Working at Home on the Internet » Tips

Tax Tips for Small Business and the Self-Employed

Joe Hauckes — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:47:59 +0000

For those running their own business the exciting, exotic and thrilling world of Tax, VAT and accounting offers many a sleepless night of chills and spills, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even hardened small business men and women can be found poring over coffee stained slips of paper and hefty volumes of tax manuals that can give War & Peace a run for its money in terms of length and impenetrability. For first timers, or even relatively experienced business people, there are some simple steps to getting your tax affairs in order.

The key points

Make sure you have an accountant. In most cases, especially in the case of small business people, tax, VAT and payroll will not be your area of expertise. The regulations are complex and small changes to them can have a big impact. A professional accountant will be able to ensure that all the details are correct and comply with legislation. It may seem like an expense too far, but a professional will ensure you meet your liabilities and might just help to highlight any allowances that you may easily miss on your own. The actual cost of an accountant is money well spent and can save you money in the long term.
Submitting your accounts, tax returns to HMRC, or documents to Companies House, must be done on time. Paperwork needs to be accurate and up to date. Late submissions can incur penalties and mistakes may encourage investigations by HMRC. Deadlines can be found on the HMRC website and the online deadline is normally later than the paper deadline. If you don’t already submit online, now is the time to start, not only does it give you more time, it will soon be compulsory.
Keep detailed and accurate records for at least six years. Income and outgoings should be recorded and records retained, HMRC are strict about this and it can be a costly mistake to make if you do need to produce records for them.
Claim all the allowances you are entitled to – for new businesses this can include incorporation costs, equipment purchase or help with your business rates. This is where an accountant is worth their weight in gold and the cost of employing them can ‘earn’ you money.
If you don’t already use accounting software or bookkeeping software it may be the time to make the investment. Apart from being a cost that can be offset against tax in most cases, accounting software can save you significant amounts of time. In terms of record keeping it allows you to centralise all of your records in one place, have easy access to them and retain them for the required period. Accounting software also allows you to prepare documents quickly and easily for your accountant, which makes their job easier and will save money on their fees. Two main types of accounting software are available. Desktop software or online accounting software are the two main options – the latter means that your accounts are accessible from any computer and you can add your accountant to the users list. The latter feature again saves a great deal of time and effort, in turn saving money.

Take action now

Tax laws and regulations change frequently and even for the smallest of businesses they can be frustrating. The more aspects of tax you need to deal with the more time consuming accounting can be. As the financial year draws to a close, consider employing an accountant and purchasing accounting software if you have not already done so. With the right advice and the right tools, the start of the new financial year doesn’t need to leave you with a financial hangover.

Stay Safe With Your Online Shopping [Infographic]

Joe Hauckes — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:27:47 +0000

If you are new to shopping online, or even if you are experienced, for this Holiday Season, there are a few things to watch out for and ways to stay safe with your purchases.

Check out this Infographic to see what you need to know:

Via: Trend Micro

Four Steps to Protect Your Home Business Computer

Joe Hauckes — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:37:50 +0000

This is a post that I wrote for my business blog, but since it fit so well with us Work at Homers who depend on our computers, I thought it was something that would be helpful to you. If your computer goes haywire, so could your business. Protection is the key to a healthy computer.

It’s important to take care of your computer before you start having problems that cause crashes or worse yet, someone else taking over control of your computer for their own purposes. To that end, I’d like to share four tips that will help you optimize your computers security and keep it running longer and faster:

Get a Firewall. A firewall acts as a barrier between the online world and your home (or business) computer, that filters information to keep your system safe. Everyone needs a firewall to protect the information and functionality of your computer. Some newer computers come with a firewall built into the system, others don’t. Quite a few anti-virus software products have firewalls built in. If you want to make sure your firewall is set properly, contact me.
Block and Remove Spyware and Viruses. Spyware will track your activity online and off to gather information about your computer and you. Viruses can take over the functionality of your computer and use your system for their purposes and they are always bad. The more spyware you have on your system, the slower your computer will be, and put your personal information at risk. Hackers can see and possibly use your personal information once they’ve attached themselves to your system. contact me to make sure your system is safe, or to download anti-spyware/virus software.
Keep your computer updated. Almost every type of software comes with some updating function, usually automatically. These updates can be annoying, but they are very important to the health of your computer These updates are actually patches created by your software and computer manufacturer to keep your system updated and protected. The best thing you can do to keep your computer running smoothly and safely is to pay attention to these updates or to set up auto-updates on your system.
Secure your wireless connection. When setting up a home wireless network, be sure to use the security codes provided by your wireless internet carrier. Many people think using public WiFi spots at coffee shops, airports etc. are safe. Not always true. Whether you pay for the WiFi or the location offers it free, you are vulnerable to hackers as the public WEP key provided is used by everyone in that location. To protect yourself, make sure the wireless connection is encrypted. Ask the service desk, if the location is not sure, don’t use their WiFi. Remember, hackers can see your data as it is going to and from your computer in these environments so protect yourself when in a public setting.

