Free Home Business Advice
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, more than half of all businesses in the United States are based out of homes. The SBA notes that the Ford Motor Company and Apple are among well-known companies that began as home-based businesses. The SBA and other government agencies provide free advice to help potential and current home-business owners start and run their businesses.
Other People Are Reading
-
Preparation
-
The SBA provides an online assessment tool that helps people sort out whether they're prepared to start a business. People who use the free tool answer multiple-choice questions that are scored. Users receive a personal profile after completing the questions to help them size up whether they're ready to be business owners. The SBA site also provides access to a free guide on things to do to run a home-based business if you've already determined you're prepared to start a business.
Franchises and Financing
-
According to the SBA, some work-at-home franchises are scams to cheat would-be business owners out of money. Such franchises and related home-business opportunities require people to pay a fee to receive products or training materials to start a business. The SBA has free guidelines available online to help people evaluate franchises before buying into them. The agency also notes on its site that federal agencies don't provide business grants. Nonetheless, low-interest loan programs are available, and people who want to start home-based businesses may be able to get start-up financing through one of those programs. The SBA provides a link to a search tool on its site that can be used to find available loan programs.
-
Counseling
-
Small-business programs are available through a network of organizations located around the United States. People can get free advice and counseling from those organizations to help them start and manage a home-based business or other type of company. For example, Score is a nonprofit organization that has more than 11,000 volunteer business counselors. There are 389 Score chapters located in urban, suburban and rural areas around the nation. Every state also has an SBA district office where home-business owners can find out about other free services available in their area.
Taxes
-
The Internal Revenue Service website includes information on home-based business tax deductions. You can deduct certain expenses for using a portion of your home to run a business if you meet IRS guidelines. For example, people must use their homes as their principal place for running their businesses to take legitimate tax deductions. Home-business owners who meet all IRS guidelines can deduct a portion of their utility costs and other home expenses in relation to the percentage of their home that's used for business purposes.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit working from home image by Tracy Martinez from Fotolia.com
