Business and mortgage

When business owners are looking for a one-stop solution for their daily business needs, they have to look no further than the services provided by a business service franchise. Business services franchises make life more convenient for small business owners by serving many of their needs; and the they have a chance to work and grow with those businesses in the community. Business services franchises are ideal for people who’ve been involved with other business services careers but now want a chance to start their own business. Because business services franchises are structured to adapt to changing market trends, they’re increasingly sought after by entrepreneurs who desire a small business that is able to stay on the cutting edge of today’s rapidly changing economic times.

Business services franchises emerged to meet the demands of businesses that depend on outsourcing to correct their company’s bottom line. Becuase these small businesses are presented with a new supply of honest service providers, they are able to cut down on low-end overheads and can effectively meet their financial obligations. The money saved because of outsourcing can be effectively utilized on other business functions. Business services franchises not only market and sell financial services, but just about any type of service that small businesses depend upon. The wide range of services provided by these franchises include cleaning, expense reduction, direct mail, shipping and receiving, brokerage services, consulting, and advertising.

Don’t overlook the importance of finding a well known franchise company or a franchise company with a good reputation when you invest your dollars. With franchising systems “you get what you pay for,” as the old saying goes-this can’t be further from the truth. Low-end franchisors will have you believe that they offer the best system available. Regardless of how extraordinary they make this deal sound, you have to take caution when dealing with low-end franchise companies. Many of these franchisors are interested in selling only a training manual and authorization to use their company name-rarely do they care about seeing their franchisees’ succeed. Established franchisors have very high standards and will not award a franchise to just anybody who can afford a franchise fee. They profile every potential franchisee to weed out the ones who don’t make a good match for their company. These highly-developed franchises will typically be more expensive than a lower-end franchise, but also go to great lengths to ensure the success of their franchisees.

Every business in America has very specific needs that must be met in order for their doors to remain open and so they can provide their services and products to consumers. To meet the different needs of these businesses, business services franchises offer a wide range of products and services. You have countless job options in the business services industry to say the least. There are many different businesses with different needs in your community. Assess what services these businesses require by asking around. Then you will be able to settle on a specific franchise based on your research.

I started my company (EMJ) from the trunk of my car (and it was a small trunk so that’s a small business). I grew EMJ to $375,000,000 in sales prior to selling it to SYNNEX. I am now CEO of a $1 billion business.

Many of our most important customers are small business people. I make a study out of what makes them successful and what pitfalls they need to avoid. From this study, I came up with the following list of the Top 10 Ways to Grow your Small Business:

1 – Know yourself. Do a SWOT analysis. What are your Strengths, your Weaknesses, the Opportunities and the Threats? Examine and understand each. In every strength there is a weakness and in every weakness there is a strength (e.g. you are small so lack financial clout, the advantage is by necessity you will be more creative). The better you know yourself the more successful you will be. By knowing yourself you not only know your areas of opportunity, you know what areas to avoid.

2 – Set goals. This sounds almost too simple but many people and businesses do not set goals. Goals can keep you focused on where you want to go and how you need to get there. Set specific measurable goals with timelines and track progress towards them. Set goals in areas that you know you can win (if you did the SWOT in 1, you will know those areas).

3 – Grow within profitability. Often I see companies who set the goals like I speak about in point 1 and grow their expenses in anticipation of sales only to find the sales do not materialize at the level they thought. Sell first then add overheads.

4 – Sell more to your existing customers. Look at what they buy from other sources that you might be able to sell them. You already have the relationship with your customers. You are already spending the time to service them so your incremental cost is quite low. For example, if you supply them with toner cartridges, it is easy to sell them some printers or other hardware or software.

5 – Sell to more customers. You obviously have something worth buying or you would have no customers. What other customers might use this service. Then market and sell to that audience – email, mail, fax, advertise, call, visit, etc. Ask your existing customers for referrals. Sell in a larger geographic area. Take the knowledge and systems you have to broader areas. Warning on this – the grass is not always greener. It costs more to sell in markets further away. You can lose your advantage.

6 – Grow your people. What I have consistently done is to look at what I do and figure out who can do it (in many cases better than I can). By learning to delegate, I have been able to not only grow myself but grow my people and my company.

7 – Create a change culture in your company. People need to be told that things change. Yes, I wish for the good old times but without change, we would not grow. There is an expression “if you do what you always have done, you will get what you have always got”. The Jim Estill variation on this is “if you do what you have always done (even if it was successful), you will go bankrupt”. Set a goal to do something new every month.

8 – As one of my heroes, Thomas Edison said, “good things come to those who hustle while they wait”. In business, speed wins. Companies and people with a high sense of urgency win. If you do not have this in your company – create it. Set deadlines. Set goals. Do it now. This can be one area that small business can beat big business.

9 – Focus on learning. People and companies that learn, win. This ties into point 7. You need to be a life-long learner. Spend part of your time on learning. Develop a habit of constant learning.

10 – I am a big believer in the good use of time. If you know your goals and focus your time appropriately, you will grow. I study time and constantly polish my time systems.

