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Last Updated on May 22, 2018 by Work In My Pajamas
A home-based business is often the first step in launching a basic business and getting it off the ground. From there, depending on revenue growth, it may be possible to either work with freelancers or lease an office and hire some full-time employees.
There are key questions to consider before getting started. Let’s now look at a few of those.
In This Post:
Web Design: DIY or Hire a Web Studio?
With your home business, you can choose between creating your own website or hiring a web studio to do so. There are free or freemium web design platforms like Wix that help get a website live quickly, however for a professional presence, you’re better off at least using WordPress and paying for your own web hosting. This puts your business in the driving seat.
In terms of hiring a web design firm or doing it yourself, when needing a custom website design, then hiring a web studio is usually best. However, if you’re happy to either buy a premium WordPress theme with some polish and extra features or use a free WordPress theme, you can get a workable design for a low cost. If you are going to do it yourself, get some web design tips before you start.
Separate Business & Personal Contact Numbers?
From a home office, you can choose whether to use your existing landline or get a second line installed used solely for your business. The same is true for your cellphone and existing SIM card. Some smartphones support dual SIMs to access two phone numbers and/or multiple cellular networks at the same time. Alternatively, an inexpensive phone will be fine as either a personal or business use device.
If your business is little, perhaps just selling on the side on eBay or listing on Craigslist, you probably won’t want to bother getting another line setup. However, if you’re creating a serious business intended to operate for many years, the sooner you organize a separate business phone line for it, the better off you’ll be. With business citations including business name, address and contact details being listed on so many web directories, it’s best to start off with the right information and not have to change it later.
Windows, Mac or Linux?
Whether to choose a Windows or Mac system is a raging debate. There’s also the Linux platform to consider too (Apple Mac uses a modified version of Linux as their Mac OS). From a cost perspective, it’s difficult to argue with the reality that Apple hardware and software almost always costs more than a Windows or Linux option. However, if you already own Apple hardware, then intentionally switching across to a more affordable platform perhaps should only be done once the computer is at the end of its useful life. That is, unless you’re going to have to lay out considerable funds on Mac software which will tie you to the Mac OS eco-system for longer than you may like.
In terms of Windows, it’s what most future employees will be familiar with. Using Windows means expanding to an office and employees is easier to do. The black sheep is Linux. Its various distributions like Fedora or Ubuntu offer a free way to operate a PC. Lower-resource hungry options like Lubuntu are available that run on older PCs with limited RAM memory too. Also, Linux has access to the Firefox web browser, Open Office package to open, edit and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and other popular packages making it easy to use.
Getting a few things right, your home business can start off correctly. Make sure that you have any business licenses that you require to operate and hire an accountant to manage the books. Hiring an accountant allows you to focus on building and expanding your business.
