The Home-Based Business Kit: From Hobby to Profit (Quick Start Your Business)

The Home-Based Business Kit: From Hobby to Profit (Quick Start Your Business)

Launch a money-making venture from the comfort of your own home. Starting a home-based business has special challenges. From preparing the right business plan to your first successful sale, The Home-Based Business Kit gives you the tools you need to succeed and make a profit. Experienced home-based business owners give you actionable steps to: Write Your Business Plan - Analyze Market Data - Prepare a Budget - Manage Your Time - Handle Work-Life Balance - Set Up Your Home Workspace - Negotiate with Vendors - Hire Employees - Find Customers - Raise Start-Up Money Additional features include: Case Studies - Checklists - Sample Business, Marketing and Financial Plans Now is the time to turn your skills, hobby or big idea into real money. Diana Brodman Summers received her JD from DePaul University College of Law in 1993 and passed the Bar Exam in Illinois. She has an undergraduate degree majoring in Business Administration and Computer Science from Roosevelt University. Currently, Ms. Summers maintains a law office concentrating on Employment Law for the employees in Lisle, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Ms. Summers is an arbitrator for both the Cook and DuPage County mandatory arbitration programs. She is an active member of the DuPage County Bar Association, the DuPage Bar Association of Women Lawyers, and the Illinois State Bar Association. Ms. Summers has written articles and lectured on computerizing small law firms for the Illinois State Bar Association. Ms. Summers can be reached at www.lawyer4employees.com D-M Boulay received her undergraduate degree from Boston College, and both her Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management and her law degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. A veteran of the Vietnam War and past critical care nurse, she started her own law practice 25 years ago. Since then, she has helped many other entrepreneurs to start and manage their own businesses. Ms. Boulay is an arbitrator and mediator of business disputes. She is past president of the Minnesota Association of Mediators and the Hennepin County Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution. She is treasurer of the American Association of Nurse Attorney Foundation, a member of the Board of the National Youth Leadership Council, and a former trustee of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Minnesota. Ms. Boulay is a nurse attorney, small business owner, and coauthor of several Legal Survival Guides with Sphinx Publishing. She currently practices in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. 10 Steps to Making Your Home-Based Business a Success Excerpted from Home-Based Business Kit by D-M Boulay ©2005 You have a great idea for a home-based business. In fact, you are spending considerable time thinking about your future business and can't wait to get started. Here are ten steps you can take right now, that will help to make your home-based business a success. 1. Involve your family in planning your home-based business. Remember, your business will be running out of the family home, so include your family in the business at the very beginning. Older family members can help you stake out that separate area in the house that is just for your business. They may also be able to do some minor work for your business. The younger ones may be able to support your business by taking on more chores or just by being quiet when Mommy or Daddy is on a business call. Use your family members as your first focus group to discuss your product. Ask their opinions. Would they buy the product? How would they change/improve the product? Get the entire family involved and excited about your home-based business―their love and support will make your life easier. 2. Set aside a certain space just for your business. A home-based business needs a location, even in the smallest of homes. You need a place that is set aside to keep all your business documents and, depending on your business, the products you are working on. You will also need space to store the products made before sale (inventory) and to store the parts that go into making your product (ingredients, components). Home-based businesses can run from the corner of a room, in a rebuilt closet, from an extra bedroom, from the basement, from the garage, or even out of a small file cabinet. The only requirement is that you keep all your business materials in one place and not spread throughout the house where they can be misplaced or lost. 3. Get all the preliminary work done before you open your business. Every business, even one that is home-based, must do some preliminary things in order to become a real business. This may mean registering your business in your state, getting financial accounts set up, and finding someone to supply you with the raw materials to make your first product. Your home-based business may need to have a computer in place, an additional phone line brought into your home, commercial cooking pans, or just printed business cards. Make sure all these preliminary ta