- Everyday in this community,
I get questions about how to start an at-home business.
Recently I did a video where I walked you through
how I grew my at-home business to six figures a year
and today what I really wanna do
is I wanna help you with everything you need
to start your at-home business.
There are a lot of things you need to put in place
both in terms of your legal structure,
your accounting, how you capture payments,
and there's so many things that you need to understand
if you're gonna start your own at-home business.
And if you stay tuned to the end of this video,
I'm gonna recommend five books for you
if you're starting an at-home business
that I think will really make a difference for you.
Speaking of things that can make a difference for you,
today's video is sponsored by my friends at PayPal.
PayPal, you're probably familiar with them,
they're an online payment processing platform,
I use them as part of the backbone of my business.
I use them for processing the payments
through awesomecreatoracademy.com
which is my coaching business.
When I was a freelancer,
I also used it to invoice my clients
and today when I hire people
who are probably running their at-home business,
when I hire my freelance talent,
a lot of them invoice me through PayPal
and that's how I pay my freelancers.
So go ahead and use the link in the description down below
to start your free PayPal account
and get your business up and running.
Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake
helping you create something awesome today.
Welcome back to the channel.
For those of you who are new here
and you're completely unfamiliar with me,
it's totally okay, my name is Roberto Blake,
I'm a creative entrepreneur, I'm a YouTube marketer,
public speaker at events like VidCon
and Social Media Marketing World
and built my own successful coaching business.
And I did this as an at-home business.
Since a lot of you are starting
your very own at-home business,
I thought it'd be important to do a video
that can tell you everything that you need
when you're getting started
and one of the most important things
is putting your business in place
in terms of the legal structure
and the things that you need in terms of accounting
and what I wanna do is I'm not gonna give you legal advice,
I have to give you a full disclaimer there,
but I'm gonna tell you some of the things you need to know
and I'm gonna point you in the right direction on that.
Also, I'm gonna get into a lot of the other things
that you probably didn't even think of
when it comes to starting your business.
Now believe it or not, in terms of legal advice,
often you can get a consultation from a lawyer for free
in terms of some initial questions you have
with setting up your business.
I chose to set up my business as an LLC
and there are obviously some tax benefits to that
and there are other reasons that you will want to do it
but you want to consult a lawyer
to figure out what the best strategy is for you
and what the local rules are
and ordinances for where you live.
If you live in a country outside of the United States,
the rules are gonna be very different,
that's why I can't give you the specific details and advice
and I tell you that you need a lawyer.
There might be things in your city or your county
or your state that are specific
to businesses that operate there.
So I always advise you to learn the local laws
when it comes to operating and setting up your business.
The other thing that I will tell you
is that you can also look at getting business insurance.
Sometimes there will be recommendations
that a lawyer can make
that can help you save a little bit money
where it's concerned or make sure
that you have all the insurance you need
because having the right coverage
is much more important than saving money.
Speaking of money, always get an accountant.
The first year that you're doing this kind of thing,
maybe you don't necessarily have to jump the gun year one
and get an accountant but I would recommend it
and if not, I would say at least make sure
that you're doing your taxes through a tax office.
Not only will they give you great advice
and understand some things about business that you might
because you're new to this
but they'll usually be able to help you
find extra deductions,
save a lot of money when it comes to your taxes
and make sure that you're doing proper bookkeeping
because you're probably not used to it.
One of the great things about PayPal
is that one, I do a lot of my overall bookkeeping
because I make my purchases for my business
mostly through my PayPal account
but it's also where I process my payments,
so that's really convenient
in terms of getting your accountant access to these things,
the good news is that PayPal usually works
with a lot of accounting software, the far majority of it.
Works with QuickBooks and several other types of things
that you can look into,
I'm gonna link to some accounting software down below
and you know that's just going to help you
keep all of your bookkeeping in row
and give your accountant, if you get one, access to that.
The other thing that I would tell you
is to consider what a lot of people do
is they use things like QuickBook and TurboTax,
those things come highly recommended.
