Melissa Rich-Landis Author – Your Virtual Home Office Can Be a Reality!

As this year closes, I will be renewing my home owner’s insurance for another year.  As part of that process, I will be reviewing my insurance coverage to make certain that my policies continue to meet the needs of my growing home based business and virtual office.   

I also use this time of year to create a new home office inventory with a list of all business assets and serial numbers.   In the event of a loss, I can quickly and easily calculate home office losses in working with my insurance agent.

If you have questions regarding your virtual home office and your related insurance coverage, you may wish to re-read Chapter 12 regarding Business Insurance for a quick refresher.

Working from home requires more virus protection since working from home in your virtual office is your livelihood. You are the sole provider of your empire including all necessities such as virus protection and need to make sure you are fully covered. There are many kinds of protection out there. I personally use Avast. Avast is free to the home user and offers all of the same bells as whistles as McAfee and Norton.

Virus protection is very important to have working and up to date while working from a virtual environment since it is not only your work but keeps the your working information secure. If you lose your computer due to a virus or leak of information by an unauthorized outside source, you could be without your working tools for days or weeks. Prepare for the unknown. Murphy’s law states” Anything can go wrong, will go wrong”. Take time to be prepared and protect your family and virtual home office position.

If you will be seeking financing from a financial institution for your home based business, you will probably be required to provide a complete business plan.  A business plan should provide information to the bank that will validate the profitability of your business venture – at least on paper.  A business plan will include very specific information including business projections, target market, competitor analysis, competitive edge, and key selling points.

Preparing a business plan can be time consuming and complex, but there are a wide range of resources to assist you including business plan templates, small business development center, and business plan consultants.