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Practical & theoretical issues of interest to home business owners
Save money on home business insurance this year
54 days ago
by Judy
in Home business
Today’s guest post comes from comparethemarket.com:
Many people have committed to cutting their budget this year in order to pay off debt and to accumulate savings. One way to accomplish this goal is to save money on home insurance. Home businesses have similar goals and strive to reduce the cost of their public liability insurance. Although these two types of insurance products apply to different types of customers, saving money on these insurance policies follow the same basic strategy.
Home insurance provides coverage for fire, theft and damage due to various weather conditions. It also covers damages that result when an individual sustains an injury while on another’s premises. Similarly, public liability insurance provides coverage to home businesses if a client has an accident while visiting your home office for a meeting. It will also cover you for damage you cause while visiting a client’s premises.
One way to save money on home insurance or public liability insurance is for the individual or home business to assess the real amount of insurance needed. Many individuals pay for too much insurance that is drastically over the amount that they should realistically be paying for. On the other hand, if a serious injury occurs on an individual’s property or on the premises of a business, having adequate coverage can prevent an injured victim from seeking damages from the homeowner or business owner directly.
Another way to save money on property insurance or public liability insurance is to secure multiple insurance policies from the same insurance company. A homeowner can obtain automobile insurance in addition to her property insurance. A home business owner can obtain malpractice or health insurance in combination with public liability insurance. Most insurance companies offer a sizable discount for multiple policies.
One of the best ways to save money on any type of insurance is to use a price comparison site. These sites allow homeowners and home business owners to key in the amount of coverage that they need and results will populate with a variety of coverage and prices. This side by side comparison helps individuals find the best bargain.
Join the mission to save money on insurance this year.
New Year’s business resolutions – how to stay on track to achieving them
211 week ago
by Judy
in Home business
Today’s guest post is a welcome reminder from Claire Habel of Inspiring Futures in the dull days of January:
Have you started 2012 with vigour or are you still trying to pick up the pace? A few weeks in, now is a good time to do a bit of a sense-check on how those ideas and plans are panning out.
No doubt as January approached you spent a bit of time thinking about your vision, goals and resolutions for your business. The key as we all know is then being able to turn that thinking into results through planning and action, which is where things can start to get tricky.
Unexpected e-mails drop in, tasks over-run and before you know it, you hear yourself saying how busy you are. So, although you may still be steering your ship, it may not be heading in quite the right direction at the speed you had imagined.
So, here are some helpful tips to help you stay focused and on-track:
- Nobody wants to become a ‘busy fool’ but it’s amazing how easily it happens. The key to avoiding it is to avoid fooling yourself about what you’re busying yourself with. Plans and action are vital to achieving results but only if formed and focused properly…
- Before you dive into writing long lists of things to do, start with the end in mind i.e. your goal/objective and ‘plan back’ from there. Then move onto writing your to-do lists, ensuring you focus on the most important and urgent things first.
- Action takes you towards results but is not an end in itself. Ask yourself whether you are more focused on actions or outcomes.
- To keep focused, ask yourself each day: “Am I concentrating on the most important and urgent things first?” Take a moment each week to consider: “What one thing could I do this week that would have most impact on moving me closer to my goal”.
- If you need to revive and refocus, get back in touch with your ‘personal business drivers’ by reminding yourself what all of this is for. Keep that front of mind and ensure all plans start from that point. You’ll find yourself far more motivated if you do!
Profile: Claire Habel is the founder of Inspiring Futures through which she helps her clients develop personal business plans and winning marketing strategies for their businesses.
Entrepreneur or home business owner?
21 week ago
by Judy
in Home business
Sometimes an idea will knock around inside my head for a while until I realise it would make a good subject for a blog post. Today it’s been drawn out by a conversation with my marketing consultant, Claire Habel. We were talking about being an entrepreneur and my immediate reaction was that I’m not!
My definition of an entrepreneur is someone who has doing deals and making money in their blood, who was the kind of kid who was selling sweets to the other kids in primary school. I was perfectly happy with my pocket money. Making any more never occurred to me and anyway it would have meant putting down the books I permanently had my nose in.
My profile in the Wealth Dynamics system, an ‘entrepreneur profiling test’, is Mechanic, someone who excels in putting systems and processes into place and making sure they work efficiently. After initially sulking for turning out to be the most boring out of the eight profiles (knowing that Mark Zuckerberg is a Mechanic makes it no more attractive), the penny dropped that this was why I ran a very profitable cleaning business for 12 years and sold it as a going concern.
I introduced systems for everything, from recruiting staff to checking the loo cleaner and changing dirty dusters, and it allowed me to make exceptional profits. But I think that makes me a good business owner, not an entrepreneur. The definition in my Penguin English Dictionary is ‘somebody who organises, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise’.
Very definitely yes to the first two, but I’m far too cautious for the third. What do you think? Are you an entrepreneur? Do you even like the word or do you think programmes like Dragons Den have given it a bad name?
