Business Start Up VS Buying a Business

Buying a business is another way to enter business ownership. There are many similarities between a start up and entering business ownership through acquisition. Like everything in life it has positive and negative sides. Availability of time, money and skills should determine the business you will buy.

Look for a business that you can manage

The type of business you consider should reflect what you already know. Owners who spend years building their business from the ground up are protective of their creation and like to know the qualifications of potential buyers. Usually they avoid dealing with people who do not have the money and skills to operate a business. As a buyer you should avoid having the supermarket shopper syndrome when looking for a business. You have to know what you are looking for. For example a restaurant, clothing retail store and manufacturing company require different set of skills and expertise to own and operate.

Decide how much to spend on a business

In the beginning of the business acquisition process any prudent buyer will ask the following two questions. How much money I have to buy a business? Do I have enough operating capital to run the business? There should be a clear understanding how much money is available for acquisition. In many occasions some financing maybe available from the business owner, banks or other sources. Yet, this is valid for bigger businesses with established history and proven profitability. There is not much available for smaller and losing money propositions. Sources of money have to be clearly identified ahead of time. Acquiring a business is significantly more capital intensive in a short term than a startup.

Decide on general business location

Decide on desirable physical area, neighborhood and location before starting to look for a business. Small business owners spend considerable amount of time in their business. You have to like the location. It is important to know how far you are willing to commute. Are you going to move to another part of town, city or state for a good business?

Have an acquisition time limit

Buying a business should not be open-ended process. Appropriate time frame should be within two years or sooner. Owners want to work with serious buyers. Having a time period within which you will purchase a business tells the seller that you are serious about buying a business.

Have a vision for the acquired business

Another very important aspect is to have a vision for the business you are buying. Every business is unique and reflects owner's dream and value system. By buying a business you are purchasing other person's dream. You have to have your own vision about the business as a new owner. Any, changes must be introduced with great care.

Benefits of buying a business

The major benefits of a buying an established business are reducing risk and immediate access to income. Also, you acquire with it a working operation, access to customers, suppliers and trained employees. In addition you buy into owners expertise. Usually, the seller will train for a limited period of time. However, she will not teach basic business skills. The buyer has to have the skills and knowledge to run a business prior to purchasing one. When a business comes on the market the seller in most cases will separate mentally from it. They do not want to go back and revisit it after the sale is completed.

Challenges to buying a business

Acquiring a business requires significant amount of cash to buy and operate the business. Need to learn the business quickly to get in sink with the established operation. Some employees, customers and vendors may not like you and decide to look for other opportunity. Historically this translates to a six-month drop in sales for the new owner.

Many buyers are looking for absentee owner situation. There is not such think as absentee ownership. Business is like a garden. It needs constant attention. Otherwise the weeds will take over or the plants will die because of lack of attention. The best gardens are tended with love and passion. Acquiring an established business offers quick jump into income producing ownership and saves years of hard work and uncertainty of startup.

Making Your Business Grow

One important part of making your business grow and make profits is marketing. Of course, you have to market your business, market your products, and get in touch with your target customers. Whether you have a small or a huge business, marketing is never absent as an essential component in making your business succeed.

If you have a small business or you are trying to venture into selling something online as a start, then learning a few business marketing tips will help you have a good start in making your business grow as well.

Here are a few of those business marketing tips that you might find useful in marketing your business offline and online.

1. Take advantage of newspapers of local circulation. Indeed, one of the popular ways to market your business, especially if it is still a small-scale one, is to take advantage of print media. Newspapers readily welcome advertisers, thus you can make use of it especially if your target customers are locals or your business is just small-scale.

2. Create your brochures, flyers, press releases. These are still effective today especially if you want to reach out to people just within your vicinity. This also helps attract customers already in the venue of your business and lead them to your shop. Even for those who are just 'looking around,' these advertising leaflets can help them know more about your products and your services.

3. Provide free information to potential customers. This is one of the effective ways to promote your business and encourage people to take a look and know more about your products. You can sponsor free classes and workshops every now and then and provide them with inputs and information that they will find valuable. If your shop is an arts and craft store, then you can provide good training and workshops on card-making or some other interests and hobbies that is related with your business.

4. Network. Create connections and networks with other businesses and networks, from home based business groups to other business people. Of course, connections and networks are good for your business. As all of you are looking for ways to promote your products, you can mutually benefit by promoting each others products, especially if your business complements.

