Creating a Working Atmosphere

When we start to work from home, work at home moms often begin with a space that may include a couch, or dirty dishes, toys scattered, paperwork from the kids and yourself and who knows what else. All of these things are taking up space that should be reserved for work. I know I want to work my business in a stress-free environment; that starts with a clean and well equipped work area. How is this accomplished?

* It is optimal that you have a desk set aside from the everyday chaos of your life. No need for added distractions as you're trying to juggle your kids and a lucrative business. The kitchen table worked for a while, but the ideal would be to have an area to call your own for your business. Less risk for sticky papers and other things that collect on a kitchen table.
* If your desk is full of clutter, clear it off and only add back what you need. Remember to make it known throughout the house that your desk is off limits to any unauthorized personnel.

What other organizational products might you need for your at home desk? This may include things you'll need or someone else may need for their business. You'll get a good feel for it.

* Computer
* Pens
* Pencils
* Notebook
* A few catalogs if you distribute catalogs in your business.
* Files to hold company news, information, history
* Phone (with mute, 3 way calling, and unlimited long distance)
* headset for phone
* Calendar
* Calculator
* Shelving for file cabinet for paperwork, bills and other important papers.
* Files
* Stapler
* Paperclips
* Tape
* hole punch
* scissors
* staple remover
* mail supplies (stamps, envelopes, labels,shipping labels,boxes,packing tape, bubble wrap)
* printer ink
* business cards
* flyers
* sticky notes
* Bulletin board - Nice for reminders, appointments, inspirational quotes, family photos, or something from training you don't want to forget.
* stick pins for the bulletin board

*Your computer can help you reduce clutter even more:

* Use Excel as your calculator.
* Use Notepad or Word to write notes. This will allow for a smaller notepad and less space taken up by the pad. Use the notebook as a temporary holder for your notes when the computer isn't on or near by. Then transfer the notes to Word or Notebook if you'd still like to keep the notes. This also gives you the chance to organize your notes. Organize by date, topic, or whatever is most convenient for you. What a relief that would be to be able to rely on your notes being in all one place
* Use the calendar on your computer rather than a hard copy. Google has a calendar system where you can share your calendar with business associates so they can check to see if you're busy before they try to schedule a meeting with that person.

**In regards to the shelving, I would get only a couple of trays at a time. You'll have a better perception of how many trays you need once you learn the business you're in. If you end up needing quite a few you might want to upgrade to a filing cabinet. Did I miss anything? What ideas do you to organize my space to work my business?

Angela Steward
http://www.momof2athome.com

Read More ..

Business Mortgages Interest Rate and Payment Schedules

A part of every business mortgage loan is the rate of interest. There are two main interest rate selections that a borrower must consider. A business mortgage can use a fixed rate, or a variable rate.

The way that a business mortgage works that has a fixed rate interest is that an interest rate is the same for a certain period of time. When this period of time is over with, the borrower has to pay the variable rate. In addition to the interest rate fees, the commercial mortgage lenders will also charge an arrangement fee.

Another charge that you might see with a fixed rate is an early redemption charge. This kind of charge can go over the fixed period of the loan. A lot of people have not agreed upon this extra charge, so most business mortgage lenders are now offering commercial mortgages that have no charges for any extra payments or changes the contracts after the fixed period of time is over with.

You most likely want to borrow a commercial mortgage that has a fixed rate when you think that the interest rate might increase or you want to make sure that what you pay each month pretty much stays the same over a longer period of time.

The other type of commercial mortgage is that which has a variable interest rate. This type of commercial mortgage carries an interest rate changes based on when the Bank of England's base rate changes. A lot of times, the variable interest rate can be lower than the rate on a fixed rate mortgage.

