Small Business Ideas: How to Plan a Small Business

Thinking of starting a small business? Planning and growing a small business may seem daunting, but it can be a lot of fun. However, it does require some careful thinking and planning.

You need to learn what it takes to start from scratch and succeed. Weigh all the pros and cons before making any decision.

You are the person most capable of planning, building, and running your business.

First, ask yourself questions, to discover what dream is driving you. Learn how that will be expressed in the business you envision.

* What kind of business do you wish to start?

* What kind of service or products will you be offering?

* What needs expressed by your market, do they fulfill?

* Who will buy these services and products from you?

* How do you plan to finance this project? Do you know where financing can be found?

* How will people learn about your service and products?

* Where will your business be located?

Planning and Decision-Making

Considerable planning, important financial decisions, as well as legal steps, go into setting up a small business.

Financial Planning is vital during the overall business planning process. It includes:

* Financial planning and funding sources

* Pricing

* Record keeping

* Managing costs and expenses

* Cash flow forecasts and monitoring

* Analyzing sales results

* Contingency plans and financial reserves, including long-range financial planning

Operational Planning examines everyday production processes and management issues. Day-to-day business activities are also included.

* Acquiring suppliers.

* Employee hiring.

* Evaluating and choosing production methods.

* Product handling and delivery, etc.

* Choosing reliable, secure suppliers, who can provide raw materials and other quality supplies.

* Decisions about inventory and where to store it.

A legal Framework means the considering and adhering to all legal requirements, surrounding the setting up of a small business. It helps you evaluate the following:

* Types of business ownership

* Business-related legal requirements regarding safety, health, employment legislation, etc.

* Tax liabilities, including income tax, government insurance contributions, and VAT, etc.

Insurance includes numerous measures you have to take to secure your business.

Marketing: How a venture and its products and services, appear to the world.

* Marketing is all about identifying the needs of consumers, and satisfying those needs in a profitable manner. It is essential to identify the level of demand for your services, within the market you have decided to target.

Website: You need to build a website that tells your audience about your business, or helps you sell online. It needs to reflect your vision and commitment to quality.

Networking: The type of people you ought to know, and how you can meet them, so as to make your business succeed.

* Networking is becoming increasingly important for small businesses and is a key part of the marketing process.

* Take an inventory of all your contacts and relationships, seeking out those who can help your business.

Self-Development: Examining your skill set, and what more is needed for managing a successful business.

* Looking closely at your talents and current skill set, to determine what you still have to learn.

* Seeking ways to shorten the learning curve, with assistance from a mentor, a partner, or skilled employees.

* Online or local courses can also be of great benefit.

Future and Exit: In order to promise long-term success, you need to have a vision of how to expand your business into the future. Above all, you need an exit plan. Nothing continues forever, and you need to prepare to take leave of your business in a structure, controlled manner when the times comes.

Conclusion

Owning a business can be very satisfying and is certainly the biggest learning experience of your life. Careful planning, an understanding of the type of business you've chosen, as well as the target market it is supposed to serve, will increase your chances of long-term success.

Getting Started, or Growing a Business?

Or, if you can't find a job, create one by starting a small business. Others have done it and you can too.

A small business puts money in your pocket, and gives you confidence.

Things You Can Learn From Your Cat About Your Home Based Business

As I am sitting here and typing out this article I am watching my cat lay lazily on the couch and I occurred to me that you might just be able to learn a lot about a home based business from the furry friends of the world. So here it is...things you can learn about a home based business from watching your cat.

1. Ask for what you want

If my cats bowl is even close to being empty you better believe that they are going to let me know about it. They will walk on me if need be, meow, paw at me... whatever. They won't stop asking for what they want until they get it. Sometimes in life and in your business you're not getting what you want because you're not asking for it enough.

2. Just relax

There is a time to work insanely hard and then there is a time to relax. If you don't relax you're going to burn out. Especially because your home based business probably isn't the only thing you have going on in life. With work and kids and friends and taking care of your house and about a million other things there needs to be a time when you just relax and recharge so that the next day you can attack the business like crazy. If you don't relax every now and then you'll burn out and you won't be as successful. Take it from my cats... now THEY know how to relax.

3. Keep your eye on the ball

Have you ever seen a cat play with a laser pointer on the ground, or maybe a flashlight or anything. They are SO FOCUSED! Nothing can distract them from what they want and what they want it that shiny red light (seriously if you've never done this before it's a must! So funny!) Sometimes we need to be more focused with what we want from our home based businesses. We need to keep our eyes on the prize and never be satisfied until it's ours. Sometimes we tend to lose focus from what we really want from our business. We need to know what we want and go for it with full force.

Taking The Life Of Your Own Business

Are You Killing Your Own Business?

There are many acronyms in the business world - some that really make sense and some that make you scratch your head in wonder.

Well, it is time to add one more.

This new acronyms is "S.A.D." - This acronyms can help you determine if you or your business has risk indicators (risk factors) or characteristics that could lead to the demise of your venture.

In the end of all businesses, it is essentially the person running the company that will decide if it lives or dies. And, if it dies, when it should not have, it means you (the business owner) have committed business suicide - unnecessarily. So, are you or your business at risk of business suicide?

Let's look at these risk factors through the acronyms S.A.D:

S - Strategic Direction:

Is your business on the right path - a path that utilizes the business's assets and resources (from capital to people) in the best possible way?

Can you or anyone else take those same set of assets and deploy them in a better way and earn more in revenue/return from them?

Far too many businesses fail these days or don't even get out of the starting gate because they fail to plan properly or fail to change direction with their business when market conditions or changing customer preferences demand it.

Planning means understanding your customers' needs and providing a product or service for those needs while utilizing the least amount of assets - resources are scarce after all and you don't want to spread yours too thin on one segment or product line.

I have seen businesses that have say 50% demand yet they spend unnecessarily on 100% capacity. Its just waste. And, waste will kill your business.

A - Accounting:

Are you properly managing your business's cash flow to ensure that your business has the wherewithal to withstand a slow period or future recession?

Does your business have the working capital to meet future customer demand?

Is your business spending cash faster than it is collecting it?

Far too many businesses fail by growing themselves broke. They have the customers yet, either through miss-management or poor collections, they don't have the money ( working capital on hand) to service those customers. If your business can't meet customers' needs, your competitor will.

D - Discipline:

Are you, the business owner, doing the right things each and every day?

Daily items should include things like marketing (daily marketing) or actually listening to customers in anticipation of their needs and wants.

Or, are you taking away needed assets from the business - like drawing too large a salary, taking needed money from a cash starved business?

Know that there will be a time to plunder your own business - but, if it is growing and your plans are to grow it - this is not that time.

Far too many business owners get complacent and their business erodes over time. Or, they think that their business should pay them a huge salary from day one. While that would be nice, it is not reality.

These are indicators of businesses or business owners at risk of doing themselves in.

While not all businesses that show these risk factors will fail, it is highly likely that if your business or you, the owner, demonstrate these characteristics, you are on the path of business suicide - and that would be SAD.