5. Go online. Strive to make your business visible on the internet. These days when people are relying on the internet for information and even for shopping and finding answers to their questions, it is indeed wise to expand your marketing efforts to the online world. Going online also helps expand your business and your target market to a worldwide audience. If your product can be easily shipped anywhere in the world, then you might also find that going online is one of the best ways to expand and grow your business.

These are just five of the many business marketing tips that you can implement and do with your business. It is important that you also learn constantly and update your marketing techniques as well so you won't left behind my competitors, especially in online marketing where the pace is fast and you need to keep up as well.

Lawn Care Business Start Up

Getting Started

Starting a lawn care business is relatively easy, and provided that you already own your own equipment, inexpensive as well. There is a joy to lawn care that is hard for some people to appreciate. With the proper setup, if you start now, you will be way ahead of everyone else.

It is not as difficult as you might imagine starting your own professional business. You can start your business with little investment so it is not high risk and with good marketing this little investment can pay off very well.

Knowing how to use the tools, good customer relations and if you can't find a good mentor then there are excellent e-books and e-guides on starting and running your lawn care business. Compared to some other businesses you could invest in, your own business can be started with ease and your start up costs minimal.

If you have dreamed of starting your own business, then starting your own lawn care business may be just right for you. The fact that starting your own business means that you will be the boss and you will have all the time in the world to run it. Everyone starts out with their own experience of mowing their own lawn and that is all you need. You have to start somewhere and start slow and buy more equipment as your business grows.

Having A Good Plan

I think one reason why some do poorly in the lawn care business is because they don't plan, and aren't aware of what will be required of them as they move from the "start up" to becoming an organized business.

However, the one thing anyone should keep in mind when starting any kind of service is that it is a business, and starting a business takes planning. Planning is the straight line that takes us directly to a "target". Planning is the straight line that "takes the zig out of the zag".

The Lawn Care Industry is a huge business and if planned out right, it can keep you busy all-year-round. You can offer other services, like planting and fertilizing.

Instead of being overwhelmed, you'll have a clear game plan; you'll know exactly what to do first, second, third, etc.

Having a business plan and "working the plan" shortens the distance of where your company is right now, and where you intend to take it. Landscape Companies that do not plan, are known to be more stagnant than those that do. Business planning is important as you grow your lawn care service or landscape business depending on how large a business you become. Having a plan for your business is a must.

Conclusion

Lawn Care is becoming a very profitable business. I've known for years that this is one of the fastest ways to make real money with little to no investment - if you do it the smart way. So whether or not you make life-changing money with your very own profitable business is now completely up to you.

The key element here for a successful business is research. Simply having a guide to start and run your own business is not enough but it is a good beginning. Owning a lawn care business is a lot of work, but it is also very rewarding. If you have dreamed of starting your own business, then starting your own lawn care business may be just right for you.

Would you like to know the proven techniques to starting and running a money making lawn care business. Find out some of the things you need to know in order to start your own lawn care business. If you do it the right way, starting your own lawn care business can be a virtual cash cow. You will learn methods that take very little cash to start. You'll learn strategies that will help you become one of the tiny successful minority who "get it" and start making tons of money because you are "doing it" the right way.

A Simple Guide To The Different Types Of Business Taxes

If you have a business to open, be sure that you know you are going to pay for business taxes soon as part of the requirement of owning a business. Business duty is to be paid in order to give support to the nation's budget. All citizens have the duty to pay for taxes and not only the businessmen.

There are various taxes that are paid by business owners. The obligation is dependent on the kind of operation the business has and also its size. Another thing that can affect the kind of tax the business pays is the number of workers working in the company. Large business taxation has a different scheme than that of small business taxation.

There are 4 standards business fine that is stated in the law of taxation. These are the Excise fine, Self-Employment, Employment, and Income ones. Various guidelines govern the payment scheme of each type of tax for business. To know more on the four kinds of business taxation, read the information below.

The first kind of tax is called the Employment tax. Many businesses with a number of employees working in it are paying the employment fine. Business owners are often required to pay for the taxes of the employees such as the Federal income obligation, Social Security tribute and Medicare. However, this will depend largely on the kind of business you are running. Some do not apply to all of the business sectors.

