Organize your Minipreneur Office

Before you take the big leap into your own business, you absolutely MUST get organized.

Set up a basic record-keeping system to keep track of your income and expenses. Purchase a 3 ring organizer with pocket dividers to keep each month’s receipts, bank statement, deposit tickets, and canceled checks.

Is your computer updated with all the latest programs, drivers, accessories and hardware you will need? Do you have a printer that can scan, fax, and copy? If your computer or printer is more than three years old, you should give serious consideration to replacing them. Do you have an on-line Backup service set up?

There are plenty of things that will consume your time in your Minipreneur business and computer issues should not be one of them.

Familiarize yourself with Microsoft Outlook (or a similar program), so you can schedule appointments, manage your emails,organize your calendar, set up your contact list, manage a task list and create alerts. If you are not familiar or comfortable with all of the capabilities of Outlook, click on the “Help” menu within the program and follow the on-line tutorials offered by Microsoft.

You will be far more efficient if you have a designated office area either in your home or off-site.

You have two choices for setting up an Office:

1. In your Home

• Determine what must be done to physically prepare your home for a business.
• Do you have an actual desk or are you planning on using milk cases and a piece of plywood?
• Will you need space for inventory, supplies, records and/or equipment?
• Do you already have an area you can use for your office or will you need to bargain with another member of the family to give up some space?
• Is the nature of your inventory or equipment such that special climate needs must be accommodated?
• Do you need to add a room, enclose a patio, convert a garage or basement, or stake out the attic?
• What kind of power needs will you have and will you have to make any alterations to accommodate them?

2. Off site office space

• Consider utilizing a virtual office space.
• If your business will require that clients visits your office, you might want to consider leasing an “executive suite”. These are excellent arrangements and often provide phone answering services, mail box services and many other office administrative necessities.