Planning a Leap Day party? Here are some "tips" for a Leap Day Party. Happy Friday!

Many times, a home business Web site will feature an impersonal bio. Think about the bio on your home business Web site. How does it sound? Is it distant, perhaps written in the third person? Dawud Miracle over at eMoms@Home points out that your home business Web site bio is an important part of connecting with others:

A good bio shows that you’re human - that you’ve made mistakes and learned lessons. It meets the audience where they are in language they can understand. Ultimately, your audience should identify with you in your bio. They should see themselves in some part of it.

You are more likely to get new clients if you can connect them. You want them to feel comfortable with you. And when your home business Web site is the first "face" that they see, it is important to make that face warm and "touchable."

When most people think of working from home, they think of a home business. However, telecommuting is becoming more popular. Many companies are starting to allow working from home. And, according to a recent study, telecommuting workers can be good for a business. The Montreal Gazette reports on this latest study regarding telecommuting:

Ravi Gajendran and David Harrison at the Department of Management and Organization with Pennsylvania State University, conducted an extensive review of 46 studies on the subject featuring 12,883 employees. Their results show that working from home is good for business and for staff.

Indeed, such items as increased worker job satisfaction and lower stress, along with the flexibility of working from home, meant increased loyalty to the company. Additionally, productivity was seen to go up, and  overhead costs  were cut by businesses that no longer had to pay as much for workspaces.

This year, my home business sole proprietorship converted into an LLC, I had my home business taxes done by a professional for the first time. As my taxes become more complicated, it is important to me to spend as little time as possible actually doing them myself. And by consulting a tax professional (in my case an accountant), I can be assured that I am getting all the possible deductions and credits I am entitled to.

And after my visit to the accountant, I found out that if I hadn't made myself into an LLC, I would have owed double the taxes. So yay. I still owe, but not near as much as I could have.

If your home business is starting to find a great deal of success, I suggest that you consult a tax professional. It's worth the couple hundred dollars to possibly save thousands.

Today marks the first anniversary of Shakadoo.

It's been a great first year for the Shak. I've been privileged to add my voice to this great Web site. I've enjoyed writing about working from home, and hope to continue to continue in blogging company with all the great folks at Shakadoo. It's been amazing to watch the expansion and to watch the Shak win awards.

Happy Birthday Shakadoo! And may you enjoy many, many more.

Today's Friday Fun Video is one of my messy desk. It's for a contest over at MyFax. Hurry up and send a picture or video of your messy desk over for your chance to win up to $10,000. The deadline is Monday the 25th at noon Eastern.

One of the great things about starting a home business is that it doesn't always need to cost very much. And improving your home business can be even easier, if you already have a solid base from which to build. eMoms@Home offers a great list of 10 resources for your home business.

This list includes Web-based courses from BusinessWeek, business forms, and free software from Microsoft and Quicken. There are plenty of good ideas on the list, and I suggest you check it out.

Take a work from home break tonight and head out to watch the lunar eclipse. Here in the US, it will be at a rather convenient time, starting just after 9 p.m. Eastern and total eclipse happening between 10:01 and 10:51. This is a great time to see the moon covered by Earth's shadow, turning it red and possibly even allowing some to see it as turquoise. National Geographic reports on the lunar eclipse:

"It's very well placed for the U.S.," said Fred Espenak, an astrophysicist and eclipse expert at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

If your home business is looking to hire, you might try tapping into the vast resources of the green community. Becoming environmentally and socially responsible jobs is a growing trend, and many employees are starting to feel that they would like to work for a company that is "green."

Greener Assets offers a great list of resources for green jobs. If you have a home business, you can look to these for inspiration. If you are among job seekers, this can help you find companies with environmentally and socially responsible practices.

Happy Presidents' Day! Here is a quote about work from Bill Clinton:

Today, many companies are reporting that their number one constraint on growth is the inability to hire workers with the necessary skills.

Don't let your home business fall into this category. Think about what you are good at, hone your skills, and offer them to companies. You may be surprised by  what you can accomplish.

I'm not sure whether any computer could stand up to this. But it is mildly amusing :o). Happy Friday!

