Tax Deductions You Should Know About

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With April right around the corner, tax season is in full swing here in the United States. While some Americans have already put the annual tax task to rest, there are millions of others, like me, who have yet to file in preparation for the April 15 deadline. Before you storm through your taxes at the last minute, take a moment to review this handy quick-list of deductions that you can make as a small business or freelancing consultant.

Deduction: Your Home Office
If you’ve set up a home office or a specific portion of your home that you regularly and exclusively use for working or as a place to meet with clients, you can claim deductions on that space. Deductions include a percentage (based on the percentage of space used in your home or apartment) of your real estate taxes, mortgage interest, rent, insurance, painting, repairs, and depreciation.

Additionally, you can deduct a portion of your utilizes for the amount you use them for work, such as Internet access, cellular phones, electricity, heat, etc. Remember, the area you claim must be exclusively used for business for it to be a deductible. For more information, visit the Form 8829 page at IRS.gov.

Deduction: Elance And Other Fees
If you’re using Elance to earn a portion or all of your income, you can actually write off any of the fees as they are a “cost to do business.” This includes monthly memberships, add-on Connects, and Elance’s service fee (6.75% to 8.75%).  Also, if your business frequently utilizes other services, like Skype or PayPal, you can also deduct those expenses as long as they are primarily used for your business.

Deduction: Travel Expenses
While you are currently unable to deduct the expenses associated with commuting to work, you can deduct costs associated with traveling from your office (or home office) to other work-related locations, like a coffee shop to meet a client, your local office supply store for business supplies, or an airplane ticket across the country for a business conference. One great specific example is that you can claim 55 cents per mile in 2009 as well as parking fees and highway tolls you paid on the way to meet a client or attend a business function.

According to the IRS, deductible travel expenses include (but are not limited to) travel by airplane, train, bus, or car between your home and your business destination, use of your car at your business destination, fares for taxis or other types of transportation to business-related locations, meals and lodging, tips you pay for services related to any of these expenses, and more. For more information, review Topic 511 at IRS.gov.

Deduction: Research And Education
Speaking of conferences, any research-related activity and the costs associated with it are also deductible, so long as they are related to your business or work. Conference entry fees, books, magazine subscriptions, publications or journals can all qualify, as well as educational expenses so long as it “maintains or improves your job performance.” For more information regarding education tax deductions, visit Topic 513 at IRS.gov.

Deduction: Networking And Entertainment
The annual membership fees for certain clubs and organizations, like alumni associations or your local Chamber of Commerce, can be written off as tax deductible if they are places for you to find potential clients and other business opportunities. Additionally, entertainment expenses for a client, customer, or employee can also be written off, but there are several rules that must be met in order for the expense to qualify. You can review these rules at Publication 463 at IRS.gov.

Deduction: Elancers
Whether you’re a newly launched small business looking to find someone to supplement your team or a longtime Elance provider looking for some help on a large-scale project, the fees associated with hiring contractors and subcontractors are tax deductible. Bonus: If you’re using Elance, all of your invoices are stored online, so you won’t have to fuss with finding paper copies of invoices or receipts when tax time rolls around. 

Pet Sitting Services Brownwood Texas

 It's getting to be that time of year when everyone wants to go somewhere! Most pet owners worry about their pets while they're away and worry traditional dog boarding doesn't provide enough exercise or attention to their furbabies! Here's an alternative to traditional pet boarding! 

The alternative to boarding your furbaby in a cage!

Pet Benefits:

·         Your furbaby will be in familiar surroundings

·         Your furbaby will experience the same smells and sounds they are used to like their favorite bed or perfect spot next to stairs

·         Your furbaby will receive individual attention and love from us with unique knowledge of their habits, hiding places and scratching spots

·         Your furbaby will have less disruption to their regular potty schedule so they can go in the same place at the same time

·         Your furbaby will eat the same food and treats, receive their medicine at their regular times, and sleep in the same bed

Parent Benefits:

·         You will not have to transport your pet to and from the kennel

·         You will not have to beg family, friends, or neighbors to care for your pet

·         You will be able to put your worries aside and enjoy your time away from home

·         You will be assured of quality care

                                                                                                                         

In your home:

$7 per day per furbaby – Each visit is approximately 45 minutes to 2 hours of play time or a walk. Will go to your house twice a day to let them out in the yard & feed. Tags & Vaccinations records must be provided for walk. Furbabies must be housebroken!

