The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting your own Business, 4E

by Paulson, Edward

• ISBN13: 9781592571383
• ISBN10: 1592571387
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780028638881, 9781592575848
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-02
• Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc.
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

You're no idiot, of course. You know the difference between working for someone else and running the show yourself. And no matter what industry you're looking to capitalize on, there's a lot of legwork and paperwork to be done. Don't let your entrepreneurial dreams drown in red ink! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business, Fourth Edition, will show you exactly how to begin and sustain your new business! Book jacket.

Author Biography

Edward Paulson is a successful entrepreneur, business consultant, college professor, and author with more than 25 years of experience

Table of Contents

Starting the Right Business	p. 1
Your Business Starts with You	p. 3
Understand That You Are the Company--at First Anyway	p. 5
Do You Have What It Takes?	p. 5
What Makes a Great Entrepreneur?	p. 7
What Are Your Strengths and Abilities?	p. 8
What Are Your Needs?	p. 10
Financial Needs and Goals	p. 11
Family Motivations and Goals	p. 13
What Are Your Spiritual Goals?	p. 14
Escaping the Big House--Leaving Corporate America	p. 15
What Is Your Personal Bottom Line?	p. 17
Business Planning Basics	p. 19
Why Prepare a Business Plan?	p. 20
Think of It as a Simulation	p. 21
The Overall Plan-Writing Process	p. 22
Being Honest	p. 23
Getting Help	p. 24
You'll Never Have All the Information You Need	p. 24
The Minimum That Your Plan Must Cover	p. 25
Dealing With a Bad Business Idea	p. 26
Stages of Company Growth	p. 27
Idea Stage	p. 28
Planning Stage	p. 28
Funding Stage	p. 28
Startup Stage	p. 29
Rampup Stage	p. 29
Evolution Stage	p. 30
Sustaining Stage	p. 30
Short- and Long-Term Planning	p. 31
Preparing Your Business Plan	p. 33
Briefly Describing Your Business Idea	p. 35
Your Mission: Why Does Your Company Exist?	p. 35
The Pieces of Your Plan	p. 38
Cover Sheet	p. 39
Table of Contents	p. 39
Executive Summary	p. 40
Business Description	p. 40
Market and Industry Analysis	p. 41
The Competition	p. 41
Marketing Strategy	p. 42
Operations Plan	p. 43
The Management Team	p. 43
Financial Overview and Funding Needs	p. 44
Summary and Conclusions	p. 45
Appendixes or Supplementary Materials	p. 45
Ethics and Your Plan	p. 45
Methods of Funding	p. 47
Risk and Reward Relationship	p. 48
Investors Give Money to Get Something Back	p. 49
The Greater the Perceived Risk, the Greater the Required Return	p. 50
It's Not Personal with Investors ... Well, It Kinda Is	p. 50
Comparing Debt and Equity Funding	p. 51
Company Stages and Funding	p. 53
Seed Stage	p. 53
Startup Stage	p. 53
First Stage	p. 54
Second Stage	p. 54
Third Stage (Mezzanine)	p. 55
Harvest Stage--Exit Strategy	p. 56
Know How Much Money You Will Need	p. 56
Will You Make Money?	p. 56
How Much Can You Give Up and When Do You Make It Back?	p. 57
It All Comes Down to Numbers	p. 57
What's Your Potential?	p. 58
Basic Types of Funding	p. 59
Typical Funding Action Sequence	p. 59
Funding Out of Your Own Pocket	p. 60
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?--Family Funding	p. 62
Venture Capital--May Not Be for Everybody	p. 62
Agency Guaranteed Bank Funding	p. 63
SBA and Governmental Program Realities	p. 64
Stock Sales (Not an IPO ... Sorry)	p. 64
