If you are just starting a business or actively growing your existing small business, incorporation may be a topic on your mind. There is a lot that goes into the incorporation process, from deciding if it's something you even want to do, to taking the steps necessary to form a corporation.
I've written about incorporation before, and the feedback I've gotten is that there are still a lot of questions around the topic, especially for someone just getting started with the process. Here are a few links to small business incorporation articles that you can use as a cheat sheet as you explore if incorporation is right for you.
Let's start at the beginning with a refresher on the different forms of business. This article takes a quick look at the differences between a sole proprietorship, a partnership, an LLC and a corporation.
From limited liability to stock incentives to near immortality -- there are a lot of advantages if you incorporate your small business. This article walks you through six of the most common reasons small business owners decide to form a corporation.
Playing devil's advocate and considering the reasons not to do something should always be part of your research process. This article lists some of the reasons incorporation may be a bad move for your business, from the cost to the rigidity of the business structure.
Have you decided that incorporation is right for you? Then move on to this article and go step-by-step through the small business incorporation process.
If you have questions about incorporating your small business, please leave a comment here, or post your question in the Small Business Information Forum.
Photo (c) pepo
Should I Incorporate My Small Business? originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 09:27:53.
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Most small business owners have limited budgets, so it can take a little extra time and some creativity to make the most of the resources you have available. Add a slow market or a personal crisis to the mix, and getting a handle on your small business finances can seem impossible.
But it is possible, through consistent networking, smart marketing and precise cost-cutting. Gather up your determination, creativity and never-say-quit attitude, and browse these six small business hard time strategies to help get you over the financial slump and onto a bright future.
Photo (c) linusb4
6 Ways to Survive Hard Times as a Small Business Owner originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 07:55:04.
Not everyone has the time, energy, ability or desire to maintain their lawns, gardens and land surrounding their homes. This is why lawn care and maintenance can be a very lucrative small business idea. If you have a green thumb and a desire to get your hands dirty (or a team of potential employees at the ready), a lawn service may be the perfect small business idea for you.
Many landscaping businesses provide services beyond general lawn care, including landscape design/architecture, fencing and walkway installation, weeding and pest control. But you don't have to be a landscape designer to start a lawn care business, and there are a lot of reasons a lawn care business may be a good one to start:
Some of the potential challenges of a lawn care business include:
If you enjoy yard work, then starting a lawn care business is a great example of turning a hobby into a small business that you can approach with passion. For more about starting a lawn care business:
Photo (c) straymuse
Small Business Idea: Lawn Service originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 15:34:58.
Business Across Borders, a free event series provided by Inc. and DHL, kicked off this week in New York City. The event focuses on giving budding international businesses a chance to rub elbows with leaders from a number of America-based international companies and learn some of their secrets for success.
The event series continues through mid-August and will hit Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston and Los Angeles. Each stop of the event includes one night of interactive events, panel discussions, extended question and answer sessions, and targeted networking. Some of the topics covered include:
Participation is free, but registration is required.
For more on international business, visit DHL's Business Across Borders article library, designed to help you grow your business on a global scale.
Business Across Borders Event Series originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 07:32:13.
Summer may be the perfect time to start a small business as a private tutor. This is a great business idea for teachers or anyone with teaching experience and exceptional knowledge in a specific area. Successful tutors also have a passion for helping others.
While many private tutors are successful on a part-time basis, supplementing their regular income, private tutoring can also make a great small business. Here are some of the reasons that tutoring may be the business for you:
Potential challenges can be increased liability if you conduct tutoring sessions in your home, and having enough business to carry you through school breaks.
More information on starting a private tutoring business:
Photo (c) iprole
Small Business Idea: Private Tutor originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 11:53:49.
If you're contemplating starting a business, it's completely normal to feel overwhelmed at some point in the process. I know I was when I started my business. In fact, I still am when I approach other new businesses! There's just so much to do and think about when you start a small business.
