Starting a business - Tips on how to start a business

It’s Not All About Location, Location, Location
No matter what your product or service the key to finding a great location is through good old fashioned legwork. Beyond identifying whether a location has the amount and type of traffic your business needs, you'll also need to consider things like sign ordinances, building ordinances, and whether there'll be enough parking available. Read more >>

Learn to Avoid Ugly Baby Syndrome
Market research is something that many entrepreneurs choose to skip when planning a new business. Maybe they find the task too overwhelming, or perhaps they are afraid they'll find out their business idea can't succeed - that their "baby" isn't so cute after all. Read more >>

Never Dive Into Business Without A Startup Plan
Trying to launch a business without a startup plan is like taking a trip along a curvy, mountain road without a map, driving at high speeds, while wearing a blindfold. Here are some key items you should include in your startup plan.

How to Become a Consultant
Consulting is one of the fasting growing industries in the US and technology is making it easier everyday for individuals to put their expertise to use in an independent consulting business. Find out what a consultant does and what the steps are to becoming one >>

Be Careful What You Wish For
What if you woke up tomorrow and had achieved the success of your dreams? Do you think you'd be happy with your life? Find out what happened to one entrepreneur whose wish to become a successful author came true.

Unleashing Your Entrepreneurial Spirit
Is your career making you miserable, but you don't want to give it up to be your own boss because of the security and stability your job offers? One day you may wake up and realize that you'd be happier living with the risks of running a business, but why wait? Here's how you can jump start your entrepreneurial spirit and get out of that rut sooner rather than later.

Turn Your Start-Up into an Instant Cash Cow
Getting a business off the ground doesn't have to be difficult, expensive or time consuming - when you know how to do it right. Learn how to get your business up and running quickly and bringing in the dough without delay.

Free Accounting Software
While you're on the www.IWillJustStart.com website, if you aren't already using QuickBooks software for your accounting, look on the top of the page for the free resources link. Click on it and you'll get the chance to download a full working, free copy of QuickBooks Simple Start 2008.

7 Ways to Start a Business without Going Broke
Is finding the money to support yourself during the early stages of your business holding you back? There's no doubt that some sacrifices will be necessary, but if you're trying to support a family, your choices are limited. Here are seven strategies you can employ to reduce the financial strain of your startup.

How Your Boss Can Help You Build Your Business
Can your boss help you build your business? With a little creativity on your part and by ensuring your employer reaps rewards, a win-win situation can be created. Read more >>

Have You Created an Impossible Business?
It's easy to think that any business can be successful if you work hard enough, but there are many situations where this just isn't so. Here are two businesses that could have been big failures if the owners hadn't made major changes to the way they operate.

Five Common Mistakes to Avoid in Choosing a Trademark
You have selected your new trademark, service mark or business name and have paid marketing and advertising professionals handsomely for their services. But wait - is that name you picked protectable? Here are five common mistakes you should avoid >>

The Purpose Driven Business
What's the purpose of your business? For most people, it's to gain more freedom and time to do what they want with their lives. But running a business can quickly become all-consuming. Read more >>

Can You Turn Your Great Idea into a Hot New Business?
Think your brilliant idea will make you a million bucks if you could just turn it into a business? Before you sink your life's savings into launching that business, consider these points.

6 Great Ways for Teens to Make Some Green This Summer
Is your teenager too young to get a job at Burger King but wants to earn some money? Does your older teen yearn for a business of his or her own? Here are six great entrepreneurial enterprises to help teens beat summer boredom while earning some money.

How and Why to Register a Trademark
You've come up with a great name for your product or business and you want to be sure no one else uses it. Do you need to get it trademarked? Is registering a trademark something you can do on your own? Find out here >>

Pros and Cons of Business Partnerships
Starting a business with a partner offers many benefits, not the least of which is having someone to share the many responsibilities of running a business. But partnerships can quickly go bad if you don't give it ample forethought and planning. Consider these pros and cons to be sure your partnership lasts.

Running a 21st-Century Small Business
Companies employing ten people or less are the economic powerhouses of the twenty-first century. Now in a new and updated edition, Running a 21st-Century Small Business tells you how you can start your very own small business--and keep it running profitably. Read Chapter 1 here >>

Business Startup Cost Cutters
Stocking your new business with the equipment and supplies you need doesn't have to bust your budget. Here are several ways you can control costs as you start a business.

Top 7 Reasons Businesses Fail
When you're starting a new business, the last thing you want to focus on is failure. But if you address the common reasons for failure up front, you'll be much less likely to fall victim to them yourself. Here are the top 7 reasons why businesses fail and tips for avoiding them.

