Home office must-haves

Published: October 24, 2008 5:45 a.m.

Last modified: October 23, 2008 8:47 p.m.

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Below are the top five things every home office must have:

• Desk: Every entrepreneur needs a place to operate his or her business — a place for billing, filing, copying, writing and e-mailing. For many homepreneurs, their desk becomes their office so it has to be great. Ideally, the desk has a lot of drawers for storage, at least two or three full sides so there is a lot of desk space and a high wall on one side so you can block out other rooms and activities.

• Headphones: Listen up — working from home can be noisy. Being able to plug in your headphones and ignore everything around you is a crucial part of staying focused and achieving what you have to in order to build your business.

• A tall filing cabinet: Anything vertical in a home office is a real space saver. A tall, thin filing cabinet that takes up minimal wall space is key.

• Laptop: When you work at home, sometimes you just have to get out of the office to be with people. Even if it means plugging in your laptop at a local coffee shop. Make sure it has as much power as your personal computer or you will become frustrated very easily.

• Quickbooks software: The biggest problem many home-based businesses run into is a lack of resources, which can lead to disorganization and therefore a lack of productivity. Investing in a good bookkeeping program will help you with year-end, accounting and cash flow management. The first thing a new small business owner should do once their desk is set up and their laptop is working is install Quickbooks and get a system for cash flow management set up before the business grows, not after.