Guide to Starting a Successful Business

How do you assess your strengths and weaknesses? SWOT analysis is one of the components of external environmental scanning. SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). Strengths are the core competencies of a business idea. Therefore what do you think could be one of your strongest unique selling proposition or core competence? A core competence or unique selling proposition is a factor that will make you business stand out from the rest of your competitors (people who do same business as you and with whom you will be competing for customers and market share). Weaknesses are limitations that prevent you from achieving your goal/ objective. Therefore it is important for you to know what are your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you when you are doing internal environmental analysis as it helps you to concentrate on your core competences or unique selling propositions. ASSESSING BUSINESS AND PERSONAL GOALS This is where you are supposed to identify what objectives you want to achieve both as a business and as an individual. Setting goals helps you have a unit of direction. Both the business goals and personal goals should be well refined so that you achieve overall organizational and personal objectives. They should be able to merge into one as well as be in line with your interests. You cannot start a business that you do not have passion about. Objectives should arouse interest and hence obtain action. ASSESSING YOUR FINANCIAL RESOURCES This is also an important guiding principle to starting a new business. The avenues where you are going to get financial assistance should be first priority. To do this, you will most probably if not obvious, need to write a well convincing business plan. A business plan helps your financier to measure how feasible your business is. A business plan also is a management planning tool as it helps you to organize yourself as well as how best to utilize the resources that will be granted to you by the financing authority. Finance could come from personal savings (Most Recommended), banks, other subsidiary financial institutions, grants and so on. I would personally recommend personal savings because they attract no interest element and you are you own accountant. IDENTIFYING THE FINANCIAL RISKS A risk is an unforeseen scenario or situation that poses danger to you or your business. Therefore you should sit down and evaluate possible personal and business risks. Identify what factors could pose a danger to your unique selling proposition or core competence. Financial risks include: inflation, devaluation of currency, interest rates, operational costs, costs associated with stock exchange fluctuations, political risks, future business development, competition and so on. Find out factors either within or outside your business which could affect your business financing plan. This will help you to plan for any shortcomings as regards to your financial plan. joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming joker123-gaming DETERMINE THE START-UP COSTS Now you have all information you need in order for you to start a new business. You have identified where to get sourcing from and how you will avoid common financial risks. How do you determine the start-up costs? You can estimate your start-up costs by considering the following" Cost of sales- which includes product inventory, raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, shipping insurance, warehousing and so on. Professional fees- This is fees related to setting up a legal structure for your business(e.g limited liability company, corporation), trademarks, copyrights, patents, drafting partnership and disclosure agreements, attorneys fees for ongoing consultation, cost of retaining an accountant. Technology cost- computer hardware, computer software, printers, cellphones, personal digital assistant, website development and maintenance, high-speed internet access, servers, security measures, IT security. Administrative costs- Various types of business insurance, office supplies, licenses and permits, express shipping and postage, product packaging, parking, rent, utilities, phones, copier, fax machines, desks, chairs, filing cabinets- anything else you need to have on a daily basis to operate the business. Sales and Marketing Costs- Printing of stationery, marketing materials, advertising, public relations, event or trade show attendance or sponsorship, trade association or chamber of commerce, membership fee, travel and entertainment for travel for client meetings, mailing or lead lists. Wages and benefits- employee salaries, payroll taxes, benefits, workers compensation among other factors. DETERMINE BUSINESS LOCATION This is where you decide on where your business will be located. It could be in a city, town or local setting but this will be determined by the following factors: type of business -- marketing segmentation (divisions of your market into homogeneous parts that you can efficiently and effectively cover) -- raw materials availability (for a manufacturing company) -- geography and politics; just but to mention a few. DO MARKET RESEARCH Market research is a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about a particular target market, competition and/or environment. It always incorporates some form of data collection whether it be secondary research (often called desk research) or primary research which is collected directly from a respondent. The main purpose of any market research is to achieve an increased understanding of the subject matter. With markets becoming increasingly more competitive the world over, market research is becoming an increasingly important. Therefore you have to do market research to help you keep up with the current industry trends in your area.

