Almost everyone it seems thinks that working from home is a great goal. This is very true, if you have the discipline to stay focused without constant supervision. There are literally thousands of small business ideas with many that would allow you to work from home. Here are a few things to consider before you quit your job and follow your dream

FIND WHAT YOU LOVE TO DO The key to any successful small business is to understand the market and your own personal talents. It doesn't matter that some businesses may offer more money. If you don't love the work, you won't be willing to make the effort necessary to be successful in any small business. Unlike corporate America, and small business is a lot like a small child. Both will depend on you and your decisions to help them grow and stay healthy

DECIDE WHAT IS SUCCESS The definition of success is different, for many of us. For some it's loads of money in the bank. While for others it's having more time to spend with family and friends. Only you can decide how much money is enough.

For some, a successful small business might generate enough money to let a spouse stay home or go to school. It may be a way to save more money so you can retire at a much earlier age.

FIND A NICHE AND FILL IT You've probably heard many people suggest that you find a niche. A niche is simply a small part of the market that isn't being serviced now. Realize that the growth of the Web itself has been a phenomenon driven by entrepreneurs like yourself who want their own small business. We're not just talking Web businesses however is there are many home-based business opportunities that will allow you to work from home and make a full-time income.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX: while many people dreaming of their own small business will look to standard small-business opportunities. The trick is to find a unique way to develop that business idea. Consider a hairdresser. If your talent is cutting and styling hair, most hairdressers looking for a small business opportunity may rent their own styling chair in an established salon. Thinking outside the box, that same hairdresser could offer in-home haircare to senior citizens who may have a difficult time driving themselves to a typical brick-and-mortar business.

As one of his conditions of membership, he is required to have passed an examination in accounting and related fields of study. The recognised company should also as have the power to exclude from membership those persons found guilty of negligence in the performance of their duties or of conduct that is discreditable to their profession.

The accounting officer is required to: determine whether the financial statement are in accordance with the accounting records, determine the accounting policies applied in the preparation of the financial statement and report to members on the above matters.

When the accounting officer is a member or employee of a corporation, he must state this fact in his report. In performing his duties the accounting officer has, in accordance with the Close Corporations Act, right of access to the accounting records and other information of the corporation and is entitled to obtain any necessary explanations from members. If, during the performance of his duties, an accounting officer becomes aware on any contravention of a provision of the Close Corporations Act, he must describe the nature of the contravention in his report, irrespective of whether the contravention is material.

If the accounting officer becomes aware during the performance of his duties that any change in the particulars of the founding statement have not been registered, or that the financial statements indicate that as at the end of the financial year concerned the corporation's liabilities exceed its assets he must report forthwith, by registered post to the Registrar. If the accounting officer at any time knows, or has reason to believe, that the corporation is not carrying on business and has no intention of resuming operations in the foreseeable future, he must immediately report same to the Registrar.

An accounting officer who resigns or who is removed from office must immediately inform every member of the corporation thereof in writing and must send a copy of his letter to the registered office of the corporation. An accounting officer who is removed from office must consider the reasons for his removal. If he considers that he was removed for invalid reasons, he must immediately inform the Registrar and send a copy of his letter to every member in the corporation.

If you're in the medical billing business, or plan to get into it, one of the most important things you're going to have to do is hire a staff of billers. This may sound easy but it is far from it. In this installment, we're going to cover some basic things that you're going to want to look for when hiring a billing staff.

The first thing you want to look for, probably above all else is somebody who has knowledge of the industry. The reason for this is because the medical billing industry is filled with rules and regulations. Medicare regulations alone are enough to make your hair stand on end. The last thing you want is for a biller to have to look up every single regulation before sending out a bill. They need to have a solid command of the rules of the industry or productivity is going to suffer greatly.

The next thing you're going to want is somebody who has excellent typing skills. Sad as it is, most of medical billing comes down to typing and a lot of it. The person will have to type up order pages, patient accounts and a number of other items. Plus, they will be doing this all day. It is critical that they are able to get a certain amount of claims out or the company will not be as profitable as it could be.

The next thing you want to look for in a medical billing person is somebody who is technical to some degree. The reason for this is that most billing today is done by computer and many claims are no longer printed on HCFA 1500 forms but instead sent electronically. If the person you hire is not familiar with modems and things of a technical nature, they are going to have a hard time doing their job in today's environment.

The next think you want to look for in a medical billing person is somebody who is trustworthy. The medical billing world deals with a lot of information that is private. Your biller is going to be seeing information such as patient files that is for nobody's eyes. They are going to have to be able to see all of these things on a daily basis and keep their mouth shut about it.

