Small Business Foundation

by: Dave Ryan
These are just some general tips to keep in mind as you design/operate your small business:

1. Take the time out to explore and understand whether or not you are compatible with running our own business. Some people are just plain happier and better off financially on the other end of the paycheck.

2.Get your personal finances in order. Before you jump into the entrepreneurship world, get your own money matters squared away.

3. Pick your niche. Many small business owners succeed in businesses that are hardly unique or innovative. Take stock of your skills, interests, and employment history to select the business that is best suited for you.

4. Benefit from your business plan. The exercise of creating a business plan is what pays the dividends. Answer the tough questions now before the meter starts running.

5. Do not think you need bankers and investors at the outset of your business. The vast majority of small businesses are bootstrapped.

6. Acquire the proper background. In the early months and years of your business, you will have to acquire many skills. Gain the background you need to oversee all facets of your business well, but determine what tasks you should outsource or hire employees.

7. Remember that nothing happens until a sale is made – How many good products go nowhere because they do not reach the shelves? Sales drive your business. You will need a good marketing plan to sell your product or service.

8. You have to see a customer to know one. N o matter how busy you are, spend at least 25% of your time with customers. You cannot make the proper business decision without understanding their viewpoint.

9. Solve your customers’ problems. The best way to satisfy your customers is not by selling them products but by giving solutions to their problems. There is a big difference.

10.Quality takes minutes to lose but years to regain. Quality is not a destination, it is a never ending journey. After you have strayed from quality’s path, your journey maybe sidetracked forever.

11. Put profitability first, rewards seconds. In small businesses, profitability must come first. Find out how to measure your cash flow and understand key financial ratios.

12. Hire supporters. If you intend to create a growing business, your number one duty is to assemble a great team of employees.

13. Do not do it alone. Find such help from small business peers, a mentor, even trade associations. They can help take some of the trial and error of beginning your business.
14. Vendors are partners too! Treat your vendors like customers and watch your partnership grow.

15. Make use of benefits. Understand how to provide insurance and other benefits for your employees and cut your tax bill at the same time.

16. Ignore regulatory issues at your peril. Federal, state, and local governments require licenses, registrations, and permits. Obey them or face losing your business.

17. Know the tax laws. Invest in understanding tax issues that affect your small business.

18. It’s the people! Whatever happens to a small business happens at the hands of the people who work for it. The evolution of the business is a result of their efforts.

19. Fast, good, cheap. Pick any two. Serious trouble awaits those who attempt to be all three in the market place. Stick with what you do best.

20. Develop a passion for learning. As your business grows, you need to change and grow along with it. One common denominator can be found in all successful business owners and that is a passion for learning.

About the author:
For more great business, marketing and mind power ideas to develope your business visit the Higher-Profits Blog at www.higher-profits.com

Read more »

degree of financial leverage

by: Anita van Wyk

More and more, potential customers are not letting their "fingers do the walking." To find what they need, they are using
their fingers to click at Google, Yahoo! or MSN .

If you do not have a website – you are loosing them before you even have a change to tell them about your product or service. Think of a Web site as multiple, full-page Yellow Page ads that gets 100 times more results for your local business.

Cover every business category and geographic region for a fraction of the cost of a single Yellow Pages ad.

A Web site that works is the most cost-and-time efficient way to:

1. Build loyal lifetime customers
2. Grow Your Client Base
3. Build Trust With Potential Customers
4. Get the Jump on Competitors
5. Develop and Stay "Top of Mind"
6. Extend Your Reach - Attract new local (and global!) customers
7. Diversify: Open up new revenue streams.

But where do you start?
Well, you need to register a domain name, host your new site, build the site pages, submit your site to the directories and
them promote it. You’ll need other people to link to your site and you’d want to send your customers emails.

Perhaps most important of all you’d need to know how many people are visiting your site and how many of those are buying
from you.

It might seem like a lot at first glance and it can be, but not if you choose a company that gives you all the tools, in one place, with a straightforward, integrated, step-by-step process to support you every step of the way. Site Build It! (SBI!) is the only product in the world that combines site-building,
site-hosting, and site-marketing and that makes it easy for you to build a professional, popular, and profitable business. You don’t need any technical experience (html, ftp, etc.) either, they handle all that for you.

Sites built using SBI! consistently get high traffic, as a recent Alexa.com survey shows.
- 62% of SBI! sites fall within the top 3% most popular sites on the Internet
- 53% fall within the 2% most popular
- 35% fall within the 1% most popular.

If you can use e-mail and surf the Web, you can create a professional-looking, traffic-generating, sales-producing site.
Real estate agent, landscaper, restaurant owner, health practitioner, artist, alarm system distributor, boutique owner...whoever you are and whatever you do... Site Build It! (SBI!) is the affordable, all-tools-in-one-place solution you need to build and host a
Web site that WORKS.

There is no better time than now to get your business on the World Wide Web... before you competition does.

This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain.

Read more »