Income ones also apply to business and its owners. Everybody pays the income obligation and so business firms are no exception to the rule. There is an equivalent percentage of tax that businesses pay and this percentage is deducted on the annual earnings of the company. All businesses are required to pay the income tribute to the government because it is stipulated in the law.

A company may pay for the income taxes of their personnel by subtracting a corresponding amount on the employees' wages. This payment is an obligation that citizens must fulfill. If individuals or businesses do not pay the corresponding fee, they can be filed with an evasion case.

The third kind that will be paid by businesses is the Excise tax. It is called in such manner because it is the type of tax that is excess and not included in the standard type of obligation a company pays. Excise taxes are for businesses providing special services or special goods. There are some fees on special goods and therefore, businesses are obliged to pay for it.

The last kind of duty is called the Self-Employment tax. Those business owners that do not have any employees and are the sole owner of their business pay for self-employment tax. Examples of this tax are social security tax and Medicare fine and paying it helps the business owner because they will receive retirement benefits in the future. Therefore even if the individual is not working under a company, they still get retirement benefits if they pay the taxes.

Starting Up a Small Business - Defining a Course of Action

A sure way to success in starting up a small business is to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone ahead. What this does is that it reduces your learning curve dramatically in achieving your business goals. In looking to start up your small business three crucial areas have to be considered. I am working on the assumption here that you already have an idea in mind that you would love to execute and turn into a business. These are:

1. You will need to write a business plan for your new business.

A business plan is a document that is useful in more ways than one. A lot of people make use of it just to raise funds for their new business and nothing else. This will be a mistake - it can be put to greater use in that it will help you see clearly the potentials within your business idea and to know how potentially viable it is. Of course, some people will rather outsource this work as it can be tedious and boring but doing this yourself gives you greater insight into your idea that you cannot get any other way.

Included in your business plan should be the results of market research which you need to carry out. By necessity, this should be your starting point. This aspect of your business plan should help you understand your entry point into the market place and help you put in place a plan for how you expect to survive and capture market share. Your unique selling point and your target market are some of the things you will find out as a result of your market research that will help you survive in your new venture.

2. Managing your money and making a profit.

Once your business is up and running, you need to manage your money effectively to stay in business. You need to know how much you will need for the day-to-day operation of your business, your break-even point for your particular business and of course the profit or loss position of your business at any given time. Your accountant should be able to point you in the right direction in managing your business finances.

These figures are crucial in your decision making as you run your business. You should also know how many units of your products and services you need to sell to enable you achieve these figures. At the initial stage, it is a good idea to re-invest a part or all of your profits back in the business on a continual basis so that you can grow your business gradually over time without putting it under too much financial strain.

3. Finding and keeping customers

In order to stay in business you need to find and retain customers or clients. The result of your market research should help you to effectively target your marketing efforts towards your ideal customer, to increase your chances of success. You have the option of employing offline or online marketing strategies or a mixture of both strategies to grow your business. The trend these days leans towards marketing your business online to increase your business exposure. The advantages of this are that the number of internet users is growing by the day and the limitation of your geographical location is practically lifted - as such the world is your oyster. To take advantage of this you need to have an online presence or a website from which to operate.

Your reasons for wanting to start up a small business are as important as the journey itself. This is because it helps you to define your business goals and keep you focussed when the going gets tough, which it will do sometimes. Always review your reasons for starting up in business to keep you motivated and to keep the fire burning.

You will increase your chances of success in starting up your small business by paying attention to the above point mentioned - writing your business plan, managing your money and your profits while you continually find and keep customers.

Learn the Differences Between Each Legal Business Entity Type

Your individual state will register your legal business entity, and it's important to understand that not all states recognize every business entity type. The descriptions below are meant to give you a basic understanding of the differences between entities, but you should check with your local government to see which type of business designation is right for your new venture.

Sole Proprietorships

Most small businesses choose the legal business entity of a "sole proprietorship", where one person is the only "owner" of the business. Legally, there is no difference between you and your business, and while this business entity type is preferred by some because of the ease in setting it up and registering it, there is a greater legal risk assumed by the owner of a sole proprietorship. For example, if someone sues your business for infringement or fraud, they will be suing you, and your personal assets will be on the line if the case is taken to court - a disadvantage to this kind of legal business entity. This type of situation is rare to be sure, but from a business standpoint, it has the potential to be a risky move.

