The Internet is full of home-based business offers and packages and some of them may be good, but in many cases the earnings promised are inflated and the cost of the all the materials, books, tapes, seminars, etc on the high side as well.Home Based Business should be built on a genuine interest, passion or skill
The best way to start your own business is out of your own passion, something you are really good and know a lot about, something that perhaps has been in your family for a while like a special skill or knowledge. Building a business is a long-term commitment and staying in business an even longer one, so be sure you have the staying power a true interest in what you do gives. Enough said about that. Let’s turn to the practical side of starting a home based business. There are tasks you need to accomplish and a checklist is always handy to have.Business Expenses
Keep meticulous records of everything you spend on your business, from the planning stages all the way through the actual start of business operations. And even then don’t quit, but then you will probably have some of it automated by a bookkeeping/accounting program.A Good accountant is a Must
Find a good accountant as soon as you start thinking about your business. And make sure you cover both the accounting and tax side. In many cases those two functions are combined by practitioners who offer a “one stop shop” for small businesses. I personally don’t think it’s ideal. Your best bet would be to get really good tax advice from someone who does only taxes and then really good accounting advice from someone who specializes in small business accounting and financial statements. This way you will know what is deductible and what isn’t, what the best legal structure for your business will be and you will end up with the best set up for your bookkeeping system from the get go. There is nothing more painful and costly than trying to unravel an accounting mess made at the beginning. But if you do not unravel it, you will never really have a clean starting point for your business Balance Sheet.Set up a Deductible Home Office
This part of your living space must be used exclusively and regularly for business. If it isn’t, it won’t qualify as a tax deduction. Make sure it’s not a den where your child also plays video games.Once you decide where that home office will be, measure its square footage and calculate it as a percentage of your entire home or apartment. That will be the ratio you can use to calculate the business portion of all your utility bills.Check Your Zoning
Look into what your neighborhood or apartment complex requires for a home based business set up. Some of them can be very strict.More about starting your home based business in Part 2.

Over the years of working as an Internet Marketer I have come to learn that it takes a lot more than just knowing the methods and strategies of Internet Marketing to run a successful Home Based Business.Most people don’t seem to talk about these things or they simply forget. So here are a few of my observations.1. You are now the boss.When you start a Home Based Business, you are the boss, so you don’t have to answer to anyone, except yourself, of course. You need to be disciplined and force yourself to do the work that needs to be done. Sure, you’re not going to get fired if you don’t do your work, but you also won’t get things done which could be the downfall of your business.Quite often people think anything goes when you work from home, but you should treat it no different than any other business, online or offline.One good idea is to figure out the time of day that is your most productive and set a work schedule for yourself. Set aside those hours and make sure you schedule in breaks. Try and stay as productive as possible during those hours and limit the work you do outside of that schedule.Stay focused and on track. Create a “to-do” list for each day. Outline tasks you’d like to have finished by the end of your work day. The feeling of accomplishment you get when you cross of an item will keep you motivated all day long.If you need inspiration for an idea or just need to take a break, get away from the computer. Quite often good money making ideas come when you’re not sitting staring at the screen. I’ve never had success by trying to force an idea and believe me, I’ve tried that.2. Your home is now your office.Create a dedicated workspace for yourself. Slouching on your couch in front of the TV, with your feet up on the coffee table working on your laptop, does not count as a workspace. Get yourself a real desk and keep it organized. Not doing this could lead to distractions which ultimately affects your work schedule. Oh, and keep it clean.Eliminate distractions before you start working. Finish up whatever small chores you need to do for the day so you don’t have to take care of them when you’re on a roll. Only do work related tasks while on your work schedule.3. Make sure you take care of yourself.If you’re not feeling well, take sick days. You’re human, and just like everybody else, you need time off to rest. Grab a blanket and take a nap on the couch. You may be capable of sitting up, but that does not mean you need to be working. Take time to rest your mind and body. Trying to work when you’re sick is only frustrating and unproductive.Speaking of staying healthy, you need to exercise. It’s easy to let yourself go when your only commute is from your bed to your computer chair. Take care of yourself and get a gym membership or at the very least spend some time walking outside. Keeping fit allows you to stay focused and energized all day.One of the hardest adjustments to make when starting a Home Based Business is dealing with being alone for extended periods of time. You need to find ways to stay social. Working alone can get depressing and having a social outlet is a vital part of success.Try and find someone local who is also working from home to meet with every now and then for lunch or to discuss ideas. At the very least, invest in a web cam and keep in touch with your friends and family through Skype. If all else fails, get a pet. Pets make the day less boring, and yes, you will start to talk to your pets.4. Don’t work 24 hours a day.Although you work at the same place that you live, you need to find a way to still keep these lives separate.Often people think they can work 12 to 14 hours per day, 7 days a week simply because they have nothing else to do. There’s no easier way to burn out than trying to work such long hours. You simply can’t stay focused and productive for so long every day.Respect the weekends and take time off on holidays. It’s okay to let an email wait until the morning. It’s okay to have a personal life. You do not have to be readily available every minute of the day.5. You get to live an awesome life.If you reach a point in your Home Based Business where you can work full time, that is amazing. It’s a very big accomplishment that very few people can achieve.People often tell me how they envy that lifestyle. No more working 10-hour days in an office building and often coming home stressed about your job, boss, deadlines, salary, or any number of things that accompany an office job. Limited to the amount of sick days you’re allowed to take! I’m forever grateful that I don’t have to deal with any of that.If you have an opportunity to start a Home Based Business, definitely give it a try. It will be challenging at first, but there’s nothing that can match the feeling of running a successful Home Based Business.So, these were just a few things I’ve learned over the years. I’m sure you have things to add to this list.

