Prepare Your Home Office for an Online Business
Setting up a home office to run your online business is a great way to start your journey to online success. A small room in your home can be used to put you into the right mode and mindset to run your online business. Here are a few ideas to help you build your dream online business focusing on room size and feel, followed by items and organization to build your ultimate home office. I will put links to what I feel are the best items relating to building your dream office that will aim for high quality and affordability. I spent a lot of time researching and hand picking the best products for most peoples needs.
ROOM SIZE AND FEEL
It is recommended to have at least a one hundred square feet room or ten feet by ten feet. A hardwood floor is usually more clean and organized for your purposes and is easier to keep clean. Generally, the color of the room is up to personal preference, but here is a list of popular colors to use. Off-white, teal blue, gray, light-blue, brown, pastel yellow, purple, green, orange. Try to incorporate curvature in the room as studies have shown that it can give a more relaxed feel to your environment. Additionally, the right light fixtures, plants, and having inspiration posters with motivational concepts can help our daily mentality and focus in the home office.
OFFICE ITEMS AND ORGANIZATION
Choose a good sturdy desk that suits your needs and style. There are so many styles and personal preferences with desks so I will mention some basic things about them only. If you are going to use an excersize or walking desk, make sure you pick out your configuration carefully so it will work well together. Try to get a desk that has drawers or have some separate drawers situated next to it. Make sure it is not wobbly or weak but stable and dependable.
[pic – TribalDesignsLDesk.jpg] [pic- Desk-L-shaped.jpg] 
Tribesigns L-Shaped Computer Desk Monarch Specialties Corner Desk
Proper and abundant shelving is very important for short and long term organization and should be over estimated so that you have plenty of shelf space for the future.
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SUPERJARE Wall Shelves Corner Wall Shelf
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A high quality chair is a very important item as you will be using it more than basically anything else and it affects your posture over the long term. You should spend some time choosing the most ergonomic and comfortable chair that supports good posture as well as relaxation throughout the day. I personally don’t want my work chair to be overly comfortable and this one is my personal favorites.
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Use a few power supply strips with built-in USB and have some 2 amp USB chargers plugged in to charge devices so you aren’t tying up USB slots in your computers. These ones have built in USB Charging capability and are highly recommended.
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Use hooks and bins to keep cables and adapters organized so you don’t find yourself wasting time hunting for them. In my first year of business I wasted so much time looking for cables that were right under my nose sometimes. Again, some nice affordable options in this category for you.
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Stainless Steel Adhesive Hooks PC Gaming Headset Headphone Hook Holder
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Plastic Bin Steel Mesh Organizer Cart
Set up either fixed or adjustable platforms to hold Monitors, phones, tablets, or even laptops. You can position them so that you don’t have to change your posture to use your devices. Here are a few of my favorite items …
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Mount-It! VIVO Black Fully Adjustable
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MAGIPEA Tablet Stand Holder Gooseneck Tablet Holder
I firmly believe if you get an exercise desk and use it, it will make a big difference for your health. Walking desks are generally more expensive – $1500 to $3000 – but there are some more affordable options that stood out to me which can be used with either the built in platform or with your own adjustable desk surface. Here are links to what I see are the best and very affordable setups …
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[pic – AecoJoyDesk.jpg] [pic – FlexispotDesk.jpg] 
AECOJOY Electric Stand Up Desk Frame Flexispot Electric Height Adjustable Desk
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Stand Steady 55 Inch Standing Desk
Use a flipboard or whiteboard to brainstorm and solve problems or to demonstrate to others your ideas on the fly.
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Desk Calendar Dry Eraser Board Daily Planner Tabletop Easel Pad, 20 x 23 Inches
Try to have at least one multiple display computer so that you can have a cohesive and expanded space to do more complex tasks on your computer. The monitors here are high resolution and large enough for most needs with great image quality at the same time as not being too costly.
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Philips 276E8VJSB 27″ 4K Monitor Acer 23.8-Inch (1920 x 1080)
If you are making videos online, prepare a set with a green screen to make your videos as professional looking as you can imagine! This one is highly recommended.