Expanding the home office into self storage
31 month ago
by Judy
in Home business
Part 2 of the guest post by Big Yellow Self Storage begun with Maximising space for home business:
The major benefit of business self storage is the flexibility. Take, for example, a freelance accountant who works from home. With the run up to the end of the financial year, they find themselves, as you’d expect, inundated with documents from their clients – all needing to be carefully organised, kept safe, and on hand for easy reference.
Our accountant initially rents a storage room for a few months to house the overflow of paperwork (the facility is a quick car ride down the road… the UK now has as many self storage facilities as it does McDonald’s restaurants – around 1,200), but finds the storage space much easier to work in because, as a blank canvass, it can be organised in any way they want.
Suddenly our accountant takes on a new huge client. Good news for the business, and no problem in terms of space either. Our accountant can remove the partition to the next storage room (as it’s available) and create one bigger space – with enough room for a chair and desk, this time too. When all the chaos of the tax returns is complete, the Accountant can either shut down the room completely until next year, or maintain a smaller space.
Of course, you’re probably thinking – how could you leave clients’ important documents “offsite”? But like we said earlier – security is taken very seriously and the perception of storage space as being a large galvanised shed in the middle of nowhere is also no longer true. At Big Yellow, customers are given their own unique PIN, which gives access to the lifts; sensors show when rooms are accessed and even if a room is occupied. 24 hour CCTV, parameter fencing and individually alarmed rooms, means that security is definitely not something you need to worry about. And you probably can’t say the same about your hallway…
Big Yellow Self Storage has more than 70 purpose-built self-storage sites across the UK. Our industrial units to let range from 10 sq ft for a locker up to 500 sq ft, with everything in between.
Maximising space for home business
91 month ago
by Judy
in Home business
Today’s guest post by Big Yellow Self Storage explains how home workers can make use of storage facilities for more efficient working and to help expand their business:
Anyone who’s worked from home knows that space comes at a premium. If you’re turning over stock or merchandise (if you’re an eBay seller or a small online retailer for example), it can seem like a good idea to use up any household storage space first – an attic, a garage or a hall cupboard, say.
The problems come when you need to scale up, or if you need an environment that’s not potentially damp, hard to access, or vying for space with a vacuum cleaner. For those of us that aren’t burdened with stock, there are the acres of paperwork, perhaps tools and other equipment to look after, and the challenge of how to carve out an office space when there’s just so much stuff around.
Many businesses that start in the home are now making the transition to using storage space as a flexible solution. Take Martin Shaw, who owns a specialist book storage company: “I started working from home and using my garage, but when we got bigger I needed to use storage space.”
Martin was surprised at the flexibility self storage afforded him: “I don’t have to just come here to pick books or store things; I can actually spend the day at the storage facility. You can really run it as a proper business.”
Using a self storage room as a distribution hub is only one way you can harness storage as a home worker. In July 2011, the Self Storage Association, reported a 5 per cent annual shift away from domestic customers towards business customers. Business self storage is becoming a solution for a new generation of smaller entrepreneurs, attracted by flexibility, affordable rents and the convenience of a no-ties agreement.
One of the biggest benefits is there are no business rates to pay (this can be a hurdle for small businesses that don’t have as much cash up front), and electricity is included in the overall room rental cost. Security, too, is folded in – and housing your expensive equipment at a storage facility may also help lower your insurance premiums because the facilities are seen as so secure.
To be continued
Home business & dealing with the Christmas slowdown
181 month ago
It can seem to the home business owner that the corporate world starts to slow down for Christmas from the beginning of December, when you first get replies like ‘We can’t make a decision on that until the New Year’. It can be a difficult month to get payment as accounts departments may be short-staffed. Getting over the seasonal hump requires a little planning, so here are a few hints on how to manage this time of year most effectively:
Take yourself off on an extended holiday
One of the chief gripes of those working for themselves is that there’s never enough time for a decent holiday. Take a look at previous years’ figures to find out how big your seasonal dip actually is. If many of the people you deal with are unavailable, it could be a the ideal opportunity to take a break with minimum disruption to your cash flow. An escape to a warmer climate could give you a much-needed boost of sunshine to get the New Year off to a good start.
Work on your business, instead of in it
Another frequent complaint is of never having the time to step back, get things into perspective and plan future development. Use the slowdown to draw breath, look at what you’ve accomplished and where you want to go next. Even better to get some fellow freelancers round for seasonal refreshments while you all give feedback to each other and share ideas.
Clear the decks
Fewer phone calls and a slower work flow give you the chance to clear paperwork, do computer housekeeping and generally weed out stuff you no longer need that’s getting in the way of finding the stuff you do. It’s also a great way to prepare mentally for the year ahead with an office detox
Chase payment
Find out from clients exactly what their arrangements for payment will be over the holiday period, so you can allow for it when invoicing. Get your invoices in promptly and then chase payment – politely, of course! – as soon as it’s due. The New Year can be a tricky time for cash flow so you’ll feel the benefits for a while to come.
