How to Set Up a Home Based Business

475 days ago

Setting up your own home based business is an exciting and rewarding thing to do.  Often stay at home mums start their own home based businesses because they want to help contribute to the family income, they need something else to do or they want to benefit from the personal growth and development that comes from running your own business from home.  Do note that if you are going to be running a business where clients come to your house, you will need to have public liability insurance.  Having home and contents insurance is also a good idea.  All sorts of different businesses can be run successfully from home, including a party plan business, an online store, a photography business or even a furniture removalists.

Decide on your business

It is all very well to decide you are going to run a home based business, but you need to know exactly what it is you want to do.  You might have a skill that you can turn into a business, for example you might be great at taking photos and start up your own photography business.  You could also find that you can turn a past job into a home based business.  For example you may have worked at an accounting firm but now you want to go out on your own and you can run this as a home based business.  You might decide to go into party planning which is a fantastic way to go into business for yourself but not by yourself, as you will be supported every step of the way by a head office.

Training

You may find that you have to undertake some training if you are starting a business in an area that is new to you.  You may have to do some additional training to update your skills.  Training is a great thing to do, no matter what it is.  You might be updating skills, learning new ones, doing a personally development course or learning how to manage your time more efficiently.  Any sort of training you undertake is going to benefit you and your business.

Find out your tax obligations

Make sure that you are completely aware of what your taxation obligations are.  Have a look on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website and they will have all the information you need regarding starting a small home based business.

Organise your office

One of the keys to running a successful business is being organised.  This is particularly true when it comes to running a business at home.  You need to be able to separate your home life from your work life, so if this means having a separate office built in the back garden then this is what you might have to do.  You don’t want any distractions.  Make sure that you have all the office furniture and stationery ready that you will need, plus any computer packages, internet connection and storage space required for your business.  Keep on top of your bookkeeping, otherwise it can quickly get out of control.

There is plenty of information out there to help you set up your new business venture.  Don’t be overwhelmed, instead work through it one step at a time. The greatest companies around all started out small!