If you work from home, your home is a big part of your business. It can even help you get tax breaks and part of your utility payments are considered business expenses. The thing is, you need to have a designated area of your home to use for business, not just your couch or your bed.

If you want to get serious about working from home you might even want to borrow some money against your home in order to convert a room into a full-blown office. Having a home office will not only help make your home business more legit, it will also give you more space to get your work done (and more privacy if you have a full house).

You Need To Have A Specific Work Area

Your work area could be set up in the corner of an existing room, but you might get more out of having your own private office in your home. If you have a spare room this would be the perfect setting, but if not you might want to do a little remodeling to complete a new room.

You want to have a desk, a comfortable chair, a dedicated work computer and printer, and good lighting. All of the items you invest in for your home office count as tax write-offs. You’re going to want to know the exact dimensions of your home office space, and your entire home, when tax time arrives.

Investing In Office Equipment

Your office equipment will have a depreciable worth, meaning the worth of it will go down over time. You can take the full amount off from one tax period, or divvy it up over the course of time its value expands (usually a couple years for most electronic devices).

You’ll want more than just a desk and a computer if you’re working from home. Having a good, reliable wi-fi router is a must since home businesses tend to rely on a good internet service. Investing in a good camera for product photos is also a good idea. As is investing in the right equipment to record videos and edit them. Photos and video are a must in marketing your small, home business.

Know What To Use On Taxes

When tax time arrives each year you’ll have a lot to consider when getting the breaks you need to save you money as a home business. Self-employment offers discounts itself, and then you want to make sure that you’re calculating costs of utilities and supplies that are used by your office/business.

You might be able to get a discount for the clothes you’ve bought for work as well. If you have meetings outside the home you also want to track mileage and hold onto your dining and entertainment receipts.