Starting your own business can be an exciting investment. Whether your business is your passion, or just a genius plan that you developed, it is important to know the facts about starting a business before you invest. Many people have misconceptions about what starting a business entails. In order for your business to have a fair shot at success, you should be aware of what to expect. To help clarify things, we’ve compiled a list of myths and facts about opening a small business.
Myth: If all goes well, my business should start turning a profit in 6 months.
Fact: The sad truth is that even successful businesses do not start making a profit until several years after start-up. Because overhead costs for most businesses require large loans or investments that must be paid back, even a booming business will not make a true profit until all the initial start-up costs have been paid off. Typically, a successful business will begin generating pure profit after 2 to 3 years.
Myth: The government gives out special grants to small businesses.
Fact: This is just simply not true. There are no federal grants that go directly to small businesses. The best way to pursue financing your business is by contacting your local Economic Development Corp (EDC) office.
Myth: I can pay myself as much as I want!
Fact: Unfortunately, this isn’t part of the deal. While you theoretically could pocket large sums of money at the beginning, you will most likely only be hurting yourself in the long-run. Most of the money that comes in should be reinvested in the business, or used to pay off expenses. Even if your business has been booming for a decade and all expenses have been paid off, the IRS includes a clause that does not allow a business owner to pay themselves an “unreasonable compensation.”
Myth: My product/service will sell itself.
Fact: This is a very dangerous attitude to have when starting a business. Products do not sell themselves. Marketing is a crucial component to any business’ success, even if your product/service is the best thing to enter the market since sliced bread. Talk with a marketing professional who can assist you with building a website, creating a logo, printing business cards, and spreading the word about your business.
For more information about business law, consult the Texas business attorneys at the law office of Slater, Kennon & Jameson, LLP.…
Starting an internet business can be tricky and as anyone who has become successful online can attest, making mistakes is a part of the process. In order to reach success online, there are going to be some failures along the way. How someone deals with those mistakes and failures is going to determine whether or not they will ultimately reach success in their venture.
One of the biggest mistakes that many people make when starting an internet business is not taking the time to learn everything possible before getting started. Making a living online is much different than making a living in any other way. There are a lot of people who have found a great amount of success when starting an internet business. Learning from those people can help new internet business people to avoid many of the other mistakes associated with online earning.
Another mistake that people make when starting an internet business is to ignore the huge benefits involved in social media. Internet marketers who don’t involve themselves in social media are missing the boat. Social media has taken over the internet – one only has to look at statistics for sites like Facebook and Twitter to understand just how important these types of sites can be to the success of an online business. Taking the time to learn how to leverage sites like this from someone who has already done it is a great idea when starting an internet business.
Not having a comprehensive marketing plan is another error that many people make when starting an online business. Just like in offline businesses, marketing is key to overall success. Online, there are even more websites and businesses that are clamoring for the attention of customers than in the "real" world. Creating a marketing plan that works and sticking to it is crucial in the overall success of any online business.
Giving up too quickly is a huge mistake that people make when starting an internet business. Becoming a success on the internet will take time and it will take some hard work. For most people, it’s fun work but it’s not always easy. Giving up before a business has had a chance to succeed is quite possibly the biggest reason that new businesses fail online.
Failing to get involved in an online community of like-minded people is another common mistake when starting an internet business. No one is an island and making a living online can be a lonely place if there is no one to talk to and get advice from. Smart online business people find a community of like-minded people to talk to, share concerns with, and get advice from. This can make the difference between loving the online world of earning and giving up in frustration.
Starting an internet business isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. Everyone is going to make some mistakes along the way. How someone chooses to deal with those mistakes will determine their success or failure …
If you are thinking of starting a business online then it could be one of the best decisions you ever make as long as you are prepared to work hard and learn what is required and don’t treat it as a get rich quick scheme because it isn’t. Making money online is feasible for anyone willing to learn, and the earning potential can be huge for those who do it well.
There are a few methods you can use to start and run a successful online business without spending much money. Most, if not all online businesses will have a website of some sorts. A good place for you to start with this would be for you to get your own blog. You can set up a blog very easily and for free through sites like and . A blog can provide a perfect platform to base your online business around and to sell products from.
Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are becoming very powerful tools for online business owners to use. You can brand yourself and quickly develop a large following if you use these sites correctly and they can help you market your business very effectively.
Article marketing is another effective method of building your online business. If you are able to write a quality article of around 400 words about a subject that people are interested in then you will be able to make some money using this method. By placing a link at the end of your article then you can drive traffic to anywhere you want such as your Blog or a product you want to sell.
Affiliate marketing means to sell somebody else’s product from which you will earn a commission. You do this by creating an affiliate link to the product you want to sell, in that link will be a code that is unique to you so when somebody buys through that link you receive them commission. You can use your blog to put your affiliate links on and use article marketing to send people to your blog.
These methods are incredibly affective and are used a lot by successful internet marketers every day. They are easy to set up and the whole process is quick to learn and implement.…
“I’m going to do it. I’m going to start my own business.”
