Starting Your Own Business - An Overview

Starting or expanding a business is a big undertaking. There are a lot of factors to consider. Here are few steps to go by to make things easier for you.

The Idea: A lot of people who want to start a business do not know what kind of business they want to start, just that they want to own a business. If you do not already know or do not have an idea, look for a niche in the market to cater to. Another option is to purchase an existing business. Once you have decided on the business the real work begins.

The Plan: Coming up with a business plan is the next step. The business plan is your idea structured and polished up, showing your future strategies for the growth and development of the company. This plan will help you calculate and then secure the finance you will need to get the business up and running and then break even. The plan will also help you set future strategies and goals and keep track of your company's success in the future.

Securing Finance: Now that you have set out your ideas in a business plan, you need to find capital to get the business up and running. Since you are just starting out in your venture you are classified as a small business or entrepreneur. You basically have three options - family and friends, investors and institutional loans. You need to consider which one you would like to go into. Each has its own pros and cons. You might have to give part ownership if you borrow from family, friends and investors. Borrowing from an institution might eat away at your profits through loan payments.

Registering: So you have the idea, the plan and the finance and you are raring to go. But wait, you still need to consider the legal issues. You need to choose a legal structure under which your business will be registered. Here your financing decision will come into play. Depending on that you could register with the state under Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, or Corporation and you will receive a federal Identification number.

Office Space and Staff: This is the last step. You need to consider where you are going to run your business from. Will you operate out of a home office or rent out commercial space? What staff are you going to hire? Will you need an accountant to do the taxes? And forget inventory management. These are a few of the issues you are going to face. If your business deals with products you will need to hire storage space or you could contract out to a drop shipment company. As your business grows you will need to maintain the delicate balance between work load and hiring. You could use asset management software to keep track of your financial dealings, inventory management, employee salaries, taxes and much more. Good luck in setting up your business!

By : Carmine_Bailey

A Fiction Author's Trick to Unleash Your Creativity

It is always interesting to me, as a fiction author, when people come up to me and say, "Mr. Franz, I have a great idea for a book you could write."

They always speak breathlessly, and in hushed tones, as if they had uncovered the secrets of nuclear fission, as they tell me their idea for a book about the cute things their child says. Or the story of a wise old man, just like their father.

Sigh.

The reality is that creative ideas are not unique, rare, valuable items. Rather, quite the opposite is true. Good ideas are everywhere and can show up at any time. Whether you are writing a new sales letter or a web page or a children's book, or the great American novel, there is a creative idea waiting for you to find it. You just have to know where to look.

Think of it this way: In Chicago, where I live, finding a beautiful, colorful seashell lying on the ground would be a unusual experience. But when we vacation on the beaches of Sanibel Island, Florida, it's impossible not to find colorful shells. They're everywhere, with more washing up on shore with each wave of the tide.

If we think of ideas as colorful shells, then the trick is simply to get our mind out of Chicago, and down to the beach!

And here's the secret that most creative people won't tell you: To get a brilliant, creative idea, you must look outside the usual sources.

For example, if you need to create a new sales brochure, many people would simply type "brochure" into Google and look for inspiration. How boring. That's like looking for sea shells in Chicago. The creative person would do things a bit differently.

Instead of Chicago, the creative person would look in Sanibel Island. Instead of looking at other brochures, how about looking to these places instead:

* The book covers of the top ten best seller list
* A collection of vintage movie posters from the 1940's
* The stripes of a sports car at a Porsche dealership
* New watches at an expensive jeweler in the mall
* Video game covers at the computer store

You see, none of the examples above have anything to do with business, or writing or sales brochures. They have to do with fun, creativity, great design, and eye catching graphics. If you sought them out with the goal of finding something you could use for your own project, you will see things as if with X-ray vision.

Ideas pop into your head, warping images and text into the shape of the brochure you are trying to write. Keep asking yourself the question, "How could I use this on my project?" over and over, and your brain will feed you results.

If, instead of looking for brochure samples online, you spent an afternoon fast cars, expensive watches and hot video games, I guarantee the ideas would flow out of you faster than you could keep up. You will soon find that your problem is not getting a new idea - it's deciding which great idea you want to work on first!

By : Kevin_Franz