Things to do before you start a home business

Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a displaced worker, you may have considered starting your own home business. While there are many opportunities available, there are some things to do before you start a home business that will make things easier in the long run. Remember, that starting a home business is not a way to get rich fast and in most cases, your hours will be dictated by client needs. You can control some aspects of your working hours but you should do them up front.

Talk with your family

One of the most important things to do before you start a home business is to speak with your family. This discussion should involve allocating chores if necessary and establishing boundaries around your work area. Family members should understand that even if you are at home, if you are in your work area, it is time for work and you should only be disturbed for emergencies. Failure to do this could result in your home business failing as you may find yourself constantly interrupted.

Establish your plan

While many people do not feel that a home business requires a business plan, this does not mean that you should not establish goals. Running a business from home entails certain financial considerations that you may not have considered. You will need to plan for taxes, registering your business with your town (when required) and ensuring you have the necessary equipment and supplies. In addition, you will want to have a plan for growth and plan for what happens if you wind up with more business than you can easily handle on your own.

Check legal issues

Each state and town has different ordinances that govern businesses that are run from home. Depending on your individual business, you may need to register your home business with your state or your town. Some will merely require that you file a DBA (Doing Business As) registration which is very inexpensive. However, if you will be shipping products, storing products, etc., you may need to have special licensing arrangements. In addition, you will want to find out if you have to have any special types of insurance for your home business.

Set up an accounting system

Before you start a home business, decide on an accounting system. You may only need to use something simple for billing like PayPal or you may need a more complex system. There are numerous billing options available that you should study before deciding which one is right for you. In addition, you should draft agreements to use with clients for billing and receiving payments. It is a good idea to establish an agreement regarding late payments early for your home business. Otherwise, you may find that you are consistently receiving late payments and may have no recourse.

Starting a home business is very exciting and has great potential for many people. However, if you do not prepare well, you could easily fail. Understanding what things to do before you start a home business and taking the necessary steps to prepare can help build a solid foundation for long-term success in your home business.

Image credit: By Hellno2 (talk) 13:15, 23 August 2009 (UTC).Hellno2 at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Outsourcing: Is it really all bad?

Job outsourcing is a phrase that has been demonized a great deal in recent times. This is especially true of the media, politicians and unions. However, what many people do not realize is when some companies outsource, they are still utilizing labor from the U.S. labor pool. Outsourcing is not always a negative; in fact, more companies are turning to outsourcing and hiring freelancers. Here are some cases where job outsourcing provides solutions and not problems.

Virtual assistant

While not every company employs full time assistants to handle data entry work or to provide Web content, there are thousands of U.S. freelancers who are capable of providing this type of service on an "as needed" basis. For the company, this means they are not paying someone full-time when a part-time person would be sufficient, thereby saving money. For the freelancer, this means one additional job opportunity is available to them.

Online marketing specialist

Online marketing is a specialized field and there are some people who have excellent skills in this field. However, many of these people work as freelance consultants versus working directly for a single company. In these cases, outsourcing work to these consultants allows a company to grow,

Do you know how to avoid WAH Scams?

If you're considering getting involved in work at home opportunities, it's important that you know how to avoid work at home scams.

Unfortunately, legitimate work at home positions, while certainly available are often buried under piles of scams. One of the very first things you can do, is to research any opportunity before you sign up. All too often, work-at-home companies are in reality only trying to sell you a list, much of which turns out to be information you could have obtained free, or worse yet scams themselves.

The Common Sense Approach

A good rule of thumb, is that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is! In fact, make no mistake about it-working at home is no cakewalk and it certainly is no get rich quick scheme. If you have somebody approach you and tell you how they made $1,000 a day, think again!

Stop and consider the rate you would have to be making in order to make $1000 for an eight hour day. The reality, for many freelancers is set at the bottom of the scale, you'll make about $50 a day and at the top of the scale perhaps upwards of four times that. I'm not saying, that there are not people who are making substantially more than that.

However, any "legitimate" work-at-home position that's offering you $1,000 a day to "do nothing" can only be a scam! Sadly, thousands of people each week are taken in by this type of promotion. The promises are endless, turn your Twitter account into an ATM, do data entry for upwards of $50 an hour, make thousands of dollars a day with AdSense-you get the picture.

I'm not saying, that these tools don't work at all, but you cannot make a living doing these things. What I am telling you, is that success will not come overnight, and it most certainly will not come from you doing nothing! If you do decide that working at home is what you prefer, they are many legitimate opportunities out there for you. If you elect to use Twitter, you must use it in conjunction with something!

Watch out: Pay to Tweet

While there are companies like Magpie, and others who will "pay you to tweet" the fact remains that they come with some serious restrictions. Consider this-Magpie will in fact provide you with an opportunity to earn small amounts of money for "targeted" tweets. There's a catch, only 15% of all the tweets that you send can be automated. Let's assume that you want to send 100 tweets over the course of a day-that means that only 15 could be automated. It takes a substantial amount of time to send out 85 tweets. Do you really want to spend that much time promoting your blog, articles, etc. on Twitter? Since the earnings on Twitter are literally pennies, based entirely on page views you certainly are not going to want to spend hours a day manually sending items to Twitter.

Affiliate Marketing

Then of course you have the opportunity to get involved with affiliate marketing. Understand, that AdSense, Amazon Associates, and other similar programs are affiliates. However, for every one like this, there are thousands more that are promoting literally getting involved in selling only their product. The bottom line with most affiliate programs, is you are not so much selling a product as you are selling a program. This works much like multilevel marketing-you sell someone who sells to someone else. At some point, there is a saturation level although admittedly that saturation level must be very high, but the fact remains that in order to do this requires long, hard hours. This is probably not how you want to invest your time when you decide to work at home.

