Are You Ready to Be a Business Owner

While most people like the idea of starting a business, many have no idea what's really involved, and relatively few will actually take the leap of faith or do what it takes to succeed. It's not easy to champion a business. It's challenging to plot your way through the maze, especially if you've not done it before. Here are a few questions that will help you navigate the hurdles to opening day.

Are you ready to run a business? For the most part, your business' success will depend on you. Do you have what it takes to succeed as a business owner? Will the business bring in enough money to support your personal financial needs? Is your family ready to support a crazy, fist-clenching entrepreneur? Are you ready to live with the risk a business will bring? A few moments of reflection will let you know whether you're on track and what you need to do to prepare to run a business.

Is your business idea feasible? Is your idea really a business or is it just a hobby? Do you see examples of similar businesses in the marketplace? The fact that a business exists or occupies an office doesn't necessarily mean it's successful. Business success takes many forms-paying the bills, fair treatment of employees, creating satisfied customers, providing a valuable service to the community, not mucking up the environment, and profitability. Will your business pay you enough to survive and earn a profit? If not, perhaps it's just a hobby.

Will your concept work in the marketplace? To figure this out you'll need to develop a business plan, a task best done by the one taking the risk--you. The business planning process will guide you to understand the industry you're getting into, to clarify which products and services you will offer, to be an authority on your customer's needs and wants, and to determine whether you've got the right attitude and experience to run the business. While it may seem like a lot of work, a business plan is a great way to prepare for the rigors of business and it will definitely save you from making a lot of costly mistakes.

Will your business make money? As you learn about your business, you'll gather the information needed to forecast your sales and expenses. A necessary part of proving your business case is determining whether or not the business will earn a profit. A sound financial plan should include a sales forecast, a cash flow forecast, and a pro forma (future) income statement. The sales projection tells you how much revenue you can expect. A cash flow forecast clarifies what your expenses will be and whether you need a loan, while the income statement tells if the business will be profitable.

While many people dream of owning a business, only a few are really prepared to jump in. One of the biggest benefits of owning a business is the joy of working at something you love to do. At the end of the day, when the dust settles and all the numbers are in, the most important business question we all need to answer is, "Do you enjoy what you're doing each day?" If you can answer yes to that question, you're well ahead of the game.

Conduct Your Own Business Retreat

Large companies in Corporate America usually conduct business meetings, known also as Corporate Retreats. These meetings are often held towards the end of the year, and serve to assess performance for the past year, and set milestones for the coming year. The retreat creates a document that is used as a business blueprint, serving as a benchmark to measure against. Some companies will make this document public, such as in an Annual Report. Others will keep it as an internal document that acts as a powerful tool for business success.

However, what if your business is small, or you are self-employed? Does this mean you miss out on this transformative business activity just because you are not a "big gun"? No way! Large companies in Corporate America haven't cornered the market on business retreats. If you are self employed or a small business, you can conduct your own business retreat. Here are some tips to guide you in the process so your business retreat is a success.

Choose topics to focus on. Most business retreats are comprehensive, covering marketing, financials, employees and contractors, clients, business growth, etc. Choose what topics your retreat will focus on, and how in depth your retreat will go into each topic. Having an overall plan or checklist of what the retreat will cover will help you plan and implement it with success

Gather all of the necessary data. Usually, a business retreat will involve a certain level of assessment, and "looking back". Therefore, it is important to have all of the business data needed at your fingertips. This includes return on investment statistics for marketing and advertising, financials, client lists, etc. Knowing the numbers and stats of your business will prove vital as you assess and measure performance and create new milestones and benchmarks going forward.

Get all of the players involved. If your business has any key players, make sure they are available in person, by phone, or bv email for your business retreat. This includes marketing reps, assistants, bookkeepers, accountants, etc. Making sure that all players are on speed dial or stand by will avoid a frustrating business retreat where you need information and can't get it at that time.

