Dear Yvonne (nice name!)

First of all, clients will love you because you will be coming to them rather than them having to come to you. To make this easier on them (and to avoid too much running around on your part), get a fax machine and e-mail access. It's perfectly acceptable for you to run a secretarial business from your home, and clients will understand this. In all your dealings with your clients, they should feel they are working with a professional. If it happens that that professional is working out of their home, so be it. More and more people are doing this.

You may want to consider renting a post office box and using this address on your letterhead, business cards, etc. A business telephone line (or a business "ring" where both calls come in to the same line but the ring is different for your business calls) may also be in order. (If you answer your phone by your business name, and it is different from your own name, be aware that the phone company will want to charge you for a business line.) Get an answering machine or service for the hours you'll be away from your office. Return calls promptly but during the business hours you want to keep. This will keep clients from feeling they can call you all hours of the day and night.

Good luck, Yvonne. Let us know how it goes!

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About the PowerHomeBiz.com Guide:  

Yvonne Buchanan is a 20-year veteran of public relations, marketing and advertising. She teaches public relations courses online for career changers, freelancers and students through The PR Academy www.learnpr.com  and is co-founder of Real-World PR  www.realworldpr.com , a public relations information provider for small businesses. Real-World PR offers public relations toolkits (manual/CD combinations) that allow small business owners to create and maintain their own public relations programs.