Robert Cacciatore asked:


If you work at home or know someone who works from home then you know the problems faced when balancing business and family time.

Perhaps you are thinking of earning your living working at home. It is a good bet to prepare for the situations when the decision comes to give more time to the business than your family and arranging for childcare could be an answer for you to focus on your business so you have more quality time with your family without any business activities clashing with your family life.

If you allow either to clash then you cannot focus to get the job done. Women are famous for multi-tasking but the truth is very rarely does this technique of trying to do one thing while trying to perform another task succeeds.

So you struggle to get on with those important tasks your business requires to be done and all the while your income goes down as well as the risk of not maintaining your families needs.

Here are 4 creative tips to solve your child care dilemmas

1. If your work is involved in direct sales, then often you will be faced with difficulties with childcare. For instance, you will know that a main portion of direct sales in conducting sales presentations, or perhaps you take part in party planning, it would be most beneficial to schedule a time when someone, perhaps a partner can looker after the children.

But sometimes this is not possible. There comes a time when your partner cannot make the schedule because of work commitments or what about if you’re a lone parent?

There are solutions. For example: You could hire a local high school student to come to the party and be a nanny there and then.

Its a good idea to check with the hostess first, but she may well love the idea, since a sitter is already arranged to look after their children your cusotmers may be more likely to come to the party and that may mean a bigger profits for you.

2. Childcare Group

Perhaps you only need a sitter once in a while. How about setting up a childcare group?

A neigbour, a friend or family member can be designated as a sitter on a particular time on a certain day or perhaps a whole month.

The way it works: Any mom requiring a sitter for the day in mind, simply drops of their children at the sitters home.

The children are then safe. Playing with each other and learning social skills of interaction, while at the same time each mom does not have to worry or pay grossly excessive fees for childcare.

3. Checkout Mom’s Day Out Service

This service may be available from your place of worship. It works simply by dropping off your child for a few hours per day.

This service may require a small service, but sometimes it provided for free.

Check with you local library they may provide “story hours,” you just drop off you kids and listen to children’s storys that is read by the librarian.

There the children can play games, take part in activities or try their hand at some crafts and all the while develop their social skills.

4. Hire a neighborhood teenager

When you need quiet time, your kids can play with the teenager while your working in your office uninterrupted.

In case something should happen your still there to take control of the situation.

Other ideas…

Perhaps you can barter with one of your friends or family to help watch your children and in return you may offer your product or service. They might jump at the offer!

Conclusion

There will be times when working at home doesn’t necessary mean more time with your kids. Just don’t feel guilty because of the prospect of having to use a part time day care service of some kind.

Sometimes you just need to focus totally at the business, and leverage your you’re your business task. When the job is done, you’ll be reward with 100% quality time with your children and partner.

Holly Beitel asked:


While 90% of the U.S. population is bemoaning the quickly approaching April 15th tax deadline, I am waiting for my gift from the IRS. I big fat refund. How you ask? I take advantage of the one last tax shelter available to the average person. Before I tell you my best tax tips for 2006, I’d like you to be aware of a couple of things.

First, do you realize that what you pay in taxes each year is your number one expense?! In fact, the average employee works the first five months of the year for Uncle Sam for free. How does that make you feel about going to work January through May?

Second, most people think the way to have more income is to get another job. Adding a second “job” to increase your family’s income is in most cases a bad idea. Especially, if it pushes you up into a higher tax bracket! You basically sign up for even more taxes, increased car expenses, childcare costs, food and clothing costs. This doesn’t take into consideration the physical and emotional stress added to families by having both parents working outside the home. You can’t even put a price tag on that expense.

Here is an absolute fact. You will never make true steps toward financial independence until you learn how to get your taxes down to the legal minimum.

So, now I’m back to my top-secret strategy. Drumroll please…Own a home-based business. I am a CPA, and I am here to tell you that if you do not have a home-based business you absolutely need to start one today! I can not overemphasize the importance. The tax system for the “employee” will keep or make you poor. The tax advantages for small business owners are designed to spur economic growth. It can be your ticket to begin creating wealth.

Conservative estimates say that you can save a minimum of $2,000-$10,000 a year by having even a part-time home-based business. Let’s say that having a small business puts $4,000 a year back into your pocket (on tax savings alone) for 30 years and you invest it each year and earn 8%. You will generate over $500,000 just from owning a home-based business. That doesn’t include any income you generate from the business itself. Invest your $4,000 in tax savings for 35 years, earn 10%, and ladies and gentleman you are a millionaire!

The question is how do I take advantage of this wonderful opportunity the IRS has handed us on a golden platter? My first suggestion is to look for a business that incorporates something you are passionate about. My second suggestion is do your homework. Determine how much money you can invest, how much time you can spend and what kind of skills will be necessary.

This may shock you, but Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki in their new book, “Why We Want You To Be Rich,” actually recommend network marketing. For the average person the network marketing industry offers benefits that far outweigh the risks. There is usually a very low start-up cost and ongoing overhead expense. You begin to learn how to leverage time and money. This lesson, along with minimizing your tax expense, is arguably the most important to learn if you want to achieve financial independence.

That subject is a whole other article. A good way to explain it, though, is to work smarter not harder.

Finally, a good network marketing company already has all the systems, marketing materials, accounting and training in place. This is invaluable to the first-time business owner who does not want to take on a lot of risk.

Once you are up and running, you now have a whole new world of tax deductions available to you. It is like Christmas every April 15th. With the proper planning and documentation, you can deduct your home office, computer, phone, car, vacations, some meals and entertainment, even your child’s college education cost all completely within the legal parameters of the IRS regulations.

What is required of you is some education, documentation and a home-based business of your choice! So, when you sign this year’s return and mail in that check that feels like squeezing blood from a turnip, compare your return on that to the $500,000 to $1 million you could grow from home-based business tax advantages.

If you would like a FREE 30-minute consultation with Holly about how you can begin to take advantage of these tax benefits, please visit her website and submit a request. She can also be reached at 918-698-6674.