Most of the time, a home business can easily tie something in to Valentine's Day. And it is worth noting that all things Valentine's and love-related are seeing a boost in terms of SEO. BossHatch points out that Valentine's keywords are hot this time of year (no surprise). So consider using them on your home business blog today.

When it comes to home business taxes, it is possible to deduct the space used for your home office. This can be a big help, since in some cases it can amount to quite a bit.

You figure your home office deduction by calculating how much space your home office takes up. This can be an entire room, or even a portion of a room. Then you figure out the percentage of the total square footage of your home that the office takes up. You deduct the percentage of your mortgage payment that goes toward your home office.

This even works for renting. You can deduct a portion of your rent check. And the proportional deduction also applies to utilities, since your home office uses power and heat. For more details, visit the IRS Web site or talk to a tax attorney or accountant.

You home business may not seem like the place to start worrying about appearances. However, you do need to worry about them. Over at eMoms@Home, a great post on the appearance of a business card really illustrates the point:

Today, you might not ever do any business in person, and you might not even have a business card. But you have a website, a blog, or a profile somewhere like Elance or Freelance Nation. You have more opportunities to get a “Wow” from a potential customer than ever before.

Think about where your home business "face" is. And try and improve it. You want to make a good impression.

Sometimes challenges arise when you are working from home. Whether it's trying to find some peace to get something done, or whether your shopping cart software malfunctions on your home business Web site, there are some things you can do to overcome challenges. Mary Emma Allen at Home Biz Notes offers five great tips when it comes to overcoming challenges in your home business:

1. Figure out what you can do.
2. Focus on what you can control.
3. Try a diversion if there's nothing you can do now.
4. Keep calm.
5. Look for humor in the situation.

It may difficult now, but if you consider your situation calmly, and focus on the things you can do to fix the problem, your home business is more likely to make it through the rough patch.

I enjoy politics, and I really enjoyed this fun Super Bowl commercial for Coke. It shows Democratic strategist James Carville hitting the town with Republican leader Bill Frist. Happy Friday!

Sometimes it seems as though I'm not getting anything done. Working from home has a variety of distractions, and there are days that I just don't feel like doing anything. I can't take a sick day, and even if my son needs to go to the doctor, I still have a project that I have to get done -- usually sometime late at night. This where productivity becomes important. The more productive I am when I can be, the more time I'll ultimately have for other things. Here are some tips that can help increase your productivity when working from home:

*Start small. Pick a small or easy project that will help get you going. This will help you build momentum as you accomplish a task.

*Figure out when you are most "alert" and try to do a good bit of your work then.

*Create a schedule and try to stick with it.

*Make a "work area." I have a home office that I do most of my work in. If I need to do something extra, later, I take my laptop into another room. But I try to get nearly everything done with the limited distractions in my home office.

*Hire someone to watch the kids. If you need to, get a mother's helper or send your kids to preschool for a couple hours a day. It's amazing how much work I can get done while my son is gone for three hours. And I am much more relaxed and can be more attentive, since most of my work is done!

Every now and again I come across something hilarious in terms of home office equipment. My latest favorite? The Hip Office. This contraption allows you to work on your laptop while standing. I suppose it might be useful, but if I leave my home office to do work on my laptop, I prefer to be sitting. Here is what engadget has to say about the Hip Office:

Yes, it's just the thing to match your loveless evenings alone, fluorescently lit cubicle, and unfashionable pleated pants. Watch out, cellphone holster.

It may seem like you have a lot to do today, but one thing you should add to your list is voting. If you are in one of the 24 states holding presidential primaries today on Super Tuesday, take some time off from your home business to cast your vote. Working from home can get hectic, but it is important to make a choice. After all, who's in office can affect the small business policies that in turn affect your home business.

One of the biggest trends in online marketing right now is social networking and blogging. Indeed, your home business should remember that bloggers are customers as well as others. Bloggers share their experiences with your home business, and may even affect how well your work from home business turns out.

One example of marginalizing bloggers is Target. Brand Curve points out that Target is scoffing at blogging, implying that bloggers are irrelevant. This is increasingly inaccurate, as well as ignores the fact that many "ordinary" people have personal blogs and won't hesitate to share their horror stories. This could return to haunt Target in the future.

This is a funny Well Fargo commercial about finding a space (and the money) for a home office.