To make a lot of the legal stuff easy,
people tend to when they're first starting their business
use LegalZoom, that's something that I've used in the past
and that there are things that I do in terms of that,
there are a lot of you that have questions
about well copyright, trademark,
this is something that I deal with this you know
person whose business focuses a lot on intellectual property
and for a lot of people, the easiest thing
is to use something like LegalZoom
but what I will say is I think that ultimately
there are less headaches if you actually go through a lawyer
and work with them directly one on one.
That way you can ask questions that you really need to
and I just think that that's more practical
and I think the cost usually comes out roughly the same
if you look into it.
So yeah that's gonna be a recommendation there,
like I said, this does not qualify as legal advice,
talk to a lawyer, talk to an accountant.
So that's the heavy stuff that I know a lot of you
you want videos on that, you never get them,
now you know why, it's that you know
we have to kind of tell you to go look at somebody
who's licensed for those things because regulations.
As I mentioned, the rules might be different where you live,
we have to account for the fact that this is the internet
and I have no idea where you're operating your business.
Let's move on to something simpler.
You're running an at-home business,
you need to have a dedicated space
to operate your business in and to do your work in.
Not everyone's gonna have the benefit
of a dedicated home office,
I specifically you know set that up
and I had that in mind from the very beginning
but not everyone is going to have that ability,
not everyone's gonna have that much space.
So what I recommend is you consider making yourself
a work corner or a cubicle.
Get yourself at least a nice desk that you can work at
in terms of either your computer or your laptop.
I also recommend that you have a computer
that's dedicated to the business,
you know something where you're not playing video games,
something where you're not goofing off
or doing leisure activities,
something that is really business focused for you.
Having a dedicated space is just going to make things
very easy for you in terms of focusing on your business
and what you need to do, it's also gonna help you
with separating things in terms of work-life balance,
so this is gonna help with your mindset and your discipline.
You also need to make sure that you're investing
in the tools of your trade and your profession.
You know what the difference is
between an employer and an employee?
Who owns the means of production,
who owns the resources, assets, and tools
that allow the work to get done in the first place.
When you're an employee,
your boss owns all the tools and all the assets.
If you want to work for yourself,
you need to make sure that you have the resources
in order to accomplish your job
and to deliver for your clients or your customers.
So what I would say is that you need to account for that
in your budget which is something a lot of people don't do.
They don't set a budget for their tools,
their software, their hardware, their equipment,
they take the fact that they're going to have to invest
in these things for granted and so I would say
that you need to really be thinking about that
and map that out.
You don't have to have everything all at once,
especially when you're getting started
but you need to have a plan
to acquire those things over time.
Which actually brings me to my next point.
One of the things that you need and maybe your accountant
can help with this beyond the taxes
is you need to set a budget for your business.
Now initially, you'll be doing that on your own.
I usually set a budget for my business
that focuses on well what are the resources and services
that I absolutely need day to day, month to month,
but then what are the things
that I know I want to buy or invest in,
what are the events that I want to travel to for business,
what's my emergency business spending?
I have a fund set aside
so that if I need to replace a laptop or a computer,
that I can do that to get up and running again
or if I need something repaired, that I can do that
but I've also accumulated enough resources at this point
to where I have a spare laptop, it's you know
I have a spare Windows laptop, it's not another Mac,
that will come later,
but the same thing even for my desktop,
I have a spare powerful desktop computer
that I can work from so,
I did that over time, it didn't happen overnight,
my emergency fund was very modest
when I was first getting started.
In fact, I'll probably make some videos in the future
that kind of break out some of these individual things
so that I can focus on them and give you some advice there.
Investing in my equipment also led me
to know that I needed to invest
in insurance for my business in terms of liability insurance
but also insurance for all of my gear and equipment
especially since I know that I travel all the time.
So again, this is something that you really need
for your business, you need business insurance
because you just never know what's gonna happen.
Let's talk about money.
While money might not be everything,
it is the backbone of your business.
