Foundations

Writing a business plan is one of the most intimidating parts of starting a business especially if you are looking to gain financing. Every time I look at writing a business plan I find that a few rules change over time. As a result there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Here is the latest information set out by the SBA.

Organization

Every business plan should be laid out in this fashion:

As I am sure you well known you can find just about anything on YouTube. While most people use it to check out the latest viral video or to get a good laugh it can also come in handy when you are looking for a little help with your business. I have found that the most useful YouTube videos are those that try to teach you how to do something. Here are a few ideas of things to look for on YouTube:

• Management Styles
• Website Design
• Customer Service Techniques
• How to Prepare a Business Plan
• Revamping the Look of Your Business
• Business Laws
• Tax Information
• Industry Trends
• Target Market Information

These are just a few of the many ways that YouTube can really help any business. Be aware, however, that anyone can post a video on YouTube so you will want to double check any legal or tax information you may come across. So hop on over to www.YouTube.comand try not to get too wrapped up in the World of Warcraft video set to your favorite song.

Before you start a business it is always the best idea to do a little market research. Running a business just because you have the drive and desire is not enough, there must be a demand. While many market research companies charge thousands of dollars to determine whether or not there is a demand for your business there is a way to do it all for free (or nearly free).

The first resources you should tap are the .gov websites. The census bureau has a rich source of information regarding population. They also provide a lot of information regarding the current face of the United States economy. For more specific information you should check you local state, county and city websites. Oftentimes census information regarding your local area will be listed somewhere on these websites.

Your next option is to do the leg work yourself. Get out in your community and perform surveys. Get a group of friends together to perform phone surveys. Mail surveys to members of your community. Technically these methods are not completely free but there pretty close. You may also consider placing a survey on a several websites and forums as well as creating a Craigslisting. You may be pleasantly surprised by who is willing to help you out.

My last suggestion is to search through .edu websites or perform web searches for the information you need. Many schools perform studies and surveys that work great as market research. The problem with this is the fact that it takes a lot of sifting to find relevant information. Web searches are also tricky because the credibility is sometimes lacking. While there is a lot of information available for free you will need to check sources on all information found floating freely in cyberspace. With a little innovation you can likely come up with a few cheap and easy ways to knock your market research out of the way.

Are you a dynamic public speaker with a load of credentials and the will to travel? One of the most profitable businesses an entrepreneur can engage in is public speaking. Every day I receive brochures in the mail advertising lectures given around the world on various issues. The average cost to attend seems to be around $180 per person and the average tour is typically around a month with around ten cities hit. Now let’s do the math.

200 People at Each Venue x $180 x 10 Venues x .5 for Publicity, Travel and Venue = $180,000

 That’s amazing income for so little work. $180,000 a month! You could easily draw over $2 million a year if you chose to do this full time. Sounds simple enough, right? Well sorry, it’s not.

The biggest thing you need to make this dream come true are a few letters behind your name, MBA, CEO, MD, RN, DDS, any letters signifying that you are well educated will work. The idea here is that you need to establish your credibility. If you look like some average Joe off the street then no one will be willing to show up and hear what you have to say.

TIP: To gain credibility get nationally accredited and offer college credit. Professionals whose jobs require ongoing education credits will appreciate this and others will enjoy that the cost is tax deductable.   

The next important thing is that you need to have an interesting topic with wide reach and you must have an interesting presentation. Common topics covered are how to start a business, how to get published, grief counseling techniques, etc. All of these topics have wide reach. Everyone wants to start a business or get their book published. Topics like this are sure to draw people from all walks of life. Topics like grief counseling techniques have a wide reach within the professional community. Doctors, nurses, counselors, teachers and even people who are dealing with grief within their own families are likely to show up to hear a lecture on such topics. Just figure out an interesting topic in your area of expertise and then figure out how to make it interesting and informative.

TIP: Outsource the public speaking. Hire dynamic speakers to deliver their speeches and you reap the rewards. Make all their arrangements and pay them a percentage of the profits. You then make a profit from marketing and making travel arrangements. Not too shabby considering you can hire several speakers at one time. New graduates with no capital are often a good start.     

The last important thing to realize is that not everyone with expertise is cut out for this work. Public speaking does not come naturally to everyone and starting a public speaking business is not a great way to test your abilities as a public speaker. To ensure that you are a good public speaker, consider lecturing at local colleges first. Perform market research by surveying students who have watched your lecture and take their advice to heart. If you treat public speaking as a real business you can make real income.

If you are running a website you know that content is king when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). Writing hundreds of pages of content is not always ideal when you are running a one or two man show. There’s also a good chance that you may not trust your own spelling and grammar skills. So now you have to shell out a few hundred dollars to remedy this problem right?

It turns out that there are many great sources of free content available on the internet. Authors post content for free because it provides them with much needed backlinks. You can take advantage.

Visit these sites for more information. Be sure to read each site’s publishing rules to avoid any potential legal problems.

www.contentmart.com

www.goarticles.com

www.ezinearticles.com

www.freshcontent.net

www.isnare.com

www.ideamarketers.com

www.articlehub.com

This is just a very small list of free content providers I have personally worked with. There are many many more out there. Perform a simple search and you are sure to find something you like. Gathering content by this means can be quick and easy. Do make sure to proofread these articles. Sometimes grammatical errors can make these articles unreadable. Most of the free content providers will not let you alter the articles they provide. This means the articles need to be readable and informative as is.

Nearly all businesses can benefit from setting up and running an e-bay store. There is a good chance that, especially if you are running a brick and mortar business, your target market ebbs and flows. Maybe you feel that you have reached as much of the local market as you can but you yearn to grow more. E-bay can really help offset these problems.