Short description

The author explains what “truly wealthy” means. Various possible routes to achieve this through earning passive income are suggested but Internet Business is recommended because it is by far the most exciting, rewarding and the best home based business. Tips are given that are for professional business working from home.

Like the majority, I have been working very hard each day believing that the harder I work, the more money I would get. I would bust my proverbial butt out working year after year slaving away for BOSSES who show little sign of appreciation, to earn a paycheck that could hardly pay my bills.

After some trying and tiring years, I realized to my disappointment that I was not getting anywhere. I tried many other alternatives but none could work to my satisfaction and I began to resign to the fact that I’ve to forget about my DREAMS and continue to live life of the majority i.e. get up in the morning…get into the traffic jam…go to work… come back from work…have dinner…watch TV… go to bed…kind of life!

Still, deep down in my heart, there was a burning urge to continue my search. I attended seminars after seminars to seek out a suitable direction that I can follow.

At long last, in one of these seminars, I chanced upon an interesting finding – most of the very wealthy people do not actually work hard at all! I’m talking about people who live life on their own terms.

They’re people who have all the money they need, yet they seem to have a choice to work when they want to…where they want to… for whom they want to. Best of all, they have all the free time in the world to travel…to spend with their kids… do gardening… lower their golf scores… to learn a new recipe in the kitchen… and to really, really enjoy life.

I also learnt the word,“LEVERAGE”which these multimillionaires used to create wealth by doing the minimum while harvesting the maximum. The true meaning of“wealth”suddenly dawned on me.

“TRUE WEALTH”means the ability to do what you want, however you want it and whenever you want it. This is “FINANCIAL FREEDOM” many of us are and should be yearning for.

Also, the time when you’re due to retire has nothing to do with your age. You can retire any time you want once you’ve achieved financial freedom.

This can happen when you reach the age of 30, 35 or 40, not necessarily 55 or 60 as we’re all brought up to believe. There’re people who’re in their 60′s or 70′s but could not afford to retire because they need their jobs to continue paying their bills!

I was advised to stop“THINKING JOB”. We, for many generations, our parents, their parents and their parents’parents had been brought up to have only one major objective in life — JOB. We work hard in schools so that we could get good grades to advance to colleges and universities where we worked even harder so that we could get a good and secured JOB. Once we’ve got the jobs we want we continue to work very hard in order to maintain them and to climb the so-called organizational ladder of success.

As a result, we all have fallen into the trap of the RAT RACE.

Although some of us could be drawing quite a handsome income, we’re not truly“wealthy”because we’re not free to do what we want and when we want.

I’ve heard of many sad stories of rich EMPLOYEES not being able to spent badly needed valuable time with members of their families who’re sick in hospitals because they could not afford to be away from their place of work for too long as their services are urgently required by their employers.

Doctors could not really relax and enjoy a long vacation for fear of the loss of income or patients while their clinics remain closed.

The bottom line is – we all have our JOBS to look after! We have no time to think of becoming TRULY WEALTHY and FREE.

I therefore suggest that you stop THINKING JOB effective from today. You should now realize that a job would not make you rich. If you have a job, you’re being paid a salary for your EFFORT. Is it possible to get paid for putting zero or very little effort ? If your answer is “No”, you’re dead wrong! Because you’re still thinking job!

What I’m about to propose to you is this – copy what the truly wealthy people are doing (or rather not doing). They earn their income through various LEVERAGE STRATEGIES which allow them to make money while they’re sleeping, meddling with hobbies, or having vacation in far away places such as the beautiful beaches in Hawaii or Malaysia.

The first step we need to take is not to have a job working for others. You should start having your own business and work for yourself. Don’t get me wrong! I’m not suggesting for a moment that you start investing heavily in building a store, shops or even factory, getting employees, build up inventory, getting permits and licenses etc, etc. If you did this, you’d end up putting a lot of EFFORT and still having a “JOB” to look after this TRADITIONAL physical business!

There’re many routes the rich and wealthy are taking but not all of these would be suitable for you. You have to screen them carefully before deciding on the right one to copy.

Here are some of the more popular CONVENTIONAL routes:

1) FRANCHISING

This sounds like a good idea. You could tie up with big reputable organizations who could help you set up your business real fast. But you need to invest quite a huge sum of money and eventually you still end up having to look after the business physically. You still have a “JOB”. Is this what you want? No, I don’t think so.

2) STOCK, COMMODITY AND OPTION TRADING

On paper this is a very exciting proposal. Many make their money from the trading. Despite the fact that there’re many tempting and seemingly attractive strategies put forward by hundreds of trading gurus, statistics still show that 90% or more of the traders would end up getting their fingers burnt in the long run. Is this what you want? No, I don’t think so.

3) LONG TERM INVESTMENT

You could consider this possibility. Many had tried this and attained success in their lives. We need to invest considerable amount of money at the outset and reap the profit only after 5, 10 or even 20 years. Warren Buffett had the initial capital and enough resources to wait for 10 to 20 years. But can you wait that long? No, I don’t think so. We want more immediate results.