An advantage of this entity is the fact that you're the only owner! You can make your own business decisions without having to consider the opinions of a board of directors, or other stakeholders. You receive 100% of the income from your business, and are free to file your profit on your individual tax return at the end of the year - a huge advantage to choosing this legal business entity type.

Partnerships

As the name implies, a partnership is an entity in which two or more people own a business together. Just like a sole proprietorship, there is no legal difference between the owners / members of a partnership and the business itself. As previously stated, choosing this legal business entity can have potentially negative consequences if someone were to file a suit against you or your business. An entity type of this sort carries an additional risk because of the added element of another person. For example, let's say your business partner did something illegal and the court has decided to penalize your business assets because of his or her mistake. Although you have done nothing wrong, the whole business may be at risk of going under because of the partnership liability. Again, although this is rare, it is important to consider when choosing this kind of legal business entity. Types of considerations like this can protect your investment in the long run.

Speaking of investment, an advantage to a partnership is the ability to raise more funds with the influence of more people. Instead of having to shoulder all of the capital upon startup yourself, a partnership can help business owners divide the cost of operational expenses. And of course, because you're sharing costs, you and your partner(s) will have to share profits as well. A benefit of this kind of legal business entity is the financial ease achieved by being able to file your profits under your individual tax return at the end of the year.

When starting a partnership, it is important to draw up a legal agreement detailing how costs and profits will be shared, what to do in the event of a partner wanting to leave the business, how to settle disputes about business strategy, etc.

Corporations

Unlike sole proprietorships and partnerships, where the owners are legally the same as their business, corporations offer business owners a unique legal and tax benefit in the sense that corporations are granted their own legal status. Therefore, this business entity type is considered as a separate legal business entity from you, your partners, and your shareholders. If your business were to be sued, it would not put you or your personal assets at any risk. So wait...who are shareholders? Whereas you're an owner / operator / member of your sole proprietorship or partnership, you become a shareholder in a corporation, because this type of business operates with stock, or partial ownership distributed amongst several people. As a shareholder, you "own" a part of the business, but you also have to routinely answer to a board of directors who steer the direction of the company.

The downside to the legal business entity of a corporation is that you have less individual freedom to make executive business decisions, and you are not in total ownership of your business. This business entity type is more difficult to begin and dissolve, and often must comply with a series of complex federal and state regulations and taxes. However, the obvious benefit to this type of legal business entity is that you have more individual legal protection with the separation of yourself from your business in the event of a lawsuit.

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

Finally, a Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a sort of combination of all of the above business structures. Like the "corporation" business entity type, an LLC offers a legal distinction between a person and their company, but like a sole proprietorship or partnership, it offers the owner or member (we're back to being called members now) control over business decisions, tax breaks, and offers no stock option. There is no limit to how many members an LLC may have, and it is also possible to just have one member. The obvious upside to this type of legal business entity is that it provides the best parts of both worlds, corporation and non-corporation, but the downside is that it is more difficult to file than a partnership (but is still less difficult than forming a corporation). To date, the federal government does not recognize an LLC as a classification when you file your federal taxes, so you must file either as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation.

So What do I do Now?

As with any kind of legal decision, deciding which business entity type is right for your business is a big decision that requires a lot of thought. This is just an overview of the primary differences between each major legal business entity, so before making a decision, check with your lawyer or accountant to decide which is best for your financial and business interests. It seems complicated at first, but once you get registered with the state, you'll be on your way toward owning and operating your own business!

Business Development Strategies That Work

In the almost 30 years that I've worked as a CPA, I've had the opportunity to see businesses go on to achieve amazing results in the marketplace and for their community and for the owners. And I've seen many more businesses founder and fail.

One of the biggest challenges for small business is figuring out how to grow your business, especially in the beginning. The problem is that the desire to grow your business can turn into "grow at any cost" and that's a dangerous position. Growth can be deadly to your business if you don't first weigh the cost of that growth.

That cost can come in two forms:

The expense of the development strategy itself, and

The cost of ramping up your business with inventory and/or personnel to meet the demands of increased business.

In this article, we're going to look at the expense of the development strategy itself. It really is the second thing you should consider, though. Fast growth can cripple a small business if there isn't enough cash flow to fulfill on the sales. First determine how much growth your business really can stand.

