Last Winter, I spend my mornings pressed into a sweaty subway car, my thick winter coat I put on the brave the snowy, wind-swept streets, instead of a protector from the cold, becomes a warm prison.

When I left the subway, damp with a layer of sweat that would soon cause me to shiver, I still had a twenty-minute walk to the office. By 9am I had spent the best part of an hour commuting to work.

That was an hour of lost time. I wasn’t earning. It was time that slipped through my fingers and ended up in a sweaty puddle on the floor.

This year, however, my mornings are different. I work remotely. My front room is my office. I can wake up at 8.30, eat, shower, and get to work, all in the warmth and comfort of my home. My cat is my co-worker and at 5pm, I close my laptop and I can relax instantaneously.

Here are four tips for finding suitable work from home opportunities so you can transform your workday too.

Talk to Your Employer

Before you decide to quit your job and begin the search for remote work opportunities, talk to your employer. Often, rather than let a good employee leave, they may be willing to let you work from home for part or all of the week.

Speak to your employer to see if they are open to negotiation. Let them know that this is something that is important to you and if you can’t you will be forced to look for work elsewhere.

Start Your Search Locally

Companies are often more willing to hire someone to work remotely if they know that they can physically meet them face to face if absolutely necessary. This means you will likely have the most success in your local market.

Use a job listing site specifically dedicated to remote work and filter the search options by location. This should show you the companies in your area who are actively seeking remote workers. This would be a good place to begin the search.

Update Your Resume

The resume that landed you your office-based job may not be the best one to land you a remote working opportunity. One of the first steps should be to revamp your resume with your most recent positions and skills.

You can find free resume templates here: https://www.hloom.com/resumes/

If you feel like your resume is looking a little sparse, taking an online course in your professional field while you are looking for remote opportunities could be a way of staying productive and enhancing your resume while you look for work.

Be Flexible

The key to earning a living from remote work is being flexible. It may mean taking a couple of different part-time remote jobs to make ends meet or working freelance for a while before you find a full-time contract.

It takes time to find the right position for you. Not everybody lands their dream remote job immediately but with enough patience and determination, it is possible to do. Take the time to do your research and find the best opportunities, then send in a strong and thorough application and keep your fingers crossed!

Here are the steps that experts recommend for getting site visitors to buy.

If you want to start an online business from your home you need a proven step-by-step plan to succeed. Remember to start your business legally set up an LLC and save by using these Legalzoom promotional codes.

Internet marketing consultants recommend the following steps to help your new business succeed.

• Discover product service or information need and deliver
• Craft website copy with words to persuade and sell
• Build your website with easy to use software so you can update it yourself
• Get search engine such as Google to send traffic to your site for free
• Communicate with your customers with email marketing
• Build your income by selling additional services and products to existing customers

Many new entrepreneurs make the fatal error of finding a product first and then looking for customer second. It should be done in the inverse first find customers with needs they want to build and then search for products and services to meet their needs.

Define these customers conduct market research using these methods

Do keyword research to find the types of phrases that people are searching for and not finding products or services.

Visit online forums and read the questions and problems people are posting indicating their unfulfilled needs.

Analyze your possible competitors by studying your websites and determining how they fulfill customer demands.

How to write copy that sells

It is not enough to just write pretty words on your website need to use a specific sales formula if you want to make the maximum sales.

Expert advertising copywriters suggest these points for copy that sells:

1. Start with a compelling headline that generates interest
2. Talk about the problem your item results
3. Demonstrate your credibility as a problem solver
4. Add reviews and customer testimonials
5. Right about the product and its benefits to the end user
6. Make your sales offer
7. Include a solid guarantee
8. Create urgency to close the deal today as opposed to someday
9. Ask for the sale with a call to action button

Build your website with DIY software

Build your website with a simple easy to use a software program such as WordPress or Squarespace so that you can be your own webmaster. This drastically reduces your setup costs and increases your flexibility and turnaround time because you can make edits yourself at any time.