I’m talking about getting a system that allows you to “recruit” thousands if not millions of “salesmen” who are willing to work for you 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The best part is the fact that they’re willing to do so for nothing!

I’m talking about a system that allows you to switch your business to “Autopilot” mode so that you could continue to earn money whether you’re awake, asleep or holidaying in Bangkok or Penang.

I’m talking about a system which allows you to work from home or some places 10,000 km or more away from home.

I’m talking about a system by which you could make money even if you do not have large capital or any products of your own.

I’m talking about a system that allows people who hate selling to perform excellent sales job to a level which is beyond their WILDEST IMANGINATION.

Yes, I’m talking about Internet-home-based-working-in-pajamas-online business. And I would seriously recommend that you pick the “Affiliate Programs” to start off.

The easiest way to get into business on-line is through affiliate programs which allow you to sign up as an affiliate member. You’re set to go within one to two weeks with your own websites all created for you…very often free of charge! You earn a referral commission from selling the program owners’ products.

These products are usually information products such as electronic books (eBook) and software that can be delivered as a file that is then downloaded directly to your customers’ computers.

They could be reproduced, downloaded and sold repeatedly at no cost. There’s no packing, shipping and delivery cost. Owing to this, affiliate program owners usually pay their affiliates high commissions (50% or more).

I look forward to seeing you in the Web. Get ready and start working tonight in your pajamas to take the first step in your exciting journey to becoming TRULY WEALTHY and FINANCIALLY FREE!

How do you define selling? A lot of people think of selling as persuading/convincing people to buy things they may or may not want or need. To some, selling is all about closing a deal. Thinking of selling like this is not very empowering to you. Frankly, if you have this perspective on selling, it’s no wonder if you hate it. I would too!

So what perspective can you take about selling that will make it enjoyable, exciting and something you look forward to? Sounds like a bit of a tall order doesn’t it? Read on.

Hopefully by now, you have made the list of all the problems that you can solve for your target market. You’re going to be surprised how long that list grows over time. So really, if you look at your list and you think about it, you are a master problem solver. What you’re really doing is helping people. Correct?

So try on this perspective about what selling is: Selling is helping people. Selling is serving. Selling is a process of identifying and solving people’s problems.

See, feel and know that selling is serving. This will cause a big shift for you. With this perspective, you will really become passionate about wanting to help people. Find this passion and let it shine through.

It is your purpose, your moral obligation, to have as many sales conversations with people as you can so you can help as many people as possible. If you’re not having these types of sales conversations, you are holding back the gift you have to offer the world. You owe it to people to be there for them with your expertise and wisdom.

Next time you’re talking to a potential client, think about how you can help them, how you can serve them. Forget about trying to sell them something. If what you have to offer does solve their problems, and you facilitate the conversation using the strategies we are covering, people will sell themselves and will subsequently buy from you.

If you have a perspective on selling which is one of service and helping people, how do you think the people you’re talking to will feel? Think about this: people hate to be sold. The minute they feel they’re being sold, they often want to get away – fast. Don’t you? On the other hand, if they feel you are sincerely trying to help them solve their problems, they will relax and open up to you.

If you have a perspective on selling which is one of service and helping people, how do you think you will feel? Does energized, excited, relaxed, and natural come to mind?

This perspective is simple but powerful and very attract-tive to clients.

(c) 2005, Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation. You are welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end) and all links are made live.

Do you know where to find the best merchant account? If so, you probably already have one. If not, maybe it’s time to find out. A merchant account can open the door to e-commerce and position your company for unprecedented growth. The chief benefit sought by many business owners is the ability to process credit card payments. Studies suggest that people who pay with plastic tend to shop often and spend more. You can take advantage of this trend with a merchant account from a reliable lender.

Plenty of well-known or highly ranked banks and financial institutions offer what some consider as the best merchant account. Since not all of them can be the best, however, it’s really up to the client—that’s you—to decide which account plan will best help your business to grow. Much will depend on the fees involved with various services. For example, some lenders charge application fees while others do not. Other lenders expect you to pay annual membership fees. It is a good idea to check out the price lists at each lender’s site or to discuss these with an account representative before signing a contract. Some lenders are known for implementing a terrific credit processor with a combination terminal and printer. Others might be more widely recognized for their ability to support an Internet site that accepts credit payments. However, you might be more interested in a telephone ordering system with credit card payment options that will facilitate customer access to goods and services.

Whatever your credit processing needs, the best merchant account is the one that will help your company develop its potential. You need a company that is not too far above you to treat your business as a valuable client. You also want a lender with helpful customer support personnel who are available to answer questions and provide guidance when needed. You don’t want to wait on the telephone for 15 and 20 minutes for someone to take you off hold. Nor do you want to have fees increased unexpectedly so that your company’s budget must strain to meet payments.

The best merchant account is the one that you can trust to protect your company’s interests. You need a dependable provider who can offer quality equipment and reliable support or maintenance if needed. Your lender should be able to offer reasonable account fees and secure transmission on all customer transactions. When you look good, your lender looks good, and the customer benefits most from this type of positive win-win relationship.