Seller Financing	p. 66
Ethics and Funding	p. 66
For Your Plan	p. 66
Matching Your Plan to a Legal Structure	p. 69
Picking a Business Type	p. 71
An Overview of the Various Business Structures	p. 72
Sole Proprietorship: Going It Alone	p. 74
Partnership: A Business Marriage	p. 75
Corporations: Share the Wealth	p. 77
Public or Private?	p. 79
Subchapter S-Corporations: A Little Bit of Protection	p. 80
Limited Liability Company (LLC)	p. 81
Professional Corporations	p. 82
State to State	p. 83
Dealing With the Tax Man	p. 84
For Your Plan	p. 87
Important Corporation Realities	p. 89
Creating a Corporation	p. 90
Laying Down the Law: Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws	p. 92
Articles of Incorporation: The Basic Ingredients	p. 92
Bylaws: The Basic Ingredients	p. 96
Bylaws and Articles "In a Can"	p. 97
Establishing a Board of Directors	p. 97
The Right to Vote	p. 100
Shareholder Voting Rights	p. 100
Board Member Voting Rights	p. 101
Shareholder Proxy	p. 102
Working at Home or Away	p. 105
Home Office: Pros and Cons	p. 106
Keeping Your Overhead Low	p. 107
When Is It Time to Move Out?	p. 109
Location, Location, Location	p. 110
Lease, Rent, or Buy?	p. 113
For Your Plan	p. 115
Writing a Great Plan	p. 117
Defining Your Market Opportunity	p. 119
Understanding and Assessing the Market's Influence	p. 120
Fill an Existing Market Need ... Don't Create One	p. 122
Determine Overall Market Characteristics	p. 122
Is the Market Growing?	p. 124
Who Are the Major Players in Your Market?	p. 127
How Long Will This Opportunity Last?	p. 127
Research Data Sources Are Everywhere	p. 128
Researching Your Plan	p. 128
Learning from Your Competitors	p. 131
Is the Competition Real?	p. 132
Accumulating Competitive Information	p. 133
Comparing Yourself to Them	p. 136
Price Wars Hurt Everyone	p. 138
Are You a Specialty Store or a Superstore?	p. 139
Using Market Segmentation to Your Advantage	p. 141
Cooperation Versus Competition	p. 141
For Your Plan	p. 142
Smart Marketing	p. 145
Marketing and Sales: Linked but Different	p. 146
Who Is Your Market?	p. 147
Target Marketing: Picking Your Customer	p. 149
Name Your Price	p. 150
The Life Cycle	p. 153
Your Marketing Message and Positioning	p. 155
All About Advertising: Pushing and Pulling	p. 157
Mail Order and Direct Mail	p. 159
For Your Plan	p. 160
Sales: The Money Funnel	p. 163
Manipulating and Selling: Not the Same Thing	p. 164
Getting Close to Closing the Sale	p. 165
Everyone Has to Sell, but Not Everyone Closes	p. 166
Is Your Offering a Special or Commodity Item?	p. 167
Is Your Customer Qualified?	p. 167
The Nine Stages of Selling	p. 170
The Suspect Stage--Stage 1	p. 170
The Prospect Stage--Stage 2	p. 170
The Entree Stage--Stage 3	p. 171
The Discovery Stage--Stage 4	p. 171
The Proposal Stage--Stage 5	p. 172
Trial Close Stage--Stage 6	p. 172
The Budget Stage--Stage 7	p. 172
The Close Stage--Stage 8	p. 173
The Post-Sale Stage--Stage 9	p. 173
A Commodity Sale Versus a Complex Sale	p. 174
Your Sales Channels	p. 175
Distributors as Sales Agents	p. 175
Should You Use Your Own Sales Force?	p. 176
Selling Services Instead of Products	p. 177
For Your Plan	p. 179
Production Planning That Gets Results	p. 181
Production in Product and Service Environments	p. 182
Are You a Mass Producer or a Job Shop?	p. 184
Linking Purchasing, Production, and Marketing Forecasts	p. 185
Create a Production Flow Chart	p. 187
Successful Project Management	p. 188
Maintaining Quality	p. 189
For Your Plan	p. 191
Lions and Tigers and Employees, Oh My!	p. 193
When You're Successful, You'll Need Help	p. 194