Things You Would Require

What does launching a new business involves? Is it just your idea that matters or is it the business launch that can make or fail your business? Does your business really requires a branding or you can just make any business successful by simply floating your business idea or a successful product. Do you really think that brand management is simply something you can save on and launch your business successfully? Research shows only 10% of the working class people get a chance to launch their own business in their lifetime. Out of the 10% of people not many get a chance to escape the 9-5 job routine. only few of the people launching their first business are successful to switch from their 9-5 job routine to run their own business. The success rate of business success is 1 in 100.We do see business that were launched from a small room to a world wide business but we never think of businesses that were launched and failed in no period of time due to some reason. The people who launched the businesses never even knew what brought them down. Consider yourself a lucky one if you are getting this chance to start your own business. At least you have this chance which many don't even get in their lifetime. You will be a very lucky one if your business is successful in the first go but for most they never even get a chance to learn from their mistakes and launch their business again. A failed business could leave a big debt for you to pay off for your lifetime and feeling of failure for the rest of your life. So give this chance your best short. Once you have registered your business the very first thing you will need for your business is a logo that portrays what you do. Don't consider a logo just a piece of design. Its the most important part of your business. A good logo portrays what your business does and grows as your business grows. You should be very careful at this stage as your logo should not look same or similar to your competitors logo. Once you have finalised your logo your next step is to trademark your logo. Once you have decided on the trademark your next most important thing is tagline.A tagline is a punch phrase that will make your products sell. You might spend days looking for a good tagline. For example tagline for McDonalds is "i'm lovin' it". For years McDonalds have spend building their brand and less building or improving their taste. Each one of us definitely know how a McDonalds logo looks and its tagline have made us believe we love it. If you are among the ones who think idea is everything you are definitely wrong to proceed with. Idea plays a vital role in business success or failure but there are other very important things to consider. Once you have a well designed logo and a great tagline. hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h Your next step would be to get business cards for each member of your business. Business cards and a well designed and printed stationary like letter heads,memo slips, brochures and other printed items gives your customer satisfaction that the company they are dealing with is a professional business and take business seriously. This would give satisfaction to your customers that their work is in professional hands. During the phase your stationary and other printing items are being finalised you can should start looking for a best 1300 or 1800 number for your business. Getting a 1300 and 1800 number involves lot of research work. If you want to be in your customers mind an easy to remember 1300 number can do the job for you. You can always be in their mind and they can reach you anytime they need you.. To complement your phone image your next step is to get your self a PABX system with your business msg recorded on it. Once you have decided on your business departments and companies message and department you are ready to contact a PABX company which would help you get your PBX service installed and work. Your phone system and 1300 should give a good impression to your customers. Now the most important this is to register a domain name which is your company name on the internet and get your website up and running. Registering a domain name is same as getting a 1300 or 1800 number. Unlike the registering of the 1300 and 1800 number domain names require lot of research work as you might want to get a domain name that would be easy to remember for customers and would rank well in search engines. A domain name which is not well remembered or does not rank well in search engines can be a big loss of business. More over you will need a website that has all your business information and is easy for your customers to use. While your website is being completed next thing to look for is a hosting service. Just like your mobile phone coverage area a hosting company has its uptime and downtime a cheap hosting company means your hosting might be down for anytime of day and night and during this outage time your website will not be available to your customer and the emails they send you will be returned to them. Missing orders due to hosting company downtime is very common and you would not even know about the downtime or your emails being lost. This is one of the main reasons of online business failures where customers send orders via email and the email lends up in your server junk mail box or never reaches you. There are many other issues to consider here which are your website compatibility on different operating system like MAC, PC and different browsers like chrome, fire fox, explorer and safari. Your website being search engine friendly and your website being user friendly. More over you would need to regularly update your website with new information or new deals so your website should be user friendly. Remember a website which you cannot update yourself is of no use as you would need your designer to keep on updating the website for you which gets very tough for yourself and your designer company. Once you have sorted most of the listed issues your next step would be to start designing store displays if you own a physical store. For physical stores you would need outside signage. There are many council restrictions on outdoor signage's you should be well aware of the allowed sizes before you get to design an outdoor signage. Once you have outdoor signage's and indoor signage's installed including great hot deals your next step if to start advertising your business. There are a million ways to advertise your business. Simple advertisement rule is the more your spend the more you get. A yellow pages add will not get you all the business. It might give you just a few clients per year. You should not totally depend on yellow pages. Business make this mistake and think that they have given an add in yellow pages and that should do the job. Many business think and collapse they do every possible thing other then advertisement. You should do every possible advertisement regularly from dropping brochures in mail boxes to TV advertisement what ever suits your budget. Rule of thumb: the more you spend the more you get, Exhibition and shopping centre stalls will get you lot of business. Exhibitions and shopping centres are where you would want to introduce your service or product. To get started with exhibition and shopping centre advertisement you need need to get started with a proper display system designed for your booth first before you can book a small space for your business. Remember you stall should look professional and attractive else your effort would go waste. Once you have decided on the display system you would need to get your display systems and advertisement designed so you can get them printed. Once business starts to roll in you would soon get busy catering your customers and get repeated business. Remember word of mouth is the best advertisement. A happy customer will refer 10 clients but an unhappy customer will make 100 customer run away.

