Bootstrapping a startup means looking for every opportunity to cut expenses. Thus, it is common for first-time business owners to skip over registering their business, assuming that running it as a sole proprietor will be sufficient. While it’s true that sole proprietor status is the least complicated to manage — less paperwork, fewer filing requirements, the most flexibility — the reality is that the benefits of organizing as an LLC far outweigh the complications.
LLCs Provide Protection
The structure of an LLC or corporation exists for one primary purpose — to separate business and personal liability. With sole proprietorships, all of your personal assets, including your house, cars, and savings, are potential targets for any lawsuit or judgment against the business. Don’t assume that none of your dedicated customers would ever sue — if you make an error that costs them dearly, their attorney will turn to you for reparations.
In addition, businesses can struggle for all sorts of other reasons, such as a lagging economy, that are out of control of the owner. With the protections of limited liability, the business can take the fall without significantly impacting the owners. Sole proprietorships and partnerships can leave the owners holding the bag, and paying off the business’s debts (or worse, filing personal bankruptcy)…outcomes that will affect you for years.
LLCs Provide Opportunities for Your Business
Particularly in the case of independent contractors, securing an LLC can open doors not available to sole proprietor independent contractors. The reason for this is that many large companies secure independent contractors for months or years at a time, and hiring a individual, sole proprietor, into those positions can put the larger company at serious risk. If you have LLC or corporate status, there is no doubt that the hiring does not meet the standards of being an employee, because the presumption of independence is evident in the entity status, thus the company is more likely to hire your company over a sole proprietor.
LLCs Open the Doors to Growth
Operatinga business as a sole proprietorship not only limits your options, but also can limit your thinking. As a solo owner, there is no easy way to bring in investors for growth and expansion. With an LLC or corporations, your options are wide open for including partners as you see fit. You can build the business’s credit separately from your own, enter into contracts, and own property in the name of the business, presenting a more professional image. And, your own ideas of how far the business can go can be influenced by the formality of organizing as a limited liability entity. Something about formalizing your operations inspires a lot of folks to think bigger than just working for yourself.
Sure, there are valid arguments for selecting sole proprietorship status. Whether you organize as an LLC or corporation, there are some fees and paperwork required, usually once or twice per year. And, new business owners are often required to provide personal guarantees for bank or …
I love entrepreneurs! Generally, I’ve noticed a drive and a determination that takes creative-minded, bootstrapping, do-it-yourselfers a long way. Those who show true ingenuity, persistence, and resilience inspire us all to have a brighter attitude.
I also love entrepreneurs because they ask me to help them with things like logo and graphic design, social media strategy, and web-based user experience. Oh, and I charge for those things, so it’s doubly-nice.
One thing I’ve noticed, however, about super-entrepreneurs is that their minds tend to race about 10,000 RPMs with cool, new ideas. I really wonder how many ideas are eventually left laying in the dust, not because they weren’t good ideas, but because not quite enough thought and planning went into them.
Having received tons of emails with ideas from entrepreneurs hoping to take an idea big-time, I thought I’d throw together this list of the six things I either say, or want to say in response. They are mostly questions, not recommendations, but the questions themselves are often overlooked.
Is it possible?
I know this one sounds obvious. If it weren’t would I be asking about the idea to begin with? And aren’t all things possible to those who believe? Certainly, but quite a few great ideas are laying in graves because the technology was either not ready, or too expensive.
Who else is doing it?
Use search engines and social networks to scout out the potential competition. Sometimes you wind up jumping into an arena filled with insurmountable competition. You’re probably not going to start the business that will topple an Amazon or Apple.
Can it be done well remarkably?
Doing something well doesn’t make it successful. Doing it well enough to get noticed does. Can you execute the idea in such a way that people will buy into it?
Do I have accesses to the resources to get it done?
This thought may sound strange, but some ideas are good (or noble) enough that you should consider handing it off to someone who can get it done. And every good entrepreneur knows that “resources” aren’t limited to the money in your pocket. It includes the money in other people’s pockets as well!
Is the idea something I’m passionate enough about to stick with over the long haul?