Good Help Isn't Hard to Find	p. 198
Independent Contractors	p. 199
Putting Retired Folk to Work	p. 200
Take Your Employee for a Test Drive	p. 200
When an Employee Is Really an Employee	p. 202
More Employees, More Restrictions	p. 202
Medical Insurance	p. 204
Sexual Harassment	p. 205
Solicitation and Competition	p. 207
Interviewing Techniques	p. 209
The Tax Files: Payroll Taxes	p. 213
Payroll Taxes: You Can't Avoid Them, So Learn How to Deal with Them	p. 214
Payroll Tax Overview	p. 215
Filing and Paying Paryroll Taxes	p. 218
Tax Deposits and IRS Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return	p. 218
State and Federal Unemployment Taxes	p. 220
Rules to Live (and Save Taxes) By	p. 221
Using a Payroll Accounting Service	p. 222
Making Sure You're Making It	p. 223
Accounting 101	p. 225
Accounting Periods	p. 225
Sales and Costs	p. 226
Cash or Accrual: Which Accounting Method Is Right for You?	p. 228
The Cash-Basis Accounting Method	p. 230
The Accrual-Accounting Method	p. 230
Understanding Financial Statements	p. 231
A Chart of Accounts	p. 232
The Income Statement	p. 233
The Balance Sheet	p. 235
Cash Flow Analysis	p. 240
Running a Healthy Business	p. 243
Cash Is More Important Than Air	p. 245
When You're Out of Cash, You're Out of Business (Usually)	p. 246
How Success Can Kill Your Business	p. 247
Factoring, Credit Terms, and Loans	p. 248
Factoring Receivables	p. 249
Using Credit Terms to Enhance Your Cash Position	p. 251
Buying on Credit	p. 252
Taking Out a Loan	p. 252
Applying Break-Even Analysis to Determine Startup Cash Requirements	p. 253
Knowing When Enough Is Enough	p. 255
Projecting Startup Cash Requirements	p. 257
For Your Plan	p. 257
Charge: Making Credit Card Sales Work	p. 259
The Way Credit Cards Work	p. 260
The Costs of Credit	p. 262
Terminal Fees	p. 263
Monthly Fees	p. 264
Covering Your Legal Bases	p. 266
What to Do If a Charge Is Contested	p. 268
Collecting Customer Debts	p. 271
Collection Problems Come with the Territory	p. 272
Avoidance Is the Best Remedy	p. 273
Products Versus Services	p. 275
Cash First--Credit Later	p. 277
Financial Reports and Their Limitations	p. 279
Collection Letter	p. 280
Know Your Rights When It Comes to Collections	p. 282
Working with Collection Agencies	p. 283
Business Banker Realities	p. 287
What Does a Bank Bring to the Table?	p. 288
The Loan Officer Is Your Friend. Really	p. 289
Banks Will Give You Money Only When You Don't Need It	p. 290
Bank Loans You Can Get	p. 292
Sell Your Banker on Your Company	p. 294
Commercial Checking Accounts: A Different Animal	p. 295
Enter the Small Business Administration (SBA)	p. 296
Big Banks, Small Banks	p. 297
Automate from the Start	p. 299
Automate the Routine and Savor the Creative	p. 301
Typical Automation Strategies	p. 302
Get Connected: Computers and Phones	p. 304
Computers: Buy or Rent	p. 304
Treat Your Phone Like a Lifeline--It Is!	p. 305
Local Area Networks, Electronic Mail, Faxing, and Security	p. 308
Planning for Obsolescence	p. 310
In a Nutshell	p. 310
Making Great Use of the Internet	p. 313
Internet Unique Realities	p. 315
Setting Up Business on the Internet	p. 317
Web Jargon	p. 317
Finding an Internet Service Provider	p. 318
Naming Your Domain	p. 320
Creating Your Website	p. 321
Being Found on the Internet	p. 325
For Your Plan	p. 326
International Business--It's a Small World
Appendixes
The Kwik Chek Auto Evaluation Business Plan	p. 329
Resources	p. 365
Business Buzzword Glossary	p. 371
Bibliography
Index	p. 389
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