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Increase Your Home Business Productivity: Managing Social Media

: Image by stevegarfield via Flickr

As someone who works from home, I’m always looking for ways to increase my productivity. Right now, during the summer, it is especially difficult to manage my son at home. While I do have some childcare options, it doesn’t compare with hours spent at school. However, my son pales as a distraction in comparison to the distractions available online in the form of social media. Your home business productivity probably suffers as well, due to the Internet.

Kyle at the Suburban Dollar wrote an interesting post for Moolanomy. It is about improving your work from home productivity. One of the points he makes is that Twitter is a distraction. But Twitter isn’t the only social media distraction. Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Propeller and other social media outlets can sap your time. Answering requests for help from others can be distracting and time consuming. Here is what I do to help limit my social media distractions and work more efficiently:

* Start out the day by clearing my inbox and answering all social media requests.

* Decide which post will be my focus for social media, write that, and then submit and promote it.

* Do my other writing, avoiding social media.

* Check my inbox (briefly) once an hour while working, and only take care of the important messages.

* Choose one time during the day (after lunch, usually) to clear out the inbox and handle social media requests.

* Finish my projects and end my work day.

* Before shutting down for the evening, clear out the social media once more.

How do you handle the distractions of social media?

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Reminder: Estimated Taxes Due Today

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

Today is June 15, and the day that estimated taxes for Quarter 1 of 2009 are due. If you have a home business, you should have figured your estimated taxes for this year at the time you did your tax return. Your estimated taxes should be sent to the United States Treasury office specified. Your envelope needs to be postmarked today, or you will be charged interest for the lateness of your payment.

It is much easier to pay estimated taxes quarterly when you have a home business. This is because you are penalized if you owe a great deal of money at the end of the year. Additionally, you will have to pay interest. Letting your money sit in a savings account all year so that you get the interest is likely backfire.

You can find more about paying estimated taxes for your home business on the IRS Web site.

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Friday Fun Video: Mark Kaye Raps About the “Floconomy”

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

When Flo Rida appeared on Mark Kaye’s radio show, Kaye had a rap song prepared. It’s about the economy and how “tough” times have become for the rich and famous.

Happy Friday!

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Help for Home Business: 4 Professionals Who Can Help You

by Miranda Marquit 3 Comments

It may seem as though, with a home business, you have to do everything on your own. In fact, many freelancers and others who work from home assume that — since they are starting their own business — everything has to be done in-house. This is far from the truth. And, it can actually be detrimental to your home business to try and spend time on things that you can outsource to professionals. It may take time away from running your business if you do things that someone else could do more efficiently. Laura Spencer at Freelance Folder offers a list of 4 professional that can help you improve your business:

1. Attorney

2. Tax professional

3. Accountant

4. Marketing specialist

Personally, I’m quite lucky. My accountant is also my tax professional, so that kills two birds with stone. And he also is knowledgeable enough that he was able to help me decide on an LLC. For really taxing legal questions, I have an uncle and a cousin who are attorneys. So far, I haven’t needed a marketing specialist, but I know that there are plenty of other people who might need such a service.

Do you outsource any of your professional needs?

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Free Domain Name for a Year — And a Business Profile Page

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

: Image by aranarth via Flickr

According to Outright.com, close to 60% of small business owners do not have a Web site. This includes many people with a home business. Does your home business have a Web site? If not, you should consider getting one. A Web site can be a big help to a home business, allowing people to easily find you online. One way you can get one – or at least get a free domain name for a year – is by signing up with Outright.com.

Outright.com is a free online business bookkeeping service. Outright is partnering with Network Solutions for a limited time to offer free domain names. Network Solutions is offering a free domain name with hosting packages, but if you don’t want to pay for a hosting package, signing up with Outright can be a good way to get a free domain name without the hosting (and get free bookkeeping software).

The promotion lasts from June 9th (yesterday) until July 31.