Keep your design simple by choosing up to two plane fonts and white background for maximum readability

Make your navigation menu clear and put it in the same location on every page

Only use graphics audio or video if they are directly relatable to your message and not just for decoration.

Make it easy to purchase with click to buy buttons.

Because your website is your storefront online you want to make it very user-friendly and customer accessible.

Demonstrate your expertise

The internet is where people come to find expert information demonstrate that your information is valid and more traffic and better search rankings and orders.

To establish your credibility giveaway your expert advice free of charge. You can write articles, blog posts, videos or create images that people searching for your type of expertise will find useful. Distribute that expert content through social media sites and other online forums related to your topic.

Looking for the easiest businesses to start – Check out this list:

32 Online Business Ideas that are Easy to Start

1. Blogging
2. Affiliate Marketing
3. E-commerce store
4. Self publish book on Amazon
5. Create Digital Course or Product
6. Youtube Video Creator
7. App Development
8. Become Facebook Advertising Agency
9. SEO Search Engine Optimization Expert
10. Freelance Writer
11. Copywriter for Sales Copy
12. Coach using Skype
13. Teacher Tutor Online
14. Buy and Sell Domain Names
15. Buy and Sell websites
16. Start a Podcast
17. Drop shipping products
18. Freelance Consulting
19. Sell on Ebay
20. Amazon FBA
21. Website design and development
22. Graphic Design
23. Niche website entrepreneur
24. Membership Facebook Group
25. Lead Generation Services
26. Virtual Assistant
27. Social Media Provider
28. Instagram Sponsorships
29. Create Software as a Service – SaaS
30. Technical Writing
31. Resume and Cover letters writing
32. Tech Support

Think about giant multi-national corporations, without even reading their company name you instantly know their brand at first glance.  These companies build their empires with expert marketing and branding.

Even though you don’t intend to start a huge firm you still need a great logo, here are the best reasons why:

1- Entices Customers

People are attracted by color. It is just plain human nature. Having a colorful logo that positively communicates about your products will draw in potential customers that could become buyers. An interesting color combination and design will arouse the curiosity of your target market and open the door to new contacts and sales.

2 – Separates Your from Competitors

Your brand is an important component of distinguishing your company products apart from your market competitors. Don’t fall into the trap of getting a boring and generic logo that is only adequate. You will blend into the background and not stand out in your industry. Instead strive to be different and provocative, to stand out and above other product lines.

3- Shows Your Character

Your logo shows your ownership of your website and services. Here you can tell your clients who you are. Are you elegant, fun, professional, knowledgeable or eco-friendly? All this brand personality can be shown with your logo design. Don’t miss this opportunity to let this silent salesman, your logo brand, sell your items for you.

4 – Build Brand Loyalty

Repeat customers, who rave about your products, are the best type of buyers. They are loyal to your brand and come back again and again and place orders. Brand loyalty is major and something every company should encourage.  Your special logo is the start to building loyalty which will send new referrals and clients by word of mouth.

5- Works Overtime

Your logo will be the hardest working employee in your company. It will work even harder than you, the business owner! That is because it can be applied everywhere. Put your logo on all your marketing materials, business cards, postcard cards, direct mail, sales brochures, event flyers and promotional products such as pens and tote bags.

Remember that your logo also can shout your marketing message online on your company website, blog, mobile apps, social media and emails.

I recommend these crowdsourcing logo design reviews to decide which logo site to get your new logo created.

Would you like to make an extra $500, $800, or even $1,000 next month? You can when you pick up extra work on the side. A side hustle is a job you take on in addition to your regular, full-time job. It’s a pretty common way to earn more money, too – at least one quarter of the work force maintains an extra gig on the side. Here’s what you can do, and how to really make it work.

Jobs You Can Do from Home

Delivery services and ridesharing are popular side gigs, but what about jobs you can do from home? If you have a computer and the internet, you’re already halfway there.

