How to Work Effectively in a Home Office

There are many successful home business models ranging from total chaos to very structured. So there is no single recipe that must be followed to be successful. Many home businesses are started by refugees from corporate America who are used to the structure and socialization aspects of the corporation. For these owners, the following secrets will help provide the structure they may need when they first start.

1. Negotiate an agreement with the other inhabitants and live up.
to that agreement. Frequently there is a re-entry problem with the other inhabitants. Your spouse may be used to being alone during the day, and may be unhappy with your increased presence. Have a kick-off meeting to negotiate an agreement that will avoid conflict.

2. Set aside a separate area for the business.
If possible, dedicate a room or part of the basement to the business. This helps everyone feel that the home is still a home. It also provides a basis for a home office income tax deduction.

3. Schedule separate blocks of work time and free time.
There can be many distractions during the day. It is helpful if you have a schedule for the day so you can minimize interruptions and distractions.

4. Start every work day at the scheduled time.
Form a habit of starting on time and keeping to the schedule. This makes it easier to minimize distractions.

5. Don't sleep late or watch daytime TV during work time.
It's tempting sometimes, but successful businesses are built on the days that you don't feel like it, not on the days that you do feel like it.

6. Wear your work uniform when you are working.
When I started my consulting practice, I found it helpful to dress business casual (for men this is wearing a tie without a food stain). It made me feel more like I was supposed to be working.

7. Work on high value tasks during your peak productive hours.
Most people have specific part of the day that they are more productive. I find my optimum schedule is to start about one hour after sunrise, work continuously for four hours, then go out. I can work another two hours after I return. That six hour work schedule has consistently produced more work product than I used to produce in two days in the corporate environment.

8. Accomplish your Single Daily Action before you finish the workday.
Have a Single Daily Action every day which is the most important action for that day. When you are starting your practice, this is likely to be marketing-related.

9. Build a supportive community and nurture it every day.
I think the chief complaint about home business is that it can get lonely and isolated. Make it a practice to talk to people every day, even when your focus is on completing an important project.

10. Manage your thoughts.
Sometimes it is easy to become discouraged and/or negative. Create a method of maintaining a realistic positive outlook and re-energizing yourself when the voice of your Evil Twin intrudes.

How to Organize Paperwork for Business

We must all be efficient and productive in today's business world. Being organized helps you handle tasks quickly so that you have more time and space to do what you truly want to do.

1. One-time mail system.

Have an In Box on your desk for new mail/information. Look at your mail once a day. Review each piece of mail once to decide whether to do it, delegate it or dump it. If it adds value to your business or is required for doing business, do it or delegate it. If not, then dump it. If you keep it, then categorize it using the A, B, C system. Use your time wisely.

2. Categories for performing your work.

Set up desk trays labeled A, B, and C. Items in category A must be handled today. Category B items must be handled this week. Category C items are generally filing that must be kept because they have some value, such as invoices, tax returns, and statements.

3. Prioritize your work within categories A and B.

Sort the categories into 1, 2, and 3. A1 must be done NOW, it is "hot" or "urgent." A2 can be done this AM. A3 can be done by the end of the day. B1 is done on Monday. B2 done by Wednesday. B3 done by the end of the week. Make the decision once, then do the work.

4. Filing.

Set a day and time each week for filing. Don't let it stack up. Give yourself space to work.

5. Purge your files on a regular schedule.

For example, purge files every six months. Send these documents to storage. This gives you more space to work.

6. Storing records.

Store documents in boxes. Mark the contents of each box. For instance, clients A-F2013. Mark the destruction date on the box, D = June 02. Base your destruction date on the legal requirements for your industry.

7. Toss out stored documents on a regular schedule.

For example, two times per year, visit the storage area and remove boxes that are beyond the destruction date. Depending on your industry, they may need to be shredded rather than put in the trash.

8. Color code your records.

For example, clients with first names beginning with A-F are in Orange folders; G-K Yellow; L-P Blue; Q-Z Green. This will save you time when you are searching for a file. You can also apply this to AP, AR, Payroll, and Taxes. This can also be done by year. For example, 2012 AP is blue; 2013 AP is purple.

9. Hot files.

Put a red cover on files that you consider "hot." These could be urgent projects, legally or financially sensitive, or important VIP clients. Keep these visually at your fingertips.

10. Use out guides.

If you work with other people and share files, create a check-out system so that files are not lost. Put the file name, taken-by name, and date on a card and place it in an out guide box. When you can't find what you want, check the box to see if your co-worker is using the file. Be sure to remove the card from the box when you return the file.

