One of the first things you should do is categorize tasks that are similar and do them all at once. For instance, make as many phone calls as you can during one block of time. Knowing you have other calls to make to your home based business clients will help you keep your calls shorter. And it also just makes since. You already have the phone in your hand and your phone book, if necessary, handy. Do the same thing with writing letters and taking care of email. Grouping your chores this way will help you make the most of your time.

Another thing you can do to help you get more home based business work accomplished in a day is to set priorities. Write them down, and then look at your home based business to-do list. If there’s a task or two that won’t take a great deal of time to do, take care of them first, then jump into the higher priority jobs on the list. This gets a few things off your home based business to-do list that you may not get to otherwise, and over a period of days, those unattended to tasks add up to a mountain that seems overwhelming. Getting a few less important home based business chores done early in the day also has a psychological effect of making you feel more productive, and so you become more productive.

You also want to build some breaks into your home based business schedule. Eating lunch and/or dinner at your desk in your home based business office is a big no-no. Make it a point to take meal breaks anywhere but in your home based business office. You might build in a short walk during the morning or afternoon to give you an additional break. You’ll come back to your home based business more refreshed, and this makes it possible to do your work more quickly and efficiently.

Learning to say no is important too. When you’re just starting your home based business, this can be difficult to do. You want your home based business to be successful, after all, so it’s only natural to want to say yes to everyone and everything. But taking on too many clients or projects, particularly ones that don’t really fit with your personal and home based business objectives and goals, can end up actually costing you money, not to mention energy that you could put to better use doing your necessary home based business projects and chores. So before you say yes or sign any contracts, give serious consideration as to whether it’s the type of client or work that fits your home based business goals and if you can realistically take on more work.

Some other tips on making the most of your home based business time include:

Delegate whenever possible

Outline the work for any project in advance

Make appointments with yourself to do certain chores—and keep them

Bring in help if you need to

Organize your home based business office for maximum efficiency

Create a filing system—and use it

Finally, don’t make the mistake many home based business owners make in thinking working harder means getting ahead. Remember that saying about working smarter, not harder? Well, it’s true, and it’s also the best way to prevent home based business burnout.

Super New York Tour

When you first started your business chances are you learned pretty quickly which things you were good at and which things you needed help with. This learning process is a part of most small business owners’ experience, and it is important for every business owner to recognize his or her strengths and weaknesses. Focusing on the things you do well, and hiring others to take on those other tasks, is the mark of a good entrepreneur. Rather than trying to do everything the smart business owner focuses on his or her core strengths and looks for talented individuals who can take on the more mundane tasks of running the business.

The same strategy can be used when it comes to IT and computer support services. As the business owner you could spend your day running around the office fixing computer problems. Or you could focus on growing your business and making it better. Which option sounds more appealing and more profitable to you? By using a quality IT support services provider you can let others handle those routine software and hardware problems.

Good computer support services can help your workers be more productive, and that increased productivity can boost the profits of your company. These days everyone is trying to do more with less, and the companies who are able to achieve that goal stand to thrive and grow their market share. Hiring an outside specialty firm to handle your computer hardware and software support issues can help you keep your business lean without sacrificing the reliability and productivity you need to survive in today’s tough economy.

If you doubt that proper IT support services can boost your company’s profits and help the firm grow, just consider the alternatives to such support. You could continue to rely on any tech savvy employees you may have on staff, but if they leave the company they will take their knowledge with them. In addition there may be complex problems that they are simply not equipped or trained to handle. And when that does happen your business could be down for days as you search for the resources you need to repair the network and get the PCs back online.

Alternatively you could hire your own in-house staff of IT professionals to oversee your network and help your workers with hardware and software problems. This approach can be a waste of money and resources, since those workers may not have enough work to keep them busy. When you consider that IT workers are generally quite highly paid, you can see how this strategy could eat into your firm’s profits. IT workers are serious professionals, and they expect to be paid well for what they do. While this may be fair to them, it can place an undue burden on your small business. By hiring a quality technology firm to provide you with the computer support you need your company can avoid these unnecessary expenses while still getting the support and protection it needs.

You’ve selected and installed your product and now you are ready to get started. Before you can begin entering transactions, you need to create a company data file. There are several options to accomplish this, but the Easy Step Interview is, in my opinion, the best way to accomplish this task.