Record and blueprint. Make sure to record performance measurements, trends, and any other stats that are necessary for business assessment and future planning. You can do this on a simple word processing document or spreadsheet, or even audio record the retreat to listen later or get it transcribed.

Choose realistic and success-driven goals. As you create the blueprint to use in your business for the future, make sure that your goals are realistic and success-driven. This means creating milestones and benchmarks that can be achieved and are not too pie-in-the-sky, while also stretching your business to reach higher and further. Think where you want the business to be at next year's business retreat and what it will take to get it there. That will help you create the best plan of action.

Accountability is key. Create a system for accountability so that all of the work put in for the business retreat does not go to waste. Make sure to consider implementation. Who will implement the blueprint from the business retreat? How will it be implemented? Make sure to designate implementation time into the business calendar. Consider getting assistance from a business coach, joining a mastermind group, or partnering with a colleague to ensure that accountability is built into the business retreat blueprint.

With a little planning, an open mind, and a willingness to put in some hard work at assessing your business, a business retreat can be a huge success. So go ahead and act like the big guns - get that business retreat on the calendar and make it happen!

Small Business Attorney

Have you ever wondered about what a small business attorney is? Well, if you have, then welcome! A small business attorney is a person that went through years of schooling to get his or her degree in business to be able to learn and grow as a businessperson.

Small business attorneys have all sorts of duties. They find information about how to start a corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship, franchises, general business law, and taxation. They can study their processes and regulations in order to assist people in a more explainable manner. Small business attorneys give individuals the tools and advice in order to help their business grow. With that being said, if you want to start your own business, think about creating a partnership. When creating a partnership a person can find the assistance they need from a small business attorney and the attorney can help out with the important filings that you need for a small business.

There are of course other orders that have to be met by the state of California in order for businesses to be accepted. Among them are that corporations and companies file a form called a "statement of information". Your small business attorney can help you out by explaining to you which forms you need to use in order to file your papers. The attorney may also tell you that you can fill out the papers at the secretary's main website.

Small business lawyers concentrate on many factors that have to do with businesses. They know about sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLC'S, corporations, nonprofit corporations, business contracts, hiring workers, and risk management for your business. Small business attorneys deal with and cover many of these situations no matter what type of company it is.

A small business is considered small based on certain standards that have to do with various industries in relation to the state of the economy. The laws and the rules that your business has to follow depend on each state, the legal formation of your business, and the nature of the product and service your company offers to people. Since the laws change year after year, there is no way of keeping a checklist as it may have old laws and regulations from the past.

That is why if you are planning on starting a small business of your own it is best if you obtain a small business lawyer in order to have a clear sense and not fall into any serious business trouble that you may have if you do it on your own. A small business lawyer does not only give you advice and counsel about the laws that have to do with owning a small business but they also represent you when any legal problems occur.

You have probably heard, in the past, about the many different types of insurance that exist today. But have you ever heard of a process called insurance claims? An insurance claim is a request made to an insurance company. It can be any type of insurance but, mainly, it is a person asking for payment based on the regulations of the insurance policy. In other words, insurance claims are then reviewed by the company for their acceptance and then once that is finished it is finally paid to the insured or the requestor.

Insurance can cover everything from death benefits on life insurance policies to routine health tests for your well being at your local doctor. On the other hand, claims are filed by third parties for the insured person. There are many types of insurance available, for example, health insurance, disability, auto, life, home, and car accident.

The main function of business law is to cover all laws that govern any business and commercial transactions. It is also thought of as being a civil law that revolves around both private law and public law. Within business law there is something called commercial law, which has two elements; a principal and an agent. This mainly has to do with things like carriage by land and sea, merchant shipping, fire, life, insurance accident, bills of exchange and partnership.

Social Media and Small Business

Business and social media how does it work and why does it work for some and not for others. These questions are on the minds of many small business owners when people talk about using social media. The most important question for you as the owner is "Why should I get involved and how is it going to help my business?" The answer to the questions must first come from what is your mission and purpose for your business. Can you in a few words describe both of these concepts as they relate to your business?

