Making a budget for a home business start-up is more of an art than it is a science. No matter how exactly you think you’ve pinned down all your expenses, it’s guaranteed that more will appear that you either didn’t think of or just couldn’t have predicted. That’s why you need to make sure that you always plan for every possible expense.

Things Break.

Remember that any equipment you buy can go wrong, no matter how expensive or high-quality it was (this is especially true of anything IT-related!) When things break, you probably won’t need to buy a new one, but you’ll at least have to wait for the manufacturer to replace what broke. This can lead to days of lost or less-efficient business, and cost you money. Budget for equipment failures.

People are Unpredictable.

When you hire staff, you have no way of knowing that they aren’t going to let you down. You might have worked out that it takes $200 to train one new staff member, but what do you do when that newly-trained staff member quits and moves to France after three weeks at the job? You’ve got no choice but to train someone else and take the loss. Budget for staff turnover.

The World is Against You.

Or at least it can sometimes feel that way. Just when you’ve got everything perfect, someone sets up a little construction site next door, and drives your business away. Or maybe it rains for a few weeks, meaning that there’s just no demand for your bouncy castle hire business. Whatever, you need to budget for times when you’ve got no customers – and make sure you have something else to be getting on with in the meantime.

Customers are Out to Get You.

‘the customer is always right?, right? Well, yes, but their ?rightness? can sure cost you a lot of money. You have to be prepared to take huge losses to pay off complaining customers. Remember that one unhappy customer can undo hundreds of dollars worth of marketing efforts – once you make a customer unhappy, your options are to take a loss fixing the situation or to take an even bigger loss when they tell everyone how you didn’t. The only way to avoid this expense is to please all of the people all of the time, which just isn’t possible. Budget for unhappy customers.

Competitors Kick You When You’re Down.

If one of your competitors spots a good opportunity to take some business from you, they won’t hesitate. You need to have a ?war chest? ready to make aggressive offers and marketing efforts, and be prepared to get into a full-scale price and advertising war with the competition. It’s massively frustrating to be in a position where your rivals are getting all your business simply because you already used up your marketing money for this month. Budget for war.

Double Your Budget.

Whatever happens, remember that under-budgeting is the worst mistake you can make. It’s known as ?under-capitalisation?, and is generally thought of as one of the quickest ways to kill a business – anyone who might be willing to give you finance will just think you’re a fool if you’ve under-capitalised your business, and might even refuse to lend to you.

Most home businesses budget only a few thousand dollars for their expenses (if they even make a budget), thinking that they already have everything they need. People don’t realise how quickly little costs like having some business cards made or getting your suit dry-cleaned start to add up. This doesn’t apply for other kinds of business, but if you’re like 99% of home business starters, you really ought to double your budget. If you doubt me, start adding up all your ?little? expenses over a year, and see what happens.

Budgeting for every expense in your initial plans shows that you’re not the kind of person who thinks that everything’s going to go right for them just because they’re so great – instead, you’re a practical businessperson who knows that anything that could go wrong probably will, and you plan to make a profit anyway. There is a difference, after all, between arrogance and cool-headed determination, and it’s one that the people with the money want to see.

If you haven’t experienced it for yourself, you’ve seen its effects. You’ve seen the haggard, weary-looking faces of countless mothers trudging through the grocery store aisles holding the hands of little ones wearing that triumphant “I’ve just got my way, again” smirk.

You’ve seen grown women brought to tears in the check out line or at the doctor’s office by a small, wriggling, screaming body that just won’t seem to quit. And while you may feel lucky that you escaped all of that torture, don’t congratulate yourself just yet. Your time for dealing with a strong-willed child may be quickly approaching and you will need all of your parenting skills to cope with it.

When talking about strong-willed children, there are two age brackets that pop into mind very quickly: the terrible twos and the always-torturous teenage years. While you may think that these two ages require completely different parenting approaches, they do not. Of course, the language that you use will change, but the basics for parenting strong-willed children stay the same no matter the age.

The key to parenting strong-willed children is consistency. Sounds easy, huh? Well it’s not. Children have a way of wearing you down until you just want whatever it is they’re doing to stop. Sometimes parents tend to cave or give in to their children just to bring the conflict to an end. This is the worst possible thing that you can do when dealing with a strong-willed child because it just reinforces that their negative behavior evokes a positive outcome.

To show children that their antics are not going to have any effect on your decisions, you must consistently show them that you mean what you say. Don’t bend the rules or let punishments slide no matter how tough it gets. While it may be rough in the beginning, the more that your child sees that you will not be swayed the more he or she will listen to you without putting up a fight.

Do not fight with your child. When nerves are strained and tempers flare, it can be very easy to fall into a pattern of fighting with your child. Avoid this at all costs. Always try to remain calm and unruffled, at least in the presence of your child. In order to do this, you will need patience. Don’t be afraid to take a break when things get too tough. Walking away from the situation for a few minutes of peace and quiet is often all that is needed to strengthen your resolve.

In addition to following these parenting tips yourself, be sure to bring the co-parent and grandparents in on the plan. If everyone in the strong-willed child’s life uses the same approach, the child will have to buckle down and follow the rules.

On the upside of things, strong-willed children generally become highly motivated, successful adults. They usually have high-self esteem, high energy, and extreme intelligence; they are just lacking the skills to contain their own greatness and let it shine when and where appropriate. Keeping this in mind, try not to brow beat your children into submission. Instead, lovingly show them how to control emotions and how to properly assert themselves.

Bonnie Foshee, Parenting Expert, Discover 11 Powerful Parenting Tips for a Happy and Successful Child.