Business to Business

Business to Business Direct Marketing is something that almost all of us have heard of but most of us don't know what it really is. Those people who are in a business and still don't know about Business to business direct marketing, then its high time they understand what it is. Let's not make it difficult for you and explain it in very simple term that business-to-business direct marketing is the selling of products and services to organizations and companies with the purpose to make those organizations working and running. The business-to-business markets that we are familiar with are product makers, resellers, the administration and non-profit organizations. Most of these businesses generate good revenue by a customer support; but, most of their profit is made by other companies. The best instance of this is a non-profit organization. Whilst personal contributions from people like us are significant to a non-profit's businesses, the majority of generous associations make the huge amount of their funds from firms or from government financial support. Due to this, non-profits should make themselves and their items and services striking not only for people, but for companies as well. In order to make this happen, non-profit firms and some other companies advertising or trading themselves to other companies should see a good advantage benefit. Or we can say that, they should show the reason for the organization to purchase products and services from them instead of buying from their opponents, now this is where business to business direct marketing steps in. Business-to-business marketers advertise or sell products that will make other companies work successfully. Several things companies make for other companies take in tools, parts, reserves, processing services and provisions. Business to business direct marketing and business to consumer marketing are two different things where the difference of the type of product, service and company comes in. Additionally, for the reason that business-to-business marketers aim merely other organizations, they have a considerably more aimed marketplace as compared to business-to-consumer dealers. hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h hello24h You must be thinking that business-to-business direct marketing and business-to-customer marketing are two completely different terms but, you must be familiar with this that business-to-business marketing, in a lot of cases, is running mainly because of customer demand. We can say that, if there are no costumers to buy our item, there will be no business to business direct marketing as well. If there is no company, it will clearly not require the items and services presented by a different company. The objectives of companies and costumers are usually similar. When picking a business for items and services, the majority of costumers and companies will pick them by considering the cost, class, delivery timing and their record with the company. Other thoughts may be the accessibility of the item and a few more things. Business-to-business direct marketing is presently the most successful way of marketing. As knowledge is good for a successful business, companies must try to gather all the important information regarding their opponents. It is very important for the business people and companies to have all the knowledge about business to business direct marketing if they want to set a name in flourishing businesses. Make sure that when you are advertising for your product or services you don't forget to mention the advantage, this way you'll have a good opportunity of grabbing readers or viewer's attention. Make sure you advertisement and way of business to business direct marketing is attractive and must not make anybody say "what so nice or new about it"? Business to business direct marketing is not that difficult or complicated thing, all you need to have is some knowledge and help of a professional. You can also look on internet for help and once you start doing this, you'll find it really beneficial.

