Organizing Your Business

When it comes to success at home based business, a very importantant aspect to building your business is to organize your business affairs. Believe it or not, many home business owners don't have the basics in place.

There are a few items to have in place to organize your business so that it runs smoothly. For the next few posts I'd like to discuss a few things you need to do to organize your home business for success:

• Organize your finances
• Legalize your business
• Create a professional image
• Assign workspace and make boundaries
• Obtain and organize neccessary supplies and equipment

In this post, let's talk about organizing your finances. Depending on the type of home business you are running, the amount of financial assistance you require will vary. However, one thing that every home business needs is an operating bank account to manage sales and expenses. Even if you are a sole proprietor, it is recommended that you do not mix your personal funds with that of your home business. This way you can effectively keep track of the monies you are spending on your business and there is no ambiguity (there are clear lines separating the money you use and spend for your household vs. that of your home business). I chose to have two business checking accounts for my home business. The reason I chose two checking accounts is so that I could separate the money that I need to save, pay taxes and pay tithes with from the money I use to pay my home business expenses with. I have both accounts at the same bank so that I can easily transfer funds between the two accounts as well as see all of my transactions in one place.

As a Christian, I give 10% of everything I earn to the Lord. He has graciously blessed me with my own home business and I can't think of a better way to thank Him than to help finance the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone should have the opportunity to know Jesus. He is so good and faithful. Just when I feel like throwing in the towel, He sends someone to encourage me. Ok, so while I went a bit off topic for a moment, I thouht it important to mention why I tithe because I know some people were probably wondering about it. Back on track now...

My Personal Home Based Business Websites:
Dead Sea, Bath & Body Products, Aromatherapy Candles, Gift Baskets & Gift Sets
Stress Relief Products, Magnetic Therapy & Alternative Pain Relief

Another channel for obtaining finances is small business credit cards. Since you will not be mixing your personal finances with your home business finances, you will need a business credit card to easily facilitate paying for supplies, etc. An important thing to note however is that you should limit most of your credit card charges to items that will pay for themselves by generating income relatively quickly (ex: you sell hand gloves for $20 that you have the manufacturer ship directly to your customers. When a customer purchases a pair of gloves for $20 on your website, you then go to the manufacturer and purchase the gloves on your business credit card at your wholesale cost. Once your customer's payment clears, usually in 2-3 business days, you can then make a payment on your credit card to cover the charge.)

There are other types of loans such as personal loans you can apply for but I don't recommend theses for a home based business. A big perk of a home based business is the ability to have low start up costs. Some people choose network marketing home based businesses which have little to no start up costs. Others choose to sell homemade products and sell them on a website with very little to no fees such as e-bay, webs, etsy or artfire. Whatever your particular home based business, just make sure your finances are in order. I personally do a bit of both because I enjoy designing my own products as well as networking and promoting other products that I don't make but have the ability to improve people's health. Besides my personally managed websites, I'm a distributor for Young Living Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils, I truly enjoy this home business. I personally experience a wealth of benefits with these oils. If you are interested in distributing or just being a customer of Young Living's products, visit the main website at http://www.youngliving.org/. You'll need distribitor # 1066504 to purchase or become a distributor.

In a few days I'll talk about the next thing on the list to organizing your business affairs...legalizing your business.

Organizing Your Business

While I'm struggling to keep my sanity during this 5 Day Cleanse that I'm doing, I still feel compelled to write and keep all of my blogs on focus so here's today's post:

A very important aspect in running a successful business is being organized. Keeping your important documents, invoices and financial records etc. organized will make you feel more in control.

In order to be successful working at home and running your business, you must be responsible at maintaining an organized records system. Since you are running a home business, you probably don't have the money at the beginning to hire an accountant do maintain all of your records. However, you should allow the accountant to complete your income taxes. Your sales tax returns, you can do yourself. They are not very difficult. If you are just a sole proprietor then you won't have to worry about this but you still need to be organized.

When organizing your important documents, follow these simple steps:

1. File paid bills, canceled checks and other documentation in a safe place in an organized manner utilizing file folders, filing cabinets or filing boxes. Ensure each file is clearly labeled
   


2. Categorize your receipts throughout the year so you don't have to go searching for them at tax time
   


3. Consider using a small business program such as Quick Books to keep track of sales invoices, expenses and inventory.

While I don't personally utilize a program to track my expenses, I do keep an excel spreadsheet and I file all of my invoices and sales receipts in an orderly fashion. I also have a built in program for my websites to track all of my sales, customer information and profit margin. This greatly helps to keep things organized and easily accessible. Of course, I wasn't always this organized and I'm still a work in progress but now I have less papers everywhere! Being organized only leaves one with a feeling of being out of control. Once you have organized your business documents, you have taken a very important step to setting the stage for your business to be successful.