Accountants are so useful for businesses small and large, we had to split the content into two parts! During Part I, we discussed how an accountant can help a start-up during the preliminary phase; it’s mainly by making sure all your ducks are in a row, so to speak, before you start pitching your business and making sales. In essence, … Read More
How An Account Can Help Your Small Business, Part 1
Whether you are a start-up or a long-running business, you’ll always be looking at your costs; where you can recoup money, and where cuts can be made. Sometimes, professional services are at the top of the list of things to cut, mainly because the price of ongoing professional services can seem large, and the benefits they give aren’t as clear-cut … Read More
Underutilized Small Business Resources
Starting a small business is a rollercoaster of emotion; daunting, exciting, confusing, exhilarating; sometimes all at once! When you’re starting a small business, you want all the help you can get; funding and loans, expertise and information, friends and partners. It’s a shame that so many small business owners aren’t aware of the plethora of resources available to them; enterprise … Read More
Marketing on a Budget
Creating a market for budgeting is a strange and tricky thing; you want to get a good return on investment, of course, and your marketing campaigns can create lifelong relationships with new customers. When you’re a new or unknown business, your marketing is your make or break; you might have the best product in the world, but if no one … Read More
What’s Your Vision?
Today, we’re going to take a short break from the business startup guides to ask you a question: what’s your vision? What is the indelible influence you want to leave on the planet after you’re gone? If you had to sum up you or your organization’s desires and ambitions in a single phrase, what would it be? Think about it … Read More
Starting A Business: Building Your Team
Your business is almost ready to roll at this point; you’ve secured financing, created and registered your business name and structure, created a marketing plan, evaluated the risks and opportunities inherent in what you do, and are just about ready to start providing the goods or services you aim to provide. You may be capable of handling a lot of … Read More
Starting a Business: Your Business Structure
The structure of your business will play an essential role in determining your responsibilities as the business owner. Your business structure will depend on what type of financing you’ve secured, your risk for liability claims, and a wide variety of other factors. There are three types of business structure we will look at sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. Sole proprietorships … Read More
Starting a Business: Financing
You’re on your way to starting your business; you’ve figured out your place in the market, and how your product or service is going to stand out amongst the competition. You’ve figured out your business structure, created a business plan and conducted exhaustive market research to determine who to market to, and how to do so. With all of this … Read More
Starting a Business: Market Research
Market research is essential to constructing a viable business; before you open your doors, be they physical or virtual, it’s important to understand what your potential consumers want. The research that can be done is varied and complex, so consider this a succinct first step to understanding how good research can give a business a competitive edge. The first thing … Read More
Starting a Business: The Business Plan, Part II
Welcome back to our series for first-time business owners; today, we’ll analyze the rest of the business plan. To get the most out of this post, it’s important that you read Part I, where we analyzed the Executive Summary, Business Strategy and Marketing Strategy portions of the plan. Now, we will analyze the Operational Plan and Financial Forecasts, as well … Read More