You actually have the possibility to save your money with a variable interest rate mortgage when the overall interest rate of the market goes down. If that same rate does go up, your monthly payment will also go up because your interest rate will increase.
If you compare business mortgages to residential mortgages, you will find that the interest rates run a little bit higher on the commercial mortgages. The terms of the arrangement will also run less than that of the residential mortgages. The rates whether fixed or variable are all based on the Bank of England base rate. You will find that the rates tend to be anywhere from one to 7 per cent higher than this base rate.

Once you have been approved for a business mortgage, you will negotiate the repayment terms. The terms that you will negotiate will be either a monthly repayment schedule or an interest-only payment schedule. The interest-only terms mean that you will also need to have another product that will handle the principle portion of the commercial mortgage.

If you are ready to talk to a business mortgages specialist, make sure that you get the specific details surrounding a fixed rate commercial mortgage versus a variable rate commercial mortgage. You'll also want to make sure that you get the details on any extra fees that might be added to your business mortgage.

Visit Business Mortgages Broker today to get a quotation for your business mortgage.

Visit http://www.businessmortgagesbroker.co.uk today to get a quotation for your finance. In addition, we also offer free business plan templates, which are available to download from our website.

We would be very happy to help with any questions which you may have.
source here

Read More ..

Car Loans for Self-Employed Workers

Self Employed people often find it really difficult to get car loans, whether for the purposes of their business or simply for themselves. But by putting in a bit of research and choosing wisely it is possible to find a number of new and innovative brokers, finance companies, banks and financial institutions who are now prepared to offer car loans to self-employed workers. The reason for this is that because the loan market has opened up and there are more companies and banks permitted to lend money, the market for lenders is less cosy and more competitive and they are forced to be more amenable to a wider group of borrowers, This makes things a lot easier for the self-employed workers. So if you need a car for your business and you need a loan, you need to do the research and look for the most suitable loan from the most suitable broker for your needs.

Car loans will be divided into two groups, The first group will be unsecured loans which you can get without having to offer up anything as security for the loan. All you will need for an unsecured loan is proof that you have your own business and that the business earns you a sufficient monthly salary to enable you to repay the loan. Normally statements from your bank account will suffice as proof. The second group of loans are secured loans. These are loans where you do need to provide a fixed asset for security, and normally this will be your home, so it is worth thinking very carefully about whether you want to put your home up for collateral. Other than that the other thing to consider is the rate of interest. Normally the interest rate will be much lower for secured loans so unsecured loans offer the advantage that your house is not at risk but the disadvantage that you'll end up with higher monthly repayments.

Once you have decided which loan to go for all you need do is gather together the correct paperwork and proof of income. Even if you are self - employed all they wish to see is that you have a regular monthly income and that you have had that income for a long and consistent period of time. If you are self- employed but can show consistent income and a good credit history, you will be fine. It is even possible to find such loans on the internet which might be useful for self-employed people who are busy working from home. Not only do you not have to waste time going around town looking for the best brokers but the response time is normally extremely quick too. Do your research and you should be able to find brokers who specialize in loans for the self -employed. Normally they will be companies who sell all kinds of products to the self-employed, from self employed or contractor pensions to contractor tax solutions or umbrella companies to self employed mortgages. Do your research and find companies such as these and you will normally find better rates for self-employed car loans.

Greg Dickson is an expert in contractor and self-employed tax issues. He currently works for the Bedouin Group.

source here

Read More ..

N900

Nokia fans, don't disappear! We know it's been a hard year; Nokia's Symbian v.5 upgrade was a fizzer, and the flagship N97 suffered as a result. We know the Ovi Store really hasn't taken hold like it should have and that its other services, like Music and Maps, still need refining. But the Finns have an ace up their sleeves, a little system called Maemo running on a not-so little handset called the N900.
Design

They say that one in two people in Australia are obese, so maybe the N900's gut-busting waistline will go unnoticed when it's released in the land down under. At 16mm thick, the N900 feels like a PDA of days past, even though it looks like something considerably more modern. It also seems heavy, at 150g, but we seriously doubt this will upset too many users.

