Having a business you can run from home has a lot of great advantages and conveniences, but it has a lot of potential pitfalls, too, if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s easy to avoid falling into common home business enterprise mistakes, though, if you do a little research. The following are great ideas for a successful home enterprise.
If you often entertain clients with dining out or other activities, remember that you can deduct expenses like these from your taxable income. These are legitimate business expenses and should be treated as such. Always make sure that you are only writing off meetings that are with actual clients, or individuals that you are hoping will become clients, because other meals and entertainment opportunities are not tax-deductible.
If you have to drive for your home based business, keep track of your mileage as it is a deductible expense. Such expenses are wholly deductible, no matter how long or short the trip. You will need to demonstrate that these expenses are truly business-related.
You could use your skills to give lessons out of the home to bring in some income from home. This also gives you flexibility if you are taking classes or have a family to attend to. Anything related to hobbies, like photography, art, or music, may be taught in a home environment.
It’s vital that distractions from friends and family are eliminated when running a home based business. Since interruptions can seriously impede productivity, let everyone know when you are going to work and when you expect to be finished. It is important that they understand that privacy is needed and will allow you to spend time with them just as soon as you complete your work. Kids will need supervision, though.
Before you sell your product, do some research to see what the current price points are for your product in the market. Look at your competitors’ offerings, and try to beat their prices. It is unprofessional and generally a bad business practice to speak negatively about your competition. Pay attention to your own business and run it ethically and professionally.
These things will keep your business honest and focused on success, not failure. You don’t want to continually make the mistakes others have made. This way, you will have more energy to use in expanding your business.