I loved this when I heard it sampled on NPR. I thought it extremely funny: More "proof" that Barack Obama is a communist.

Happy Friday!

Yesterday, we had a look at some of the psychological advantages of having a separate home business workspace. But there are more than just psychological advantages. There are also very real financial advantages to keeping your home office separate from the rest of your home.

Financial advantages of a home office

When you have a separate home office, you have specific tax advantages. My home office is in its own room. Because of that, we can figure out how much each of the following can be deducted from our taxes:

* Portion of the mortgage payment.
* Portion of utilities.
* Depreciation for computer.
* Depreciation on the printer/fax
* Monthly Internet usage

It is important to note, however, that in order for you to take advantage of a separate home office space, you need to keep things strictly business. For example, half of my home office is taken up by storage. So I actually measure the 5 x 7 area that counts as my actually home office space (rather than the entire 10 x 14 room) and take that square footage as a percentage of the home.

Also, we bought my computer specifically for use in the home office. My husband doesn’t use it for anything. He has his own laptop for his needs. Our Internet usage is determined by the fact that 85% of the time the Internet is used at home, it is for my business.

You can see how keeping business separate from home life, you can reap certain financial rewards.

You’ve probably heard plenty of times how important it is to have a separate home business workspace. And it is important. Indeed, Amy Fontinelle at Investopedia points out that there are two main category advantages to having a separate home business workspace:

1. Psychological
2. Financial

Psychological advantages of a home office

The psychological advantages of a home office that is clearly designated as such draws a clear line between your work life and your family/home life. Sometimes you have to know when to quit. When you have a home office, it is easier to leave that work behind. Sometimes I even shut the home office door so that I am not tempted to head back in and do more work.

Another psychological line is one that works on other people. My husband started taking my work from home job much more seriously once I had an office with my own computer. When we could point to a room, and I could outfit it as a home office, the whole thing seemed much more "real" to him. It also helps me with neighbors and relatives to have a place I can call my office.

Tomorrow we will look at the financial advantages of having a separate home business workspace.

On days like today, I am rather forcefully reminded that there are no sick days when you work from home. There are still deadlines to be met (especially at the end of the month) and decisions to be made. I love to work from home, but it would be nice to be able to take a sick day.

And, of course, every SAHM, WAHM and WOHM (and most dads, too) knows that there are no sick days for you when you have kids. So there’s been homework to help with along with the fact that I’ve been fuzzy and distracted all day.

I’ll get it all done. But it may take a while.

With social media and social networking finding an increasing place of prominence in the world of home business, people are starting to redefine their relationships. I mean, thanks to Facebook, I’m "friends" with people I’ve never met.

If you are looking to grow your home business network, though, it can help to know the difference between contacts and connections. Here is a definition of both from a posting on Sparkplug CEO:

She said that contacts are those people who you may have talked to or
met once and you know each other but not well. A connection is a person
who you have a mutual solid relationship (more so as a friendship) with
and a person you can count on as a resource.

I like these definitions. They set up some relationship boundaries, and provide workable definitions that can help you in your social networking efforts. The goal is to turn contacts into connections who can be used as resources. And, of course, in the reciprocal world of social media, you are expected to act as a good connection as well.

One of the most concise descriptions of one of the main causes of the financial crisis can be found with this video. Of course, some factors are missing, but the video does a great job of describing the basics of corporate accounting and why we’re in this mess. The smiley faces make it fun.

Happy Friday!

When it comes to marketing your business, social networking is rapidly becoming a must. And one of the common tools used now is Twitter. But sometimes things get a little heavy-handed on Twitter. In such cases of social media, blogging and marketing, ProBlogger almost always has relevant words of wisdom. Such is the case when it comes to affiliate marketing on Twitter. Here are 8 tips offered by Darren Rowse:

1. Be relevant.
2. Personalize.
3. Genuine recommendations.
4. Be conversational.
5. Indirectly link to affiliate products.
6. Be moderate.
7. Listen to followers.
8. Be useful.

I think #1 and #8 are especially applicable, as is moderation (#6) and being genuine (#3). If you are just trying to sell something, eventually (or not so eventually) people will figure it out and you will likely be shunned. And that does no one any good.

One of the most difficult things for those of us working from home is knowing when to quit. Most of us do not have traditional working hours. We just sort of do things when we can. And sometimes we get caught up and forget to stop working.

This is one of the curses of working from home: You can get just one more article done or put together just one more cute handbag to ship out from an order at your eBay store. In fact, there’s always something to be done, and the fact that your work is also at your home means that it can be tempting to just do it.

But, like a more traditional job, sometimes it is important to just step back and assign yourself a "quitting time." Just because you work at home doesn’t mean that you always have to be working.

"We’re trying to develop this community that can get stuff done," Barry Krusch tells me. "It’s real world business practice that can also advance the economy." Krusch is one of the founders of the Intelligent Community Initiative. The idea is to connect business people — and small and home business people could benefit from this a great deal — with others who can help them find the resources they need.

I really like the idea behind this initiative. It seems like a good way to get things moving right now, as well as provide valubable resources to people who otherwise would not have access to a certain level of expertise in a variety of areas. The Initiative could help you with market research, press releases, software analysis and more.

In an email, Krusch fleshes out some of the benefits of the Intelligent Community Initiative:

Through its Business Incubation and Facilitation Division, the ICI will provide
a network for businesses that are integral to (and support) the community. A
not insignificant benefit to this approach is that more tightly linked businesses
and individuals beholden to their bonds in the community require much less governmental
intervention. The ICI plan radically reduces the need for government regulations
that limit efficiency.

This is a fundamentally different approach to what we have today, enormous banks
using the government taxpayers’ funds at a time when the economy is already depressed.
If we stay married to this paradigm of screwup and bailout, we will become more
dependent on the government instead of more self-sufficient.

Krusch admits that the iniative isn’t quite there yet: "We’ve got this blueprint, and there are people who are contributing and working to build it up."

But, if it’s not there yet, I hope it will be. It certainly looks worthwhile.

What do you think? Is this something that would be useful to you?

One of the things irking many small and home business owners is the lack of attention that they get in presidential politics. NJ.com offers this on its blog:

"Small businesses are the lifeline of the economy," said Cynthia
Nannen, who owns a gift shop called the Back Door in downtown
Somerville. "And it wasn’t until the last debate that small business
was even mentioned in this campaign."

It is true that small and home business owners haven’t been seeing a lot of play in this election (or any election for that matter). And neither candidate appears to be overly concerned by the really small business — the businesses that have less than 100 people. Most of the time, a small business in the minds of candidates, is one that has less than 500 people, but more than 100 people. For many of us, the small business is a home business with just one person — ourselves. That’s true for me.

For these folks, then, it is important to look at individual tax policies, since in many cases what you make from your home business ends up being taxed as personal income. And, of course, it is time to make yourself heard and demand attention from politicians.