Having done that, what are your 3 or 4 major objectives for your business? What are the 2 or 3 goals for each objective that are SMART goals (measurable and timeline for achievement)? How do you envision your business in 5 years and how to do the items discussed previously help you achieve that vision?

You are probably asking yourself why all the questions and what is the purpose I know my business. These questions help you clarify where you are and where you want to be and can be used to develop on how you can best get there. As you look at your strategic plan and marketing plan, ask yourself how and where am I planning on maintaining my present customer base and how do I plan on continuing to attract new customers. Who is the target audience or audiences that I am trying to attract or maintain as clients/customers? The answer to these questions for a large part helps in the development of you marketing plan, customer relations and maintenance plan. With the marketing plan the major purpose is to establish some kind of positive relationship with potential clients. You are attempting to resonate with them in a manner that they will ultimately buy from you.

Through the process you are branding your company and yourself as unique in you particularly industry and can deliver a differentiate product or service. Though the marketing process you are building a know-like-trust factor so potential clients/customers will want to come and buy from you. Social media becomes one of the tools available to you in your marketing plan that will enable you to build this type of relationship. It must be emphasized that it is not the end all in marketing and is only one phase. Social media has been found effective for small business to play with the big businesses without breaking a budget. It is a process that requires attention as much as the other parts of your marketing plan to be effective. Remember it is only one tool in your arsenal of tools to build your brand. It can be effective in building new clients/customers and helps to maintain present clients.

The use of social media in business is to build positive ongoing relationships with potential customers/clients and extend greater benefits to present customers/clients. Think of it as means of networking much as done when attending live events. It is a means of utilizing effective communication to provide a clear understanding of what you have to offer. We are establishing a relationship with people we meet and enter into discussions. Through social media we are doing the same type of thing. You are asking questions of the people and telling them about yourself and your business. You are building a relationship that takes time to build and is not done in just a few sessions.

Now that you have answered the questions about your business and your marketing plan and have a basic understanding of what social media is about, you are now ready to begin the journey of selecting the right types of social media and the right sites. Then selecting the right message and the right mediums to build the relationships with your target audience is now your next task.

Given the many sites available it is important that you select the ones that best fit you target audiences. The place to begin is to seek the answer to the questions that revolve around your target audience. The first thing to do is to do a search of sites that those individuals use for their social media. There are many different sites with many different characteristic and not all are best for all businesses. So it is important that you search for that target audience demographics. Decide what type of relationship you want to develop with them and why is it important to your business. What is the problem you are trying to solve for that demographic with your products or services? What makes your solution or solutions the best for them and how are you going to communicate that to the target audience? How effectively are you communicating it with your present use of media especially your website?

Once you have identified the answers you are ready to begin the journey into the world of social media and business. You are now prepared to select the right sites to use for your business, began developing the profiles and selecting the process you want to use to create the relationships. This becomes first steps in engaging the social media tools to assist you in enhancing your business opportunities.

In the first paragraph we proposed the question as to why to use social media and why are some successful and others are not. The first reason is that now social media is being used in many more ways and with the growing smart technologies it becomes even more important to have presences online in many different formats. Big business realizes the importance of using social media and uses it very effectively to promote their brands. It has become a way of communicating with people on different levels and to create social media as a part of customer care. Why it is not effective is that people do not use it correctly. It has to be done constantly and consistently. It has to be done with thought and with a way positive outlook. Social media has to be more than just asking people to come to an event. It has to be a process that establishes the know-like-trust factors. Therefore social media does not work if you do not work it.

Four Home Based Business Opportunities To Choose From

Home business opportunities are virtually everywhere you look online. And the promoters of each home based business opportunity often claim that the opportunity they promote is the best business opportunity to join. This often makes it difficult for newbies to make the right choice, the choice that best suit their situation. This article takes a look at the four broad categories of home business opportunities so you can identify the option that suit your circumstances and therefore make informed choice.

