If you don't have a dedicated room, there

If you don't have a dedicated room, there are things you can do to minimize the noise level in a place where other activities are likely to occur. Try to choose a location away from wherever the most household traffic occurs. If possible, put up folding screens or hang curtains from the ceiling to delineate work space from home space. And if background noise is completely unavoidable unless you're prepared for a call, set up a professional voicemail service or answering machine and stress on your greeting that calls will be returned promptly. That way, you can check messages frequently and arrange for a distraction-free return call.

A cell phone can end up as your business' lifeline

The Importance of Being Earnest-Er, Organized

Because you are entirely responsible for your business, it's up to you to keep track of things. That means organization is essential. There is nothing worse than completing a big project, then walking away from your workspace and returning to discover you have no idea what you just did with it-and the client expects it in an hour. Additionally, keeping your work area clean and coordinated saves you a huge amount of time in the long run you'd otherwise spend hunting down misplaced files or phone numbers scribbled on Post-Its.

Like other integral virtual corporation skills, organization is a process that improves with practice. If you make it a habit to keep things straightened up and stored where you can find them, it soon becomes second nature. It's a good practice to keep personal items and paperwork out of your business area (but no one would begrudge you an executive desk toy or two!). This also helps to enforce the separation of work and leisure you need to maintain.

A great rule to follow for honing your organizational skills is the One-Time Rule. This means whenever you pick up a piece of paper, whether it's a bill, an invoice, a sales letter or something you meant to add to your permanent file system, determine what should be done with it and do it right then. Never pick something up more than once. The more often you put aside things and tell yourself you'll get to them later, the bigger your "to-do" piles will become. You can also apply this rule to your e-mail. Every time you open an e-mail, decide what action needs to be taken with it: reply, delete, or keep for reference. Then do it! This technique will help you avoid ending up with 1,347 messages in your inbox with no idea what you should do with 1,329 of them.

Don't let the infinite file nightmare consume your office

You'll find more information on specific organizational tools in the upcoming section Home Office 101.

Goal setting: where will you be in five years?

What do you want to accomplish with your virtual corporation? Do you just want to earn a comfortable living without working for someone else, or do you intend to be fabulously wealthy? Do you want to carve out a niche for yourself in the herbal soap market, or do you want to be the number one global provider of herbal soaps ever to exist? Whatever your goals are for your company, constructing a concrete plan to reach them is a tremendous step in steering your business down the path of success.