To help remove some of the anxiety and guesswork, I compiled a list of nine areas you should consider when you are ready to start your own business. A few of the critical areas include:
There are a lot of moving parts in the business startup process, certainly more than nine. But the nine I list are those I consider the most critical when you start your own business.
Read about the nine areas of small business startup that I recommend. Then come back and leave a comment here about what area (either one listed or a new one) you think is most important and why.
Photo (c) arkitekt
9 Things to Consider When Starting Your Own Business originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 12:18:30.
A focus group is when members of a target market are brought together to experience something and share their feedback with a moderator.
Focus groups are a powerful method for conducting market research, but many times they're considered "big" business activities. This is a misconception. Small businesses can get just as much value out of a focus group as any of the big guys.
But how do you know if a focus group is right for your business? Some signs may be that you're entering a new market, struggling with collecting meaningful data from other research activities, or you want to get a peek at your target market's motivation.
To get started exploring if a focus group is the right market research activity for your business, learn the basics about focus groups, and explore the benefits and the disadvantages of conducting one.
Photo (c) just4you
Focus Groups 101 originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 15:14:36.
Some of the most successful small business owners I know started their businesses out of a hobby. It makes sense when you think about it because our hobbies typically revolve around things we're passionate about, and you need that passion in order to develop a successful business.
Even if you don't have a hobby per se, you can get inspired to start a business from things you enjoy doing, things you're really good at, and things that just interest you. The problem is, it can be hard to see the business potential in an everyday activity. It can be helpful to have a brainstorming partner, throwing you ideas and giving you a chance to grab what interests you for further exploration.
That's my goal with a new series I'll be starting next week on small business ideas. Each week, I'll focus on a different small business interest and share some resources related to the idea that may inspire you to explore a new area. And who knows, maybe one of these small ideas will get you thinking big.
Photo © dhester
Small Business Idea Series originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 19:54:34.
If product inventory is something new for your business or if you're in the process of reviewing your inventory setup, consider joining in on Inventory Tracking with Stacy Kildal and QuickBooks Online this Thursday, July 15 at 1:00 pm ET.
The session will cover how to use QuickBooks Online to:
The free live online session is hosted by the Intuit Community, a resource for small business owners provided by Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks accounting software. Participation requires free registration on the website.
If you can't make this session, check out the previously recorded small business events available!
Learn How to Manage and Track Inventory originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 12:49:05.
Unless you have done it before, incorporating a small business can be an exhausting and overwhelming process. Where to start? What to do next? Where can you find relevant resources?
The article, "How to Incorporate Your Small Business in 7 Steps," helps to make the process manageable by breaking it down into individual steps. It walks you through the major phases of incorporating your small business from choosing your business name, to naming your directors, to filing the paperwork.
If you're just beginning the process of forming a corporation, I'd love to hear if the steps to incorporate outlined in the article are helpful to you. What other information would be useful as you explore incorporating your business?
Photo © forwardcom
Small Business Incorporation originally appeared on About.com Small Business Information on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 09:20:31.
I was speaking the other day with a coaching client of mine who felt his team needed a new presentation they could use in front of prospects. In their business, a "pitch book" is a common tool for sales calls. It can be presented in various ways: a PowerPoint deck with the pages printed in a flip-chart type of book; a PowerPoint deck that is projected onto a screen while the seller presents; a spiral-bound, printed PowerPoint deck that the seller makes a copy of for the prospect, with both of them flipping the pages. All of these approaches are deeply unsatisfying. Think about the last time you were pitched in any one of these ways. What went through your mind? My main thought centered around trying to figure out how many pages of PowerPoint I was going to have to endure, whether presented in flip-chart, screen-format, or book. ( "If she talks for two minutes on each slide, there are 30 slides.....oh nooooooo!")My other thought was how linear the presentation format is. The other party presents her ideas in order, maybe I ask questions during the discussion, but probably I (try to) listen and she talks. And talks. And talks. So what about this instead: Rather than have your presentation fired up, give me as the potential customer some options that make me feel more in control of the meeting. You'd say something like, "Mitch, we prepared this sheet of Frequently Asked Questions. We know that most of our prospective clients are interested in some or all of the answers. Would you take a look at these and let me know which of these FAQs you're most interested in? And if you're interested in something not on the list, that's fine, too. We can start anywhere you'd like."