The four broad categories of home based business opportunities are:

1. Opportunities that involve building an information rich web site from scratch and thereafter monetizing the resulting traffic

2. Opportunities that involve joining affiliate programs that offer unique affiliate links for promoting the affiliate product or service

3. Opportunities that involve joining a network marketing home based business opportunity that offer free distributor web site to members and

4. Opportunities that involve getting paid a fixed amount for completing a set of tasks online

Let's take a closer look at each option above.

The first online business opportunity involves building your dream online business from scratch.

The right process requires you to do the following:

identify your passion

brainstorm topics that fall within your passion or interest using appropriate brainstorming software

identify a profitable niche that matches your passion or interest

Assemble low competition keywords that define your niche

Draw up a site blueprint

Design your web site

Write content for your web site using the low competition keywords brainstormed earlier

Promote your web site massively online

Add income generating streams to your web site

Cash your money month after month

If you conclude that the above process is tedious and time consuming, you're probably right.

But why?

It's because it's business... it's online business. And online business takes time, effort, and creativity just like offline does.

The second home business opportunity mentioned above is affiliate program marketing. With this type of online business, you join the affiliate program of your choice and promote the affiliate links you're given using a blend of online marketing techniques. Some online marketing techniques will produce more results than others. So, you need to track your sales promotion efforts or campaigns to determine what works and what doesn't for the specific affiliate program you promote. Then drop campaigns that don't work and do more of what works.

The third category of home based business opportunities are MLM home business opportunities that offer members free distributor web sites to promote the MLM business opportunity. As with the affiliate program model, members of this type of MLM business opportunity promote their member web site url and register new team members using the tools on the member site they were given.

The fourth online business opportunity involves completing a set of tasks in expectation of being paid a pre-determined amount.

This kind of opportunities include:

paid to write

paid to attend to customers (online customer service jobs)

... and other such online job opportunities.

WARNING: Verify that the internet job opportunity you're interested in is legitimate before you join!

Each of the home business opportunities described above have their pros and cons.

Option 1 above requires you to do a lot of work without immediate reward. With this type of online business, you're basically writing an online book or journal. And you don't get paid for writing a book until it's finished and it starts selling, right?

In simple words, this option is a long-term business where you build traffic or your own customer base through content writing and marketing. This is a tedious but rewarding way to build a long-term business. With this type of home based business you own your traffic or customer base. And when you own your traffic, you own your business.

Option 2 is affiliate program marketing. This system involves selling a product or service by finding a market for it. Depending on where you advertise or promote the affiliate programs, you can begin to make money right away.

Here's one thing to remember though.

Not everyone makes money from promoting affiliate program products despite spending a lot of money in advertising.

Why?

It's because affiliate program marketing success requires a set of skills. To succeed, you need to learn the skill-set that guarantees success. Option 3 is much like option 2. You get paid for promoting a network marketing opportunity.

However, unlike most affiliate program opportunities that are free to join, virtually every network marketing home based business opportunity require members to join with a registration fee. Besides the registration fee, members must buy at least one pack of the MLM product they promote every month to stay active and qualify to earn commissions (at least in most programs). This means there is a maintenance cost for most MLM business opportunities.

Business Structure and Audit Red Flags

In this article, I would like to discuss audit "red flags" to be aware of in addition to your business structure; should it be something other than a sole proprietorship?

Are you aware of audit "red flags"?

IRS audits are no fun. Being prepared in case of an audit is the best defense. There's a reason that the IRS audits sole proprietorships (see below for more information) more than other types of business entities by a margin of about 10 to 1. The IRS feels that sole proprietors keep messier books. They comingle their business and personal funds, overstate expenses, undertstate sales, and don't have records to backup any deductions they take.

Here are a few things to be vigilant about in your business, no matter what kind of business structure you operate under:

1. Keep a separate checking account and credit card for your business. Avoid using personal checks and credit cards for business expenses as much as possible.