Starting the Interview… To begin, if you have not opened the program you should do so now, and then choose the “Create a new company box”. Select the “Start Interview” button. You will be prompted to enter your company information. Including the Company Name, Address, Phone, Fax, web site and email along with a Tax ID. This field will be either your Federal Tax ID number that has IRS has assigned to your business or the social security number of the business owner. If the IRS has assigned a number to your business use that number. Various rules exist on wether or not you are required to have a Federal Tax ID number, so if you are not sure, consult your accountant or legal advisor. After you have completed your company information, click “Next” to continue

Select your industry… QuickBooks has already started creating your company data file. Behind the scenes, it is selecting the screens you will need to run your business efficiently. Different industries will track different types of data. By selecting your industry, you will be letting QuickBooks know what types of information you are most likely to need to keep track of. Choose the industry that best matches the product or service your business provides. For our sample company, we are going to select “Lawn Care and Landscaping” if none of these options describe your business, select either the general service or product based business at the bottom of the list and then “Next” to continue.

How is your Company Organized… you need to tell QuickBooks what type of business entity you have. There are a variety of business entities that you can choose from, a sole proprietor isn’t required to setup any “legal” business entity or structure, but the others will require some additional paperwork be filed with various government organizations. If you are uncertain about this you should contact your accountant or legal advisor. Our Sample Company is going to choose “Sole Proprietor” for his business structure. Click “Next” to continue

The first month of your Fiscal Year…your fiscal year in basic terms is your tax year. Most businesses will follow a fiscal year that is similar to the calendar year. Others will choose a fiscal year that is different from the calendar year. If you choose a calendar year, you can simply select January. If you want to choose a tax year that ends in a month other than December, you may be required to complete the appropriate government paperwork. Again, consult your accountant or legal advisor for more information.

The Administrator Password… it is there to help you protect your data from being accessed by those who are not entitled to it, you should choose a password that is complex enough to do it’s job…enough said. Click “Next” to continue.

Create your company file… Now that you have entered your company basics, QuickBooks is getting ready to create and save a company file. Click “Next” to continue. QuickBooks will recommend a location for you. Generally, you should accept it’s recommendation and save the file by clicking save. Make a note of where the file is located in case you have difficulty finding it later. Click “Save” to continue. You will get a pop up that indicates QuickBooks is saving your data. Be patient.

Customizing your data file… QuickBooks wants to know all about the transactions you plan to enter.

The Questions you will be asked:

• Do you sell product or services
• Do you sell online
• Do you charge sales tax
• Do you create estimates
• Do you use sales orders
• Do you use sales receipts
• Do you use statements
• Do you use progress invoicing
• Do you want to mange the bills you owe
• Do you print checks
• Do you track inventory
• Do you accept credit cards
• Do you track time (either for payroll or to bill customers for time)
• Do you have employees
• Do you need to track multiple currencies (international sales or purchases)

Although it is best to think these through ahead of time, if you change your mind later, you can always turn these options on or off later using Preferences from the Edit Menu. Note that most of the preferences will be found in the “Company Tabs” not the user tabs of the preferences. We’ll cover preferences in a later issue. Click “Next” to continue.

Selecting the start date…to start tracking your business in QuickBooks…unless today is your first day in business and depending on your needs, you may want to choose the beginning of the year, month, quarter, or some other date. Particularly if you have been in business for some time, there are various advantages and disadvantage to consider. Such as the amount of time it will take to “catch up on data entry” and the value of having that data available. There can be excellent benefits to having Year to Date information for your tax returns, or even last years information available to use to compare how your business is doing from year to year. When choosing a date, you should consider the amount of time it will take to “catch up” on the data entry as well as the rewards that you will reap from doing the extra work. Either way, if you are not fully committed to getting everything entered, then you should choose a date that will require less data entry. Since we are still early in 2010, our sample company is going to track data from January 1, 2010 forward. Click “Next” to continue.

Existing Bank Account… Can be entered now or later. The benefit of entering it now, is that QuickBooks will do the accounting part of entering your opening balance for you. Doing it later will work also, but may be just slightly more difficult. We will enter it now. Our bank is PNC, and our records indicate that we have a cash balance in this account of $1,000.00 as of December 31, 2009. Enter “PNC Bank” and select the button for opening before January 1, 2010. Click Next. Enter the date from the bank statement that you obtained the opening balance and the balance in the account from the bank statement. Click Next to continue. We do not have any additional accounts in our sample company but if you do, you can continue to enter the accounts and the opening balances here. When done, click “Next” to continue.

Reviewing Income and Expense Accounts… throughout the interview, we have answered various questions about our business and what we do. QuickBooks has been gathering that information and has recommended a chart of accounts to use. Generally, the selections that QB chooses will be a good fit. However, no two business are ever identical. Review the recommended accounts and make any changes. If you are not certain about what accounts you will need, keep the default choices and then next. You can always add accounts or delete accounts as needed later. Click “Next” to Continue.

Congratulations! You have completed the Interview. Click Finish. QuickBooks will save your selections and then direct you to the home screen.