I take a minute to read the simple list and express an interest in knowing your product's feature and benefits first, so you take out ONE visual that addresses my interest and place it on the table, and talk to it. We have a conversation until all my questions are answered. Then I ask about how your product compares with the competition. And you take out your ONE colorful and pointed visual that lays out the competitive landscape, and we talk about that for a while. After that, I ask about support, and you take out your ONE visual that addresses after-sale support. And finally, I ask you to tell me about yourself, your team, your backgrounds. And you take out NO visual. You just talk to me about your experience in the industry and serving people like me. I feel like I've been treated with respect in the sales process because you addressed MY agenda, not your own. But of course in doing that, you've treated your own interests impeccably well. And you got my business. Have a story about a really great, or really awful sales presentation you've received or given? Please share with a comment.
Read this Before You Make Your Next Sales Presentation originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 08:59:31.
Merrill Lynch has a great webcast called Reinventing Retirement: Second Acts, recorded in June 2010. It profiles over-age-55 people who are starting businesses. Every Baby Boomer should watch it. I coach corporate executives who want to start businesses as encore careers. This webcast illustrates many of the key points I coach potential entrepreneurs to consider. One very important point the webcast addresses is that some people start businesses because they have been downsized and can't find a job. That's a predicament that's hard for anyone to deal with and even worse for older people. Sally Krawchek, president of global wealth & investment management for Bank of America Corp., makes an essential point in response to ABC's Charles Gibson's statement that "you need to save, you need to have a nest egg. And then we see a lot of people saying, well I'm going to take that nest egg, and I'm going to roll the dice, and I'm going to invest it in a this or a that or an other ... So, yeah they save, but then we say to them, given the new realities, we want you out there rolling the dice with that nest egg." Here's what Krawchek says to Gibson (which I edited slightly for clarity): "How about, I have a nest egg. I have investments that will provide me with some stable income that I can live a nice life on, and I'm going to take some risk here, and then my spouse is going to continue to work part-time in this job here. You continue on that plan, and then after three years you say, this part is working, this part is changing, this part did better than I think. It's a continuous process of taking the temperature, taking the check and readjusting the plan." Krawcheck is noting the different between taking risks, and putting yourself at risk.It's the most important point for over-55 would-be business owners to consider.
Some people are running so fast from unhappiness and discouragement in the work force that they grasp onto a business idea and throw their remaining resources (like their 401k) into a new venture. With no backstop. Yes, people do it every day and we often hear about amazing successes. Like we read about Powerball winners. With about the same odds. Do you agree there's a difference between taking a risk and putting yourself at risk when starting a business? What have you learned? Please share a comment.
Advice for Baby Boomers Looking at Entrepreneurship originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 16:33:14.
My company sponsored a special event of a local industrial association recently and we made some good contacts. We had a booth at which we were promoting our products, and we saw about a hundred people. Of those hundred, exactly one called me afterward as a potential client. She's a commercial insurance rep.
Her phone call was brief, confident and effective. She said she'd like to get together with me to review my insurance and see if she can save me money. No long-winded build-up to asking for an appointment, no 20 questions to get to the moment of truth, no big speech about herself. Just a simple request for my time, which resulted in an upcoming appointment. I am happy with my current insurance, but some of that has to do with inertia and habit. The fact is, I haven't reviewed it for potential cost savings in five years. So she's got at least a 50 percent chance of gaining a new client.
Here's the teachable moment from this story about selling skills.
Depending on what you're selling, you can make an aggressive request even without "relationship selling." We are conditioned these days to believe that we need a relationship with someone so that we can understand them fully, which then leads to the possibility of doing business.