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Emart Photo Video Studio 8.5 x 10ft
These are just a few suggestions and ideas offered in helping you to make your ultimate home office for an online business. Having things set up properly from day one and implementing some or even all of these things can be a game changer in your online journey. May you have many years of success in your online ventures.
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Devices and Methods to Start an Online Business
Starting an online business is an exciting and attainable goal for more people than it ever has before. You can conduct business and connect to the online world with many options which are available to everyone. It is a good idea to set up the best system possible to maximize efficiency and make your business day easier. What we would like to do is set up some guidelines and general direction to help you get started on your journey to help you run your online business as smooth as possible. Today I’ll share with you the 5 steps I take to organize my computer to help me find stuff faster and make my computer run quicker.
CHOOSING COMPUTERS
There are so many computer options to choose from. Which is best for you? Whether you use a Mac, Windows, Linux, or any other OS it is a good idea to have a non mobile setup as a home base for your business. Phones and tablets have gotten more capable but are less reliable and not generally as good in using for running an online business. This is the case for visibility, networking, printing, and several other tasks. It is recommended to set up either a Mac, Windows, or Linux machine for your main business computer. As a bare minimum, you should have at least 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Core 2 Duo 2GHz or better CPU. Your needs may scale higher, depending on how much you are doing and what type of business you are conducting. Some examples of what might necessitate a more robust computer… video editing, photography editing, etc… If you’re a newbie and not sure what type of computer you need to run your online business, first think of your business vision. What is the purpose you intend to use your computer for? If you’re not going to be doing gaming, photo/video editing I recommend keeping it simple and getting a computer with these basic specs:
REDUNDANCY – USING MULTIPLE DEVICES
Once you have your main computer picked out it is a good idea to have two other devices as a minimum for most peoples needs. Having a more portable netbook is a great way for taking your office on a trip with you when needed or to add redundancy. Basically, if you have the same data in at least two places, you are much less likely to ever lose it from a system failure. Additionally, a phone designated for business which is synchronized with the other two machines with respect to data redundancy and portability really enhances the overall equation and finishes off your setup quite nicely. You will generally put only your most pertinent and crucial items on the phone as they are needed.
Syncing Miscelaneous Files:
Mac: https://www.syncios.com/mac-ios-manager/
PC: https://www.syncios.com/features.html
Linux synching with iOS/macOs is more challenging but this one solution is a good place to start.
Linux: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-sync-iPhone-to-Ubuntu
Sync Google Chrome browser between Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Chrome:
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/sync-access-open-chrome-tabs-across-devices/
SECURITY STRONGHOLD – HARD COPIES AND HDD BACKUPS
As an added level of security for your business, it is a good idea to make backups of your most critical data in an identically labeled folder or even a separate external HDD or to your cloud storage of choice, if preferred. Acronis True Image 2020 is a good solution to do full or even differential backups and is a very powerful way to back up your hard drives efficiently. Here’s the link below.
https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/computer-backup/
BROWSER AND FILESYSTEM ORGANIZATION
Your organization can vary depending on your business, but there are some good general things you can do for most business setup needs. Make an easily accessible folder and name it either your business name or if you have more than one online business you can name it “Online Businesses”. Next, in your business folder, make other folders which will depend on your business structure. An example would be for a business relying on Facebook ad campaigns, you can have a Facebook folder. For financial organization you can have a “Finances” folder, for product research you can have a “Research” folder, and onward from there. For your browser, make use of bookmarks with the same setup as your folder structure on your computer. Now, when you are online, it will be easy to synchronize and save data in an organized way for your business. An organized browser and filesystem before you get your business going is an excellent way to start things on a good footing. Of course you can deviate and change this general setup guideline for your particular needs. The main thing is that you have infused some system of organization from the start and can evolve with it as your business grows.
ADVANCED OPTIONS – VIRTUALIZATION
This is the least necessary, but neat way to organized several businesses on one machine. Download either Vmware player or virtualbox and start up a Linux or Windows virtual system to designate for your online business. This can be easily figured out by searching it online with your preferred search engine. It would be a good option for those with only one system and a limited budget. Here are links for both Vmware Player and Virtualbox below.
Now you are well on your way to success that you have a more secure and organized system for your online business. This can be a game changer for you now that you have it in place. May you have much success in your business endeavors for many years to come!