For a mere $15 a month you can have your own e-bay store up and running. You may want to start small to get used to the general use of the site but once you get up and running you may just find that not only is it a boost to business it’s also a lot of fun. There are few ways that are less expensive to not only advertise but also sell items.

I have found that one of the best things for businesses to sell on e-bay are the old floor displays. E-bay shoppers love them because they’re cheap and new and you can enjoy the profits you would otherwise not reap. It’s really a win win.  

When you are running a business it’s important to have credibility with your customers. If your business looks unprofessional customers will be put off. Here are a few easy ways to promote a professional appearance.

The number one thing that works for standard operations, whether you’re selling retail, running a restaurant or operating a service based business, is to keep your storefront clean and tidy. The less dust, the less clutter, the better. Even if you are running a mechanical shop people still tend to judge the business operation on what they can see. Because of this you should insist that anywhere a customer can see should be cleaned and organized daily, more often if needed.

The best way to look professional is through great customer service. Customer service goes far beyond greeting your customer with a smile. Depending on the type of business you are in you should possibly follow-up orders or services with a friendly phone call or e-mail, you should always remain courteous and kind, you should answer the phone with the business name and your name, you should possess business cards so customers can call you with questions, you should limit personal frustrations and ranting when dealing with difficult customers and you should always be honest with your customer. Of course if you own a business you already know all that. The problem is, are your employees following through with your customer service protocol? If you fear that customer service is lacking when you’re gone you may hire a secret shopper. Knowing who is helping and who is hindering your company are pivotal to your success.

For e-commerce businesses you can increase your professional appearance by setting up a 1-800 number, using a PO Box, creating catalogs, displaying all security badges on every page, offering shipping, return and privacy policies from every page of your website, offering great content that is relevant to your site, allowing customers to order in a number of ways, sending confirmation e-mails after and order is placed, running a well designed yet easy to use website.

With little to no money or effort you can display a professional appearance that is sure to have your customers returning.   

More and more people are making a living by completed freelance work found on the internet. Some of these people are aspiring writers, some are from all over the world, some are agoraphobic and need income, really they can be anyone. You however, can benefit from using freelancers.You can hire freelance workers to do just about anything. Content writing, CSS web design, photoshop, populating forums, creating backlinks for your website, translation, telemarketing, graphic design, and much more. If you have any project coming up that does not require hiring a full time employee you should consider hiring a freelancer.

Now you can find freelancers from across the world. There are websites out there that allow you to post a job and freelancers will “bid” for the job. They will post their portfolios and quote you a price. This usually gives you a list of no fewer than five people to choose from to complete your project. If, however, you do not like the quality of applicants you can deny them all and post again. All this is done at little cost to you. Overall, however,  you will save a large sum of money. There are people who will write a hundred pages of quality content for only $50. Others will design websites for a couple hundred dollars compared to the thousands of dollars it normally costs. If you are on a tight budget, this is the way to go.

A few of the websites I have used include:

www.freelance.com

www.elancer.com

www.scriptlance.com

Most of these websites take care of the tax stuff for you. They send out W-9 to all their freelancers at the end of the year so you do not even have to place these people on the payroll, they’re on someone else’s payroll. It’s basically the legal way to pay someone under the table.  

Even if you own and operate a brick and mortar operation it is important to get online. More and more consumers are researching online to find out where they will make a purchase or seek services. If you have not already set up a website, now may be the time. Yahoo.com offers affordable hosting packages as well as a free website design tool. Even if you are not too handy with the design elements you can likely find a friend or family member who would gladly set the thing up for you. For around $10 a month you can be accessed online.

If you want to launch a serious online campaign research SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) techniques. Luckily, however, for brick and mortar companies this can be much simpler. On Google.com (which hosts over 50% of all searches) when you search an industry and location together the first thing that pops up is a map and list of local stores. As long as you are listed in the yellowpages phonebook you will automatically show up in this listing. Once you get your website up and running go to yellowpages.com to make sure all your information is correct. Now your customers can easily access your new website. 

You may consider updating your website frequently with deals and specials you are running to help edge out the competition. You may even consider performing sales online. I find, however, that these websites work best with service industries. If I want to take my kids to a karate school I don’t want to have to call ten different schools to compare prices. Many people will now opt to search online for services like this. If your karate school is the only one who lists your prices and you really sell the services you offer I’m more likely to try you out as opposed to one of the places I really don’t want to waste my time calling.

More and more the internet is taking over our lives. Don’t let your brick and mortar get beat down by this beast fight back with your own website and just see where it takes you.

The best business tip I ever got was from my father as he set up his first business. He hammered home the point; when you are starting a business you should watch every single dollar spent. Too many people spend every bit of money they acquire before the business even opens. If you open your doors penniless you have no room for failure, everything must work. The reality is that you will likely need a financial cushion. As I began my first business I really began to saw what he meant.

Sometimes, once you open your doors, you realize that your marketing campaign was all wrong. If you’re broke how are you going to dish out the cash to remedy this mistake? Sometimes you’ll find that your inventory is not quite right… that’s not a cheap fix. Now when I’m starting a business I question every purchase, do I need this $12 stapler right now? Not really I have three at home that I never use as it is. Is a commercial size copy machine really practical for my business? I think the twenty or so copies I make a year can all be done from my desktop 3 in 1. Remember, even the small purchases add up over time.  

Of course sometimes stingy can be bad. If your tight pockets have led to renting inadequate space (with a five year lease) this will ultimately reflect poorly on you and that much needed loyal client base will turn on you. Basic rule of thumb; if making a purchase is the only way to get customers then get it, if you can pass… do. Once you start making a little money you can start investing a little more. 

You always want to portray a professional appearance but you may be surprised how professional you can seem on a shoestring budget.