I still really enjoy the “priceless” MasterCard commercials. A couple of years ago, one was run featuring Homer Simpson. It was actually rather funny. Always a classic.

Happy Friday!

You know that if you are self-employed, you have to pay your own taxes. However, many people don’t realize that a side business — even when you work for “the man” — is taxed as well. Indeed, if you work a regular job, but make money from home on the side (even if it is just income from a blog), you will need to pay taxes if you make more than $400 a year. The Street reports on this self-employment tax:

How much is the tax? If you are lucky enough to be your own boss, you should expect to pay 15.3% of your first $102,000 of income. That figure includes 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. You should use Form 1040-SE to calculate the magic number. It allows you to shave 7.65% off the amount subject to tax, which can result in considerable savings.

The good news (if any can be said to be had) is that your self-employment tax actually serves as a deduction on your 1040, lowering your overall taxable income. And you should remember that your taxable income is a completely different beast from your self-employment tax. Consult with a knowledgeable tax professional to find out your options and look for ways to reduce what you owe.

As a freelance writer, I don’t usually have to meet with clients. However, if I ever did, I certainly couldn’t ask them to come to my home “office”. Lead them through the somewhat cluttered living room to the definitely cluttered workspace I use? Not very professional. However, Mrs. Micah has some great suggestions for impressing clients (and potential clients) without having to spend a great deal of money:

* Go to lunch or for drinks. This is less expensive than dinner, and you might get some special deals.

* Don’t mention money. At least, don’t mention prices on the menu. Order something that is mid-range for yourself, and say nothing to the client about costs. Even though you are picking up the tab.

* Use a business card. You can get cheap business cards from a number of sources. This is a good idea, since it shows professionalism. I get my business cards from moo.com, but there are plenty of other places to get them as well.

* Keep in touch. After you have landed the project, keep in touch. You may not need to meet again, but you should update your client.

You can also rent a meeting place in professional buildings and other areas. Make sure you dress appropriately for a client meeting. This means either business attire or business casual attire. You want to project the right image.

If you are interested in sharing your expertise, you can win some cool prizes from JobMob. JobMob is holding a guest blogging contest. You write a post, submit it, and then, if your post receives the most traffic for a certain amount of time, you win. There are a number of prizes that will be given out, many of them exceptionally helpful for those with a home business. Some of the prizes include:

* 20 hours of outsourcing time.

* Personal Branding Magazine.

* Cash.

* 15 minute coaching session.

These are actually pretty cool prizes. You can find out more about this guest blogging contest, and how to enter, at JobMob.

I am going camping tomorrow. I will be in the woods of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. I am pretty nervous about this, since I will be unplugged for three days. I honestly can’t remember a time when I was unplugged for so long. I know it existed, but since I started freelancing, I probably haven’t gone more than a day without checking my email and at least making sure that everything is okay. After all, when you are visiting relatives or taking a trip to a major city, it is usually possible to take 15 minutes to touch base.

But, I suppose, the Internet will have to get along without me for a little while

One of the great tools available to bloggers and to business people who have blogs is the pre-post. I will be employing this method on my blogs while I am away. Basically, all you have to do is do your posts ahead of time, and then post them with a “time stamp”. Many blogging platforms allow you to schedule posts for the future, so that they appear automatically. This is a great way to keep your blog active while you are gone.

If you are going to be absent for longer periods, you can ask trusted colleagues for guest posts, so that you are not swamped with trying to do so many extra blog posts. Then, of course, you can schedule those in advance as well before you leave.

The freecreditreport.com commercials are funny, but many feel that the catches are no laughing matter. Which is why the FTC spoofed those commercials with ads for annualcreditreport.com.

Happy Friday!

I had never thought about a business organizer, until I read about it over at Home Biz Notes. Mary Emma Allen points out that there are people out there who are experts at organizing businesses, and aspects of businesses. And, while it makes a good home business idea for someone who wants to work from home, it can also be a helpful service to employ from someone else. Here is what Mary Emma points out about home business organizers:

The areas where you might get help in organizing are your home, office, business space, time, family, and finances.  Make sure you check out the service before investing any money or signing an agreement.  Get references from satisfied customers, particularly if it allows letting people into your home or receiving personal and financial information.