Got a great ear and decent typing skills? Consider becoming a transcriptionist. Professionals might ask your to transcribe their appointments or meetings, while the huge number of podcasts out there mean that transcriptionists are in higher demand.

One of the best ways to supplement your income is to become a virtual assistant. This can see you performing a wide array of tasks, from booking someone else’s appointments and flights, to checking emails and managing documents.

Social media management is gaining in popularity as well. If you can create engaging posts to promote someone else’s business, and are proficient with social media scheduling tools, you have a job.

How to Make Your Side Hustle a Success

While there are plenty of gigs out there, maintaining a side hustle isn’t for everyone. Here are some of the most common pitfalls of keeping another job on the side.

The first is letting your full-time job suffer. If anyone – especially your boss – can tell that your attention is waning at work, you’re not pulling it off. You’re not aiming for equal distribution across all jobs; your full-time is most important. Especially if you’re receiving benefits that could help you long-term.

This leads us straight into the topic of time management. Think carefully about how many hours you can dedicate to your side hustle, and then subtract a few. When you overcommit, you’ll be falling short at both jobs. But if you take on less than you really have time for, it’s no big deal – you can add on accordingly.

Many side hustles fall apart directly after the planning stage, and this happens for a few different reasons. The first is money. If you have to sink a lot of money into starting your side hustle, you’re not doing what you set out to do – earn more. The second is that we aren’t enjoying our side job – we really didn’t know what it took until we were doing it.

It can be exciting planning for your new gig, but just remember that it’s a real commitment. If you invest a lot of money in getting started, it’ll be doubly hard to realize you aren’t cut out for the job. Even so, side hustles can be incredibly rewarding. You can learn new skills, keep your mind sharp by changing things up, and make more money. The key is to pick something you truly enjoy and ensure you’re spending the appropriate amount of time on it.

If you have a desire to help people, an interest in the Texas housing market, and want to start your own business, consider becoming a real estate agent. Being a Texas real estate agent can be a fun and rewarding career, especially if you are looking to work from home. If you live in Texas and want to become an agent, here is a quick guide to get you started.

Basic Requirements

Simply stated, becoming a real estate agent in Texas requires that you submit an application, take a minimum of 180 course hours, and that you pass the real estate exam. After you complete these steps you must have a real estate broker sponsor (or agree to hire) you before your license is active.

In order to begin the process of applying for a real estate license or classes, you must meet certain pre-qualifications. The pre-qualifications include:

• Proving U.S. citizenship or legal ability to work
• Being at least 18 years of age
• Obtaining a high school diploma or GED
• Being a legal resident of Texas
• Meeting the moral standards Texas has set for real estate agents

Once you meet all of the pre-qualifications, you can register for classes and begin applying through TREC or the Texas Real Estate Commissions. There are fees that are to be paid throughout the application process, so keep this in mind.

What to Expect From the Courses and Test

There are six classes that will take a total of 180 hours to complete. The course hours are separated into classes like Real Estate Principles and Laws of Contracts. These courses are designed to help you understand the basics of selling while complying with Texas real estate and ethics laws. These classes can be completed online or in person depending on your schedule and what is most convenient for you. Once the classes are completed, you must submit your completed course slips, fingerprints obtained from the Department of Public Safety, and an application to TREC.

After your application is completed and processed, you have one year to take and pass the exam. Use some of this time to study; it is not recommended that you take the exam immediately after classes. Give yourself at least two weeks to study before testing. Use online study guides and practice exams to get acquainted with the test and brush up on anything you may have forgotten.

When you are ready to test, you must schedule your test through PearsonVUE and pay the exam fee. “How long is the Texas real estate exam?”, you may wonder. You have up to two and half hours to complete it once you begin. In order to take your exam, you must bring in two forms of ID to the testing center.

The exam consists of two portions, the national and the state exam. The national exam has 80 multiple choice questions and you are allowed up to 105 minutes to complete it. The state portion has 30 multiple choice questions and you have 45 minutes to complete it. You must receive a score of at least 70% on each to pass. If you need to retake a portion of the test, you must wait a week and pay another exam fee. You may retake the exam up to three times before you must take more classes.