To find the best merchant account, you may want to ask other business owners to recommend a lender they have worked with. Or you can browse testimonials on the Internet or in chat rooms. Never sign up with a merchant account lender who seems suspicious or about whom you know little. Your business is too valuable to take chance on losing all with an unknown underwriter who may be here today and gone tomorrow, so hold out to find the very best merchant account.

You are a young contract cleaning company or just starting out and want to expand? So many cleaning firms are run as a ‘one man band’ and do not want to employ cleaners so they are incapable of expansion. If you are reading this then you are not among that number and want to enlarge and expand your cleaning business. There are a few simple rules you must follow if you want to be successful in this and retain your contracts.

1. Visit each site at least once per week. In order to ensure that the cleaning is taking place as you want it to. Vary the times and days of your visits.

2. Maintain good communications with the client and respond rapidly to any requests or complaints.

3. Maintain good relations with your staff. Your most valuable resource are your staff so treat them well and not just in monetary terms.

4. Maintain all equipment used on a site in excellent working order. If a piece of equipment is not working efficiently then the cleaners no matter how hard they work are not going to be able to carry out the cleaning effectively and they will soon become disgruntled.

5. Ensure that there are always adequate supplies of cleaning materials available for the cleaning staff on each site. If they have not got the materials then they cannot carry out the job effectively.

These five points would seem to be common sense and indeed they are. However the larger you become and the more contracts you take on the more difficult it becomes to carry them out consistently. You are out there working away trying to attract in more business, attending to new customers, setting up new contracts and sometimes involved in crisis management. Under these normal pressures of work these basic principles can be pushed to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list. A clean may be going along with no problems and under these circumstances it is quite easy to assume that all is well and does not require your attention. Then out of the blue it can come up to bite you! Consequently always give time to perform these five ‘rules’ regardless of the other pressures on your time.

Experience has shown that the larger the company becomes the more these five points become neglected. Very large companies often lose contracts simply because they neglected these five cardinal rules and you can step into their place and pick up these contracts. However you must always be on your guard that you do not fall into the same trap as you become bigger.

My belief is that when you do something you really enjoy doing and you find a way to help others while doing it, making money is just a natural end result.

However, if you are not yet as confident of the above beliefs as I am, you can always check to see if there’s a demand for the subject you chose in part one before you go any further.

Just go to www.yahoo.com and do a search for whatever it is you’ve decided to do. Let’s say that we decided to sell recipes and cookbooks. In which case, we would run a search for words such as: recipes, recipe book, cookbook, cooking, etc. If you don’t find any sites dealing with recipes and cooking and you’d rather not take a chance pursuing that, you can move on to the next choice on your list. If you do find many sites about them, you have established that people are in fact interested in recipes and cookbooks.

The reason I picked Yahoo to search on is this: getting a good listing on Yahoo is not easy. It can also get very expensive. That means, if there are companies who have gone through the trouble of getting good listings on Yahoo, they have probably done so for very good reasons. In other words, there is money to be made with recipes and cookbooks.

You can also run a search on www.amazon.com for recipe books and/or even step into your local Barnes & Noble bookstore to check out their front shelves.

While we’re on the subject of ‘doing what you love,’ let me take this opportunity to share something else of importance.

Most new marketers tend to start by selling marketing products. And while there is still money to be made in marketing products, it’s not like it used to be. These days, the competition in the marketing field is fierce and I don’t see it letting up anytime soon.

You will have a much easier time succeeding with non-marketing products. In other words, “niche marketing” – doing what you love, what you enjoy, what you have a passion for.

Let me also point out that I’ve made more money with special-interest ‘niche’ products than with all of my other marketing products combined! And I have quite a few marketing products out there. I hope that gives you some idea of the importance of pursuing a market that you have a love, passion or interest for, instead of going after something that seems to be making other people money.

If you absolutely love marketing and showing others how to market, then by all means sell marketing products. Otherwise, stick with what you enjoy and love, and become the king (or queen) of that niche!

In today’s competitive business environment it is essential to find ways to reduce costs and increase revenues while keeping productivity and quality high. One of the best ways to achieve this is through hiring and retention of outstanding employees.

Far too often hiring managers rush through the hiring process due to being reactive rather than proactive when filling positions. With some preplanning in the hiring process and implementation of sound strategies once people join your organization, you will lower the cost of doing business by considerable amounts.

As you prepare to hire consider the following:

•     What type of person are you looking for?

•     What are the values that drive your company?

•     How difficult is the job you are filling?

•     Do you have anyone internally who can do the job?

•     How long will it take to find the right person for the position?

•     What are you willing to negotiate with the potential candidate?

In looking for potential candidates you may want to try more than the traditional employee search. Tap into your network of professional connections.  Some of your best candidates may be working for your competitors. Be careful about hiring someone just because they are a friend or family member. Not that friends and family members don’t make good employees – often they can be fantastic. And yet, if you are hiring them only because they are a friend or family member, you are setting yourself up for some big problems. With the wrong choice morale with other employees can go down. With the right choice it is just as likely to go up.