The Business Purchase Process

The purchase of a business in North America is a very challenging endeavor for the following reasons: 1. Financing the purchase of a business is almost non-existent. 2. The business for sale market is quite illiquid. 3. The process of buying a business is very inefficient since information about the businesses available for sale is not readily available. 4. Business sellers are generally very emotional when selling their businesses and experience mood swings that can be frustrating for business buyers. 5. There is a relatively few number of professional business brokers in the marketplace since the profession requires hard to find skills and knowledge and can entail a high degree of uncertainty that most professionals cannot handle emotionally. The highly motivated buyers with a clear purpose to buy a reasonably profitable business do however succeed in reaching their dreams. Buyers with a good assessment of their skills and aspirations need to spend the necessary time to understand and research the marketplace in order to find the business that fits best their criteria. Buyers should beware that there is no perfect business. Therefore they should have the ability to act quickly when they find a company that matches their aspirations. Serious business buyers need first to spend the necessary time to understand their real motives behind buying a business, their own skills and capabilities, and the different opportunities offered in the industries they are contemplating. Often wrongfully neglected, this basic introspective research helps focus potential buyers on the right business opportunities and save them time and money that could otherwise be wasted chasing businesses that clearly don't fit buyers' personalities and skills or that do not offer potential for reasonable profits enabling buyers to make a good living out of the purchased businesses. Searching the Internet for business for sale websites in your city is a first step for a ready buyer who has already done his/her homework of understanding the local marketplace through reading books, local business blogs and other types of throughout research. The second step is to aggressively contact business owners and/or brokers representing the business listings while showing motivation, readiness and financial capacity to close a deal. blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency The third step is to select a business and put an offer on it. While negotiating the right price and terms is extremely important, buyers should put their focus on reaching a buyer sided agreement. Sellers need also to have achieved a great deal for themselves. Reaching a win-win transaction is extremely important for the buyer for the following reasons: 1. Unhappy sellers do change their minds about selling very frequently (close to 50% of times in my experience). Most sellers are not in urgent need to sell and can wait a few more years, especially if the business is profitable and if they are not happy with how the negotiations went. 2. Unhappy sellers do not put their best efforts to train the buyer during the transition period. When goodwill represents a large portion of the purchase price, which is the case in the vast majority of business transactions, tremendous value is transferred to the buyer in the form of training, tips and tricks, relationships etc.... Unhappy sellers do not put their hearts into helping the buyer and the buyer suffers as a result loses that are much more important than the price reduction as a result of bargaining. The final step is conducting a thorough due diligence with the help of an accredited Accountant in Ontario and closing the transaction. Due diligence is extremely important since buyers need to verify that information and assumptions about the business are valid. The decision to purchase a specific business is generally build on the validity of these assumptions so verifying these assumptions is paramount. Closing the transaction involves business lawyers and generally parallels legal negotiations on matters such as warranties and representations and other legalities. While these legal matters are important for buyers and sellers, most lawyers tend to exaggerate their importance leading to many deals unfairly falling through at the end.

Developing Your Own Business

More than 50% of all Americans dream of starting their own business some day, but only 3% ever do, in their entire lifetimes. In our free market economy, where it is extremely easy to start and build your own business, and where there have never been more opportunities in all of human history than exist today, why is it that so few people follow their dreams into entrepreneurship and business building? I have studied the subject of entrepreneurship, business and management for many years. I have started and built several successful multi-million dollar companies from scratch. I have read literally hundreds of books and thousands of articles over the years, and taken a masters degree in business and administration on the subject. I have worked with many thousands of entrepreneurs and business people in large and small organizations all over the country and all over the world. I have trained many tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, managers and executives on subjects ranging from sales and marketing through to strategic planning and finance. Even today, with all of this experience, I really don't consider myself to be an expert. However, I am a little bit more knowledgeable than the average person and I have some very definite ideas on what you can do to start and build a successful business. You May Not Get Rich First of all, why would you want to start a business in the first place? Most people think that the reason for starting your own business is so that you can make a lot of money and retire rich. This is a great idea but it is not the real reason that people take the risks of entrepreneurship. The number one reason, ahead of all the others, is for the personal freedom offered by owning your own business. There is a little joke that says that when you start your own business, you only have to work half days; and you get to decide whichever 12 hour period you prefer. In my work with entrepreneurs over the years, I have found that, although they do not necessarily become rich, they do become happier, more self-confident and more self-reliant. Very few entrepreneurs would ever go back to a salaried job. Even though they don't make an enormous amount of money, they love the freedom so much that they could not imagine turning their destiny over to anyone else. blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency blackcatagency You Can Do It Too Someone once said that you can only be a successful author if you cannot not write. You can only be a successful entrepreneur under the same conditions. You can only be successful starting and building your own business if you cannot not do it. The starting point of success as an independent business person is a burning desire for independence, freedom and opportunity. It is the desire to be your own boss and not be controlled or dictated to by anyone else. But let's go back to the first question. Why is it that so few people actually start their own businesses? And the primary reasons are fear and ignorance. Fear and ignorance are and always have been the greatest enemies of human success. Don't Be Ignorant Fear blows even the slightest risks out of proportion and paralyzes the person, holding him or her back from ever taking that giant leap of faith into the uncertainty of entrepreneurial business activity. And fear thrives on ignorance. The less you know about anything important or risky, the greater is your level of fear and the lower is your likelihood that you will ever take any action at all. The good news is that when you begin to chip away at your ignorance, your levels of fear and hesitancy decline at the same rate. When you become thoroughly knowledgeable about what it is that you want to do, you will find yourself with far more confidence and courage than you have fear and doubt. And from that point on, you can begin to make some real progress. Three Types of Businesses More than one million men and women start their own businesses every year in America. More people are starting more businesses, selling more products and services today, than at any other time in human history. Remember, there are three types of businesses that you can form. They are corporations, a sole proprietorship and a partnership. Only corporations are registered and the registration is running at over 850,000 per year. The number of sole proprietorships are in the hundreds of thousands. Nobody really knows., You can start one by simply deciding to, this very minute as you listen to this tape, without even registering it, The number of partnerships is also in the hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions every year. Because so many hundreds of thousands of men and women are starting various business organizations each year, this means that you can as well. Maybe one or two of these people are smarter or better than you, but you can be sure that hundreds of thousands of them have far more problems and obstacles in their lives than you could ever dream of. In other words, there is no reason whatsoever for you to be afraid of starting your own business. The key is to make your business a low-risk operation at the beginning with a high possibility for success later on. And these are what you will learn here. You are the President By the way, you are already the president of your own company, whether you know it or not. You are the president of an entrepreneurial company with only one employee, yourself. Your company has only one product to sell on the marketplace, your personal services. So, you are the head of your own personal services corporation. And if you name your company after yourself, you don't even have to register it to protect the name. You can go out and print business cards with your name, John Jones Enterprises or John Jones and Associates, and your title, "John Jones - President" with your home and address phone number. The next time you are out with someone and they ask you what you do, you can tell them that you are the president of your own company. When they say that they thought you worked for such and such a company, you can reply by saying that, "Yes, I do work there. They are my best clients right now."