Finally, you want to find somebody with a great attention to detail. Medical billing is one of the most complex things you can do. Aside from all the regulations and forms, there are things like enteral billing and parental billing where they are going to have to understand feeding methods and conversions. For oxygen billing, they're going to have to know how to calculate oxygen units. They will need to be able to tell when a claim just doesn't look right. For example, if oxygen units shows some crazy amount, they are going to have to be able to recognize this.

All in all, medical billing is harder than most people think. That is why it is important to hire a medical billing staff that can handle the job well.

In this installment of medical billing, we're going to look at the software company itself and cover some basic things that they should do when looking for a programmer to create the software that will eventually be sold to the public. Unlike other industries, this will require certain knowledge that most programmers don't have and will need to get in a hurry.

As a programmer, if you're a good one, you're going to have a basic knowledge of how to write structured code, how to interact with databases and so on. Any decent programmer worth his salt is going to have these skills. Otherwise, you don't even want to look at the person. So that is the first thing you need to do when hiring a programmer. Make sure they have the basic programming skills. Your department manager should know what they are. Trust his opinion.

But you're going to have to go even beyond this knowledge if you're going to find a programmer who is capable of writing code for a medical billing software package. For this, you're going to need to bring your billing manager in on the interview process because unless the programmer manager is familiar with all the aspects of medical billing, he's not going to know what questions to ask the candidate.

So what questions DO you ask? Well, for starters, you should ask the programmer if he has any prior experience working for a medical billing company or a similar company in the medical industry. Maybe he's worked for Medicare or Prudential. While they don't actually do medical billing, they are in the industry and thus will give the programmer some knowledge that will be of use.

If the programmer has no experience in the medical billing industry, then the next thing you ask him is if he has had any experience working for a company that deals with government regulations. Why? Much of the medical billing industry is regulated, meaning that there are certain things that you have to do, no choice in the matter. The software too, will have to do certain things a certain way, especially when it comes to creating specifications for electronic billing. If the programmer has any kind of experience with government regulations, this will be a big asset to your company.

If the programming candidate has no medical billing experience and no government regulation experience, then the next thing you want to ask is if the programmer has had any experience working for companies that create software where money is either paid out or taken in. Why? Because that is basically the whole nature of medical billing. You're sending out claims, getting paid for them and posting the money to your account. So there is a lot of bookkeeping involved. If the programmer has accounts payable or receivable experience, this will be a big asset to the company.

In our last installment of medical billing, we looked at what was involved as far as the software company hiring a programmer to create their software that will eventually be sold to the public. But programmers aren't enough because the software needs to be tested. The truth is, programmers make lousy testers because they are biased. That's why the software company needs to hire QA testers to make sure the software works as it should. So what should a medical billing company look for when hiring a QA tester? What follows is a list of a few things that you're going to want.

Unlike other industries, QA testing medical billing software is a whole different animal. The reason is because you are dealing with a number of functions rather than just the one or two main things that most software does. For example, with medical billing software you have to not only be able to send out the claims, which is basic, but you also have to post money, add items to various databases, print, barcode and the list goes on and on. That's why most medical billing software companies actually hire specialists in each are. For example, they may hire a QA tester just to test electronic billing modules. Yes, that's how specialized this can be. So what do you look for in a QA tester?

Ideally, you would like to find somebody who actually has experience with medical billing. But this is highly unlikely because most QA testers who are working at medical billing software companies simply just don't leave their jobs. They pay well and the security is off the charts. They pretty much have jobs for life. So luring one away is going to be very hard. The salary you would have to pay would make it almost unaffordable to have them around.

The next best thing then, if you can't find somebody in the industry, is to find somebody who works for the government in some form. The reason is because the regulations of this industry are enough to choke a horse. There is more legal red tape in medical billing than just about anywhere else. Somebody who is used to working with red tape will be very good to have on board.

Another thing you want to look for is somebody who is very familiar with the technology of the times. Medical billing software is quite complex. Your QA tester must be comfortable with modems, printers, barcode machines and retail sales machines. If they have a a good handle on operating systems as well, that will come in handy because most software has to be tested on multiple platforms.

You also want to find somebody who is a good writer. The reason is because medical billing software usually has manuals that are thicker than phone books and since most companies can't afford tech writers, QA testers have to double as both tester and writer.

