subject: Superior Equity Group - Running a Business Doesn't Have to be Expensive [print this page] If finances are the only thing holding you back from starting a business, worry no more. Many people are joining the latest trend: home offices. No longer do you need to have an expensive office and shoulder the expenses that come with it. In fact, if you don't need employees, then you needn't carry workers' compensation insurance, nor do you need to carry the comprehensive liability insurance that most landlords require businesses to hold. However, it is advisable to hold some sort of liability insurance for your business.
If you have an extra room in your home or apartment, set up a home office. This will not only make running your home-based business more efficient, but it will also make it easier to deduct business expenses when it comes time to file your taxes. Just as in a traditional office, you can deduct legitimate business expenses, and setting aside an area in your residence that is devoted strictly to business will allow you to write off a portion of your rent or mortgage, depending on a formula supplied by the Internal Revenue Service.
If you have the need to make formal presentations to clients, you needn't bring them to your house if yu don't wish. There are numerous businesses that offer conference rooms and other business amenities at a daily rate. By paying for only what you need when you need it, you will be saving large amounts of money.
Depending on how your business is set up, taxes will be a breeze if you run your business from home. If you're set up as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), then you simply file your business taxes as a single form within your personal tax return. If you're set up as a corporation, however, you'll need to file taxes on a quarterly basis, apart from your personal taxes.
If you do set up a home office, you can still have the basics that you would have in a traditional office environment; you can still set up a dedicated phone and fax line. This will not only allow you to present a more professional look to your clients, but it will make it easier to deduct these expenses at tax time, because you will be separating your personal expenses from your business expenses. Of course, regardless of whether you run a home office or a normal office, you will always want to maintain separate bank and credit card accounts for your business. Failure to do so usually results in any loss of personal liability protection that running an LLC or corporation provides.
There are numerous businesses that are home-based these days; more than a few record labels, production companies, and web hosts are run from home, and their low overhead allows them to take care of their customers in the same manner than traditional-office companies do.
Superior Equity Group - Running a Business Doesn't Have to be Expensive
