Month: February 2020

Watch Your Productivity Soar with These Personalized Desk Organization Ideas

Posted on by Kimberly

This post may contain affiliate links.

You spend so much time sitting at your desk every week, but have you ever put much thought into how your desk layout makes you feel?

Believe it or not your desk space can actually help or hinder your productivity.

No worries this post is not meant to encourage you to create a picture perfect desk, but to help you think through what you need to create a workspace that works for you.

Create a Workspace That Works For YOU!

Conflicting Advice on Desk Organization Is Enough to Make Your Head Spin

If you work in an office setting, you know you are judged on your workspace.? Business sites are loaded with advice about not being too messy, or no one will want to enter your hazard zone.

But wait, don?t have your hand sanitizer ready for every visitor either, because that sends the wrong message also.

Don?t have too many pictures and personal items or your boss may think you wish to be elsewhere.

But wait if you don?t have any personal items they may think you are looking for another job.

How exhausting!

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Working at Home ? Is It a Blessing or a Curse?

One of the benefits of working at home though is you really only have yourself to consider, unless of course you have a steady stream of clients you have in your home office.

Working from home is a wonderful thing, mostly because it is already a place we enjoy being.?? It can sometimes be a distraction because you also think of all the things you need to get done around the house.

So if at all possible, you want to make your desk or office a place where you can be away from other household duties.

Once you have your space in your home set aside you want to make sure it is a place you want to be.? Plain and simple if your workspace makes you cringe, you are not going to want to be there, or you will easily be distracted while you are there.

That makes being productive a challenge even when you love what you do.

So make your workspace inviting and inspiring, remembering you are the one who has to work there.

The other thing you want to make sure of is that you have all the tools you need for your business easily accessible to you.

Messy Friends?There Is No Guilt Trip Here!

Research has actually shown that people with messy work spaces are actually more creative.

Albert Einstein was famous for his cluttered desk, and is actually quoted as saying, ?If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign??

So if clutter is not bothersome to you and actually improves your creativity, you can know you are in good company.? Creating an inviting workspace is about individuality, not a one-size-fits-all-how-to-organize-your-office.

On the flip side if you function best when everything is in its proper place, you will obviously want to make your desk a place that is organized and tidy.

When you sit down to work, you want to be ready to focus on your business, not needing to clean and declutter so you can get your real work done.

So whether your workspace is super organized, cluttered, or somewhere in between, you want your workspace to be a place where you are comfortable and can easily focus on the task at hand.

Personalization is key to creating a place you are happy to be.

Choose Your Colors Wisely

However, science has actually shown the color of your workspace, and the addition of plants, can also be productivity boosters.

Color is a great way to personalize your space.

Blues and greens have been shown to be calming and also are good for businesses where you need to constantly be generating new ideas.

Red has been shown to generate excitement, but is also good for when you have work that requires you to pay attention to detail.

Personally my workspace is yellow, which I chose just because it makes me happy, but yellow apparently is good if you have work that requires you to share knowledge with others.? Now I?m super glad I went with yellow, because my workspace is also my homeschool space too!

Yellow Paint on Office Wall

Other Great Additions For Your Desk Organization

Plants are a good addition to any workspace because they purify the air and have been proven to reduce stress levels.

Pictures of family and inspiring quotes have been shown to increase productivity in moderation.? Maybe it is because those things remind us of why we work so hard.

For my essential oil friends, you may want to keep your diffuser handy with your favorite blends for concentration or productivity.

You Must Consider Function

For Direct Marketing a good calendar would be a key item at your desk so you can have a good view of any presentations you have scheduled.

You also want a place to contain files, since you have many physical forms and pamphlets you need for your customers.

If you are a blogger, you will want your workspace to be a place where your creativity can flow.? Your computer may be your only workspace, but you can even set those up to reflect your personality.

Just make sure it meets your storage needs.

Mobile Offices Can Reflect Your Personality Also

If your work takes you away from home, like direct marketing often does, you may also need to consider ways you can easily take your office with you wherever you go.

If you have products you display at someone?s home or at vendor?s fairs, you want to create a display that transports easily and showcases your products.

Even here you can remember the concepts of color and functionality that you put in to practice in your home office.? Rather than a filing cabinet, you may want an accordion file for all the forms and informational brochures you have on hand.

Find a cute business card holder that reflects your personality and your business to put on display.