It isn't easy to find somebody with these qualifications. The field is very competitive and the salaries are very high. So be prepared to make quite a nice offer to get the candidate you want.

If medical billing software companies let the inmates run the asylum, nothing would get done. Total chaos would be the least of your problems. So in order for a medical billing software company to run properly, you need a few department heads to keep the inmates in line. What follows is a review of the key people you will need, why and what they must be able to do.

To start off with, you're going to need an overall manager to look over the whole company. The reason is because there must be a coordinated effort between programming, QA and support, otherwise there is a strong potential that the three departments will go off in different directions. If this happens, the end product, plus the support that goes along with it, will be shoddy and poorly supported. So this person, whoever you want to call him, must make sure that these departments all understand what their duties are and what the overall goal of the software itself is. Clear plans must be written out for each department and adhered to.

Next, you need a programming manager. This person must be aware of the overall concept and design of the software itself. This way, he can keep the programmers on course in the various stages of development. A template for design should be created and along each step of the way, it is his responsibility to see that the programmers don't stray from this template. This person must be able to view the whole design concept in his mind and immediately spot when somebody is off course. He must also be a master programmer himself because more often than not, somewhere along the way, there are going to be problems that the low level programmers won't be able to solve. This is when he must step in and fix the problem.

After the programming manager, you're going to need a QA manager. This person is going to be responsible for keeping track of each QA person's test results. He will then need to report back to the programming department what all the problems with the software are and how they need to be handled, whether it be functional or just in how the software itself appears. If the programming manager is doing his job correctly, most errors should be functional ones and not in design. The QA manager also needs to be able to train the department in the proper procedure for testing the software and delegate different parts to different people based on their strengths.

Finally, we have the support manager who needs to be able to train the support staff how to use the software after it is finished. This is usually the hardest job because this department has the least amount of time to work on the software before it is released to the general public. So the support manager must be able to work quickly and efficiently. He has to be able to get a good handle on when his people are getting the basics of the software and when they are totally lost.

One of the most heated arguments in the medical billing world, at least when it comes to the software company, is ROI or return on investment. This is something that is very difficult to calculate as far as what you want your ROI to be and everybody has their own theory and opinion on the subject. If you're a software company just starting out, or better yet, thinking of starting a medical billing software company, there are some basic things you need to consider when figuring out what you want your ROI to be. What follows is a list of the most basic of these items. For starters, you have to figure out what your cost of production is going to be before you even hire any programmers to create this software. This basically involves the cost of the lease on the building you'll be using as well as any other fixed costs such as utilities, insurance, etc. Add all this up and put the estimated total in one column.

The next thing you're going to have to calculate is the salaries of all the people who will be responsible for getting your product out. This includes programmers, QA persons, support techs and all managers. You will also need a networking department who, though they won't be directly responsible for working on your software, will be keeping your operation going. You need to calculate these salaries not just for the time that the software will be developed but also for the time after while you're supporting the product, which will hopefully be for the lifetime of the product. Will you keep the same number of programmers. QA people and support techs? What salary increases do you foresee? Figure all this out and put it in a second column.

The next thing you have to figure out is the cost of any add on items that you intend to include with the software at no extra charge. For example, in the medical billing industry there are a ton of forms that customers are going to need. Are you going to include these forms or are you going to have your customers get them from an outside source? What about peripheral equipment? Are you going to include barcode and retail sales machines? If so, you need to include the cost of these. Also, you're going to need to calculate the cost of maintaining all the equipment. If you deal in peripherals, you're also going to need a tech staff.

After you have figured out what all your yearly costs are going to be, you then have to decide what you want your return to be. In other words, let's say you plan to spend $1,000,000 a year and you want a 10% profit each year. You first have to figure out how many software packages the market will allow in a year. Let's say it's 10,000. If you want a 10% return, then you want to sell $1,100,000 worth of product. If you sell 10,000 units, doing the math, you will need to sell each unit at $110. This is actually very cheap for medical billing software as most packages go for several thousand dollars. So most likely, if you price your software correctly, you will make much more than a 10% ROI.

Whenever you put a group of people into a work situation, there's potential for conflict. People bring to the job differing work habits, ethics, and modes of expression, and differences of opinion are bound to arise. Add to that issues of work allocation, opportunities for promotion, and other factors where employees are in a competitive situation with each other, and the likelihood of trouble is great.

It's not possible to eliminate conflict from a workplace, but establishing clear guidelines for work responsibilities, promotion practices, and scheduling issues can go a long way toward creating a harmonious environment. Periodically reviewing employee responsibilities is necessary to make sure that one or a few employees don't end up doing a disproportionate share of the work.