Predict Your Future. Don't use a crystal ball to create predictions of your small business. By carefully assessing the historical
trends of your business enterprise, as shown in your records for the previous five years, you can predict for the year ahead. Your
record of sales, your expertise with the markets in which you market, and your general understanding of the economy should enable
you to predict a revenue figure for the following calendar year.

When you have a Sales forecast figure, make up a budget demonstrating your costs as a proportion of the figure. In the following
year, you can compare actual P&L figures to your budgeted figures. Thus, your financial plan is an important tool for determining
the health of your enterprise.

Make Timely Decisions. Without action, predictions and decisions concerning the future are not worth the paper they are written
on. A decision that doesn't result in action is a poor one. The rate of business needs timely as well as informed decision making.
In case the owner-manager would be to stay ahead of competition, you must move to control your destiny.

Powerful Decision making from the small business requires several things. The owner-manager must have as much accurate information
as you can. With these details, you should establish the consequences of all feasible courses of action and the time demands. When
you've created the decision, you have set up your business so the decisions you make can be transmitted into action.

Control Your Small Business. To be effective, the owner-manager must have the ability to motivate key people to acquire the
outcomes planned for within the price and time constraints allowed. In working to achieve results, the small business
owner-manager has an advantage over big business. You can be flexible and fast while many big businesses need to await committee
action before a decision is made. You do not have to get consent to behave. And equally important, bottlenecks to implementing new
practices can get your personal attention.

One of those Secrets is in determining what things to control. Even in a small company, the owner-manager should not attempt to be
all things to everyone. You should keep close control on individuals, products, cash, and any other resources that you consider
important to maintaining your operation geared toward profit.

Manage Your People. Most businesses realize that their largest expense is labor. Yet due to the close contact with employees, some
owner-manager of small businesses don't pay sufficient attention to direct and indirect labor costs. They have a tendency to think
of these prices in terms of individuals as opposed to relate them to gain with respect to dollars and pennies.

Here are a few Tips concerning personnel management:

Periodically Review each position in your company. Have a quarterly look in the job. Is work being duplicated? Is it organized so
that it motivates the worker to become concerned? Can the tasks be given to another employee or employees and a position removed?
Can a part-time individual fill the job.

Perform A modest private mental game. Imagine you have to get rid of one worker, If you needed to let 1 person go, who would it
be? How can you realign the jobs to make out? You may get a real solution to the fanciful problem is potential to your financial
advantage.

Use Compensation for a tool rather than viewing it as a essential evil. Reward quality work. Look into the potential for using
increases and bonuses as incentives for higher productivity. By way of example, can you schedule bonuses as morale boosters during
seasonal slacks or other dull periods?

Remember There are new ways of controlling absenteeism through incentive compensation plans. For instance, the owner-manager of a
little company eliminated vacations and sick leave. Rather, this owner-manager gave each worker thirty days annual leave to use as
the employee saw fit. At the conclusion of the year, the employees were paid at regular rates for the leave that they didn't use.
To make up for the year-end cover, the worker had to establish that sick leave was taken only for this purpose. Non-sick leave
needed to be applied for in advance. As a result, unscheduled absences and overtime pay have been decreased significantly. In
addition, workers were happier and more productive than they were under the older system.

Control Your Inventory. Don't tie up all of your money in inventory. Use a perpetual inventory system for a cost control rather
than a system only for taxation purposes. Establish use patterns or purchase patterns on the substances or items you have to stock
to keep the minimal number needed to provide your clients to maintain production. Excessive stock, while it's finished merchandise
or raw materials, ties up capital that could be used to better advantage, as an instance, to open up a new sales territory or to
purchase new machinery.

Centralize your Purchases and avoid duplications. Be a comparative shopper. Verify orders . Get the purchase price and amount
straight right away.

Assess what you Get for quality and condition. Assess bills from suppliers against quotes. You do not wish to be the victim of
their mistake.

You Ought to, However, keep 1 fact in mind when you install your stock control system. Don't invest more on the control system
than it can yield in savings.

Control Your Products. From charge of inventory to control of products is but a step. Ensure your sales people understand the
value of promoting the products which are the most lucrative. Align your service coverages along with your own markup in mind.
Arrange your products that low markup items require the least handling.

Control Your Cash. It's good policy to handle checks and cash as though they were perishable commodities. They are. Money in your
protected earns no return; and it Can be stolen. Bank promptly.

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