As new realities surface in today's job market, more and more are turning to a home based business opportunity for making a living without the commute. Aspects like free flow of information, enhanced telecommunications, the rise of the price of gasoline and lots of other eventualities lead people toward working from home.

One important resource for these budding entrepreneurs is news about trends and realities within any work at home business sector. From government related information to administration tips, home businesses can find guidance from publications and information sources dealing with this kind of enterprise. A business might look for:

1. Information on home based business tax structures and liabilities.

2. Ideas and creative thinking on how to start up a successful home business for profit.

3. More on how to administrate a business fiscally and news on what others have done successfully.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get tax news and trends for home based business

Every year, each independent contractor or business owner has to consider the reality of federal, state and local taxes. Get news about home based business tax situations from news sources that cater to individuals engaged in home based business.

I recommend: Subscribe to RSS feeds and follow the helpful trail of articles and resources from the Chief Home Officer site for maximizing income through income tax knowledge. Learn more from Barbara Bredec's e-book, Secrets to Maximizing Schedule C Deductions.

Get ideas for home based business opportunities

One other sector where news and trend information is important is in the actual hatching of work at home businesses. This large spectrum of business entities runs the gamut from very legitimate and profitable businesses to complete scams or empty shells of front businesses. Learn much more about what works and what doesn't from proven home based Internet business news services.

I recommend: At Home Business Tips, visitors can sign up to receive resources like the Home Business Success Vehicle. Newsletters educate on new home business ideas and how to use them creatively to get income. Get more ground-breaking ideas from Home Biz Tools: subscribe to RSS feed or order specific business resources from the site.

Get resources for home based business administration

Want to know how to do accurate record keeping? How to maximize profit with time and resource management? See how others get proven home based Internet business results with news and tips from home based businesses publications that take the best information they can find and deliver it to the public.

I recommend: Find tips for developing a home based business at Home Based Business World. More detailed resources can be found at A Home Based Business Online, where writers provide data on what kind of home based business is generally effective and what is needed to start up a business from home.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Always identify how home based business news and trends will shape your business. Every business is different, and although general information can be a great resource, it's not a substitute for pinpointing your own best chances of success. What general reading can do, though, is to clue you in on the many scams and illegitimate activities that have coalesced around the independence of work at home business models.

Home-based businesses are one of the fastest-growing segments of small business ownership in America today. Work-at-home moms or dads, retirees, part-time entrepreneurs and many others are discovering ways to generate business income from a home or apartment.

Starting a business from home boasts numerous advantages over an office-based location. A home-based business can:

1. Reduce startup and ongoing operating costs
2. Give you additional tax write-offs
3. Allow you the freedom to set your own hours and be with your family
4. Eliminate time wasted commuting to an office
5. Make it easier to conduct business at any time of day

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Make it legal

Before you start, make sure it's legal to run a business from home in your area. Every city, county and state has its own zoning restrictions regarding signage, on-street parking, business hours and hiring employees.

I recommend: Ask zoning questions or find a zoning lawyer at Free Advice. Or go to MegaLaw for links to state, county and municipal zoning law sites. If you live in a condominium or co-op, check your homeowners association for any restrictions regarding home businesses.

Determine if you've got what it takes

Although there are many good reasons to start a business from home, it isn't for everyone. To be successful, you've got to have strong motivation, a healthy dose of self-discipline and top-notch organizational skills.

I recommend: Take this quiz from SCORE to see if starting a home-based business is right for you.

Set up your home office

To help create a physical separation between your work and home life, choose a room that you can dedicate as an office. Every business is different but basics you'll need include a desk, chair, computer, printer, fax machine, copier, Internet service, phone system and filing cabinet.

I recommend: Find equipment and basic furnishings at Staples or design and furnish your office using IKEA's "For Your Business" space-planning tool.

Be prepared to wear all the hats

As a home-based business owner, you won't have the luxury of a big company's administrative staff to assist you with the more mundane tasks associated with running a business, such as ordering supplies, paying bills and mailing packages. Simplify time-consuming tasks so you can focus on more important things.

I recommend: Create online shopping lists for items you regularly order at Office Depot. Just check the items you want, and your order arrives at your doorstep within a day or two. Make bill paying a relatively painless chore with Quick Books. Avoid lines at the post office with Stamps.com, which lets you print postage right from your own computer.

Image is everything

Even though you may be wearing pajamas while you work from home, you never want your business to come across as amateurish or unprofessional.

I recommend: Establish a professional image with a dedicated business phone line, professional-sounding outgoing message, email with your company domain name and a Web site.

Separate your business and personal finances

Even if your new venture isn't a huge moneymaker yet, it's a good idea to keep your business and personal finances separate. Having business and personal checking accounts will make it easier to track business income and expenses when tax time rolls around.

I recommend: Open a business checking account at Wells Fargo.

Decide on your business address

To protect your privacy, you may want to consider using a post-office box for your mailing address. However, you should be aware that some customers are suspicious of doing business with a company that doesn't have a physical address.