Assuming that your business is able to handle new clients and/or sales, now let's take a look at the business development strategy itself. A good rule of thumb is that you should expect to receive 5 times gross income (in other words, sales) for the amount you spend for promotion, marketing and advertising. In other words, if you spend $10,000 in total to put a new business development strategy in place, you should expect to receive $50,000 in new sales.

If you're the typical small business starting, growing or even just surviving in a tough economic market with little or no credit, you also need business development strategies that don't eat up your cash flow. There are plenty of people happy to sell you tens of thousands of advertising space, but can your business afford that? And what if the campaign doesn't work? You've just used up some hard-won cash from your small business.

The best business development strategies are ones that take little or no cash flow.

Here are nine high impact, low-costs for your business:

Get noticed. Small business often start with an entrepreneurial urge to do something better than anyone else has done it before. That's working in the business. And to a certain extent, you need that. But, in today's world, it's highly unlikely that the world will beat a pathway to your door based on something great you've done that no one else knows about. Some ideas to get you started: Write articles, post a blog, build a social media platform or press releases. It's possible to get noticed in today's world for little money. The trick is to stand out above all the other noise. The best way to do that is to provide solid content. Each product and product line must stand on its own merit. There is no room for dogs in a bootstrapping company. Unless, of course, you have a pet grooming business.

Have a good accounting system in place so you can quickly make business management decisions. If something is working, then put more money into promoting that item. If something isn't, cut it quick.

Create a sales funnel. The sales process resembles a funnel. At the top end, the widest part, are the people who are just finding you, checking out their options, considering using your services or buying your product. If you can adapt your product or service to match the funnel, you can often pick up sales. For example, at the top, where the funnel is widest, you may want to offer an entry-level product or a special report at a reduced price. This may help you to capture some of those people who otherwise may not have gone past the looking point.

Can you create some kind of recurring business model, where you receive automatic monthly payments? This is a great way to generate steady cash for your business and is often easier to sell then one big product. For example, our tax firm has a monthly billing service. Clients get unlimited consulting during the year and the cost covers the preparation of their business and personal returns. The benefit to them is that they have a budget and know exactly what it's going to cost. The benefit for our firm is that we have steady cash flow. One of our clients sells equipment. They offer a monthly fee to provide ongoing maintenance. The benefit to the customer is that they have someone checking on the equipment. All costs of repair are covered as part of the ongoing monthly fee. So there are no big cost surprises down the road. Our client picked up extra revenue, a steady stream of cash flow and a happy client. Is there a way to create something like that for your business?

Create different service levels. Not all clients want the same thing. Can you create a premium service level that allows you to charge a higher rate for some of your current clients? What are the things that would make your service more valuable? Increased access to you personally? Front of the line option? Our firm has 3 levels of service available. Ironically, it's the most expensive option, with 'front of the line' service and unlimited consulting with partners in the firm that sells the most. Because of the nature, though, it's limited and so there is a waiting list. That helps sell the other levels of service.

As you create a product or a service, think about what other products or services could be offered to complement and augment it. What else do your clients or customers need? What other services can you give them to create additional streams of income for your business? For example, a chiropractic office may offer therapeutic massages, yoga classes or nutritional supplements. These services and products aren't chiropractic services but they are related to health and something that chiropractic patients might be interested in.

Form strategic relationships. When you focus on a niche, you often find that there are things you can't do, but are things that augment your service perfectly. By affiliating with other service providers, you can create a bigger, higher-value product that benefits everyone. A website designer/programmer builds websites for business owners. He finds that his clients also often need quality writers. If he refers services, he may make a referral fee. To be honest and ethical, that relationship and possible payment should be disclosed to the client as well.

Create a high-end and low-end solution. One of our new passions is talking about the bi-modal graph. Imagine a two-hump camel. One hump represents the people who want hands-on, concierge service. The other hump represents people who want the lowest-cost solution. The depression in the middle is what used to be our target market: people who wanted a little of both. Today, that market is largely gone.

Bill and collect in advance. It's much easier to collect money up front then it is afterwards. It might be a little harder with the first sale, because your customer doesn't have any experience with you, but after that, you've actually got to question why they don't pay you in advance. If you are willing to extend credit, make sure you bill at a premium. There is a cost to carrying debt, especially in a tight credit market like now.

Business development strategies that double as cash flow development strategies are vital for every business, but especially if you're going through your own business recession.