For my essential oil friends, you may want to look into a travel diffuser so you can take those wonderfully inviting smells with you without needing to carry distilled water with you.

Watch Your Productivity Soar with These Personalized Desk Organization Ideas

Whether your office is your computer, a specific place within your home, or something you carry with you as you go, just make sure it meets your needs and inspires you in doing what you love.

If you can create your space with those two things in mind, you will see your productivity soar.

Why a Standing Office Desk Might Be Right For You

Posted on by Kimberly

Have you seen these standing office desks?

Although not directly related to online business, your health is extremely important. Unfortunately, most of us who work online and work at home often sit down for large portions of the day.

Although I have four daughters who I have at home all day with me, I catch myself in between sitting at my office desk working on my computer and sitting in the floor playing with my little ones. I also homeschool my oldest two daughters and as I am teaching lessons, you guessed it….I am sitting down.

As I write this, I’m realizing now how much I could really use a standing desk.

To be honest, I didn’t even know this type of thing existed until a friend posted online some pictures of her new standing desk!


There are a huge number of risks of sitting down too much, as reported by Just Stand.org, including:

  • A higher risk of dying sooner from any cause.
  • An increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
  • Negative effects on the metabolic system.
  • Difficult to reverse even if you exercise regularly.

This is why you should consider buying a standing desk. That way, even though you need to be at your desk for large periods of time, you can help combat the effects of sitting down all day.

For those of us who may have back problems (I do after having 4 babies!), a good mat for under our feet will be a MUST HAVE if we utilize a standing desk.

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You should also incorporate regular exercise into your daily routine. Even if you think you?re ?too busy?, remember that getting away from your computer to exercise will actually help you to be more productive when you get back.

Be sure and take a break every hour. Take a quick walk to the kitchen. Put in a new load of laundry. Read a book to your toddler.

These fifteen minute breaks of activity will make a world of difference in your physical health.

So go look at some standing office desks and see if this might be right for you!

Do You Pay Others for Services?

Posted on by Kimberly

 

I want to make sure if you are paying others to work for you in any capacity that you know how to pay them properly.

The IRS is very strict when it comes to paying others for services. They want everyone to be an employee so that you will be paying payroll taxes into the government regularly. That benefits them the most.

It doesn?t benefit the small business owner though. That is why the IRS looks very closely at who you are paying for services and whether they should be classified as an employee or independent contractor.

When you hire someone to do work for you, there is a simple test you need to perform to make sure you are in compliance with the IRS. Ask yourself these questions:

  1. Does this person provide services for others besides my business?
  2. Does this person own their own business recognized by the IRS?
  3. Does this person supply their own equipment and tools needed to provide the service to me?
  4. Do I control how this person does the job for me? Or do they decide how to get the job done?

The IRS looks at the entire relationship on a case-by-case basis to make their ruling.

If the first 3 questions above can be answered ?yes? and they decide how to get the job done, then they are easily classified as an independent contractor.

If you provide any type of benefits to the person like vacation time or retirement benefits, then they are an employee.

How much control you have over the person providing the service plays a large role in the determination of how to classify them in your business relationship.

TAX REPORTING

There are different tax reporting requirements for independent contractors and employees, with the latter being more extensive and expensive.

  • Independent Contractors ? Your small business does not have to withhold any kind of taxes from the amount you pay independent contractors for services. Your only reporting duty is to the IRS at the end of the year on IRS Form 1099-Misc for any amount totaling payments more than $600 for the year to each individual.  You do not, however, have to issue this form to the contractor if they are an incorporated business.  And that?s it! Pretty simple!
  • Employees ? Business owners must withhold payroll taxes from each employee?s paycheck which includes federal withholding, social security, and medicare taxes. Employers must also pay to the IRS an additional amount that equals the social security and medicare portions of the tax withheld. In addition, the employer must pay Federal Unemployment Tax to the IRS each quarter for each employee up to a set dollar amount.  Some states also impose a state unemployment tax that the employer is required to pay each quarter. Your business will have to file several employment tax forms either monthly, quarterly, or yearly depending on the form and the number of employees you have. These forms include Form 941, 940, and W-2 for federal purposes.

 

As you can see, it is more burdensome to keep up with employee filings and paydays. That is why so many small businesses choose to hire independent contractors when they can.

The key is to make sure you are compliant with IRS rules and regulations concerning the status of the service provider.

Are you handling these payments correctly? Leave comments and questions below.