One you have completed the courses and exam, you can contact a brokerage to start working in your new, lucrative career! This is only the beginning of your new journey into the world of real estate.

When you need a large quantity of towels for your hotel, bed and breakfast, or even as a party favor, you don’t want to choose cheap towels. Here’s what to look for when buying high-quality wholesale towels so you can choose the best ones.

Keyword(s): wholesale towels

There’s a number of businesses that require a high volume of towels. Hotels, bed and breakfasts, spas and saunas, and even Russian bathhouses— the importance of a good towel can be not be overstated for these types of establishments.

But when buying towels in bulk, how does one ensure quality on top of quantity? Any operating business knows the importance of quality service, and ensuring you have high-quality towels is an essential piece of that puzzle.

Below, we’ll walk through what you should look for when buying Turkish towels wholesale for your business.

Material Makes A Difference

Towels are made from a variety of materials, and you will likely have many options available to you when making a purchase. Towels are frequently made from cotton, terrycloth, velour, or grommet, but may be made of other materials as well. Different materials have different traits and advantages, but we recommend springing for towels made from 100% cotton.

Towels made from 100% cotton are more durable and sustainable than towels made from other materials. Using towels made from Turkish cotton or Egyptian cotton can make an even bigger difference in comfort and softness due to their longer threads. These longer threads allow them to be super absorbent as well.

At the end of the day, the material you choose needs to match your intended function, as some fabrics are better suited for certain tasks than others.Turkish cotton towels are better suited for drying bodies and hands, while linen towels are better for drying dishes or other similar materials. The right material will inevitably depend on how you plan to use the towels at your business.

High Price Doesn’t Mean High Quality

Many consumers drop huge amounts of money on wholesale towels thinking that the price point reflects the quality. This isn’t always the case. There’s no guarantee that a high priced towel is necessarily better than an affordable one.

Instead of using price as a comparison point, you should look at the particular traits of the towel at hand. For example, the utility of a towel is decided by its absorbency percentage. Absorbency is a quality that increases with surface area and is often measured in grams per square meter. A GSM of 500 or 600 is the sweet spot for a good towel.

Make Sure You’re Getting A Good Deal

If you’re buying towels in bulk, you should be getting the benefit of a great deal. After all, that’s one of the main advantages of buying wholesale. Many companies will have the price per towel drops as the amount you intend to purchase rises. Don’t be afraid to compare rates from different wholesale towel companies to find the deal that works for you.

In comparing though, try to stay away from less reputable sites. There are many sites online that would lead you to believe you’re buying authentic Turkish towels, for example, only to send you some sort of cheaper knock-off. Staying with reputable companies ensures you’ll get your money’s worth when your wholesale towels arrive.

Finding The Best Wholesale Towels

With the above advice in mind, you should easily be able to find the right wholesale towels for your business, with both quality and affordability in mind.

If you like me work from home, you are faced with various challenges every day. There are of course many benefits of working form home, like for example not having to go anywhere (commuting to work wastes many people a lot of time), or working on your own terms at the hours that suit you. Having said that, there are some things you will need to take into account like keeping the balance between your personal life and work. Usually there is a thin line between the two, and often those of us who are working from home might be tempted to work too late in the evening instead of spending time with our family members.

Working from home means that we need to find room for our home office. This can be sometimes easier said than done, but there are indeed things you can do in order to ensure that your house is not overcluttered and that you have things under control. Here are some tips and tricks on how to make it happen.

1. Stay very well organised. If you feel like you start buy too many things for your home office ask yourself immediately if this is something that you really need. Do you really need that extra piece of furniture, or could you go without it and still be happy? Or maybe you have too much paper in your office, or too many documents that are not really worth keeping? Going through them from time to time will ensure that you never have too many things you don’t need.

