Most new businesses require a settling in period where start-up costs exceed income. It is vital to keep tight control of this process, so that losses don't run unchecked. This principle applies equally to any new business, whether it's a tiny one-man show, or a huge company, making a new investment.

This need not become a major chore, but the process of keeping simple records, once set up takes only a moment to update regularly. The simplest is probably to open a little spreadsheet in Excel, with headings for a few columns, but first decide a limit for your monthly business expenses.

In an earlier article we discussed the importance of carefully considering your personal finances before commencing the business start-up steps. Given all other expenses versus income it should not be too difficult to arrive at an affordable monthly amount. Include your partner in this planning period, so that you have support and commitment to work through this phase. You'll need help to carry the costs for a period.

If you have Office or similar on your computer, there are numerous ready-made templates available for your use, and if not, a quick search on the internet will find many options freely available. Keep this simple and straightforward. You basically need one side of the spreadsheet for income, and the other for expenses.

A date for each entry with enough space for brief details - the amount carried forward to a column for each type of expenditure and a total at the end. Excel will do the arithmetic for you, as you simply add up each column at month-end, and carry totals to the monthly figures at bottom-right for income and expenditure. Many people understand basic book-keeping, and if you're one of those more fortunate ones, please bear with those who don't have the knowledge! For now, a regular spell each month will help you to track your progress. Soon you'll be able to celebrate your first profitable month!

What we're doing in this exercise, is laying the foundations for later on, when your business really gets going. It's also important to keep copies of invoices safely stored somewhere. You may be called upon to produce them for the tax authorities, eventually.

Remember - you're not doing this for fun! You're starting your business with your own goals in mind, and your plan is to work from home. When that income is enough for you to live on, then expect a visit from the tax authorities quite soon thereafter... One of the few things certain about life is that you will pay tax! If you have kept your records carefully, you will be able to show that you have incurred legitimate expenses in generating your income. (Won't this be a nice problem to have, anyway?)

Tax laws vary around the world, and you may need to take professional advice one day to keep on the right side of the law. Keeping copies of invoices, for recording in your spreadsheet, will make the job much simpler.

Now that you've signed up for your affiliate programmes, and you've hopefully worked your way through the "getting started" training provided by each, we'll discuss some more steps to take to make things start to happen.