Transition Plan When Selling Your Business

For most owners of a privately held company, when the time is right they want to sell their business for the highest price possible in the quickest time possible and live happily ever after. There is nothing too complicated in that and at a basic level, that's perfectly fine. However, a question to ask is whether the business owner wants to sell the business or is their preference to transition the business? The difference between selling the business and transitioning the business is as different as night and day. Selling the business simply means looking for the buyer at that moment in time who will pay the highest price possible. Transitioning the business requires the owner to step back, systematically review all the options available to the business then creating a plan to arrive at that outcome. For example, the business owner may have other options other than selling the business and taking the highest or best price. If the business owner has immediate family working in the business the preference may be to continue the legacy of the current owner by transitioning the business to the immediate family members. If this is the case, this brings into play a number of actions that need to be carefully and fully researched. Answering questions such as tax implications, legal questions such as what liabilities and responsibilities move from the current owner to the new owner, finance questions such as how any current loans need to be handled and indeed, how much and where is any money coming from to pay the current owner for the value they have created in the business that will fund their retirement or next journey in life. Before spending time working through the above scenario, the question of transitioning the business goes back to a simpler level. And this is the point of this article. It requires the current business owner to look at their own needs and either make decisions or arrive at conclusions that make sense to them. A list of the items to consider can be long and obviously vary with the individual but could include asking questions about what to do with the business and how any decisions impact the owner's family needs. Other less self evident areas include the owner themselves and what they want from their legacy. It also touches who they are as well as their attainment of goals, self esteem, need for recognition, appreciation and self respect. dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao Owning and operating a business often provides many emotional and life sustaining needs such as job security, retirement, business colleagues, group affiliations, status, recognition, self respect, success and creative energy to name a few. If owning and operating a business provides these, then selling the business requires the business letting these things go and moving to more or equally rewarding opportunities. If you are a business owner planning on selling your business, recognize these areas so you get answers before you start the process of trying to sell and perhaps end up changing your mind. If you are planning on becoming a business owner, recognize these areas will be part of your decision making process as you look for the right opportunity. Andrew Rogerson is a 5 time business owner who specializes in business transfer transactions. For business owners that wish to sell their business, Andrew partners with them to value their business, understand tax issues, market the business to potential buyers and handle all parts of the transaction including third-party lending, due diligence and escrow. For entrepreneurs thinking of business ownership, Andrew partners with them to determine their best option - buy an existing business, buy the rights to a franchise or start their business from scratch. He is the author of four books on business ownership called Successfully Start Your Business,