Following these four basic rules is only the beginning for keeping your computer protected and optimized for longevity. For more information on protecting your computer, contact me.

What say you? Do you protect your computer as well as you should? Do you have any other suggestions for keeping your computer safe?

How I Became More Productive With the Right Equipment

Joe Hauckes — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:02:53 +0000

The back story of The Lappy Dilemma…

Something I noticed. Actually I noticed it long, long ago when I first got my laptop. I’m much more productive with my online presence with my Lappy. Especially since the weather started to break and Spring has Sprung.

I’ve always been an outside kinda guy. I always hated working in an office where I was tied to a desk. I even left a management position with a fairly large company running an integrated computer system so I wasn’t tied to that albatross of a desk. (I actually consulted for that very same company and made much more money as an independent.) Even though I did have a desk in my home office, I could go outside any time I wished, just not to work.

That’s when I got the Dell Laptop and (re)found my independence. I loved the fact that I could sit out on the patio, use the computer in my workshop, I could even take it to different conferences that I needed or wanted to attend. All the while, I could keep in contact online with e-mail, Twitter or even write a post for my Blog. The good times lasted for around two years.

Then the Laptop’s motherboard went kaplooie. At least I was (thankfully) able to use the Desktop to continue to function and service my clients, just not with the freedom to do it while away from the home office. I was confined to that home office, no matter what. Using the Desktop, I was once again burdened with that having to be in the office, tied to a desk feeling of dread.

Needless to say, my productivity went down. Way down.

Throughout the winter, I used that slow, anchor of a desktop to function – barely. Never really being enthused to start my work day as once was the case using the limber, quick lappy. I would just do what was necessary to get something done. I would procrastinate if there were something that required any use of RAM and it would just take too much time for the buffer to build to a point that something would work. I even preferred shoveling snow to working on that desktop, just to get out of the house and away from that confining, suffocating home office.

That’s when I realized that I would need to just FIX my laptop. No two ways about it.

I did start looking online for prices for a new motherboard. I looked on the Dell parts site, amazingly there were none there. Googleing was a joke. The only thing I could find there were, to say the lease, questionable. I also looked up ways to try to fix the motherboard on my own, even though I tried everything I know, there had to be someone who knows more. Every site I looked at, every article I read, had some great ideas about how to fix problems with the motherboard, but most ended with the same phrase… “If this doesn’t work, you need a replacement motherboard”.

Well, thanks for nuttin’. My first instinct was, even if I could get over the problems I was having, I would have to eventually replace the motherboard anyway. I just needed to find the right place to get one, and the extra money to buy one. Then everything would be right in the world. (Yeah, I hear ya, There should be emergency funds built in the business plan, but eating comes first.)

I talked to some people I know and trust in the computer repair business to see who they would go to for a replacement motherboard for the type of computer I have. Without exception, they all recommended going through eBay since that is where their main suppliers of difficult to obtain parts sell online. They even gave me some ideas of the type company they deal with (no names, but good hints) and also who not to deal with. Now, the only thing missing was the funds to purchase the motherboard.

Luckily, I did get a little bit of a break financially, my first inquiry for advertising for the Baby Boomers sites came at that point and after a little negotiating, we agreed on a yearly placement. Paid in advance.

In other words, I had some working capitol that I could re-invest in the business. I could get a replacement motherboard for the laptop. I could could work away from that pesky desk. I would be able to enjoy the weather outside. I could work from my patio, workshop or wherever I wanted.

I became more productive.

Proof positive? This post was written on a sunshiny day, on my patio, on the laptop with the replaced motherboard.

If there is a moral to this story, it would be… If you’re not happy where you work or the equipment you work with, CHANGE IT!

What say you? Has changing something you use or place you work affected your productivity? Share.

Tip: Get Billing Info Up Front

Joe Hauckes — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:42:50 +0000

Ok, I’ve taken my head out of the sand, started writing more, been working on getting new clients and overall it seems to be working.

I have had more calls from “potential clients” and have been, I think, helpful in answering their questions and solving their problems. Getting them to pay is another story altogether.

A good example of this occurred over the weekend – a Holiday Weekend – when I got a desparate phone call. Well, it was a series of short phone calls because “Silver” was having touble booting her system up to Windows. She apparently got my information through a Google search where she found my MCBS post about booting problems.

Long story short… I offered her some suggestions on how to boot up her system. She tried each one and none seemed to work so I told her she might have to reinstall her Windows XP from scratch and guess what? She had NO installation disk, NO recovery disk, NO backup and couldn’t start Windows in Safe Mode.

I mentioned to her that I could probably find a way to recover her hard drive with what disks she did have, but it would take some time and I would have to charge her. When I asked for her e-mail address to send her a bill for the additional help… “Click”. Not even a thank you.

I wasn’t even going to charge her for the hour I took out of my Holiday to try to help her, only for the additional time it would take to get her system up and running.

So, Lesson Learned.

I plan on getting ALL pertinent information up front, not just the persons name, but also any billing information that may be needed later.

How would you have handled an emergency call for your services on a Holiday Weekend? Do you always get the billing information up front?