Pretty self-explanatory. Most of us have been there, burying an idea for which we had great enthusiasm, but didn’t see the gap between enthusiasm and real passion.
Can it be monetized?
This is the slimy question nobody thinks anyone should ask, but it must be faced. Why? Because if it can’t be monetized, it can’t be sustained or expanded. Sometimes that’s okay. Sometimes a good idea needs to piggy-back some other more profitable concept. Sometimes, the idea needs to go back into the incubator though.
These questions are seeds. You may have more to face. But at least face these and use them as a filter for every new idea. Let your genius lie asoak in the probing process. If an …
There are several businesses you can start on the internet for little to no investment. You can do a lot of different things on the internet, selling advertising, selling products and other services. Whatever route you decide to use for making money online will depend a lot on your personality and the things you love to do.
Firstly, I am going to go through a few things you can do to make money on the internet and then at the end you can choose what direction you would like to take your business in.
Making Money by Advertising
A lot of the big corporations on the internet make money from advertising. These are companies you have heard of if you have ever been online; you probably use their services every day. Companies like Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, YouTube, Google all make the bulk of their sales from selling advertising. Now you don’t have to be a big company to make sales from advertising. You can simply perform advertising by doing something called blogging and attracting a lot of visitors to your personal blog.
The reason advertisers pay these corporations a lot of money for advertising is because these companies know how to get lots of visitors to their websites on a daily basis. Now you don’t have to be able to be able to drive millions of visitors to your site on a daily basis, if you can drive a few thousand visitors, that would be great. You want to do the same thing the big corporations are doing but you want to do it on a smaller scale.
The good news is that these companies will let you tap into their resources and profit with them. For example, Google has a program called ”the AdSense program” where they connect you with advertisers who want to advertise on your blog and split the revenues with you. Google also owns YouTube, a video sharing site where you can post videos for free under any topic under the sun. You can use this site to make a video on your subject matter and direct the visitors on there back to your blog. you can also use article directories like EzineArticles to write compelling content and direct the people from there to your blog. So this is how easy it is for you to make money from selling advertising on a blog. If you don’t want to partner with Google, you can contact website owners with information related to yours and offer to sell them advertising.…
To work or not to work during ‘s a tough question for many entrepreneurs. There are two primary pulls either way — a full-time startup gets your full attention and shortens the time to making money, but working during startup keeps the bills paid and provides a back-up plan for the risk of going out on your own. The best option for you depends on a number of factors, and with either method it is essential that you manage your time and money effectively.
Business Type
The type of business you are planning to start is the first consideration in whether to launch full-time or part-time. There are some ventures that require you to be available during the standard workweek — 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. If your current job includes these hours, it may be impossible to get your business off the ground. The best option in those cases is to develop a complete plan for your business while still employed, including a full marketing plan, budget, and beginning to network. The more developed your business idea, the more clear it will be when the best time to commit full-time will be.
Available Capital
The amount of capital you have for your startup is another critical factor. If you haven’t developed a full startup budget yet, do so before you quit your day job. Startup costs are easy to underestimate, especially without working through the details of the business idea. In addition to the actual startup costs, you will need enough cash to keep your personal bills covered. Often, entrepreneurs discover the hard way that the few thousand they thought would be sufficient disappears rapidly once work starts on the they end up going back to work anyway. Set a realistic budget based on a realistic time frame for getting the venture off the ground before you commit to full-time entrepreneur status.
If You Decide to Start Part Time
If you do decide to keep a job while working on your business, your first priority is to get organized. You will have to master time and task management in order to make reasonable progress on your business idea. The odds are that your work hours aren’t the only time consumers on your schedule, so it is critical to establish dedicated blocks of time to focus on your startup. Eliminate as many time killers as possible and consider getting up a few hours earlier or staying up a few hours later to get the venture going.
Do not even consider using your time on another job to work on your startup. In the first place, it is disrespectful and probably a terminable offense. You won’t want your employees working on outside interests on your time, so you shouldn’t either. In the second place, most professional jobs include provisions within the employment contract that deem all of your work product as owned by the company. Thus, if you create a new or innovative product or service using company assets (even …
Do you know much about marketing online? What do you know about Facebook marketing? Have you been marketing offline mainly? Regardless of how much experience you do or do not have, you can use the following tips to help your campaign.
