CHECK YOUR LOCAL RULES AND REQUIREMENTS
People tend to forget or ignore this thing. Most of the residential localities have a fixed quota for commercial purpose. You need to check it with your local Resident Welfare Association to see whether your home based business can be aligned with the rules and regulation or not. Most of the residential spaces allow 25 percent mark for commercial space. Also it depends on the kind of the business.
RENT A BOX
Box means post box. Oh no.. it;s not old fashioned. Many of your clients might not be comfortable interacting to you over internet and would prefer if you have got a po box. Also the box will give the corporate look. Use this po box on all your collateral. Also you can check the virtual offices. It's really a new concept and I discovered it just few weeks ago. They can arrange for dedicated tele callers, po box and also office and meeting spaces. It's worth checking those out. You can check with vendors like Regus and Imperial Servcorp. Regus has some really good locations in delhi and bangalore.
ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE
Trust me, working from home can easily go from comfortable to absolute messy. So pay attention.Seggregate the work space from the rest of the house. And it applies to your attitude as well. Once your are in your office corner , get into that work mode. You can start with putting up a small notice board where you can stick the coming meetings, preparations, plans and ideas. Of course you can do it on your laptop and can arrange the schedules with your blackberry but the notice board still does magic..trust me on this (Ya! iam bit old fashioned..). Also you can place a small 100-150L refrigerator...just to be yourself! Get to your office room in the morning and take out the cool watermelon juice from the refrigerator. It's a good start.
GET STATIONERY
You work on computer but stationaries are also important. Notepads, Pencils, Markers and magnetic board pins, envelopes, business cards are really the things you need to get. A corporate and that “attention-to-detail” attitude will go a long way in soothing the nerves of those clients who don't trust on home run businesses.
MEET, GREET AND EAT
I don't like entertaining clients at home. You and your clients would really be embarrassed if your kid starts shouting or crying in the middle of the discussion or your maid starts sweeping the floor. So figure out couple of nearby locations like Barista, CCD or Mocha, where you can sit and discuss the business with the clients over a nice cup of coffee. You can also arrange few things to minimize the costs to entertain the clients. For instance, ABN AMRO offers a Barista credit card which offers good cash backs and discounts at barista.
KEEP ALL FINANCIAL RECORDS
When you run a business from home, chances are that you would be running a proprietorship business.
Your income from the proprietorship would be counted as your personal income and would be taxed accordingly. However you will be able to write off certain expenses incurred as part of running the business. You need to talk to a chartered accountant to help you on this.
GET GOOD FURNITURE
It's very important. I personally would not suggest wooden furnitures. Wrought iron and plastic are better options as far as affordability is concerned.Shop for ergonomic chair and sitting arrangements. Stores like Hacker and Gunter have some interesting furniture pieces which are reasonably priced and would be long lasting. Furnitures give expression and language to your office. Keep it adequate, smart and modern.
GET THE COMMUNICATIONS RIGHT
Communication is the key. Make sure you are always connected. Sign up for a high speed internet connection and bring all the devices under same network. Microsoft allows quick wizards to set up a home network. You can use router and hubs from Belkins. Almost all new business owners are using push mail technology to keep in sync with clients and information. As far as push mail is concerned no one is near Blackberry. If you are using Nokia smart-phone like E71 you can look at Nokia's OVI service. Make sure you reply all the inquiries, conformations and quotations ASAP. Also get yourself a dedicated VPN system so that you can share the information from your home computer from anywhere in the world. You can also use windows own desktop sharing option but if you want a secure way of accessing information from a offshore location than you need to look for the VPN systems. You can checkout RealVNC or UltraVNC.
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