Time to follow your dreams??

August 18, 2011 Leave a comment

How to Successfully Begin a Small Business

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Over 90% of small businesses fail within the first two years. Why? Many owners fail to plan their needs appropriately. There are some simple steps that one can follow to ensure long-term success.

Steps

Identify your target market. Research customers and have an excellent idea of the strength of your target market.
Define your product. Find out what the target customer wants in the market. In other words, don’t try to sell hats if the market wants shirts.
Define your consumer. Are your customers primarily male or female, or does your product attract both? Identify your customers’ age, be it infant/toddler, child, adolescent, young adult, middle-aged adult, or older. This is essential to determining the exact requirements for which to accommodate your customers not only in quantitative measures [i.e. meeting the demand by having adequate supply], but also qualitative measures, such as speedy service, or the decorum of your employees, as well as yourself.
Set up a plan. Work your market, product, and consumer type into a workable marketing plan. Write a proposal and show it to trusted advisers or consults.
Develop a budget. Most small business owners fail to plan for adequate financing for the first two years. Plan for at least 6 months of negative cash flow, as the first year of your business will probably yield negative return.
Start small. Too many small business owners try to grow too fast and ultimately crash and burn due of lack of capital or the inability to adequately meet the needs for resources in a timely manner.
Have a reliable workforce. Take the time to hire qualified personnel. Avoid hiring candidates that may pose as a liability to your new business.
Do not assign yourself a tremendous salary. Reinvest your net income back into your business to help it grow. Reinvestment is the key to success.
Hire a good lawyer. This is essential from the start to avoid unnecessary legal battles that could have been avoided with proper legal advice.
Get a Website. This will be how most customers even local ones will check you out. They will use your website to check your hours, sales, location, prices, menu, history, etc. Unless you really know what you are doing, get a professional to design your website.
Network. This means, in a nutshell, get to know more people and tell them about your business. Always keep a supply of Business Cards and Brochures with you about your business. If you don’t have any yet, get some designed and printed by a professional. There is a link at the bottom of this article to an online store where you can buy cheap yet professional business cards, brochures and other marketing tools.
Volunteer. This may sound crazy as you are busy getting your business off the ground but this really works well to promote new businesses. If you are a photographer, volunteer to take pics for a local non-profit event or company newsletter. If you are a Florist, volunteer to make floral arrangements for a community event. Be sure that you are given printed credit and put some business cards with your donation.
Participate in shows and promotional events. It is a good idea to participate in at least 2-3 business shows in a year. Make sure the shows are relevant to the public that you are trying to reach. Don’t have a booth at a flower show if you are an esthetician. Be sure to hand out business cards and brochures and even some promotional giveaways such as USB sticks or pens with your logo and contact info on them.
Always focus on your customers. Never take your customers for granted or assume that they will always choose you. Always be looking to reward customers for their loyalty and when they refer you to others. If you don’t have some sort of a referral or loyalty program consider putting one in place. It doesn’t have to be complicated, something like giving them a $10 credit for every new customer (that purchases something) they send your way.
Have an exit strategy. As your business grows, plan for the future of your business. Will you sell your company? Will you pass it on to another individual? Will you merge your company with another firm? Many families do not have good managers, but still want control. Proper planning will avoid unhappy endings to a good business.

Tips

“Proper planning promotes peak performance.” Accept this statement as your mantra.
Expect long hours on the job. Small business owners normally rack up 60+ hours per week and work many weekends.
Have a supportive partner at home. Small firms must have a happy family environment in which the owner can count on for moral support. Unhappy owners do not concentrate on the business.
Pay your bills on time! This will aid in establishing and maintaining a good credit rating for your business.
Find a business system that has been proven successful and follow on the basis. Then be creative on how you want to implement.

Warnings

Do not use business cheques for your bills. Take a salary.

Related wikiHows

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An unsolicited and unpaid endorsement…

July 19, 2011 Leave a comment

When most of what you read or hear is overtly negative, I would like to switch gears. No doubt in the world of business you have been there. You find a company or service that raises the bar for exceptional performance. Recently, while leasing space for a client in Alton, I had the good fortune to meet John Hentrich and his outstanding group of professionals at Riverbender.com. Not only do they have a true jewel of a community center, community website and office building (with space currently available no less), but they design websites for small and large businesses in our area and though out the Midwest.