There are hundreds of legitimate work at home websites, that offer you legitimate opportunities. I'm not suggesting to you that every job you find on the legitimate website is going to be legitimate. In fact, you will from time to time run into an unscrupulous buyer. Please understand they are the exception!

Although some freelance sites do charge fees, it is very simple to find out if those fees are worth paying. On the flip side of that, there are also several who do not charge fees. For those who are just getting started, I strongly recommend working with the no fee sites first. This will help establish you, and if you feel the need to branch out later, then you can investigate some of the paid sites.

Not every work at home opportunity that requires payment is a scam. However, avoid the programs that promise you the world, promise you unlimited income, and promise you that for only $9.95 you to can start your own business and make $1000 a day. While I cannot vouch for the validity, this blog "Work at Home No Scams" does seem to have a significant list of opportunities that do work.

The Work-at-Home Success Bible: A Complete Guide for Women: 

Undress for Success: The Naked Truth about Making Money at Home  

How to find at home freelance writing jobs

As more newspapers begin displaying content online, the market for freelance writers has changed dramatically. While there is still a need for those who write for newspapers and magazines, more often, freelance writing assignments are coming from online sources.

For many freelance writers, this means that there is greater competition, learning about writing on the web, and lower pay per word. For those who are new to freelance writing, there are several ways that you can launch your freelance writing career without worrying about writing query letters, getting involved in newspaper and magazine submissions or waiting weeks or even months for payment.

Today, there are many opportunities to find freelance writing online and be paid in a timely manner. At-home freelance writing jobs are no longer reserved for those with journalism degrees. In fact, if you are capable of doing good research, writing quickly and accurately and meeting deadlines, there is no reason you cannot launch your at-home freelance writing career.

Getting started: Prepare for battle

Getting started freelance writing at home is not as difficult as you might think. However, oftentimes it's making that first step that holds many people back.

Set writing goals and schedules

Not everyone wants to pursue an at-home freelance writing career full time. As you get started, it is critical that you set your own writing goals and a schedule to write. Some freelance writers may be satisfied with their monthly income from Hubpages as their only source of at-home freelance writing. While Hubpages is not a freelance writing job per se, it can help you build a strong portfolio while you earn money for your writing.

Create a portfolio

Whether you create a writing portfolio using a writing site like Hubpages or your own blog, this will be the secret to your success as a freelance writer. It is a good idea if you are signing up with a site like Hubpages to write several articles in different categories to show the depth of your abilities. This varies from writer to writer, some prefer to specialize in specific categories like finance, business or legal writing. Whatever you choose, make sure you have samples of the specific type of writing you plan to pursue.

Private Clients: Set up payment schedules

If you are going to be marketing your services to private clients, you must set up a payment method, contracts and a method of invoicing clients. Payment methods such as PayPal allow you to send out invoices to your clients with reminders.

NOTE: This does incur a fee that is deducted when the invoice is paid. Make sure you make an allowance for that additional financial hit. Keep in mind, if you sign up primarily to write on freelance sites or writing sites, they typically pay the fee charged by PayPal.

Navigating the freelance market

Freelance writers who are bidding on assignments whether on a freelance marketplace website or on a site that accepts bids (such as Craigslist, LinkedIn, etc.) may find that they need a top-quality cover letter along with the bid. Writing a cover letter can prove challenging in this situation. Chances are you will be including a link to your portfolio so your cover letter should not be redundant.

Cover letters should clearly explain your rates, your preferred payment methods and the terms that you anticipate the assignment being governed by. Your bid should be clearly stated. In addition, make sure you acknowledge that the potential client may receive bids both higher and lower than yours and explain your bid. This can include a breakdown of hours anticipated, special terms or specific experience you have had in a field.

Winning an Assignment and Contracts

One you have won a bid, you should make sure that you have all the terms of the bid in writing. Communications should include deadlines, specification on work product, agreements on payments etc. Not only does a contract help you feel confident in your work, but it also helps you present a professional image to your client.

Completing the Circle

It is important to ensure that work you submit is well written, free of errors and professionally formatted. Keep in mind, especially with new clients, any mistakes will reflect negatively on you. After you submit your work, follow up and let the client know they are welcome to request revisions (within reason). If a client is happy with your work, always ask for a reference, an endorsement or a referral. Don't be afraid to let them know you are happy about having worked with them and to let them know you're available for future assignments.

How to find high paying freelance writing jobs

With the number of online freelance marketplaces and the number of online writing sites, freelance writing jobs are more numerous than they have been in several years. One of the reasons that these jobs are available is because there is a constant demand for new content.

Those who are seeking freelance writing jobs have heard stories from one end of the spectrum to another. The clients who are willing to pay only $1 for an original article that is well thought out, well written, contains no typographical or grammatical errors and will pass Copyscape. These types of assignments are becoming more and more prevalent online for one simple reason - there are writers who will accept them. That's an unfortunate fact of the industry.

Don't forget, the internet is global: Writers from all over the world are often competing for the same assignments and in many cases, a company trying to save money is going to go after the lowest cost option whenever possible.

Freelance writing jobs that pay well are out there, one simply must make the attempt to land those assignments. This guide is intended to help freelance writers land high paying freelance jobs.