Your business needs to be profitable,
your business needs you to be able to invest in it.
Ultimately, part of the reason that you start a business
was you wanted financial freedom
or you wanted extra resources
to provide for you and your family.
And so, one of the reasons I love partnering with PayPal
is how much they do for the small business community.
In fact, I'm gonna link to some of the resources
in the PayPal Help Center
because I think they gave a lot of information
and a lot of advice and people don't realize
how much there is to starting a business,
that's why I'm making some of these videos.
Capturing money shouldn't cause you anxiety.
One of the things that you're gonna want to do,
depending on what your business model is,
'cause again, I'm making very general statements here
because you might have
a very different type of business than mine,
but in most cases, a lot of these rules
are going to be exactly the same regardless
especially in the age of the internet
which means for doing business today,
you probably have a website and if you don't have a website,
you absolutely should have your own website, your own .com.
Now I'm gonna link to some hosting solutions
for you in the description.
One of the ones that I recommend the most
is usually Bluehost because it's very easy
to set up a Wordpress website that's search friendly,
if you do not want to learn any kind of coding at all,
then I usually recommend Wix
and so I'm gonna link to those down below for you
but you can use any website host that you want,
the point is I recommend that when you do that,
you link a way for people to pay you directly with PayPal,
you can use PayPal buttons for Buy Now
for your services or products or even for your subscriptions
and they make that very easy
in terms of copy and pasting the code that you need
directly into your website.
You can also create your own custom PayPal Me link
and then people can click on that
to pay you directly as well.
So this makes things push-button simple
in terms of capturing your money
especially if your business requires you
to capture a deposit or full payment up-front.
I will do a whole dedicated video about getting paid
because I think that most business owners
who are getting started, most freelancers,
they often find themselves in a position
where they get stiffed for payment
and that's very unfortunate because when you do work,
when you deliver a product or a service,
you absolutely are entitled to be paid for that,
you shouldn't have to deal with it.
PayPal makes sense because most people would also,
where you are in the world, understand it,
have access to it and they trust the name and the brand.
So that's gonna make capturing money a lot easier for you.
I've been using it for over a decade,
in my business I've processed
over $100,000 through PayPal this year,
so when I recommend this,
it is really from a place of having understood how to use it
and why it's beneficial.
So again, why I'm recommending this
it's because it's something that I actually use
in my business every single day.
And for those of you who do local business
in any way, shape or form,
I recommend that for your phone or your tablet
that you use the PayPal Here Swipe
because what you can do is you can swipe
and process debit and credit card payments with this
and you know it used to be that you have to have
a convoluted payment processing system to do that
and now it's very convenient.
If you're doing a client based service business,
you can also do direct invoicing
and PayPal will let you customize your invoices,
itemize them,
and make that very transparent for your customers.
So this is really convenient,
my freelancers bill me through PayPal
and that's how I get them paid and it's again,
it's a very simple transaction.
And these are those little details
that people don't think about
that are a little bit boring to talk about in business.
Everyone wants to talk about making six figures,
no one wants to talk about the nitty-gritty details
that happen in the backend
and you need to understand these things
if you want to build and grow a successful business.
Speaking of details,
I recommend you have a detailed business plan.
I think people neglect having a business plan
and outline for their business.
How is your business going to make money?
Who is the target market that you serve
and that you provide services for?
What are those services?
And what's your model for generating
not only revenue but what's your plan and method
for marketing yourself
and making people aware of what you offer
in terms of a product and service?
These are important questions that you are forced to answer
by creating a formal business plan
and it's something that people just neglect.
I'm gonna do a dedicated video
about how to set up your own business plan
but I'm also gonna link to some resources in the description
so make sure you're checking that out.
Speaking of marketing your business,
this entire channel has a lot of information
that focuses on content marketing and content strategy
because that's what I have done in my business
to build my own brand
but it's also something that I've done
to work with my clients
and how I built out my coaching business
and you can do this through a lot of methods,
you can do content marketing
in the form of blog post and articles with a website
which is why it's important to set one up,
you can use that to generate email list
and do email marketing and do direct sales,
you can also use advertising,
Google and Facebook and Instagram
have very affordable advertising and it's very practical.