Your pet sitter can also pick up supplies, bring in your mail, and water indoor and outdoor plants and the lawn for an additional charge of $3 per day

In my home: 

Currant vaccinations (including kennel cough & rabies) required. Furbabies must be housebroken and non-aggressive and able to be with other animals including cats.

$5 per day per furbaby – includes numerous play sessions, a daily walk and constant supervision. You must provide their food, meds, and bedding/blanket/toy for comfort and leash/collar and tags.

$10 per day per furbaby – includes numerous play sessions, daily walk, and constant supervision. Food provided. Must bring meds, bedding/blanket/toy for comfort and leash/collar/tags.

Additional services:

Daily Dog Walks  

Daily dog walks are the perfect solution for families that work all day and can’t get home to take the dog out for a quick walk, potty break and some fresh air. Dogs don’t want to hold it till you get home from a long day of work. Daily dog walks are performed Monday-Friday between the hours of 8:00am and 4:00pm at random and will keep your furry child from “going” in the house and getting bored. Each visit will last from 25-30 minutes. Tags & Vaccinations records must be provided.

Dog walker –

$15 per day 1 walk   - 1 furbaby

$20 per day 1 walk – 2 furbabies

$28 per day 2 walks - - 1 furbaby

$38 per day 2 walks – 2 furbabies

     

Bath- $20 per bath per furbaby

Needs editing Are You Killing Your Productivity? 6 Things to Watch Out For

Elance_Alex |

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Whether the work week is made up of two hours or two hundred, all freelancers, entrepreneurs, business owners, experts have one common goal: squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of time spent working. After all, time is money, and maximizing productivity is something that typically translates directly into bigger profits. But even the most experienced veterans of work can unknowingly fall victim to productivity killers and undermine their earning potential, or worse – willingly and actively participate in killing their productivity. Here are six productivity killers you need to watch out for to ensure that you stay productive, stay on point, and maximize your potential.

1. Weak or Absent Goal Setting: Are your goals well thought out and clearly defined? If not, your productivity will take a hit. Specific projects, job-hunting strategies, bidding practices, and your long-term career plans all need clearly defined goals and milestones to maximize output. Otherwise, you’re spending valuable energy constantly re-evaluating where you stand, how far you’ve come, and where to go next, robbing yourself of not only work time, but also a clear map to success.

Some people prefer the ‘fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants’ method, but in the long run, this can be self-destructive. Yes, even with clear cut goals, there needs to be room built in for creative brainstorming and trouble shooting; two things that strive on the positive stress of winging it. However, using this model for an entire project, or worse, your entire career, can keep you in a constantly high-stress state causing burnout and health issues that will eventually sap productivity levels to nothing. Speaking of health...

2. Sacrificing Your Health: Health issues aren’t just a concern for providers who don’t set clear goals. Everyone can fall victim to this big productivity killer. Living the dream means setting your own hours and being your own boss, but the dark side translates to late hours, lack of much needed sleep, overworking, and other potential health issues. If you’re not sleeping enough, your productivity most likely will not maintain its optimal level.

And don’t forget diet and exercise. Long hours toiling over projects is hard on the body, so if you don’t make sure to eat well and exercise, it will show in your work. If you take the time out to take care of you, you’ll have more energy and sharper focus, making projects easier to complete in less time. This makes investing in your health very worthwhile for yourself as well as those you work with.

3. Freelance Style Faux Pas: Multi-tasking is a big buzzword and sets up many workers for a huge potential productivity trap. Some people thrive only while juggling a dozen or more projects at once. But what if you don’t?

Many freelancers and business owners feel pressured to juggle multiple projects as part of the lifestyle stereotype, but doing so is by no means a requirement and can actually destroy your productivity. It all depends on how you’re wired.

Multi-taskers need the heightened stimulation achieved by solving many unrelated problems at once. The downside is that motivation suffers when a multi-tasker is forced to concentrate on a single task. On the other hand, focused workers thrive on devoting all of their energy onto one specific task before moving onto the next, and juggling many can cause overload.