Think through the compensation package. Are the wages fair for the job, industry and market? Make sure your benefit package is competitive for your industry. Find out what other companies are offering as far as compensation and consider matching or beating their offerings.

There are occasions when someone may take a position without thinking through income, benefits or fit. Once they have gotten settled in and are feeling comfortable with the position and the company, they may realize the compensation and the job is not all it could be. That can cause some discontent on their part. To avoid this, do your homework.

Another key to keeping good employees is to make sure they are treated with respect, dignity and appreciation. This may seem like common sense and yet, it often doesn’t happen. I consult with various types of organizations employee retention and how to gain more commitment from the staff. I often will meet individually, in private, with a cross section of the staff. I spend at least an hour with each employee in a confidential meeting to find out their view of the company. Inevitably, the areas that are most lacking for the employee to be fully satisfied are communication and appreciation.

Once the area of discontent has been identified I design programs for the company in which to address the problems. What is amazing is the problem is often on the way to being solved by virtue of the fact the organization has brought me in. A common comment is, “Finally, someone is listening to me.”

Often, a company’s problems can be lessened with some good coaching and training of management. It is amazing how many managers and supervisors were put into their position without any training in interpersonal skills, management and supervisory skills, and how to communicate effectively. Nine times out of ten the people who need the most training are the ones who think they need it the least. And, they are often the biggest obstacle to the success of a company.

In order to stay competitive on all fronts you must keep your entire team on the leading edge. By doing so you will be in business for years to come with a happy, dedicated and productive team. And that will equal profits.

If you are an avid reader and like to be updated about all things happening around you and in the world, magazines are the way to go. They provide rapid education on topics which might not be your main knowledge area and provide you the latest updates on them. Over a period of time, you are sure to develop a set of magazines which you like to read and thus it is best that you take up a discount magazine subscription.

Discount magazine subscriptions are not only helpful is helping you save a bit of cash on the cost of the magazines; they are also good to get you some free stuff. If you like Good Housekeeping, you are obviously a homemaker and you can be rest assured that a nice set of jars await you with the next subscription. Similarly, if you are a geek and swear by Computers Today, then you can expect a nice set of goodies in the free software CD which comes with the subscription.

Apart from the free stuff (which of course is a big carrot for people like me who fall for anything which has the four letter word on it …I mean FREE) magazine subscriptions also have a few other benefits. Firstly, the magazines are delivered right up to your door step within a couple of days from the time they get published. This ensures that you get the latest magazines in the shortest possible time. Home delivery is one of the best benefits of discount magazine subscriptions and you realize it even more when the newsstand is a not very close to your house.

Thus the next time you see yourself picking up the same magazine three times in a row, take out the leaflet in the middle and subscribe to the magazine!

Creating good business requirements will go a long way towards ensuring the success of the project and eliminate design and development risks that result from poor business requirements documentation. Here are the Top 10 Tips for Writing Good Business Requirements:

1.    Develop a clear understanding of the problems that the proposed software is being designed to solve. This will ensure that the subsequent business requirements document addresses those problems fully.

2.    Identify all project stakeholders and involve them in the business requirements gathering process from the start. Work to build trust and establish credibility early on so you can maintain stakeholder support throughout the project. Learn the individual personality traits of each stakeholder in order to be able to better manage them during the requirements phase of the project.

3.    Clearly document all business data including workflow, current problems, anticipated risks, and required performance metrics. Use project-approved tools and methodologies to ensure that the documentation conforms to the client’s requirements.

4.    Use approved templates for all documentation. Ensure that terms used throughout all documentation either exist in the project dictionary or are added as required. No one reading the business requirements document should encounter unfamiliar terms that cannot be quickly resolved by reviewing the project dictionary.

5.    Identify potential privacy and security issues early on so these problems can be mitigated to a level which satisfies the stakeholders that these risks have been managed properly. This helps to build trust and ensures that stakeholders remain committed to the project.

6.    Make a concerted effort to identify and document all risks, the impact of these risks on the project’s costs and timetable. This will avoid unexpected project delays as well as help control runaway costs.

7.    Conduct both group and one-on-one meetings to insure that all business requirements, risks and concerns are identified.

8.    Present a draft of the business requirements document to key stakeholders for preliminary review and tentative approval. This helps to ensure that the final business requirements document will be more easily accepted by all stakeholders when it is presented.

9.    Rewrite the draft business requirements document to address any issues discovered during step #8. This may requires repeating the stakeholder meeting process until you are sure that all issues have been identified and documented.

10.   Present the completed business requirements document to all stakeholders in a formal meeting. Take notes in order to maintain the collective project memory and be ready to address any issues or concerns which may be raised.

Would you like to upgrade your company’s operations by taking advantage of free credit card processing for business owners? There has never been a better time to locate banks offering this service and make the best possible deal for your interests. Financial institutions are eager to work with you in opening a merchant account, and they sometimes offer attractive incentives to get entrepreneurs’ business. If you like the idea of free credit card processing, start shopping at your community banks and credit unions to see what type of deals they can offer.