If you subscribe to the channel and hit notifications,
that's the kind of content
that I put out on a regular basis here
as well as some of the tools
and things you need in the backend to build your content,
so I think that you know
if you want to watch those types of videos,
I'm gonna do some links in the info card up here
that you can click on on desktop or mobile
as well as in the description
so that you can kind of get your feet wet
with content marketing
because the good news about content marketing
is it's free but if you have some money
to invest in advertisements
and you understand who your target market is,
I'm fine with you taking a little bit of money
to invest in paid advertising as long as you're doing it
to sell something that is worth more
than the advertising that you're buying.
Finally, I have a few recommendations for you
in terms of books that I think can help you
with your actual business development
and these are the books
or just a fraction of the books that helped me.
There are over literally over 100 books
that helped me build my business,
I'll just share five with you real quick.
For fundamentals, I highly recommend
the Start Your Own Business book,
this is the seventh edition of this book,
very powerful especially for some of those questions
like setting up the legal structure of your business,
taxes, payroll, all of those things.
I'm also gonna recommend Book Yourself Solid
with Michael Port.
Michael Port is a phenomenal public speaker
but he also has a great system for helping you understand
how to generate more business and clients.
So for business development, this is top notch.
In terms of the mindset with marketing
and customer service in the digital world and social media,
I'm gonna recommend The Thank You Economy,
it's not Gary Vaynerchuk's most popular book
but it is the book that I think is fundamentally
the most important out of all the books that he's written.
This is my favorite book by him
and I think that if you read this,
you will be a better business person as a result.
For those of you doing an at-home business,
I think managing your time,
your tools and your systems are important
and for that I recommend The 4-Hour Workweek,
this is not about being lazy,
a lot of people take that out of context,
I'm gonna do a whole video dedicated to this book
because I think it's that important,
so pick this book up either as an audiobook
or sit down and read it, and I think that will benefit you.
And then finally, my favorite book out of this
is 6 Months to 6 Figures by Peter Voogd,
this book has fundamentally transformed
the way that I approach business
and I think that this book will actually be
why my business grows from six figures to seven figures
over the next few years.
So I couldn't endorse this book more, Peter is phenomenal,
I'm also gonna link down below to his podcast,
you have to give it a listen,
this book is the gospel as far as I'm concerned.
And there you have it, that is my round up
on everything you need to start your at-home business.
I know that there are probably some more things
you have questions about that may or may not
have been covered in this video in enough detail for you,
so not only will I be making more videos
that go into those details
but I want your questions in the comment section
so that you can dictate the other videos
that I will be making on this channel
because I want your feedback,
I wanna solve those questions for you
and I wanna help you grow your business.
For those of you who want to work with me
in terms of one-on-one coaching
or join my group program to help you
with your online business development or your marketing,
I'm gonna link to that
in the description down below as well.
That's awesomecreatoracademy.com,
that is my at-home-based business
and I think that I can genuinely help you
to reach more clients, understand the digital landscape
and what you really need to be successful
in the 21st century.
I wanna thank my friends at PayPal for sponsoring this video
as well as other videos on this channel
and I really do appreciate everything they do
for the online business community, for freelancers,
for new business owners and like I said,
I'm gonna link to a lot of resources that they put
in their business development center down below.
I think a lot of you might be underestimating
how involved starting your business is
but also how many resources and support are available to you
completely free for that journey
of building a successful business.
Question of the day, what is one free tool
that you know will help grow somebody's business?
What's a free tool that you're using right now
or that's been recommended to you by a friend?
Let me know in the comment section,
would love to hear back from you,
would love to do a roundup of your resources
from the community.
Like this video if you like it, don't forget to subscribe,
check out the other awesome content here on the channel.
As always you guys, thanks so very much for watching
and don't forget, go out there
and create something awesome today.
Take care.