Both styles have their ups and downs. The trick to maximizing productivity is to know your style and work with it rather than try to be something you’re not. And for bonus productivity, build your team with a good mix of both styles to ensure everybody is performing at maximum productivity. Or if you’re a sole contractor, pair up with an opposite style freelancer to pick up or offload tasks to maximize both of your styles.

4. Playing the Victim: You lost the perfect deal, job, or contract you were sure was made for you. You’re crushed and can barely bring yourself to turn on the computer, let alone hunt down for more business opportunities. You mope around and do anything and everything you can think of to console yourself, except for the one thing that will actually cure you’re blues – land another deal. If you feed off rejection and let it sap time away from your end goals, you’re robbing yourself of time and money, starving your productivity in the process

Win More Freelance Jobs With These 7 Tips

Elance_Alex |

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Now that you’ve learned the ropes around the Elance Work System, it’s time for you to push the pedal to the metal, crank up the volume, and get awarded more jobs than ever before.

After personally spending quite a bit of time studying the Elance universe, I’ve learned that there are a few ways that you, as a provider, can stand out and shine from the rest. So before you jump the gun and send off your next proposal, familiarize yourself with the following tips.

1. Keep Your Profile Up To Date: Your Profile page is one of the most important assets for any provider on Elance to maintain. Having a well-written, fully-completed, typo-free page shows your potential client that you will take meticulous care of their work, similar to your profile page. Additionally, take the time to fill out the Summary and Keywords sections in detail as these are two key areas that attract the eyes of many employers. DongoDevTeam andYourtravelgirl are examples of great profiles.

2. Write Awesome Proposals: Making a great first impression is key. Proposals are a lot of times the very first communication your potential client will see from you, so be sure to spend some time preparing your proposal. Aside from replying with just, “I can do this in one week,” ask thoughtful, poignant, and relevant questions, prepare a detailed timeline, establish a standard communication channel and frequency, and spec out your milestones. This will clearly state to your potential client that you mean business. You’ll show that you have put serious consideration and thought into the job as well as understand the requirements and have foresight into the project. For more on proposals, check out our this blog post: Make Every Proposal Count.

3. Take Skill Tests: If you’re debating on investing the time in Skill Tests, consider this: A recent Elance survey identifies that 77 percent of prospective clients found that Skill Tests and Verified Credentials to be important factors when making the hiring decisions on Elance. That’s nearly four out of every five employers on Elance! If you’re still debating on taking Skill Tests, remember, you aren’t playing the odds, my friend.

4. Join Groups: By joining an Elance Group, you are showcasing your talent and professional skill that is officially recognized by a sponsoring company – for example, Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Excel. Talk about real street cred. Your Group affiliation is prominently displayed on your profile page as well, which helps employers quickly identify the cream of the crop of a specific skill and expertise in no time.

5. Act Fast: Once you see a job that fits your skills perfectly, be sure to prepare your proposal as quickly as possible without contradicting point 2. By responding quickly to a job posting, your proposal will be closer to the top of the list, thus being one of the first proposals that the client sees. Of course, you also have the option of submitting a “sponsored” proposal to ensure the top spot if you wish. Are you on Twitter? Follow our jobs feeds, located at @elance_jobs, @elance_web, @elance_design, and @elance_writing, and you’ll be notified via Twitter of the latest job postings in your discipline.

6. Take Care Of Your Rep: Feedback is one of the most important elements when a client is perusing through a provider’s profile, according to our last survey. How can you build a shining reputation? First, obviously, by completing your jobs on time, treating your client respectfully, and by having stellar communication. Secondly, you can consider bringing your existing clients on to the Elance Work System to instantly build up your feedback while taking advantage of Elance features like Escrow and the Workroom.

7. Be Connected: One thing that all clients can appreciate is fast turnaround with everything, especially with any lingering questions, so staying connected as much as possible is critical to keeping your employer feeling good. Here’s a tip: If you have a mobile device with email capabilities, be sure to have it sync up with your email account associated with Elance. We’ve just recently added BlackBerry support, so answering questions directly into the Workroom or other areas in Elance is a cinch.

So, now, I must ask you, the real Elance experts: What strategies or tips do you have when winning jobs on Elance? Fill us in and leave us a note in the comments below.