Chances are you said that or something like it at some point in your career. And here you are, a solopreneur with your own company, reaping the rewards of having control of your own career. Ain’t it great? Or maybe not so great? Perhaps things aren’t quite how you had pictured them. Or it’s taking longer than you thought to get traction. Or there are loads of tasks and decisions that you have to attend to that you hadn’t anticipated.
It is pretty common for a different reality to hit us once we take the leap into solopreneurship. Often it’s a deep passion that motivates the transition, and with our heart leading sometimes the head needs time to catch up. Too bad this isn’t all there is to it.
In all the years that I have been a solopreneur and I have coached solopreneurs, there is one obstacle that keeps cropping up. No matter who, no matter what, no matter where-this obstacle is the single biggest hindrance to the forward progress of the solo business owners around the world.
In short, the biggest obstacle to your success . Not you, the person who believes passionately in your business and who is willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. Not you, the one who knows you can do it. I’m talking about the part of you whose beliefs will keep you spinning your wheels or taking two steps back for every three steps forward.
This is the part of us that I call the Starving Artist.
The Starving Artist whispers things like this in your inner ear:
You have to earn your success, and it takes time to do that.
It’s going to be hard, but stick to it and you’ll get there eventually.
There’s no gain without pain.
Suffering is what brings out your creativity.
Let go of your suffering and you’ll lose that creative spark.
Money corrupts, and wanting to make a lot of it is not a noble goal.
Any of that sound familiar? Essentially, the Starving Artist embodies all the limiting beliefs you have about your own knowledge and abilities. They may have come from parents or teachers, from siblings or peers, or from decisions you made about yourself and about how the world works. Wherever they come from, these beliefs will sabotage you and the growth of your business.
What does your Starving Artist say to you? If you have a hard time answering that, try this: What repeating patterns in your business have held you back? Here are a few examples that indicate the influence of the Starving Artist in your business:
Your only clients are people who can’t pay your standard fees or who pay really slowly after a lot of follow up.
You seem to have a portfolio comprised only of “difficult” or high-maintenance clients.
Every time you have a big, exciting success, it is followed shortly by something …
Starting a business from home can be both scary and exciting at the same time. In today’s economy many people are going into business for themselves and want to be the boss and earn the money that they deserve. This Article focuses on 9 important tips that can help you have success with your new venture.
Tip #1 – Check with you local business agencies or the sba to see if you need any license or permits to run a venture from your house. Some states do require these licenses and without them you can face fines and have your business shut down.
Tip #2 – Build you venture around the skills that you have, if you are a great graphic designer, then make sure to offer that as a service. Trying to learn a new craft and making a living off it is very difficult and it is not recommended at all. Your goal is to start making a living right away from your new venture, use your skills that made you some money in your former job.
This may sound funny but some folks try to build a new business around new skills that they have not polished yet and it ends up costing them their business, clients will leave you quickly and the complaints can build up quickly too.
Tip #3 – Make sure to have a website with a catchy domain name, if you are a graphic designer then make sure to include those keywords in your domain name. This will tell your clients what your business is all about, this builds branding right away.
Tip #4 – Build or have someone design you a professional website or blog. Image is everything and a sloppy looking site or blog will simply tell your clients that your business is sloppy too. If your site looks like a site from the 90s, then forget about having clients take you and your venture serious.
Tip #5 – Check on your competition and see what they are doing and how they are running their business. You will want to do this for sure, see how their site looks. Look at their products and services, see how much they are charging and what their unique selling propositions are.
Smart business owners do this all the time, they get tons of information from their competition and use it to their advantage and build a stronger more profitable business.
Tip #6 – Make it easy for your clients to order from you, do not make it an obstacle. If you plan on selling online then simply add a PayPal button to your website and make sure that your shopping cart works without any problems.
Tip #7 – Make sure that your site is not too heavy on the graphics and flash banners, slow loading sites will drive visitors away and this can reduce your sales drastically.
Tip #8 – Offer great customer support and make sure clients can contact you if they have …
You’ve had numerous conversations about your ROI-the Return on Investment-your company achieves.
But what about your RROI-the Redefined Reality on Investment-you achieve?
Think of your RROI as what’s different-new and improved-about your business and lifestyle since you started your company. If you previously worked for someone else, what’s better now that you own a business?
A desire to Redefine our Reality is the #1 reason most of us buy or create our own company. But is your investment of time, energy, and money redefining your reality in the ways you imagined?
Give your attention to three key areas within your business to truly Redefine your Reality through your Investment:
Unique Contribution
What primary activities do you invest your most valuable resources-time, energy, and attention-in daily?
Are they activities that are uniquely yours, i.e., tasks that you do best, that maximize your profits of money and lifestyle? Or, are they lower-producing duties that someone else could do, either outsourced or by an employee?
We all start out doing everything, which is part of the entrepreneurial blessing and curse-blessing because at first, we feel the need to do it all; curse because we’re just good enough to think we have to do it all the time.
