KIM O'CONNOR

By the time you start looking for cash for your startup business, you’ve put in a considerable amount of hard work. Now all that’s left is the final—and crucial—step of finding the funds.

Crafting an informal business plan is a simple, straightforward way to monitor the health of your business. It’s a vital tool that will help you diagnose problems, cut costs and implement new strategies. It also helps you capitalize on the things you’re doing right and correct the things you’re doing wrong.

Your network—the people you know—is one of your most vital business assets. Collectively, these folks are like a superhuman assistant that can help you earn money, meet people, brainstorm ideas and troubleshoot problems. Such connections are invaluable. But first you have to make them.

Many small-business owners assume they’ll just know when it’s time to expand operations. The decision seems intuitive: If business is booming, and you feel overwhelmed, it’s time to hire help. But, like most things in life, hiring decisions are rarely straightforward.

The number of Americans who go back into business after retirement is on the rise. The 2010 Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity showed 23 percent of new entrepreneurs are 55 to 64, a figure that was just 18 percent in 2000.

According to a 2011 report on social media issued by research company Nielsen, Americans spend almost a quarter of their Internet time visiting social networking sites and blogs. That means potential clients are far more likely to learn about your freelance business on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—the sites where they spend most of their time—than any other place on the Web.

Millions of American entrepreneurs are also military veterans. The overlap is hardly surprising. The demands of military service require sharp skills and steady discipline—the same qualities that business owners need to succeed.

Working in a home office can be notoriously isolating, but many micro-business owners can’t justify the expense or the commitment required to lease a commercial office space. Recently, a thriving alternative to home offices and coffee shops emerged: co-working.

The economic slump has caused an existential crisis for many small-business owners who are struggling to redefine themselves according to the whims of a volatile market.

Natural disasters—like businesses—come in all different shapes and sizes. A big one like Hurricane Katrina decimates a region and destroys almost half of the small businesses it touches. The Red Cross estimates that 40 percent of small businesses never manage to reopen after a major disaster.

One of the benefits of working from a home office is the freedom to decorate as you please. Choosing artwork may sound like serious business, but it doesn’t have to be. Nor does art need to be a big investment.

Most home-based businesses are long on projects and short on project managers. The good news is that the basics of effective project management are simple and intuitive, and they can be applied to almost any project, regardless of size or scope.

Networking is no longer just a matter of shaking hands and exchanging business cards. Some of today’s most effective networking platforms don’t even require that you leave your desk. Increasingly, people are building business networks by putting in more face time with their computers than with their colleagues and contacts.

Whether you’re in your home office or on the go, these top-notch iPhone apps are guaranteed to help you manage your schedule, organize your data and optimize your workflow. Check Apple’s App Store for up-to-the-minute price info.

A well-crafted elevator pitch is an essential networking tool that home business owners can use in social situations, online profiles and even marketing materials. Here are five tips that will help you make sure your first impressions are pitch-perfect.

Many home-based business owners are leveraging social networking tools like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to boost their bottom line. In the same spirit, entrepreneurial thieves are using the sites to look for new business while minimizing the risk of getting caught.

Many of us spend more time in our home offices than any other area in the house, so it seems strange that these workspaces are often neglected. How many stay-at-home workers dragged a desk into some unused corner when they started their business and never looked back?

Anyone who works out of a home office knows that it can be a lonely place. At home, the trivial interactions that break up most people’s workdays—chats around the copy machine, birthday cake in the break room—are in short supply.