2. When you purchase business items in your personal account, keep detailed records. This type of entry can easily be done in QuickBooks. If you don't have QuickBooks, an excel spreadsheet works well.

3. When you purchase personal items from your business, same rules. Keep records. These are not tax deductible items and are considered draws out of your business funds.

4. Keep files of receipts/bills and sales information that back up all of the income and expenses for your business. You want to take all the business deductions you are allowed on your tax return.

5. Have you hired help? If you are paying people as independent contractors, are they really employees? The IRS has a 20 part test to determine whether a contractor is really an employee. Basically, if you have control over a contractor's time, where they work, and what they work on….they may be considered an employee by the IRS. If a contractor is later determined by the IRS to be an employee, you could have a large tax bill looming due to unpaid payroll and unemployment taxes.

6. Excessive deductions. Are you having too much fun in your business? For instance, if you just started your business this year, made $10,000 in sales, and are claiming $12,000 as deductible conference and travel expenses; watch out. Take reasonable deductions on your tax return.

7. What NAISB code is your business in? The IRS uses this as a reasonableness factor when looking at your business vs others in your industry. Make sure you pick the right one!

-Pick the Right Business Structure

Many small businesses start out as sole proprietorships. It's easy; you just say that you're in business, get a DBA (doing business as), open a business checking account, and start offering your products and services. At the end of the year, you use the Schedule C attached to your 1040 income tax return to list out all of your business income and all of your business expenses. The net income or loss gets added to or subtracted from your other taxable income on your 1040.

There are two reasons you want to be a business structure OTHER than a sole proprietorship:

1. Liability protection

2. Tax savings

I won't go into a lot of detail here, but when you're a sole proprietor and something happens in your business that causes a lawsuit, your business AND personal assets are at risk. There are several business structures that provide a barrier between your business and personal assets:

1. LLC

2. Sub S Corporation

3. C Corporation

At least consider becoming an LLC (Limited Liability Company). You'll get liability protection as well as some tax benefits, depending on how your business chooses to be taxed. A Sub S Corporation and a C Corporation can be beneficial in different ways, depending on your unique situation.

It's important that you understand what each business structure is about. After you do some research for yourself, I suggest finding a CPA or attorney who specializes in business structures. They will help you determine, for your unique situation, which one would be best for you.

Business Media

Significance of business email marketing

Billed as the most powerful medium of internet marketing, business e-mail marketing is considered crucial for lead generations. However, most of the businesses are yet to derive maximum leverage from this medium. Here, we have underscored some points which can help businesses make most use of the e-mail marketing services.

While conjuring up an e-mail marketing campaign, pay heed to the human element as well. People normally shy away from excessive promotion or over-hyped mass-produced content. Also, avoid flash, because flash makes the mail look like a mass-marketing content.

The content designed for a b2b email marketing should be both interesting and informative. A bland, banal, boring content would naturally shoo away the visitors. But definitely, to add that touch of extra elegance, dash of colours coupled with different fonts, might probably give you the desired edge.

Targeted email marketing is no doubt high impact, high visibility advertising, however personalizing the emails will take your marketing campaign a notch further. Say, if you know the readers by their names, then start addressing them by their names. It builds an emotional connect and appears decent too. However, avoid repeating the names, as it might be annoying.

Once could even opt for email marketing that target new start up organizations or small organizations, as the probability of receiving optimistic responses is relatively higher.

As far as length of the on-line mail marketing content is concerned, there are two viewpoints. Some are in favour of having longish mailers because according to them they can flesh out a little more on the features and other plus points, and in the process leave a lasting impression on the minds of the readers. Conversely, a short mailer, yet creative mailer is also considered a potent business promotional tool, considering the fact that people hardly find time to read long mailers and probably may end up trashing long mails. Usage of graphics and data might work as well as it enhances the mailers efficiency as well as factuality.