But there's a difference between closing business and opening the door. You have to do the latter before the former, and a lot of people don't get that. So just focus on getting an appointment. If you're a financial advisor ("It was nice to see you on the golf course the other day. Some of other club members who are clients of mine were very interested in our quarterly market update conference call, so I thought I'd invite you to listen in to the next one"); an elder-care attorney ("A lot of my colleagues from the association are dealing with elder care issues with their parents. Would you like to come in for a free consultation?"); a car dealer ("I saw you were driving a 2004 Ford. We have a zero percent APR financing offer until the end of the month. Would you like to stop by for a test drive?"); a commercial banker ("I was in your store last week and loved your merchandise. Can I stop by to see what your expansion plans are and if we can help?"); and many other categories.
One technique I hate: Take any of the above and change them to, "Would next Tuesday be a good time for you to come in and...." That's called the presumptive close. That's when I hang up the phone. Be respectful enough of your prospect to make an invitation without insinuating yourself into their calendar.
Read more on the subject of selling techniques that get you in the door.
What's your experience with "warm-calls"? Are you making them? What's works and what doesn't? Please leave a comment.
Tips on Asking for the Order originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 14:48:08.
I like a good haircut. Not just because I feel cooler in this ridiculously hot New York summer, but because I talk to my barber, Nick, about small business.
Nick's about 35, lives in the same town as me, has a wife and two young children. In addition to cutting hair, he owns an Italian ice place in town that has been an institution for as long as anyone can remember. It's a great business. The gross margin on ices is about 90 percent and he owns the roadside, freestanding building that's open from May through September. I learned a few things from Nick:
Know entrepreneurs? Ask them for their wisdom and share it here.
Entrepreneurial Tips from My Barber, Nick originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 09:37:09.
If you are a small business and haven't heard of crowdsourcing...well, the time has come.
How would you like to save hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars on projects ranging from designing logos to writing business plans to designing websites finding language translation services?
There is a growing number of web resources available to help small businesses accomplish their goals by putting a description of their project online, along with the price they are willing to pay, and then letting the creativity that is abundant on the Internet have at it. Rather than single-sourcing your project to one vendor you may have heard of, you put it out to the virtual crowd. Here are some examples of how small business entrepreneurs are using crowdsourcing to save money and increase creativity.
Effective Use of Crowdsourcing for Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 14:41:33.
The rumors are circulating about what happened at Apple that produced its catastrophic iPhone 4. Some reports say engineers knew about the antenna/dropped-call problem but were made to understand that CEO Steve Jobs's wish was to keep moving forward and ship the product.
Let's say for a moment that Jobs didn't know there was a problem. It seems incredible that he would know about the problem and ship anyway. Jobs is known to be arrogant and mercurial, and it would not be surprising if there are people in Apple who don't want to tell him the truth. I can just imagine the conference room conversation: "You tell him....I'm not telling him. You tell him!"
I wonder how many companies have engineering (or marketing, or research, or sales, or customer service, or human resources) departments that are afraid of executive management. Lots of companies give lip service to being able to fail without fatal repercussions. (In corporate speak this is called "failing forward.") But I suspect, and have witnessed, that scapegoating and CYA is a much more common reaction to serious mistakes that "attaboys/girls."
What's your opinion, of Apple or other companies and their cultures when it comes to the friction between speed-to-market and quality? Join the discussion.
What the iPhone 4 SNAFU May Say About Corporate Culture originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 08:53:55.
Yay startups!
The Kauffman Foundation reported today that startup companies drive employment growth while established companies eliminate more jobs than they create. "On average and for all but seven years between 1977 and 2005, existing firms are net job destroyers, losing 1 million jobs net combined per year. By contrast, in their first year, new firms add an average of 3 million jobs," the study reports.