These are tech people who you will absolutely like and who know how to make the complex easy to understand. They took my vision of a commercial website and turned it into a reality. All of this while never letting me pick up the check for lunch! I know from this blog, mine is a small voice. However, if your firm is ever in the need of a website rebuild, do yourself a favor and check these guys out! Thanks again John, Mike and Kari for an outstanding job!

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Possible Good News??

July 14, 2011 Leave a comment

WASHINGTON – (Dow Jones) – Though the commercial real estate market will continue to cause problems for U.S. banks, those losses don’t threaten the financial system, a U.S. Federal Reserve official said Friday.

“It appears that worst-case scenarios are becoming increasingly unlikely,” Patrick M. Parkinson, director of the central bank’s division of banking supervision and regulation, said in testimony prepared for a hearing of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was formed to watch over the $700 billion federal bank bailout.

There are likely to be ongoing problems among commercial real estate loans and securities backed by those loans, but “risks in these areas have been reduced,” as banks have already marked down the value of many of those securities on their books, Parkinson said.

“We do not see (commercial real estate) losses as a threat to systemically important financial institutions,” he said.

Over the past two years, there have been fears that the commercial-real-estate sector would deliver a severe blow to the U.S. economy, amid a surge in foreclosures of commercial property with mortgages that were packaged and sold by Wall Street as securities.

Parkinson cautioned that losses in commercial real estate are likely to be an “ongoing negative factor” for banks, which he estimated have taken 40% to 50% of the losses that they will ultimately realize as a result of the current round of commercial real estate distress.

Sandra Thompson, director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s division of supervision and consumer protection, said that declines in commercial real estate prices are making it difficult for borrowers to access new credit backed by properties they already own. “Just as in the case of residential property markets, declines in commercial real estate prices that have taken place during the past few years will pose a longer term problem for commercial real estate lenders,” she said in prepared remarks.

There is about $3.2 trillion in outstanding debt in the U.S. commercial real estate sector, $1.6 trillion of which is held on bank and thrift balance sheets, according to the Fed. Bad commercial real estate loans have been a primary reason for the surge in bank failures over the past three years, mainly at smaller institutions that were highly concentrated in the sector.

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Successfully Restarting a Closed Small Business

June 1, 2011 Leave a comment

Whether it’s because of military duty, a family emergency, or other reason, when you close a business and want to reopen it, careful planning is required. If your business closed because it failed, make sure you’re not making the same mistakes when you reopen it. Come into the market with a revised business plan that addresses the problems you had before and how you will overcome them. Did you learn from your mistakes? How will you do things differently?

A restart is risky and expensive. You can assume your customers moved on, your vendors may not extend credit to you, and you may have trouble getting bank loans or other capital, especially if your first business failed. You will have to reignite your network and rebuild your relationships with your business community. Even if your business was doing well before, don’t think you can simply jump back in. Your customers will surely have found another provider for your services or products. How you approach restarting your business depends on how long your business was closed and how the market for your products has evolved. For example, if you are relaunching after a brief hiatus, and you told your customers you were taking a break, you might be able to resume business rather quickly. But if you were closed for more than a couple of months, filed bankruptcy, or dissolved your company altogether, look at your business as a startup.

Take a look at your business’s four P’s: product, price, promotion, and placement. Evaluate how your competitors are handling each one of these areas and where you would like to be in the overall marketplace. You may have to substantially change your original business to compete in the current market. After all, market conditions change. Are there still enough consumers for your products? How will you reach them? Writing a letter to your former customers to let them know you’re back in business is a must. Asking former happy customers for referrals will also help you grow your customer base.

You’ll need to file the proper paperwork with your state and local government. The documents will depend largely on how you closed your business in the first place. Most states require that you dissolve your business when you cease operations. If that is what you did, you’ll need to apply for a new business license, reincorporate, and take the same steps you took when you opened the business the first time.

If you did not dissolve your business, you may be liable for penalties and back taxes. Consult with your accountant about how to abate penalties and catch up on back taxes. You will also need your accountant to get you up-to-date on tax laws and other compliance issues that may have changed during your hiatus. You’ll need to follow the same checklist for restarting as you did when you opened:

· Register your business name and trademarks.

· Obtain permits and licenses.

· Hire an attorney, accountant, and other professionals.

· File appropriate paperwork with the city, county, and state where you are operating.

The most important element to restarting a closed business is to look at the entire operation with fresh eyes. And keep in mind that many business owners have multiple failures, closures, and missteps before they find their success.

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