How Business Start-Up Dreams Come True
Dreams aren't always realized in one big step. Lifelong dreams, like those of running your own business, are often met a bit at a time until one day you wake up and realize that that once far-off goal is now within reach. Read more >>

Book Excerpt: Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job
The real secret to making money and reaching financial independence is not staying an employee, but starting a company and quickly developing it. Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job is for aspiring entrepreneurs who need to know how to take those first crucial steps. Read Chapter 1, "What is the Difference Between an Employee and Entrepreneur?" here >>

Business Start Up Learning Curve
From accounting to hiring and firing, from purchasing to marketing, when you start a business, you have to know everything. And though you can pick those things up from a book, it might be some aspect of your personality that determines your survival. Read more >>

Build the Business to Suit Your Life
When you start a business, it will naturally mold itself to fit your life. If it doesn't, then you probably won't succeed. And, the business you build today will likely change as your life changes. Read more >>

Relationship Marketing Small Business Style
What does it take to be successful? Coming up with a great product or service idea? Finding the funding and getting the business off the ground? Finding a market? Yes, those are important, but you also have to build relationships to grow your business. Here's how >>

Business Plan Basics: Analyzing Your Customers
An important step in writing a successful and useful business plan is analyzing your customers. Without knowing who your customers are, you can't effectively market your products or services, nor are you likely to find anyone willing to invest in your business. Here is how to analyze your customers for your business plan.

How to Land Your First Client
It’s not surprising that consulting is attractive to many people who want to launch a business. After all, if you have a saleable skill, it’s seems like an easy business to enter. But just how do you get the clients you need to when you start a consulting business? Click here>>

Business Opportunity FAQ
If you're looking for a way to start a business without a lot of hassle, business opportunity ads might be very tempting. But how do you know which ones are legitimate and which ones are scams? How can you be sure you buy the one that's right for you? Get the answer to these questions, and more, in Business Know-How's Business Opportunity FAQ.

Start-Up Checklist
Starting a business? Wondering what to do first? What next? This handy checklist will help.

Women Entrepreneurs
Some people believe that women make better entrepreneurs than men. But, though the number of women-owned businesses has gone up, the receipts from women-owned businesses is still much lower than men-owned businesses. Read more >>

Veterans Have Entrepreneurial Spirit
American veterans have a strong entrepreneurial sprit, according to a study released by the SBA Office of Advocacy. The study shows that 22 percent of veterans are either purchasing or starting a new business, or considering it. Read more >>

Running the Family Business
Immigrants who come to America and launch a business have the right idea in their approach to running an enterprise – they get the whole family involved. Mom, dad, the grandparents, even the kids all pitch in to make sure the business is a success. Read more >>

Find a Need and Fill It
Most of the dot coms that failed did so not because they were bad ideas, but because they didn't solve anyone's problem. Whether you're starting up an online company or opening a brick and mortar store, finding a need and filling it is key to your success. Read more >>

Should You Work with Your Spouse?
You may think that it would be wonderful to be in business with your spouse, but the truth is that when life partners become business partners, unspoken assumptions can cause significant problems. Read more >>

What Does It Take to Run a Business?
Are you smart enough? Tough enough? Brave enough? Stupid enough? If you’re stupid enough, you don’t have to be brave. If you’re smart enough, you don’t have to be tough. Read more >>

Working Hard, or Working Too Hard?
When you become an entrepreneur, you realize you never really worked that hard for your boss. You probably feel you need to spend every spare moment working on your business. But are all those hours actually productive? Read more >>

The 7 Perils of Entrepreneurship
If you’ve been out of work for a while, or are just plain tired of the work you’ve been doing for years, you may be thinking of starting a business. If so, get ready to embark on an exciting, rarely dull, often nerve wracking journey. Read more >>

Wrestling the Fear Monkey
When you launch a business you get to face your fears. If it’s your first company or if it’s your 14th business, you will have to cope with fear. Even if you don’t face your fears, they’ll sneak in while you’re sleeping or while you’re driving down the street. Read more >>

Going Into Business for Yourself
If there ever was an oxymoron, "going into business for yourself" is a prime example. No one can be "in business for yourself" because people have to be in business to fulfill the wants and needs of other people, businesses, and organizations. Read more >>

The Hidden Rule of Positive Thinking
Thoughts go through your head whether you want them to or not, and if you’ve taken on the weight of starting a new company, those thoughts are best centered on your belief that you can actually lift the weight. Read more >>

How Successful Ventures Get Started
Find a need and fill it. That's the age-old formula for success. But does it work? Here's how two different entrepreneurs put that principle to work. Read more >>

Tips for Launching Your Own Business
Thinking about starting your own business? Here's advice from a successful entrepreneur who knows first-hand what it takes to get a business up and running. Details >>

How to Be a Top-Earning Coach or Consultant
You know your stuff. You are an undisputed expert in your field. The few customers you've helped sing your praises. But that's the problem. There are still too few customers. What's the single most important thing you can do build your business and grow your profits? Click here for details >>