It is wise to hire an expert to protect one’s property. Nevertheless, it is a very personal decision and one should willingly make financial expenses for property management South Florida and other such areas. The lines below contain some other factors the one should consider before deciding to hire experts for the service.

Property Distance Issues:

The greater the distance between one’s invested property and his original place of stay, the more difficult it will be for the owner to keep up the investment. For example, a person staying in Kansas City will have serious problems dealing with searching for a tenant and deal with complaints, collect rent, go through the maintenance issues, emergency issues, etc if his property is in Florida. Moreover, one will have to spend a good amount of time in travelling to and fro. Therefore, hiring the right manager will help one save time as well as the worry of looking after his property.

Managerial Experience is Minimal:

Several estate owners show interest in buying new properties but do not know how to manage them. They spend their fortune in buying new properties and lose out on their investments as they are unable to manage these properties. This has caused these investors to seek professional assistance in this matter. An experienced property manager with relevant skills and knowledge of the market will be able to manage the affairs. It is more expensive for a homeowner to sit and learn the process than to give it to a person having expertise in the field. Nevertheless, one must take all the necessary precautions before hiring a manager to take care of his investment. This will help him protect his investment and get good returns from it.

Affordable Managers Available in the Market:

One needs to have his financial resources secured prior to hiring a manager to look after his property. Although, the services are not available for free, the average charges range from 4-10% of the property’s gross income. The regular charge for a family (single) rental property is nearly 10% while for family units up to 10 ranges between 4 and 7%. There are certain agencies that charge a placement fee for finding the right tenant for the home. This acts as a bonus for such agencies. The fees charged as such can cost in the least some hundred dollars or at the most a month’s rent.

Giving Away Responsibility:

One can keep himself free from all the troubles related to taking care of the home including rent collection, maintenance of the home and filling out property taxes. Most of the homeowners keep busy most part of the day. Giving all these responsibilities to someone who is worth the post will spare the homeowners the worry related to the home maintenance. However, one has to make sure that the person assigned the job should have the required passion and experience for fulfilling the responsibility.

These reasons are enough for making a homeowner reconsider handling the business singlehandedly. One must, however, take help from a reputed company for this service.

Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), Duke of Wellington, is reputed to have been the one to exclaim ‘All good things come from England, but cavalry is not one of them’ while facing Napoleon’s French Army at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. Wellesley had learnt his military trade in India applying his study of the art of war and had became a master of the reverse-slope tactic – keeping his forces screened from artillery fire behind the brow of a hill. At Waterloo, however, Wellesley’s Armies were outwitted by Napoleon. The French Emperor had imitated Wellesley’s tactics by positioning 200 heavy artillery guns behind a ridge at La Haye Sainte. When the Hussars and Dragoons cavalrymen led by Lord Uxbridge attacked in the famous Charge of the Scots Greys, Napoleon commanded the guns on the topline of the ridge and one of the epic artillery bombardments in history began. It was at this very moment, at the height of the Charge and while his 3,000 cavalrymen were being slaughtered by the rapid artillery fire of Napoleon’s heavy guns, that the phlegmatic English General is reputed to have exclaimed his now famous remark, directed at Lord Uxbridge who had apparently ordered the Charge without Wellesley knowing it. The day was saved by Gebhard von Blucher (1742-1819), Field Marshal of Prussia, who led the assault of the Kaiser’s Prussian Cavalry against the French right wing, thus causing the entire French line to collapse.

Wellesley’s famous remark has been retouched several times throughout the years, depending on one’s point of view. The British dropped the second part – the reference to the ill-fated cavalry charge – thus creating the popular short version ‘All good things come from England’ – period. When about a century later Britain had the unwise idea of attacking the Ottoman Empire and the British and French Armies were fighting the Turks side-by-side in WWI, General Mustapha Kemal – the English-speaking Commander of the Turkish Garrison and victorious defender of Gallipoli – paraphrased the English dictum after 289 days of siege by turning it, somewhat deprecatingly, into: “No good things ever come from England”. And Mahatma Gandhi throughout his teachings of non-violent conflicts resolutions makes reference to the fact that “All good things come from India”.

Alas, no matter what your point of view is, I shall submit to readers of my Blog that “at least two good things comes from England” : Fee Simple Ownership and Organized Real Estate.

English real estate law (or ‘Estate Law’ as it was known back then) was imported, through colonization, into the earlier forms of law in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Many of these states, or their territories, have since modified this historical law, to varying degrees. A study of the old feudal land system of England provides us with an invaluable glimpse of legal history regulating the most valuable asset of them all: land. In medieval times, land was the sole form of wealth and it depended primarily on possession. You had it, you owned it. You wanted it, you fought for it. You found it, you kept it. There were no courts or police force ready to recognize or enforce “legal rights” as we know them today. All this changed with the Norman conquest of England in 1066. William decreed that he owned all of the land in England by right of conquest. Not one acre of England was to be exempted from this massive expropriation. This sudden vacuum of privately-held land was promptly filled by a variety of huge land grants given by the new King to either his Norman officers or to those of the English who were ready to recognize him as king. The device used by the King to control and administer his land was that of tenure. Tenure was the key component of the feudal system. The King struck a bargain with a Lord for a large chunk of land. The Lords that held their tenure directly from the King were called Tenants-in-chief. It was this group of persons who formed the basis of English aristocracy and began, by the process of subletting the King’s land, the implementation of the feudal system.

Tenures were of a variety of duration known as “estates” and the Fee Simple Estate was the most extensive and allowed the Tenant to sell or to convey by will or be transferred to the Tenant’s heir if he died. In modern law, almost all land is held in fee simple and this is as close as one can get to absolute ownership in common law. It was in this context that the British began their dominion over the seas and their explorations which led to the modern nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America. The concept of developing an informal association of local real estate agents originated in the United States in the 1880s, and by the turn of the century about 15 Real Estate Boards had been established. The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) was formed in the U.S. in 1908 with 19 boards and one state association. Organized real estate in Canada is almost as old as the country itself. The very first Real Estate Board was set up in 1888 in the growing community of Vancouver. Back then, a commercial lot on Hornby Street near the Hotel Vancouver sold for $600. The Vancouver Board – as it was known then – was active until the start of the First World War, when operations were suspended. It resumed in 1919, and has been operating ever since.

The distinction of the oldest, continuous running Board belongs to Winnipeg, Manitoba. It started in 1903, and the Winnipeg Real Estate Board was the first in Canada to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The Toronto Board was incorporated in 1920, followed by boards in Ottawa, Hamilton, Regina and Victoria in 1921. More than half of the existing Real Estate Boards in Canada were created after 1955, in part because of the evolution of the “Photo Co-Op System” that was introduced in 1951. That was the forerunner of today’s MLS®, introduced in 1962. The Co-op System not only created a need for an organization to establish rules and promote co-operation among agents, but also to provide funds to operate a real estate board. That’s when technology first changed the real estate industry.