The Importance of Startups in Job Creation and Job Destruction, bases its findings on the Business Dynamics Statistics, a U.S. government dataset compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau. The BDS series tracks the annual number of new businesses (startups and new locations) from 1977 to 2005, and defines startups as firms younger than one year old, Kauffman said. I
It makes intuitive sense that new firms add jobs -- after all they are starting from zero -- and existing firms, which Kauffman defines as older than one year, lose jobs over time through the natural business lifecycle. The importance of Kauffman's study may be for policymakers, who "should appreciate the astoundingly large effect of job creation in the first year of a firm's life...Effective policy to promote employment growth must include a central consideration for startup firms."
What do you think policymakers should do to enhance the environment for startups? Leave a comment.
Kauffman Study: Startup Firms Drive Employment originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 20:05:49.
We've gotten a lot of feedback on our recent post, "Death to the Business Plan," in which small business CPA Michael Hanley said business plans are mostly unnecessary: They hold back entrepreneurs, who use the lack of a plan as an excuse to not get their venture going. We've created a place for you to weigh in. Let us know whether you have a business plan for your entrepreneurial venture, and if so whether it's something you actually run your business with. Or does it sit in a file somewhere gathering dust? If you don't have a plan, what impact has that had on your business's success. Share your experience here.
Share Your Viewpoint on Business Plans: Are They Necessary? originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Monday, July 5th, 2010 at 18:53:16.
Many people these days are freelancing their services, either full-time, as a moonlighting gig, or as a precursor to launching a business. While freelancing offers a lot of great advantages -- low overhead, flexible work schedule, interesting and varied projects -- the business can have its dark side. You may have the hydra-headed client with everyone claiming to be in charge of a project; you can be burned easily if you price your services incorrectly for the work you need to do; and then there's the freelancer's biggest no-no: the "F" word, friend. You'll be tempted to do projects for friends and then risk losing friendships when business realities intercede, like being late paying your bill.
Successful marketing communications freelancer Barbara Kerbel provides answers to critical questions and business issues faced by freelancers in a three-part series. You can read the first part here and then continue to the others.
The Ins and Outs of Freelancing as a Business originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 10:49:16.
Clate, I swear I'm not picking on you.
Clate Mask, CEO Infusionsoft, published a book on entrepreneurship this spring that I reviewed. I didn't love it. But this post has nothing to do with his book.
I read an article he published today on VentureBeat in which he wrote about the "entrepreneurial revolution" we are experiencing in the United States, brought about, he says, by a number of factors including peoples' disillusionment with corporate life, the job-killing recession, the ease of business entry enabled by the Internet, and the entry of baby boomers (hitting retirement or layoff age) into the entrepreneurship pool.
"[W]e see droves of people who've been forced into entrepreneurship," Mask says. "They lose their job, get a severance package, take a little time to think about what's next... and then commonly start a consulting practice or some sort of solopreneurship. And frankly, I believe this is a great thing for our economy--to have more entrepreneurs out there creating value, filling in voids in the marketplace, conjuring up new products and services that just might become the next big thing when the market turns around."
Clate thinks this is a great thing. Me, I think this is a lousy thing. I hate hearing that people who could not find a job threw in the towel and started a business -- the so-called "forced entrepreneurs." Here's why: my experience coaching people on job search and career management, as well as entrepreneurship, tells me that most people who can't find a job usually don't know how to mount an excellent marketing campaign to get one. Not everyone, but most. These folks struggle for many months, feel miserable about themselves, give up the job search and start a business. But many would really rather have a great job.
To start a business, you have to be operating at 100 percent of your mental and physical capacity. After being beaten half to death by the job market, dwindling finances, tensions at home, you....start a business? Creating a business -- even one that involves only you -- is an activity that nature attacks with a vengeance. All her forces are against the success of start-ups (or else everyone would do it, right?).
You wants to start a business, you gots to have a couple of things:
If you don't have those things and more, I say you're taking undue risk in starting a business. If you really want a job, get some coaching that can show you how to shake up your job search and get it done. Clate, please don't be mad at me. The rest of you, join the discussion.
Heaven Help the Forced Entrepreneurs originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 22:13:32.