I recommend: If you'd rather not use your home's physical address as your mailing address, check into a post office box or a mailbox rental that gives you a real street address rather than a P.O. Box number.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Strike a balance between work and family life. Turn off the computer and turn down the ringer on the business phone when it's family time.
• •  When you work from home it's tempting to sleep in late. Instead, create a regular work schedule and stick to it. Your best bet is to work the same hours as your customers.
• •  Your new home-based venture may not be profitable immediately so consider a gradual transition from employment to business ownership. Start by running your home-based business on part-time basis to build your customer base and sales.

Although there are a lot of options out there for starting a home based business, a lot of these setups have some things in common. Because a successful home based business is usually principally dealing in information, overhead can often be low, with just a few essentials forming the main infrastructure needed for operating a home business day to day.

For getting set with these basic resources, a home-based business entrepreneur can easily get outfitted through the Internet. Online vendors sell the main things business operators need to become players in industries such as collections, word processing, web and graphic design, sales and more. While fulfilling supplies for home based business needs, buyers might look for:

1. The hardware needed to set up a successful home business.

2. Telecom tools for setting up a home based business opportunity and joining the gasless commute in the 21st century.

3. Other work at home business tools like forms, office supplies and organizational items.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get home office hardware for your home based business

Laptops, desktops and printers are the mainstay of the home office. Home based business operators need these multi-purpose hardware items to get suited up for delivering solutions to clients or tracking the progress and inventory of a home based business.

I recommend: Find top-rated monitors, desktops and more at PC World for your budding home biz. This site gives you a break down on what’s available and how each one rates compared to similar models including price comparisons. CDW has a full line of computers, printers and other hardware geared specifically towards the small or home based office environment.

Get telecom hookups for your home based business

Home biz practitioners rely on telecom solutions as their 'lifeline' to the world. From delivering products and mailing files to sending invoices and receiving directions and timelines from bosses and clients, it's all done online and by phone.

I recommend: No matter where you are in the country, top provider Comcast can get you bundled telecom services including small business packages. In specialized areas, Verizon can get you FiOS (fiber-optics) services for quicker telecom services for your work at home business.

Find other gear for your home-based business opportunities

Aside from the hardware that connects a home-based business worker to clients and colleagues, there's also the issue of furniture that provides functionality. The basics revolve around the office archetype: desks, chairs, tables and file cabinets form part of the usual list for equipping a home office.

I recommend: Browse a large collection of quality steel file cabinets at MoreFilingCabinets.com from Cymax Stores or find an appropriate home office desk at Everything Furniture. For other office furnishings, try the index at the Home Office Furniture Collection.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  One way to streamline your proven home based internet business is to have a stock of your most useful paper products and forms on hand. Printing a stack of W9s, W2s, client agreements or other forms will help save time later as your business ramps up. Having envelopes, stamps and other gear stored will also make your home biz more efficient.

Although every business is by its nature unique, there are some general key terms that apply to the majority of home based business entities. A home based business often includes some specific factors regarding annual operations, taxation and legal definition. A business that wants to operate on a "home based" paradigm should be familiar with not only the basic nuts and bolts of home based business types, but also the specifics of what, how and where a founder wants to start one up.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Sole proprietor

Anyone starting a home based business is usually a sole proprietor in that they are running a business by themselves. Not all home based businesses are sole proprietorships, but this term will be a 'must know' for businesses that deal in this kind of work setup.

I recommend: Find out more about sole proprietors at Nolo. This IRS page gives more information on how the government views sole proprietorships.

EIN

The EIN or employer ID number will apply to many home based businesses. The EIN allows for more business activities to happen from a home office, including hiring additional employees or reporting outside income.

I recommend: Find out more about the EIN at WiseGeek.

Home office

Lots of home based businesses include the home office in official expenses for a tax filing break. But the conventional wisdom on this is that home based businesses should look very carefully into whether a home space is ONLY a work space before claiming a true 'home office.'

I recommend: Get tax tips on claiming a home office from BMighty.

Zoning

Zoning laws in municipalities might be a liability for some types of home based business. It's good to read up on applicable zoning law before creating any kind of business at home, especially if it will require client visits or lead to noise on the property.

I recommend: Find out more about zoning for home based businesses at Entrepreneur.com.

Assets

One thing that can help in brainstorming a home based business is what kind of things or assets a business has at its disposal at any given moment. Also, choose a business that you will enjoy operating. The nature of business is conveniently vague, and a home based business can be tailored to what a startup entrepreneur can manage to acquire.

I recommend: Find out more about using assets and making the right choice in starting a home business at this Small Office Home Office site.

Telecommuting

A home based business owner or manager generally telecommutes. So too do the employees, if there are any. Telecommuting is just the act of becoming involved in business, not through physically commuting to a business space, but through communicating from a home office or space.

I recommend: Check out this page at Westchester's Smart Commute Program for more on telecommuting.