You define your USP-Unique Selling Proposition-that distinguishes you from the competition. Have you defined your UCP-Unique Contribution Personal-that you make to your business that is yours and yours alone to do?
To grow your RROI and receive the lifestyle you want, define your UCP and be vigilant in outsourcing or employing everything else.
Core Values
How do you achieve your unique contribution daily at work?
For many of us, we start with high ideals, expressing our desire to do business differently; core values like integrity, honesty, commitment to exceptional customer care, etc. But after we do business a while, we get worn down, particularly if we are still doing it all. Less beneficial core values sneak into our practices.
These unpreferred core values come in via the cracks of our business kind of like the “stink bugs” that somehow keep finding their way into our home this spring. Despite our best efforts to seal and spray, these odiferous critters show up in the strangest places.
What stinky core values creep into the way you do business? The intense pressure this negative world brings to bear on us today as business owners provides opportunities to either shine or stink.
To grow your RROI and receive the lifestyle you want, define your core values and guard your business practices as a valuable asset.
Focused Priorities
When the phone rings, the email bings, the Facebook messages sing, the Twitter feed dings, and the text messages ping, you understand this is an ADD world. Getting your UCP done while driven by your core values sounds good, but is like trying to do physics while caring for a toddler…
…which makes it all the more important for you to focus laser-like on your priorities. All of that technology has a place, …
If you have been thinking about starting your own home-based business, there is no better time to start than today! It has never been easier to start your own business from home than it is today with the ease of the internet and the fact that it is widely used across the world. While it may seem like it will be easy, you should realize that it is in fact a real business, so be sure to attack it with plenty of motivation, desire, and determination. There are a few really great ways to make your income, some of which can be very lucrative if you know what you are doing and are ready to work hard.
Here are three ways you can build a legitimate home-based business in a relatively short period of time, they include:
1 – Selling affiliate products
While this can mean many things, basically being an “affiliate” means you are selling someone else’s product and receiving a commission every time you make a sale. This is the fastest way to start selling something, however it is not the most lucrative, since you do not get to keep all of the profits from the sale. If you are not interested in creating your own products or offering a service, this might work well for you.
2 – Your own information products
If you have some knowledge or expertise in a certain area, you can create ebooks, audio courses, and video courses, and then sell them on a website. While this may take some time to put together the products, the reward is well worth the time since you only create the product once and then make money from it for years and years to come. If you do have some expertise in any certain area, this type of business can be very lucrative and is worth consideration.
3 – Consulting
Do you have a lot of experience in something that others will pay your for? If you do, you can start a consulting service and help people 1-on-1 via telephone, email, or even face-to-face. While this type of business may take more of your time since you must be there to consult, it can be very lucrative since people are willing to pay big money for others to help them with the topic at hand. If you are an expert in any field, you should strongly consider this type of business. You can even do a combination of #2 and #3, creating products to help others as well as offering your 1-on-1 consulting as a high-ticket item.
Whichever form of business you choose, be sure to explore the pro’s and con’s of each, choosing whichever fits your personality best.…
Starting a business in Australia is an undertaking that many ambitious entrepreneurs decide to have a go at these days. Due to this, starting a business in Australia is no longer a long and complicated process. There are several online companies that offer generic legal documents and same day issue of company registration (ACN) with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). In addition to this the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have developed there own online application system where almost anyone can apply for an Australia Business Number (ABN), Tax File Number (TFN), or tax registrations such as GST.
Given this information you could be forgiven for thinking that starting a business in Australia could be quite easy, that’s because it is!! (The only hard thing about starting a business is getting your business to make money!) It just seems difficult because there are several different agencies or commissions that you need to deal with in order to setup your small business.
It when people get to this stage it all begins to seem a little hard and start to ask themselves.
Which agency do I need to apply to first?
What do I need from that agency?
Why do I need it in the first place?
How do I make an application??
After looking into this process it became obvious that the issue didn’t lie with the individual application processes at each professional agency. Most of the applications have detailed help with easy to interpret information throughout the process. The issue lied in tying all the applications together to construct a business. With that in mind below is the order, which any entrepreneur would need to follow when starting a business in Australia.
1) ASIC
Company registration and attain CAN Number
2) ATO
Apply through the ABR website for the following
ABN Number
Tax File number
GST (Maybe)
PAYGW (Maybe)
3) Bank Accounts
You will need your ACN, ABN and TFN to be eligible to open a business bank account. By law all you need is a photocopy or printout of your ACN registration to open a bank account. However depending on the bank and how up to date they are its best just to take all three numbers in to avoid frustration and a second trip to the bank.
4) Insurance
Which insurances you need (if any) will be specific to your business. Some of the more common ones are public liability and workcover insurance.
5) Accounting Systems
Depending on the size of your business you may choose to use a bookkeeper or accountant to look after your books. There are also computer accounting software such as MYOB or Quickbooks that enable you to look after you own books as well as integrating the information with you financial professional as well.
Completing the above 5 steps should generally take you anywhere from a day to a week. The ASIC and ATO registrations should usually be completed within a day, the only thing that will potentially draw the process …