2. If you find yourself in a situation that there is absolutely no way to reduce the number of items in your possession, consider hiring a public storage near me. Very often, having that extra room, either very small or a bit larger, will ensure that you don’t have to be too careful with how much stuff you own. This can make you very happy as we all need enough living space to be able to function well. Try to figure out what works for you, and then you should be definitely fine.

Egg is considered to be one of the best sources of protein and boiled eggs are very healthy to be added to your daily breakfast. Cooking perfectly boiled eggs is often difficult and we end up spoiling our breakfast on days when it is not cooked right.

Many people boil eggs by simply placing them in a pot of water and boiling it on a medium flame for 15-20 minutes. However, the chances of egg being overcooked or undercooked are very high. One of the best options to boil eggs perfectly is to use the best egg boiler. This appliance comes in handy when you want to boil multiple eggs at a faster pace without overcooking or undercooking them. If you want to buy one such appliance to boil eggs perfectly, there are several things that you need to consider. Read on to find out what your considerations must be.

Shape of Tray

The tray inside the egg boiler needs to be well-shaped as this helps to hold the eggs. If the shape of the tray isn’t right, it will be difficult to get perfectly boiled eggs. In the worst case, you might see the eggs to be misplaced or destroyed if they are not held properly to the tray. To avoid such incidents, make sure to select an egg boiler with a properly shaped tray to hold the eggs.

Quantity Matters

If you want to boil multiple eggs at once (like 7-8), make sure to select an egg boiler with a tray that has the capacity to hold 8-10 eggs in a single cycle. This way, you can boil more eggs in less time. The best part is that all the eggs will be perfectly boiled owing to the even temperature condition used for boiling eggs.

Is the Egg Boiler BPA Free?

Before you purchase an egg boiler, you need to ensure that the all the accessories and trays have considerably lower BPA. For the uninitiated, BPA stands for Bisphenol A, which is a harmful chemical that can affect humans if consumed in larger quantity. It can interfere with the secretion, production and transfer of hormones, and sometimes it can also lead to the elimination of the natural hormones, which is very dangerous for our body. So, to avoid any kind of serious health issues, make sure to select an egg boiler with lower BPA.

Manufacturer Warranty

Make sure to select an egg boiler with a manufacturer warranty of at least 6 months – 1 year. If there is no warranty, avoid buying such products as you might not know if the product is faulty or defective. You can get to know about its durability only after using for a certain time.

These are few of the major points that you need to consider before purchasing egg boilers. Egg boilers from Kent are considered to be the best egg boiler in India – this is not surprising as the brand is one of the leading choices for all kinds of home appliances.

Taiwan is a relatively small and inward looking country, this lack of scale and exposure to modern practices has led to a relatively poor Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) environment. In short, many SEO services offered in Taiwan are not great. In some cases there is a mistaken impression that Google Adwords and SEO are the same thing, and some SEO companies in Taiwan still use outdated keyword stuffing and bulk link-building strategies that risk long-term Google penalties.

It’s not all bad news though! This situation creates opportunity for those who do SEO right!

Keyword Difficulty in Taiwan

Keyword Difficulty (KD) is a measure of how difficult it is to get a website to rank on the first page of Google for a given keyword. KD takes into account the SEO strength and quality of content in the sites that are already ranking for that keyword, so when aggregated across many keywords, KD can give us an indication of the SEO strength in a specific market.

We analysed the KD of the top ranking websites in Taiwan, USA, France, Italy and the UK across a number of industries, using a keyword that was adjusted for local language.

The results show how websites in Taiwan are much weaker than those of other countries.

Keyword difficulty

Taiwan is a smaller market, so you would expect KD to be less, right? Well, yes, but the market is not that much smaller, and the price of goods and services are pretty much equal with the comparison countries. Therefore, we believe that in general, SEO represents a good investment in Taiwan.

Search Engines

Source

Google has slowly but steadily risen to become the main search engine in Taiwan, with close to 90% of the search market. The gradual shift from Yahoo to Google can be attributed to two major factors.

