If you can’t afford any of the cheap office deals out there at the moment, ask around, perhaps you know someone knows of an office laying empty at their company. They could ask if you could hot desk there for a small fee, or you may be able to barter your services in order to pay for the let.

Flexibility is the key to finding affordable office space is to consider all opportunities from bartering you skill set to finding shared office space.

In a previous business of mine, we had a lot of clients that were real estate investors. They came to us looking for credit so they could put money down on their next property or have some working capital for their current projects. It became very apparent real quickly that most of them were “spending their nights and weekends fixing up the old place down the street”. (their words not mine.) This was a hobby to them. They had heard of people making good money in the Real Estate Game but this wasn’t their business. They work for “The Man” every morning at 8 and came home at 5. How could they be business owners?

In order for us to get them sufficient capital to accomplish their goals, their paradigm needed to shift. They had to start treating themselves as business owners. They were business owners in every sense of the word. There were just certain things they didn’t have in place to feel like business owners.

Here’s my point – Real estate investors are business owners and SO ARE BLOGGER!

I knew my title would get some of you to read my post. I have spent the last few years trying to convince people like real estate investors AND bloggers to treat themselves as business owners.

So the question is, how do you treat yourself as a business?

• The Right Entity. Choosing an entity is a tricky task and shouldn’t be taken lightly. I would HIGHLY recommend consulting with a CPA or Legal Council before choosing a structure. (OK – there’s my disclaimer). The most common entity structures are: Corporations, Limited Liability Companies (LLC), Partnerships and Sole Proprietors. Each type of structure offers the business and the owner certain tax advantages as well as legal protection. I imagine that most weekend bloggers are sole proprietors. There’s nothing wrong with this. There’s no major paperwork that has to be files with the state and no separate tax returns that have to be completed, just an additional Schedule. It’s easy. If you are a sole proprietor, PLEASE, PLEASE keep good records. You want to make sure you can justify expenses that are truly business related and those that are personal. Enough said.

• Bank Accounts. Make sure you set up a bank account IN YOUR BUSINESS NAME. This will help you from “co-mingling funds”. (mixing personal and business money). this way you can get check with your business name and a debit card, maybe even a credit card. Your friends will think you are cool.

• Licensing. If you are a sole proprietor and you want to get a business loan, in most cases you are going to need to show a business license as proof of your existence. Here’s a side note – Lenders are also looking for history, typically 2 years in business. The earlier you can get a license, the “older” your company looks.

• Accounting Records. Make sure you keep up with your bookkeeping. It might not be much when you first start out, but you will have some…especially expenses. Here’s some examples, the money you spent on your domain name, your monthly hosting, memberships to “blogging related” groups, magazines and books for education (again, blogging related),your advertising, your car mileage, your monthly banking fees for your business accounts, your office space, your employees or 1099 writers, etc. The list goes on and on. It’s extremely important for you to keep up with it. It might only take 10 minutes a day or 10 minutes a week. However long it is, just make sure it get’s done. You can use bookkeeping software like Quicken or QuickBooks, OR you can just set up a simple spreadsheet until you grow a little.

Of course this list is far from being all-inclusive, but it’s a start. I can’t stress it enough that this is a business my friends and should be treated as one. You need to treat this as a business and take the necessary steps to make sure others view it as a business too. This will make your life a lot easier when tax time roles around or when you try to secure additional capital from banks. And of course, your friends will think you are cool. You’re a business owner!