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Being your own boss, having your own business and doing what you enjoy doing is a great and powerful thing.
You have the idea, the plan of action, your SO-HO settings and a business plan, you should also have a family plan.

Whether you start the business on your own, with a family member or friend, some things you should consider:

What is the reason you are starting the business?
Is this because someone mentioned you are good with some service or product
Because you want your financial freedom
You have a hobby that you can turn into income
You want to be your own boss
Want to work specific hours without supervision

Why you think you will succeed?
You researched your service or product and found that is a demand for it
Have the background and settings to run your home office
You are prepared financially to keep afloat until you have a steady flow of customers
Willing to deal with difficult people and tasks
Ready and eager to learn new things, keep up with technology and training

What do you expect from your SO-HO endeavor?
To be financially secure
Become successful and recognized
Run a business that you enjoy and good at
Take vacations, enjoy time off and spend more time with family and friends.

If any or all these reasons are driving you to start your business, before you take action, present it to your family.

Why should you do this?
Your family is your main support in starting a SO-HO business. They need to understand the reasons that you have taken this decision and to help you with your new endeavor.

Your family will have and must take a role in this journey. Unless they understand and support you, your journey, instead of being a pleasant one, will be filled with road blocks.

Mark a date and time on your calendar, invite them as you would set up an appointment with a client. Make your presentation as professional as you would present it to your toughest client.

Gather all your information, your business plan, and create a presentation, list all the pros and cons for starting your SO-HO.

The presentation should include work hours, time off, expectation of income and expenses running this business. What to expect from you, what you expect from them, how can they be involved or help with your SO-HO business.

Explain to them how much more interaction you can achieve by working from home and doing what you like. Tell them how this will make you achieve your dreams, how much happier you can become, and how much you can all learn from this experience.
Explain to them the financial steps that will impact your household. Ask their support while you are still at start up and their patience to run your own business to create success. Let them know of any concerns, questions or difficulties you would all encounter along the way by starting a SO-HO.
Discuss with them options and support that you can get.
By creating a family acceptance, you will have a powerful ally and fun while operating your SO-HO.

The better you educate them, the better the support and involvement will be.

What is CRM and do I really need it?

A customer relationship management is a program that allows you to keep your contacts, inquiries and communication open with your prospects and customers.

Think of it as a database of all pertinent contact, history, tracking manager for your company’s customers, prospects, a system that automates your PR, campaigns and data management and provides a clear picture of your ROI (return on investment)

Many online companies offer for a membership/ user fee comprehensive and easy to use solutions.

You as a small business owner, can benefit by using a turn key solution with step by step instruction on how to use, manage and track your customers, but also as a small business owner you are constrained by your budget and time to learn to use these solutions.

Salesforce,com, Zoho.CRM.com, are some of the leaders in CRM solutions, but did you know that you can create your own CRM tracking with just a good e-mail program.

Let’s analyze the use of Outlook Express and MS Outlook as a CRM program to integrate with your SO-HO.

If you only have a few customers and prospects, and do not have the budget, consider these options before you dive into a yearly contract.

How can I set up and use these programs (already on your computer and paid for) to implement my own CRM.

Before you start creating your CRM, have e-mail accounts created for each marketing need (ex:info@yourdomain.com; help@yourdomain.com) also please create our own website along with your domain name which you can can create here: ”http://www.ipower.com/join/index.bml?AffID=657904“ to present a professional image to customers.

First, add a new folder to your contacts and name it CRM (for this example).

Next, create a new “Rules and alerts” from “Tools” , the wizard will help set up the rules, and how to manage these alerts. Example: Set a rule that all e-mails coming from a specific e-mail address, subject line, or from people in your contact list to be moved (deleted, copied, added—) to a specific folder (in the example above, Folder called “CRM”) and apply how to manage these.

Next create a distribution list and select all e-mails that come from the specified rule that you just created. Name this list CRM inquiries (example only)

Create an e-mail template with subject and information regarding the inquiry you would like to respond to.

Set up folders, distribution list and rules for all type of inquiries and e-mail responders to these.

As you will receive these inquiries, from Web site, from blog, from where you have set your e-mails to contact from, will be automatically added to the folder assigned and you can now send out to these lists the response to inquiry in a timely and professional way.

You can use settings to send newsletter subscriptions, trade show info, product information, news, alerts you can also set these messages to leave at certain dates, times by marking the e-mail responders with recurring and options set for time and date, also tracking receipt for those.

Apply this system only if you have a small database you work with. If you expect 1,000′s of inquiries, best to use the professional versions online, or outsource this service.

With a little effort and imagination you can create your own CRM at no extra cost.

I was asked to give information to SO-HO entrepreneur on what would be the most needed and cost efficient home office set up to conduct a successful business.

Some people are familiar with and have a personal computer and tools, others, used to work with these tools at their place of business, and not familiar with specifications or set ups.

Regardless if you are selling product or services or both, a phone system, computer, fax, printer are vital to run your business.

With the various choices and prices, it is hard for the non technical connoisseur to make a decision.

Keeping in mind that the SO-HO owner does not have a big budget, here is a list of equipment and tools that would benefit specially at start up.

A business computer (registered as an asset and for business use only) with plenty of storage (hard drive capacity to store all the programs and files)

You should look for systems that have at least 80-120 GB HD capacity, 4GB RAM (random access memory speed up monitor refresh rate), DVD-R (DVD player and recorder), high resolution monitor and plenty of USB ports. High speed internet access, web camera and a back up drive.

This system can be a PC or netbook depending on what type of business and where you are conducting your business. Look for Energy saving equipment to save on utilities as well.

If you go for a netbook, buy an external monitor that you can use when at office to be easier on your eyes while working on files, design, or just surf the web.

Programs that you should have on your computer depend on the type of business, however here are the basic ones to have in order to run your business efficiently.

Virus protection, Word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, calendar, e-mail, bookkeeping or accounting.

Most computers come with preloaded software, some included with the purchase of the computer, other with offers to purchase the license.

If you work with a small budget, consider using an open source, free package including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, similar feel and look to MS office suite. http://www.openoffice.org/ This package can read and open all type of files.

These E-mail programs are easy to manage and have plenty of great features to run your e-mail campaigns, keep in touch with customers or prospects. If you are a Windows user, use Outlook Express which comes as a free program with Windows XP and earlier versions, in WIN 7 use Windows Live Mail from Windows Essentials. If you already own MS Outlook use this to keep your calendar and notes as well.

Windows Essentials has a great virus protection program, a blog writer and the Messenger for free, that allows you to connect and video conference online.

A great bookkeeping program, easy to use and affordable to SO-HO owner is Quickbooks by Intuit.(you can try here: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/?priorityCode=3969702399&kbid=17379 ) Set up your customers, vendors, reports in minutes and ready to customize to your own company needs. If your business requires to build product and need a program that will allow you to create BOM (bill of materials) then check out Peachtree by Sage. Both programs are easy to learn and both have options for payroll module if you have employees.

Invest in a good backup system and keep your computer up to date with your virus protection program and an automated back up plan.

If you foresee using fax, copy and print in your daily work, consider buying an All in one color printer, fax, copier, cost around $100.00 and create professional looking output.

Automate your office by adding a VoIP phone (800#, with VM, e-fax- optional service) and a fast internet connection to handle all your processing needs.

And remember, an efficient office is a successful office.