Sponsoring a contest can be a fantastic way to get more followers on Facebook. Take advantage of this great idea. Provide people with prizes and discounts for liking your page. Always actually send the prize or you’ll ruin your reputation.
Host a giveaway to generate attention. Encourage new subscribers by offering free products. Announce winners on your page and repeat as necessary.
Facebook ads are a great place to start. Regular postings only go so far when it comes to promotions of goods and/or services. To get real reach into your channel, you are going to want to purchase some Facebook ads. Facebook ads are cheap, and they can be quite effective.
You may wish to create a Facebook group rather than a Facebook page. Creating a group on Facebook will make other people more likely to start a community with each other where they can interact. This will also give you the ability to inform your subscribers of updates.
Be careful about posting about your own business away from your personal pages. You can receive a great deal of attention when you post on other Facebook pages. But, be sure it is positive attention. Only make posts on other pages if you have something worth saying. Don’t spam other pages.
Always respond to comments as well as posts that are posted on your Facebook wall. You should always dedicate some time to make contact with people who have taken the initiative to get in touch with your business. Responding in a timely manner will help improve your credibility.
Have different links that your visitors can sign up to on your Facebook. Giving the audience something valuable for just registering or signing up can let you have ongoing conversations with those that have expressed interest. You could have a contest, or just give away a freebie.
You have to use real resources with your strategies for marketing with Facebook. Marketing on Facebook takes a major effort, but it can lead to great success. Learn how to get the most out of this valuable resource and take advantage of the possibilities of social media marketing. Invest the necessary time and resources to see real results.
Never turn off the function that allows people to post comments on your page. You may think that you can use this to keep people from posting bad things, but in the end it will make people think you’re not interested in their comments.
Don’t forget why you created a Facebook page. Sometimes, you may not need a page due to a fleeting customer base. Did you create your page as a way to engage customers? Perhaps you view your Facebook page as a way for your customers to engage you in a personal, direct …
All businesses benefit from creating a customer base over the Internet. This can be done in a variety of ways, both traditional and novel. One new and popular way to promote your company online is through social media marketing. With the social media tips here and a little business savvy, you can boost your company to new heights.
Think twice before retaining the services of a social media promotion firm. There are a lot of social media marketing scam artists out there who prey on inexperienced business website owners. These companies use proxy servers and registration bots to create thousands of accounts on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Your money will have been wasted sending you marketing message to accounts no one will ever see.
Answer questions or comments that people post. It’s common to look over a question or comment, so keep an eye out for them.
It is imperative that you respond very promptly to comments and reviews, to make the most of marketing via social media. Responding to feedback can create a resounding success if you do it, and an abject failure if you don’t, so it’s critical that you stay on top of this. Pay special attention to negative feedback you receive through social media. If you simply delete these posts, your reputation could suffer from it. Responding quickly, professionally, and with empathy, will actually help your reputation to be even better.
Always add tags to your Twitter posts. Tags will show after the # symbol. They will allow your updates to show up in feeds for particular subscribers. If you pick tags the right way you should be able to target some people.
You will never be successful with social media promotion if you aren’t aware of who your target audience is. It is necessary to discover why they use social media, how often, and what sorts of content they like best.
Do some research regarding social networking. You might already have a profile on Facebook, but you need to remember that professional social media marketing is quite different than social media use with your friends. If you have trouble, talk to professionals or use advice from the Internet.
You should interweave your social media pages to your corporate website. By including widgets on your website, visitor can share your content easily. Add links to your profiles on your site, blog, email signature, RSS feeds and encourage your audience to connect with you on social networks.
The shorter you make your posts, the more effective they will be as marketing devices. Short messages are often better because they don’t bore the user with a lot of text. They are also more likely to stay in someone’s mind. People tend to pass these messages on more as well. Using images carefully allows you to keep your text short and to the point.
It might be difficult in the beginning, but you will soon get the hang of it. Social media has done wonders for many different companies, …