If it turns out that some employees do less than their share on a consistent basis, you can bet the other employees recognize this and have some pretty intense feelings about the situation. Intervention is necessary; if the problem is lack of skills, make sure the poorly performing employee gets the training needed. If it's an issue of poor time management or lack of organization, there are plenty of classes available in those skills; offer to pay for them and strongly urge the employee to attend.

When personal conflicts do arise, have a policy for resolving them. Provide mediation and counseling opportunities for employees, and make sure they feel comfortable using them. If a conflict becomes serious enough to threaten the harmony and efficiency of the workplace, you may need to require mediation for the parties involved.

Finally, keep an eye on the dynamics of different departments. Some may run very smoothly most of the time, while others seem to be in constant conflict. If that happens, you may need to take a good look at the management of the poorly functioning department; your department head may have a management style that invites conflict rather than serving to resolve it.

To reach your organization's productivity, sales and revenue goals, it is vital that you continually grow your business.

Are you currently meeting your revenue objectives? If so, great! If not, you are not alone. The majority of organizations are failing to reach their true revenue potential and their leaders haven't yet realized exactly what is holding them back; or they are in denial.

The underlining cause of poor productivity and sales is not what you've been led to believe in other magazine and journal articles. It's probably also not the issues you and your executives have spent your time, efforts and expenses on in attempts to improve revenues in the recent past.

Poor customer service, ineffective marketing, an unreliable workforce, distribution errors, etc., are not the cause of falling short on your productivity, sales and revenue expectations. They are only the symptoms of a larger underlying cause.

Market leaders do not struggle with these costly issues. Five years of research on the most effective organizations has found that they have all followed the same formula in order to take their organizations to the next level of success.

Here is that "3-Step Business Growth Formula." Follow it and you too will eliminate costly "revenue robbers" from your organization forever.

1. Hire Only TOP Performers

The clichés of, "Your employees are your greatest asset" and "You're only as great as your weakest employee" are not simply clichés, they are facts. The truth is, the more productive your employees are, the more profitable your organization will be.

A TOP Performing employee really is the only asset in your company that is guaranteed to make you money. They do so month after month, and year after year.

Unfortunately, only 20 to 33 percent of the employees of market survivors are TOP Performers. The rest of their workforce is comprised of "Workplace Survivors" that do just enough work to get by month after month or year after year.

Your TOP Performers naturally succeed. They do so without external motivation, bonuses, contests, incentives or ultimatums. They fit your culture, their team and their job.

It is critical that you learn the recruiting and employee selection strategies of your market's leaders. They have proved that by hiring a top performer the first time, productivity, sales and revenues will begin to improve.

2. Develop Your Workplace Survivors into TOP Performers

Whereas a top performer makes you money, underachievers always cost you money.

Along with their underperformance comes absenteeism, tardiness, conflict, mistakes, apathy and ultimately turnover. All of which are more detrimental to your bottom line than anything else in business and the underlining cause to larger problems.

It is imperative to create and follow a successful performance boosting process. Your market's leaders insure that every employee, from their executives to entry level, are reviewed and developed at least twice a year. You need to realize that if any employee is not reaching their performance and productivity expectations, your organization will also fall short on reaching its productivity, sales and revenue goals.

Many market survivors act as if they believe not every employee can be a top performer. Do you think market leaders believe this? They don't and that is why they are constantly developing their greatest asset to continually reach expectations.

3. Take Initiative Before Your Competitors Do

To leave competitors in your dust, you can no longer settle for underperformance. Standards and benchmarks must be set on your best employees, not what it takes to survive.

If you are not reaching your revenue objectives and actually believe your productivity and sales can improve, take the initiative to eliminate your costly revenue robbers. Many times, all it takes is a quick analysis of your systems and simple adjustments to bring about profound differences in the productivity of your organization.

Understand the barriers that are standing in the way of peak performance do not disappear on their own. They only get worse and end up costing you more of your time, energy and resources in the long run.

When noticeable issues go unsolved, what kind of message are you sending your managers, employees and clients? Depending on the problem, to your managers it may look like you don't believe in the competency of your leaders. Your employees may begin to believe you don't have faith in your product, service and the organization. Clients will eventually assume you really don't care about them or their business.

This is why it is imperative to allow your belief in your organization to lead to action. If one of your goals is to grow your business this year, take the initiative to do so. Just make sure you do it before your competitors does.