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SBA Funding Guidelines for Small Business Debt Relief Loans Available

by Miranda Marquit 5 Comments

After a few months of waiting, SBA guidelines for small business debt relief loans have been released. These loans, termed “America’s Recovery Capital” (ARC), are meant to help small businesses discharge some of this debt. Your home business might be eligible in some cases. Here are some of the guidelines for the ARC loans, according to CNN Money:

*Business must have been in operation for at least 2 years, and been profitable for at least 1 of the last 2 years. (No startup businesses, and no businesses that have been losing money for consecutive years.)
*ARC loans can be used to make payments for up to 6 months on debt that already exists.
*Business has to prove it is experiencing financial hardship.
*Debt backed by the SBA prior to Feb. 17, 2009 is not eligible.
*If you borrowed money for business expenses on your personal credit card, you can use ARC.

You will have to apply through a lender, however. The SBA is not offering these ARC loans directly.

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Barack Obama Announces Plans to Create More Jobs

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

One of the biggest concerns that many Americans have with regard to the economy is the fact that jobs continue to be lost. Even though the pace of the decline in payrolls has slowed considerably, jobs are still being lost from the economy. As a result, it is little surprise that jobs represent the #1 concern facing many Americans.

In order to address these concerns, President Barack Obama announced new programs designed to stimulate the job market with 600,000 jobs. This is good news for many, including those with a home business. If the economy picks up, thanks to more jobs and an increased ability to spend, many small businesses will see the positive effects.

Jobs have been thought of as one of the keys to reviving the economy, and if the President’s plans work, we should see true economic improvement soon.

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Friday Fun Video: Avoid IOS

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

Information Overload Syndrome (IOS) is actually something that is real. You can become paralyzed by having too much information to process. This can happen in business or in your personal life. This is a funny look at how the availability of information and too much connectivity can actually be a problem.

Happy Friday!

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SEO Pitfalls to Avoid When Promoting Your Home Business Online

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

One of the necessities of having a home business (or any business, for that matter) is promoting it online. There are a number of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods you can employ to get noticed by Google, but not all of them will result in long-term success. In fact, one of the biggest pitfalls of online promotion is using techniques that may garner really good short-term results, but leave you buried in the long run. Here are 4 SEO pitfalls to avoid as you try to gain more visibility for your home business online:

Hidden text and links. Many people use popular keywords and irrelevant links to help build popularity. But they don’t want their Web site copy to make no sense. In order to make sure that their visitors don’t see the senseless text, some color the text the same color as the background. This hides the text from customers, but not from search engines. Eventually, however, search engines do “catch on”. If you have black-on-black or white-on-white text, the search engines will learn to distinguish this — then possibly ban you.
Link farming. Many Web sites like to have a page of links. Blogrolls frequently feature related sites. This is not a bad thing — provided you update pages and the links are actually relevant to your site material (and you have other content besides links). However, in some cases SEO seekers will make a page full of links to unrelated Web sites. This allows popularity to built, since you are linking to high traffic sites. However, your ranking will eventually fall if you continue this practice. The search engines (especially Google) will recognize what you are doing and drop you off search results.
Keyword stuffing. This is when you choose keywords and then use them liberally in your Web copy. While having a few keywords, appearing naturally in the content, is desirable and can help customers find you, stuffing your content so full of keywords that it is hard to avoid them (and it begins to seem unnatural), is a no-no. You will find that search engines notice this over-frequency and may ban you.
Duplicating content. Premium is given to original content. Duplicates are bumped lower. Do not use the same content over and over again. True SEO success comes with judicious use of keywords in original content.

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Should You Start a Home Business During a Recession?

by Miranda Marquit 2 Comments

Right now, in this time of economic uncertainty, many are wondering what they can do if they lose a job. One of the things that can be done to help replace some of the income from a lost job is to start a home business. You can start a business during a recession, and join one of the many businesses that are successful — even though they started during a recession. Over at My Two Dollars, there is an excellent discussion of the pros and cons of starting a business during a recession.

I think one of the best reasons given in the post is that there are many new opportunities available right now. The Internet has provided a host of opportunities that have not been seen before, as well as dramatically reducing the costs associated with starting and running a business. There are some drawbacks, such as the difficulty in finding consumers willing to spend money during a recession, but if you choose your business carefully, and offer a product or service that is needed, you may be able to find success.

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