Income From Home

Millions of people dream about starting their own home based business. Are you one of those millions? It's great if you are, but please don't be like many of the dreamers who either chase after every new "opportunity" and never really succeed, or dream and dream, but never start. Or, they do start some kind of home business and then give up too soon because success doesn't come as fast as they expected so they lose hope, or don't know what to do next. If you dream of having your own home business, you can finally discover a legitimate home business that has the best chance of being successful. And then, you can start your own home based business now. Why wait any longer? Imagine being able to discover the PERFECT home based business. Imagine being able to focus only on that business so you can stop wasting your time and money trying out every new "opportunity" that sounds good. Imagine starting your own PERFECT home based business and becoming successful in it. There are four steps to turning your dream into reality: 1. Check out each home business "opportunity" to see if it meets the 7 key requirements a home business must have in order to qualify as the PERFECT Home Based Business. It is important for you to be convinced that the business you choose is the right one. Each letter in the word P.E.R.F.E.C.T. stands for one of the 7 key requirements. Is it Profitable? Is it Easy? Is it Real? Does it Fit with your desired lifestyle? Is it E-Friendly (uses the internet and e-mail for marketing)? Is it Competitve? Is it Testable at low risk? 2. When you find out which business fits the requirements better than any other business, you must have the personal strength and commitment to focus only on that business. Stop trying out something else every week that sounds good. Stick with the P.E.R.F.E.C.T. home business you discovered in step one and work at it until you make it a success. Yes, it will take some work. Expect it. And it will almost certainly take longer than you think. So what? Wouldn't it be worth it to finally make your home business dream a reality? 3. Learn everything you can about the business you choose. Learn how successful businesses (like your perfect home business) are started and how they make money. What will you need to do, what skills will you need, and what will you need to learn in order to succeed? Who has already succeeded and is willing to teach you the ropes so you don't waste time and money learning the hard way? 4. Take directed action until you succeed and don't give up. Follow the seven action steps that will lead you to success in the P.E.R.F.E.C.T. home based business. Here are the 7 action steps: Passion: Find a business you can be passionate about that matches your core desires and leverages your strengths. Economics: If there is no profitable market for the products or services you intend to form your business around, it won't do much good for you to be passionate about them. Find a profitable market before you create any products. Research: Learn everything you can about your intended prospects and your market, about products or services already being bought in your market, and about your competitors. But, don't get paralyzed by analysis. Learn what you can quickly and move on to the next step. dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao dccwao Find your business model: For most businesses and markets, there are at least several different business models you could follow and be successful. Choose the one related to your perfect home business that sounds best to you, the one that makes best use of your strengths, and the one that sounds like the most fun. Establish your product line: Create or find products to offer to your prospects. Think about creating a long term business and not just a short term income stream. So, don't just create or find one product, plan for at least several related products in your product line. You should have products at various price points so prospects can buy your less expensive product first. As they develop trust in you and your products they will buy your more expensive products also. Complete your marketing machine: Your marketing machine will almost certainly be more than just a website. Whatever is required for effective marketing in your perfect home business, make sure you have it set up and tested to make sure it is working properly. At a minimum, you need a way to reach your intended prospects, you need an offer to present your products or services to them, a way to take payment, and a way to follow up with your prospects and customers to build your relationship with them and continue offering them value and products. Traffic and Conversion: Getting prospects to view and read your offer is Traffic. Without traffic, you can't get any orders. But, getting prospects to take the action you desire on your offer page is Conversion. That action could be getting them to opt in to your e-mail list or getting them to place an order for one of your products for example. If you have millions of people viewing your offer, but nobody takes your desired action, you won't get any orders either. Once you have your marketing machine set up, getting both Traffic and Conversion is critical. Here are the 4 steps again to turn your dream of a home business into reality. 1. Determine which business best fits the 7 key requirements for a P.E.R.F.E.C.T. home based business. 2. Focus on just that business until you are successful with it, and ignore other enticing possibilities when they come along. 3. Quickly learn everything you can about the business you choose. 4. Take action, following the 7 action steps for a P.E.R.F.E.C.T. home business. Don't give up.