1. Design – Yahoo is cluttered and busy, Google is clean and simple. This reflects a growing trend in Taiwan for modern webdesign practices.
2. Quality – The quality of Google’s search results are, in our humble opinion, just that bit better.

So does that mean that Google works exactly the same in Taiwan as other countries? Well, it’s hard to say exactly. However, there is evidence to suggest that Google is slightly more lenient towards Black Hat techniques in less competitive markets. We don’t advise that you jump on the Black Hat Train just yet though! All it takes is for Google to update their algorithm in Taiwan and sites that have previously used Black Hat SEO will be penalised.

How to localize SEO in Taiwan

So, how do we build our clients’ websites DA (with White Hat techniques), and how do we teach Google that your business is focusing on Taiwan?

Keywords

Traditional Chinese (繁體中文) is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau only. This means that, regardless of localisation, you are only competing with websites from these countries.

When doing keyword research, many people’s first step is Google’s Adwords Planner. This is a great tool and it works just fine in Taiwan. You can set the region to Taiwan and the Language to All Languages to get started.

Hitting ‘Advanced Search’ in the Location pop-up will allow you to hone right in on keywords being searched for in specific regions of Taiwan. For example Zhongli or Keelung.

Once you’ve settled on the location you want to focus on, you can then use your initial seed keyword to come up with some other keyword ideas that are relevant.

After that you can then use one of the paid SEO tools like MOZ to determine Keyword Difficulty or KD for each keyword. KD shows you how difficult it will be to rank on the first page of Google for a particular keyword. Be aware though, many of these tools don’t work very well in Taiwan, some because they struggle with the Chinese language set, and some because they don’t have Taiwan listed as a region.

We love a good NAP!

No, we’re not talking about the Taiwanese habit of taking a short lunchtime nap, in SEO, NAP refers to your Name, Address and Phone number.

The important thing here is that these are consistent, clear and accurate. This may sound simple, but there’s more to it than that.

Firstly, you need to make sure that on your website, your NAP is clearly marked (the footer is a good place to start), and following the schema.org guidelines for local businesses.

We’d hope that your business has been mentioned in many places across the internet, perhaps on business directories or other local sites. In this case, while it’s more of a challenge to manage the consistency of your NAP on external sites, this is a strong indicator to Google and well worth spending time on.

In Taiwan, another challenge in managing the consistency of NAP is that there are many different ways of spelling Chinese words in English. Some people use the Wade-Giles system, others just make it up. For example, 淡水 is (currently) spelled as ‘Tamsui’ on Google Maps, despite many businesses still referring to it as (the more phonetically correct) Danshuei.

The Fullon Dansuei Hotel is a great example!

Another thing to bear in mind is how you arrange your street address in Chinese and English. In Chinese you begin with the country and end with the street number, English is the other way around.

Google My Business

Google provides this as a free service, and it is especially helpful for local businesses. Head over and set yourself up as soon as you can. It’s an extremely painless process and will help Google to understand more about your services and where you operate, which in turn will help potential customers to find you easier online.

Before you register yourself, spend a few minutes to make sure that you’ve not already been listed. If you have, there is a fairly simple process so that you can claim ownership of your listing. Don’t be tempted to ignore a previous listing and set up a new duplicate one – this will confuse things for Google and your customers, not a good thing.

Remember that everything you add is visible online, so make sure you are proud of it! Upload some good quality images of your business, your products and your services. Write a good, compelling description and think about your target audience – are you writing Traditional Chinese for local Taiwanese, or English for expats?

Local Reviews

Once you’re set up on Google My Business, you can start to gather reviews that will be visible in search results. Google reviews can help you both to build trust and improve your rankings.

90% of customers report that they are influenced by positive reviews. This is a massive number and not something to be ignored.

Aside from the trust factor, there is growing evidence that having positive, local reviews on Google will help your business to show up in the map section for search results.

