Posts Tagged ‘Home Office’

Moving Back Home Is Not Without Risk

Friday, September 18th, 2009
Home Office

Home Office

With the recession putting pressure on increasingly scarce resources, many small businesses are foregoing leasing office space to return home. While this may result in cost savings, improved lifestyle and no commuting expense, there are several issues to consider. The first concerns compliance with your lease or homeowner’s association rules. You could inadvertently cause a violation of your lease or city codes. One issue that might be problematic is if your home-based business attracts a steady stream of visitors that may violate your reasonable use clause. Or constant shipments via UPS or FedEx for an eBay sales business could be considered a quality of life violation for your neighbors.  Some businesses, such as food-service businesses, could be considered health code violations and others may require special permits. So investigate the requirements for your business to make sure you are in compliance.

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School Holidays

Saturday, May 30th, 2009
Danger - Children at Home

Danger - Children at Home

Summer holidays typically begin for school children the week after Labor Day. This means that you and your employees may have children home for the summer months during business hours when you may be working from a home office on a temporary basis or perhaps as part of a longer-term telecommuting arrangement. If you have teenagers who want to use your computers, you will need to ensure that safeguards are in place. Social networking hubs and music download sites that are especially popular with teenagers are often vectors for viruses or mal-ware. You wouldn’t want those to infect your home computers and certainly not the computers you use for your small business. So make certain that your business computer is used for business purposes only. This will also make your tax reporting easier, since there will be no question about the purpose of the computer. Insist that your employees do the same. And you may want to take appropriate cautions to teach your children about computer safety as these are good habits to learn as they become more proficient with technology.

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Home Based Offices

Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Home office

Home office

With the economy officially in recession, many people are working from home, either voluntarily or involuntarily. According to the Census Bureau, nearly half (49%) of all businesses in the U.S. are home-based. Add to that the number of displaced workers who are consulting from home, freelancing or using their home offices as a base from which to seek other employment and corporate employees who telecommute and you have a large home-based workforce.

If you operate your small business from home or you and/or your employees work from home occasionally, you need to be as vigilant about computer security as you would working from a traditional office. If you issue laptops to your employees, make sure that they understand that the laptops are for business use only. Do not allow your teenagers or others to use them as their most popular music and video download sites and social networking sites are often misused for mal-ware and other types of viruses. Exercise the same degree of caution with respect to passwords, VPN’s and other protocols as you would in the office.

Finally, be aware that your homeowner’s or tenant’s insurance almost certainly does not cover commercial activities performed inside the home. You can obtain a policy for a home-based business at very low cost, often offered as part of a membership benefit package in many small business associations, making the cost of joining well worth the membership dues.

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