Free credit card processing for business owners is an attractive perk, since some companies impose fees of perhaps 15 to 25 cents per transaction or a monthly percentage fee overall of between 1% and 2%. Being able to get free credit card processing for business owners could save you a significant sum of money each month, and over time, those savings could increase even more. Your customers will love the ease with which they can make online credit card payments, and you will appreciate the time-saving benefits of handling credit payments electronically rather than by employees who require regular paychecks.

It is a good idea to sit down with your financial institution and discuss the precise terms of the free credit card processing for business owners deal. Will you have to pay an application fee? Will annual membership fees come due each year? Are there other embedded costs that you should know about up front? Even if your credit card processing is free, other start-up expenses could add up to cost even more than the transactions would. You will want to make the best possible deal before signing an application or contract to be sure you don’t get trapped into paying unexpected high costs later.

Keep in mind that free credit card processing for business owners may not be the best perk to ask for when applying for a merchant account. In addition to start-up fees that could be imposed and perhaps increased in lieu of the free credit card processing option, you also may have to pay expenses like a statement fee, a minimum fee, a discount fee, and a license fee. These could add up initially to more than you will pay for transaction fees. Even if the free credit card processing option appears to save you money at first, is this a limited time offer? When reinstated later, will transaction fees be difficult to add to the company budget since you did not start the process with them?

You might want to get a second opinion on weighing the benefits offered with various merchant account deals. You could even ask the customers via an informal survey about the type of credit processing they are most interested in and then see how promotional offers for opening a merchant account may impact customer interests. Of course, you can always check out the benefits of paying no transactions costs, and if permissible, switch to another system later if costs increase more than expected with free creditcard processing for business owners.

Some eatery entrepreneurs enjoy the old fashioned style of cooking and serving customers themselves, while others are experimenting with the latest technological enhancements via restaurant merchant accounts. While it is always enjoyable to dine at a restaurant where the owner or manager employs a personal touch, there are times when a customer appreciates modern conveniences like a server’s use of a pager or paying by credit card that are unavailable at many old-fashioned establishments. If you are an owner or manager who appreciates customers’ needs for fast, up-to-date service, you may want to learn more about a restaurant merchant account.

Restaurant merchant accounts help owners to provide the latest technology to their clientele. We all know of restaurants that don’t accept credit cards, and when we’re in a hurry or low on cash, we avoid such places. But other eateries, from fast food to fine dining, are increasingly choosing to implement credit card payment options, electronic check processing, and even wireless payment processing for merchants on the go who deliver food at home or to businesses and public places for special occasions. A server wearing a pager will be greatly appreciated when someone at your table chokes or a little one spills her beverage. Scenarios like these, as well as a host of others, show why it makes sense to consider an upgrade to a restaurant merchant account.

If you are unsure about the benefits of restaurant merchant accounts, you can readily find information on the Internet at a variety of Websites. Merchant accounts come in many forms and offer a range of advantages depending on your company’s specific needs or your long-term business growth plan. For example, you may want to start with a simple credit card processor on-site at your restaurant. You will get a feel for the degree to which your customers appreciate the new technology by their comments at checkout. If they appreciate the option of using credit, you will know that further upgrades may likewise be valued down the road. But if they complain about your establishment losing its old fashioned appeal, you may want to hold off on additional improvements until the clientele has time to get used to the initial changes.

Restaurant merchant accounts will provide the means of setting up a restaurant Website and accepting online credit payments for reservations, business accounts, or bulk purchases, among other things. Your Website can attract visitors from all over the world who may come to visit when in your part of town. The site can also offer local customers helpful information, such as hours and days of operation, driving directions to your location along with a map, regular and banquet menus, and special services. Your merchant account status will let them order online and confirm reservations without the need of a human voice, thus reducing staffing hours and human resource costs. If you want your restaurant to attract fast-paced customers who pay with plastic, check out the limitless possibilities that await you by browsing the available restaurant merchant accounts.

The reality of today’s world seems to leave little room for optimism.  Almost every news story can lead because it does bleed. We hear of critical food shortages in Africa, daily gang deaths on city streets, the profiteering from child pornography, and the climatic disasters prompted by global warming. Health care costs move up faster than a hummingbird in flight and more children now spout profanities as a regular part of speech.  With such negativity, no wonder a 2004 U.S. government survey found that depression afflicts one in 10 adults 14 days a month or more.

You probably get depressed just reading the opening paragraph. But wait!  There is hope.  Not the cock-eyed optimism that became fodder for a song from the musical South Pacific, but rather what psychologists in France are calling “intelligent optimism.”  Such optimism does not deny the reality of today’s world, but rather seeks to LEARN how to fashion a life amid such difficulties. Martin Seligman, the psychologist who had made optimism and happiness his life’s work, would agree with the French: optimism can be taught.

Consider these basic steps:

(1) Focus on what you can control.  Don’t get carried away by circumstances you cannot change. You might not change global warming but you can control your energy consumption. You can’t stop the downsizing in your company but you can arm yourself with marketable skills.

