planning a full-time venture?
• What work will you be doing? A communications consultant may simply need a computer, whereas a financial planning consultant may need space to meet clients, spread out financial plans, or assemble direct mail campaigns.  Setting up a Web design Company from home is a fraily straight forward process due to the lack of overheads and the use of readily-available resources.
• Do you need to meet in person with your clients or business contacts / suppliers?  You do not need to meet in your home, many consultants tend to meet business contacts in coffee shops and the likes.  I myself tend to use a coffee bar in Hartlepool I am a big fan of!
• Do you share your office or home with others?  Although it’s nice to be able to shut out disturbances by closing a door, many consultants find that they can manage by working when other members of the household are at work or school (or even sleeping!).
• Do you need to separate work and home?  Some people find it can be hard to keep these separate and can be easily distracted by home-life being mixed in with office life at ALL times.

Setting up your home office for all your functions

Before you start shopping and organizing your space, define your home office needs. You’ll want to make sure you have:

• A designated workspace. You need a place to call “home” for your home office.  But this doesn’t mean you need a separate room.  Millions of home business owners work from their dining rooms, living rooms, closets, stair landings, attics, or even a corner of the bedroom. If you own a service business, like consulting, you probably don’t need to store merchandise or other supplies – you don’t need a lot of space.  Just pick somewhere that has good lighting, ventilation, and minimal noise if possible.  Make the best of what you have and try to personalise the space to make you feel more comfortable and to help you concentrate.
• Somewhere to sit while you work – even if you’re using the dining room table, make sure you have a flat surface, chair and lighting. Make sure the furniture is at the right height for you, so that you can avoid any Health and Safety issues and help prevent back and neck injuries.
• A system for managing and storing paper and filings– if you previously worked in an office, you may be surprised by the amount of paper you’ll now need to manage.  You’ll need to keep receipts for everything related to your business and your business use of home – mortgage interest, utilities, meals and entertainment, supplies, auto insurance and more.  You’ll need filing cabinets, bankers boxes, stacking inbox /outbox trays, working file storage, file folders and more.
• A way to connect with business contacts: In the old days, this just meant a telephone.  Nowadays, this typically means you’ll need a computer, cordless phone, cell phone, Internet connection and multifunction printer.  You probably don’t need a dedicated fax line when you’re starting out.  Most documents come by email or courier.
• A few things to make your office seem comfortable.  Depending on your space and budget, this could mean paint, photos, a framed inspirational quote, a personalised  mouse mat or anything else that helps you feel like you’re in a comfortable workspace.

So, I haven’t delved into the prices of setting up a Business from your Home as I promised myself I wouldn’t.  Trying to give people prices, even rough prices, proves to be too tricky as they never seem to be the same for any two people.  Different types of businesses will need different budgets to setup your office at home.  Just remember, you are not alone in quest to setup your office at home.  There are lots of Government funded grants available to help you get set up.

There are local grants for different regions and also Government sponsorship grants.  These grants often will only account for 50% of the costs or less meaning you must come up with the funding to match the other 50%.  Again, if you use your head here, this is simple too as if you get two grants, as many people do and I have seen my clients do, one grant will pay 50% and the other grant the other 50%.

I hope that this blog has outlined just how simple it can be to set up a business at home.  It does not have to be a costly process.  If I was to give one piece of advice and really emphasise it, it would be to put money away before you try to setup your own business from home. This money can be used to help your initial funding but could more importantly be used as a rainy day fund.  If, for example, you get a few weeks with no business, this emergency fund can pay the bills for you.

As I posted my third ever “Tweet” on my nicely customised twitter page earlier, I got to thinking about how much I have been hearing and reading of Twitter lately.  I would imagine that you reading this, will probably be fully aware of what Twitter is but if not click here and you can see for yourself.

Twitter has become a giant, there is no denying that.  The US President is using it, CEO’s of huge corporations are using it and there are plenty of small businesses, like us using it too.  The question I pose this evening is:  Is Twitter a friend to a business or a foe?

At first impressions, almost everyone I know would say a friend due to the obvious easy advertising solution and viral marketing.  I myself, did indeed say the same thing but after really thinking about it, I started asking questions.  A recent article released by multiple sources claims that:

“ 22% of UK businesses willing to pay for additional Twitter functionality “

This has me worried as a new Twitter user and an up & coming avid fan; If Twitter did start charging for use, what would they class as “Additional Functionality” and what would be left to the small companies & individuals who are not particularly willing to pay for Twitter usage?  Will additional functionality be the only thing to pay for or will Twitter as we know it become a subscription-only paid service?  Now, I like Twitter but I would not pay for it (YET!)

Maybe because I have not got many followers or maybe just because I have only tweeted 3 times, I will probably at some point fall madly in love with Twitter just like many of my acquaintances.

“ Of most interest to Twitter itself, however, is that 22% of UK businesses said they would pay to get additional business functionality versus 36% who said they wouldn’t and 42% unsure. “

Now, this could just be me being cynical but I can see Twitter becoming yet another money hungry giant trying to screw the hard-earned cash from companies now trying to find more and more ways to market their products & services.  It’s not like we haven’t seen this before; websites allowing free use for so long, then switching to a subscription only service.  A great money making technique for Twitter to use perhaps, and probably a fantastic step in Twitter’s no doubt long life, but by the looks of the statistics above; depending on what Twitter define as “Extra Functionality”, if they do start charging usage fees, they will see a drastic drop in users.

Alongside this article, some information has been released regarding Search Engines such as Google, incorporating Live feeds into their search results.  Now, this could work as a HUGE advantage to anyone who knows how to use Key words to their advantage.   That is probably a story for another blog, hopefully soon.

Anyway to summarise a lengthy and rather nonsensical post, yes, even after all of that rambling…  I would class Twitter as a FRIEND.  Although I am weary of them becoming a money hungry giant, and I myself would not pay for it, Twitter is a great Micro-blogging service and a fantastic tool to keep updated and keep your clients / contacts up to date.

One last thought:  What is to stop Facebook, Myspace and other social giants charging for use? …  A scary thought I suppose!