Which Taipei bar would you choose for a night out?

Google wants you to encourage your customers to go ahead and give reviews. So go for it! You might prompt people in email footers, on your website, or even (shock horror) face to face. Don’t ever be tempted to pay for fake reviews.

Blogging goes Local

We’ve discussed already that content is king, but how do you go about local content marketing? Simply stuffing local keywords into existing articles just isn’t going to cut it I’m afraid.

Content marketing is all about becoming a thought leader in something, and surprise surprise, local content marketing is the same. Get creative with your blog, taking your specific niche and talking about any local events, news, challenges etc that are relevant.

For example you might attend an event at Taipei’s Nangang exhibition centre – blog about it! Take some photos of yourself there and share with others how you think it might be useful for them and the rest of the Taipei community. Add local value to your readers.

Local Link Building

We talked previously about Domain Authority (DA). DA is a measure of a website’s trust, and is built by other websites linking to yours. The rationale is that a website must trust you to link to you.

In the current SEO environment, quality of links is far more important than quantity. Quality refers to two things, the DA of the site that is linking to you, and its relevance to your business.

So for localising SEO in Taiwan, the ideal link to acquire would be from a Taiwanese site with high DA that is also relevant to your industry. Links like this are likely to bring real customers to your site, so we like to think about modern link building as online PR.

Getting started, you might want to list your business on a few local Taiwanese business directories. Some examples, along with their DA and monthly traffic can be found below.

Blogger outreach can be a viable form of link building. You might be able to write a guest post in exchange for a link. Or a blogger might just mention you if they feel you can add real value to their readers. Consider exclusive offers for their readers which can sweeten the deal.

Here’s a few examples of popular blogs in Taiwan, again with their DA and monthly traffic.

What’s Next?

SEO is a very cost-effective way for you to get momentum for your business in Taiwan. If you are interested in learning more, give Gremlin Works a shout.

If you’re thinking about working from home, one of the first things you need to think about is where you will work from. Bearing in mind that you will be spending a large part of your day using your computer, you will need a dedicated work station with all the materials you need, good Wi-Fi access, and surroundings that are conducive to being able to concentrate. You need to approach this task with a professional eye, because imagining you can sit at the kitchen table or on the couch with your laptop every day will not make the best working environment.

What you need for your home business

Before you think about where to site your work area, calculate what space you will need. This will depend to a large extent on the type of business you’re running. For a computer-based business, a good-sized desk, ergonomic office chair and storage for your consumables and files will be all you’ll need. If you’re going to be making and/or selling products, you will also need storage space, and for craft businesses a manufacturing area. If you’re only intending to sell rather than make products yourself, then you could adopt a drop-ship model which eliminates the need for you to hold your own stock.

Finding the space

Once you’ve established the amount of space you need, you can then examine your home to see where your work area would best fit in. A spare room is ideal, as it can simply be repurposed for your requirements. If you don’t have a lot of space, you will have to come up with a clever solution, for example:

• Make use of areas that don’t have a specific function, g. alcoves, landings and under the stairs. Even large cupboards can be fitted out as home offices. You might need to have a good clear out to make enough space, but that’s no bad thing in itself.
• Have you got a garage or other outdoor building that could be converted, or do you have the space to build a garden room in the backyard? You do need to check on any planning restrictions on using outdoor buildings before starting your conversion or building project.
• Do you have a basement that doesn’t get used? Often this is because basements can be damp or prone to flooding, but this can be fixed by installing a sump pump to keep the room dry. It’s possible to install a pump yourself if you’re a DIY enthusiast, with a bit of guidance from an expert. You’ll find tutorials online that can help you with the process and give you instructions on dealing with the sump pump weep hole for example, or you can get a plumber to come in and do the job for you.
• Roof-spaces can similarly be converted for home office use, but bear in mind you will need adequate heating and ventilation, as the space will be more vulnerable to outside temperature variations.

Setting up your home work area is an important part of your venture, so make sure you get it right.