(2) Reframe the event so that you are not a victim.  There is always another way to view a situation. The flight cancellation that caused me to miss (and forfeit) a major engagement was not “planned” to “get” me. It just was. My choice is to figure out what I can do to help the current client and what I will put in the place of the cancelled work.

(3) Think “enough”. When we concentrate on what we don’t have, we miss all the many things we do have. The truth of the matter is that if you are reading this article, you do have enough computer power. You do have enough intelligence. You do have enough time.

(4) Cultivate optimistic responses. Like a farmer tending a field, optimism will never grow unless it is watered, fed, weeded and nourished. We all have days in which negativity can take over. And, sometimes, that is a WISE response because it keeps us grounded in reality.  Just make sure it is reality and not the imagination making extraordinary leaps into conjecture.  Weed out that conjecture. Ask what you can DO to see a result that gives you a sense of power.  If we don’t cultivate such intelligent optimism, be aware of reality and willing to find options, then we might do what Alexander Graham Bell warned. “Stare so long at the closed door we fail to see the one that is opening.”

(5) Remember the power of generations.  Children of depressed parents are more prone to depression. Children of optimists are more prone to be optimists. What do you choose to pass along?  Even if your parents were negative, you can break the cycle with stopping, freeze-framing a situation, listening to the negative self talk, and then literally giving yourself a different  message.  Yes, this takes practice but you can make it a habit if you work it over time.

Ultimately, intelligent optimists understand that change and chaos are given.  They know that “this too shall pass”. In the meantime, they CHOOSE to take whatever action they can within their own sphere of influence and then settle back. It is enough.

How often do people try to sell us something before we have expressed an interest, have a desire, or are in the market for what they have? It seems the standard for many salespeople is to try to sell to anyone and everyone regardless of the interest level.

When someone attempts to sell us something before we have expressed an interest, the initial thought may be, “Why would I buy from you? You haven’t earned the right to sell to me!”

The fact of the matter is that selling, both online and off, is about determining if there is a need before ever attempting to match a buyer with a product or service. It is about providing enough information for the buyer to make the best decision based on their needs. And it is about gaining trust. The most successful sales professionals are those who are a resource before they are a vendor.

Having been in both brick-and-mortar and online sales and marketing for many years, it never ceases to amaze me how many people try to sell without determining the customer’s needs. They don’t seem to realize that the better the match, the more likelihood for return business. The better the match, the more trust gained. If you depend on repeat business or referrals, trust is absolutely a factor in your customer’s decision to come back to you when they need your product or service.

Anyone who has been in business for an extended period of time (or plans to be) would be hard pressed to believe otherwise. Whatever you are selling, the buyer’s experience from the initial visit and/or purchase will likely determine whether or not they will ever purchase from you again.

When a customer has a great experience from the beginning the chances of them turning into a repeat buyer is more likely. It is a proven fact: it is more cost effective to have repeat buyers than it is to constantly seek out new customers. That is not to say you shouldn’t be adding new clients as part of your business model. Building trust with existing clients will add to your conversion rate more consistently.

What is often missed in the equation of sales and marketing is the lifetime value of a customer. Once the initial sale is made they are forgotten. With proper care, a one-time or occasional buyer can turn into a loyal buyer. And loyalty is more often than not based on trust.

We live in a “try before you buy” society. Because of this many buyers use what is referred to as the buying ladder. The buying ladder is very applicable to brick-and-mortar sales as well as Internet sales.

Before buying a high ticket item, buyers will “test the waters.” This can be done in a number of ways: by test driving a car, taking a tour of a home, asking friends and associates for a recommendation. When purchasing on the Internet it can be downloading a free information item or buying an inexpensive product from a website to test out the level of service, quality of product, delivery time, quality of information (in the case of an information product), and response time. It may even depend on the buyer’s “gut feeling.”  What are your own buying habits? What process do you go through before making the decision to buy?

When you gain trust people want to do business with you. And they want to tell others about the experience. Have you heard the expression that if someone has a bad experience they will tell more people about that experience than they do a good one? I can’t say that I necessarily agree with this statement. There are occasions when I have heard people rave about a great experience over and over again.

Buying decisions are made for a number of reasons, but they ultimately depend upon whether or not the buyer trusts the process. And if they trust you. It is through the process of building trust that we have earned the right to sell.

The Challenge for Breweries in Today’s Regulated Marketplace is immense. For the past decade the advertising of alcoholic products has been increasingly subject to both government regulation and self-regulatory bodies. In Canada, the CRTC’s August 1996 Code for Broadcast Advertising of Alcoholic Beverages severely restricted the way in which alcohol products are presented on both radio and television. It is not an exaggeration to say that any advertisement adhering to these regulations would be dull indeed, and almost obscure any attempt at promotion – you can’t enjoy yourself and drink beer at the same time! Print material such as entrepreneurial magazines and newspapers are less restricted, though regulated by provincial Liquor Boards.  The same ethical limitations apply: do not link enjoyment with alcohol consumption; do not direct your ad to youth; do not over-promote; do not pass Go!  Also, self-regulation within various media abounds.

