FIVE: "Out Honor" Your Co-Workers. Take risk of having others take advantage of you. Cross line first rather than waiting for other person to communicate first. In other words, give gift before you receive it.

SIX: Learn Something New about Someone. When you are curious (not snoopy!) about people at work, you are giving them respect. People love to be respected! Find out how their family is doing, or more about their favor hobby.

SEVEN: Notify Spouses and Family. Speaking of respect, a card of thanks or acknowledgement sent to a spouse or parent can go a long way to improve communication with your employees.

EIGHT: Invite Kids. When I was a kid, my Dad often took me with him in his work. As a minister, that meant calling on people in rest homes, going to weddings and occasionally watching him rope calves at a branding event. This is a great way to communicate pride in your work.

NINE: Invite Ideas. People love to work where their ideas are valued. Most everyone notices how to improve bottom line, but many want to be invited to share their thoughts.

TEN: Give Credit Away Even When It's Your Idea! Anytime you can build up another person at your own expense, you have a good shot at improving communication at work. Positive communication can be just as contagious as people who are disgruntled.

BONUS: Listen Differently than You Do Now. Practice learning new ways of listening. If you use same technique, you may find you are missing out on some important information.

©2002, Carwin Dover, Intentional Partnerships

Some persons resist idea of incorporating themselves because tax savings may not justify added costs of incorporation, annual minutes, and extra tax returns. However, incorporation gives advantages that go far beyond tax savings.

Insurance may give you some protection against loss. However, you may suffer business losses and lawsuits that may not be covered. For extra protection, consider incorporating yourself. The limited liability of your own corporation alone may justify additional cost and complexity.

Corporations may also be used for income-splitting with your family, as well as estate planning and retirement planning objectives. Additionally, corporations lend some credibility to smaller businesses and may enhance your image and prestige in eyes of clients or suppliers.

Lower corporate tax rates will generally apply on small business income. Even in loss years, wages can be paid by corporation to you so that you may utilize personal tax credits available. If unincorporated, these credits might be lost forever. The now larger corporate losses can be carried forward to future (hopefully more profitable) years.

A full analysis of advantages and disadvantages of incorporation is beyond scope of this report. However, being incorporated may give you more flexibility and advantages than you originally anticipated. Certainly, it is not prudent to reject it as an option simply because it is more complicated and costly. In fact, it may be one of best investments you ever made.

Popular Misconception #4: ------------------------- "I really need an office out. ----------------------------- Being home-based makes me look amateur!" ---------------------------------------- Is A Home Office REALLY Professional? -------------------------------------

Many times small business persons make mistake of generating unnecessary overhead in order to impress clients and prospects. Often this attitude leads to escalating debt and business failure. One such example is getting an impressive, but expensive, commercial office space.

Customers aren't stupid. They can see when such outside space is necessary or advantageous for them. They can also see when it is a waste of money and designed to fuel your ego. What matters most to clients is whether they are getting cost-effective results or not. If your product or service delivers such excellent value, your customers will be impressed and come back. In contrast, if one allows his ego to get in way of satisfying customers' needs, they will go elsewhere.

With move to telecommuting, downsizing, networked communications, and home-based businesses, operating from your home office is actually smart and trendy. Can you think of a more appropriate location for a consulting firm specializing in home-based businesses? They of all businesses should set example in cutting unnecessary expenses and operating efficiently.

This is not to say that there aren't any disadvantages to being home-based. One certainly must be well organized, disciplined, and willing to follow good time management principles. This alone could mark you as more professional than other businesses, home-based or not.

Expensive office space is not answer to reflecting a professional image. If you are truly concerned about your image, offer quality service. Make sure that all your corporate communications (telephone, websites, printed materials, et cetera) reflect professional nature of your business.

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/ has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty years.