In terms of the hardware, the N900 is a home run. The 3.5-inch display is sharp and colourful, and is probably the most responsive screen we've used that works using resistive touchscreen technology. Push the screen up and you'll reveal a three-row full QWERTY keyboard. This keyboard isn't as roomy as some we've seen this year, but it does the trick for tapping out long emails and messages.

Around the edges of the phone you'll find volume keys, a 3.5mm headphone socket, a screen-lock switch, a resonable-sounding external speaker and a stylus. On the back is a 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera lens, with a software-activating sliding lens cover and a bright LED flash. Around the lens cover Nokia has chucked in an old favourite, a plastic kick-stand for sitting the phone on a flat surface and watching videos. Under the battery cover you'll find a microSD card slot, but it's likely you won't need it considering the N900 comes with 32GB of internal storage.
Maemo = multitasking

In truth Maemo means a lot more than just the ability to multitask, but it's this particular function that has left the strongest impression on us during our review. Without going into a complex description, Maemo is based on Linux and has been used by Nokia in the past to power its internet tablets, the N800 and N810, for example. Using Maemo is considerably different to using any other mobile OS, and it may take some users a few days to figure out how to best navigate the various menus.

In a way, this is a fault of Nokia's design. There is, for example, no "Home" key on the keyboard, but there is two ways to get to the desktop view by using the touchscreen, neither of which are properly sign-posted in the UI (either hit the "Task Switch" icon and then select the blurred out background, or press and hold the "Task Switch" icon for a few seconds). But once you get the hang of using the "Task Switch" icon you'll be zipping back and forth between active applications.

Aside from the learning curve, the one noticeable shortcoming of Maemo compared with the other smartphone systems is a distinct lack of apps to download. The N900 has software called "Application Manager" which guides you to a shortlist of some very good apps, but there are huge holes in this catalogue, noticeably social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter and some sort of streaming music service. There is ZouTube for (you guessed it) watching YouTube videos, and we found a cool app "gPodder" which we used for downloading our favourite podcasts.
Media and the web

Multitasking is great, but only if you have multiple tasks you want to perform. The N900 has exactly that. Whether it's watching videos, playing music, browsing the web or sending and receiving emails, the N900 covers all bases and the fact that you can do everything all at once is a major advantage. Web browsing in particular is fantastic, the pre-installed Mozilla browser is fast, easy to use and includes finger gestures to rival similar on the iPhone. And did we mention this Mozilla browser supports Flash? Well, it does, though watching a video in the browser can be a bit jittery.

The 5-megapixel is a minor let down, its Carl Zeiss optics don't seem to be able to compensate for less than perfect software and we have issues with both the auto-focus and the cold colour palette we've seen in the photos we've taken. With a little care the N900 is probably quite a capable camera, but we prefer our camera phones to shoot quickly and process accurately on the auto modes.
Performance

If its heavyweight specs haven't bowled you over already, the N900's stellar performance surely will. Whether you are swiping across its multiple desktop workspaces, using the task switcher or working within an app, the performance never lags. It's really quite amazing to watch an app download and a web page render simultaneously in the miniature thumbnail windows on the task switcher.

You'll be happy to know that the N900 also makes clear sounding voice calls, and includes threaded SMS (called Conversations) to help you keep track of the messages you send to friends. If you swipe your finger from left to right in the Conversations window you bring up a cursor which you can use to copy and paste text from a message to anywhere else in the phone.
Overall

For users who don't mind spending a little time getting to know a new system, the Nokia N900 is truly outstanding. We wouldn't dream of giving it to mum for Christmas, but it's definitely a phone we want to spend more time with ourselves. We've waited a long time to find a phone with the N900's capabilities matched with its stellar performance. The N900 is pushing smartphones to genius levels. If Nokia can convince software developers that Maemo is the next big thing this could be the system that both Apple and Google have to worry about.

Although it's not officially confirmed, the N900 should be officially released in Australia in 2010. If you can't wait till then, the N900 is available now through online vendor Mobicity.com.au.

Read More ..