While I don’t need a lot of organizational help with my freelancing home business, there are plenty of others who would find such services immensely helpful. And even I could use a little help organizing my time (especially as it concerns my family). Sometimes you really need an outside observer to help you get things together.

When I make international phone calls, I use Skype. It’s much less expensive than using a land line. This type of service is called VoIP — voice over IP. It means that you use the Internet as your medium to make phone calls. Using VoIP for your home business can be a very smart move. Small Biz Bee offers 5 reasons that switching to VoIP is a good idea:

1. Scalability: It is easy to add more lines, allowing your VoIP system to grow along with you.

2. Functionality: Instead of being based on hardware, VoIP is often based on software. Which means you can upgrade more easily — without having to by new equipment.

3. Professionalism: It is possible to easily program your VoIP system with an auto-attendant feature that can route callers to the proper place. It allows your work from home operation to seem as professional as a bigger business.

4. Portability: You can connect in from anywhere, which means your phone number is not tied to specific location. It allows you to continue with your home business even when you are on the road.

5. Cost: VoIP is much cheaper than a traditional land line — or even that digital service you get from your cable provider. Plus, if you use VoIP, you don’t have to pay for extra lines and usage. You just use your Internet connection.

I can see the attraction to having VoIP, and if I didn’t have to make international calls, I’d do it. But what happens if my Internet service is down and I can’t access Skype? Then what do I do? My cell phone doesn’t do international calling, so in a pinch, I still need my land line. At some point, though, one hopes that Internet service can be treated as other utilities — as a necessity.

When people know that you have a home business, they often become interested in getting “sweet hook ups” from you. I know that family and friends often want to use my editing or writing services on certain projects. If it’s only occasionally, I don’t mind looking over a school paper for my siblings or helping my mom with a bit of writing. With friends, I often ask that they watch my son for an hour or two in exchange for doing a little work for them. Overall, this works out. My family and friends are pretty used to the idea that my time is money, and that my home business is, in fact, a business.

But what if my acquaintances weren’t so understanding? Laura Spencer at Freelance Folder offers this insight into how you can make sure that your friends and family understand that you are running a business when you work from home:

When talking about your business with friends and family, make sure to occasionally include some of these more mundane topics in the conversation along with the more exciting aspects of your business.

For example, when asked how the business is going instead of just talking about the exciting new logo design project you’ve been assigned to work on you could also mention the overdue invoice that you’re having trouble collecting.

This sets the stage for making sure your relatives and friends understand that you have work obligations and other time commitments. As long as you are consistent, you should be able to say “no” if someone tries to take advantage your relationship to get discount services as you work from home. When you do help, make sure that you make it clear that this is not something that can be regular. Make it clear that you are only helping out because you have the time to do so at the moment, and let them know that next time, you might not be available.

How do you handle requests from family and friends?

As Americans, we work a lot. I’m out of town visiting friends, but I am still up this morning, trying to do some posting, before we pack up and head back home. Sure, I reduced the amount of work I had to do while away, but working has still been a part of this trip nevertheless. Because we work so much, it is important to consider whether or not the work we do is satisfying.

My Money Blog offers some insight into three characteristics of a satisfying job:

1. Autonomy: We like to have a certain amount of control over what we are doing in our work. As a freelancer, or a home business owner, this can be a big part of increased job satisfaction.

2. Complexity: Most people like some degree of stimulation on the job. Whether intellectually stimulating or physically challenging, the chance to solve problems or find creative ways of doing things contributes to job satisfaction.

3. Connection between effort and reward: The feeling that you are making what you are worth — or at least are recognized by others for doing a good job — is an important one to to job satisfaction.

No matter what kind of job you are doing, if you feel satisfied about it, it probably has all three of the above characteristics. If one of these is missing, you might have a lower amount of job satisfaction. And, if all three are missing, you might consider updating your resume and skills so that you can start looking for a new job when the recession ends.