Turning Startup Dreams Into Reality
Making the transition from running the family business to owning your own business seems like it should be easy enough. But this entrepreneur found out that full-fledged business ownership had a few more lessons in store for her. Read more >>

Why NOW Is the Right Time to Start a Business
With the economy struggling to recover from a lengthy recession, you might think that starting a business would be a bad idea. According to columnist Rob Spiegel, however, just the opposite is true. Find out why he believes right now is the best time to launch a new business. Details >>

Grab Discipline from Desperation
Discipline can provide you with a very manageable and enjoyable life - even if you're self employed. These three simple principles live at the heart of home-based business discipline. Read more >>

Braving the Rattler
The ups and downs of running a business are a lot like a roller coaster ride - with one exception. Read more>>

Singing Your Way to Success
Entrepreneurs can take a lesson from Sheryl Crow hit, “Soak up the Sun.” During the chorus she sings, “For every time I feel lame; I’m looking up.” For those who start and build a new enterprise, the need to keep “looking up” is critical for success. Read more >>

What Happens if You Fail?
The battle cry of many an entrepreneur is "failure is not an option!" But what happens if you do fail? Read more >>

What It Really Means to Be the Boss
The drive to get away from an "idiot boss" is what leads many people to start their own business. However, a few years down the road that entrepreneur may be surprised to find him or herself sitting on the other side of that manager's desk. Details >>

Riding the Business Owner Roller Coaster
When your career is made up of a series of jobs, your progress is more or less linear. When you own your business, however, life is dramatically less stable. Read more >>

Survival Strategies for Entrepreneurs
Going to work for yourself is a huge step, and a sometimes scary one at that. Here are ten strategies that can help you survive and even succeed. Read more >>

Write a Marketing Plan
Do you need to write or revise your marketing plan? Before the holiday season is an ideal time for most of us to plan for the year to come. Here's a sample to get you started.

Selling Books by the Truckload
Has anyone told you that you can sell books by the truckload? Selling books in big quantities has put more than one publisher on the map. Read More >>

Self-Publishing
Thinking about self-publishing a book? Read how one man transformed a dream into a business. Details >>

Marketing Plans
Having a written marketing plan will continually lead you toward financial gain. Fortunately, writing a marketing plan doesn't have to be a complicated process. Read more >>

Rejecting Rejection
Is it your goal to become a published writer? Rejection letters are an all-too-frequent bump on the road to meeting that goal, but persistence does pay off! Read more >>

Work from Home
Would working from home be your dream come true? Most people would eagerly jump at the opportunity. Before you do, consider all the angles. Read more >>

Launching a Business
For many entrepreneurs, the dream of owning their own business goes hand-in-hand with the desire to spend more time with family. Often, though, the two can be counterproductive. Read more >>

Growing Your Business
Growing a business is similar to tending a vegetable garden. Knowledge, careful planning, organized systems, use of proper tools, continuous care, and dedication give you the very best crop. Read more >>

Finding Customers
What's the hardest thing about starting a business? For many new business owners, the answer is "Finding customers." Here are 11 suggestions to get you started.

The Secret to Success
No matter what stage of life you are in, you can organize yourself for success. All it takes is to set your long term goals and then map out your own path for achieving them.

Three Best Things
A positive attitude is not accidental. Successful entrepreneurs know how to create a positive attitude for themselves. Here's how you can start today!

Contract Negotiations
Getting a company to say "yes" to using your business is only half the battle. Win the war with these tips for successful contract negotiations.

The E-Plan
You may have to get to the point if you want to please potential investors. Wed your verbal pitch or presentation to your business plan! Modern business plans should include an Executive Summary and a series of slides if it is to be valuable and unique enough to hit home!

Marketing Worksheet
Discover who your customers are and improve your chances for startup success with the help of this worksheet.

Sample Business Plans
Find planning tips as well as sample business and marketing plans by clicking here.

College student turns $48 into a $10 million business
What do you when you write a business plan for one of your classes and the professor flunks you saying it would never work? If you're Ian Leopold, you laugh all the way to the bank. Read why.

Business Planning Worksheet
Use this worksheet to collect the information you need to evaluate your business idea and get your business off to a good start.

Secretarial Start-Up FAQ
Here are answers to frequently asked questions about starting a secretarial service.

Test Yourself
Are you cut out to be self-employed? Take this little test and see if you have what it takes!

Invention Scams
Are those invention companies you hear advertised on late-night TV any good? Get the lowdown in this article from the Federal Trade Commission.

Out of Work?
Tired of clueless bosses and corporate politics? Get the facts you need to start your own business and take control of your future income. Order The Home Office and Small Business Answer Book today.

Learn How To Start A Small Business
Need some one-on-one advice on starting your business? Post your questions in our Getting Started message board.