In the United States a similar situation exists. The Federal Trade Commission and Congress are the key regulating authorities. In addition, individual media and media groups establish their own code of ethics, often refusing to publish or broadcast alcohol advertising.

The challenge? How do breweries and microbreweries ‘get the word out’ about their products within an advertising marketplace of such limited visibility where self-promotion is frowned upon?

When traditional methods are not a viable option we must identify and utilize those of the future. One way breweries can take advantage of modern advertising options is to share your product with the world on the Internet.

You may already have a company website. It’s fun, it positively promotes your product with enthusiasm as no TV ad is now permitted to do. Your T-shirts and ball caps have their own page. Potential customers are visiting your website on a regular basis, once they stumble across your site on a night of Internet surfing.  However, is this kind of customer traffic really the most effective use of such a dynamic advertising tool? All that creative and technical effort and your audience consist of web junkies and the occasional salesperson trying to sell you something. The solution to this problem is targeted pixel marketing. Websites are being developed which help increase traffic on subject related web pages. For instance, pixel space for your beer label on the beer home page may be purchased for a reasonable cost. The label then links with your own webpage.

Beer festivals may be a long established custom, however the modern version is a true advertising event and increasingly popular, not only with the locals. Beer fans travel far to attend their favorite bash. To choose the festival which most suites your product, the Internet comes to the rescue once again. A number of websites list festivals. Check the bottom row of  thebeerhomepage.com for the most popular beer festivals around the world.

Besides a shift in promotional methods, a fresh approach in attitude will go a long way in changing public perception of beer. Taking a leaf out the wine industry’s book may be the answer.  Wine sales have risen since their advertisers started promoting wine “as a natural product, a healthy option, a sophisticated and educated choice, a compliment to food and equally popular with men and women. In fact, beer can also boast all these things, but its public perception is poor by comparison” says Peter Kendal of Molson Coors Brewers. He continues, “Beer is a wholesome, natural product, made from malted barley and hops. Moreover, moderate (and we stress moderate) beer drinking is just as healthy as moderate wine drinking”.

To conclude, these are only a few examples of the way a modern approach to advertising need not battle with established regulations. A positive, open mind and a willingness to switch gears should lead to a healthy return on your advertising dollars.

Did you ever think about becoming a Trading Assistant? Where you basically sell other people’s products and receive a comission? Alot of companies know about eBay but don’t have the time to learn. Or are just “old school” and don’t care to learn.

So why not offer your services to them? You already know eBay. And now this lines you up for unlimited products to sell. There are ways that you should and should not approach a retailer to become their trading assistant.

First off before you approach anyone, you want to know that these particular products will do well on eBay. Take a good look around the store at the products they offer, then go to eBay and do your research on them. Once you know they will be a good seller then you can go onto the next step.

The next step is to get to know the store owner. Even become a customer and get friendly with them. You want to be sure you are developing a great rapport with the store owner.

You don’t know how many times I was approached by people to sell their products in my store, or to donate items to their school, and they were complete strangers to me.

Talk about being annoyed. That’s the one thing I did not like, was people who I’ve never met before asking for something from me. Even if it was going to benefit my business, I was still annoyed.

I’m not saying become their best friend, but really get in there and have your presence known. Then and only then, can you approach them on the business that you do.

Make sure you’re also choosing a business that is not out of reach. Start with small businesses, ma and pa operations. Most likely they will be more willing to work with you on an eBay dynamic to their business.

You can also approach them by offering to sell their overstock, or returned items. I remember Christmas time, just throwing the returns in the back room, there was no time for going through all of them. Most of the time they just sat there.

Another way you can approach it is by purchasing their overstock items outright yourself, and putting that on eBay. Once you show them that their items are actually selling, you may soon have the ability to have access to all of their inventory. This is just another way to get your foot in the door.

Once you have approached the owner on moving their stock using eBay, you need to decide what you will be charging them for your service. I highly suggest you take a look on eBay what other trading assistants are charging, you need to decide what’s right for you.

Talk to the owner about setting up a table space in their back room, this will give you a space to set up and take all the pictures you need. Or just take all the inventory with you home and do everything from there.

If you haven’t thought about becoming a Trading Assistant, I recommend that you try it out. It’s an easy way to get your business going without having the money to put out for products.

Trade friction and energy leverage has led to an unprecedented Canadian policy of “speak loudly and carry a big piece of lumber” policy towards the United States.

The long running dispute over American tariffs on Canadian lumber escalated to the point last week that Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin indirectly linked settlement with continued U.S. access to Canadian energy supplies. Meanwhile, Canadian Natural Resources Minister John McCallum was off to China to meet with Chinese oil, mining and forestry officials.

This is serious business. Part of the 1994 NAFTA Free Trade Agreement guaranteed that Canada would remain the favored supplier to the U.S. It might surprise you to learn that Canada supplies 17% of U.S. oil imports, 16% of our natural gas and nearly all of our hydroelectric power. The Canadian government owns the vast majority of the country’s energy resources and Canada exports more than 1.5 million barrels a day to America representing 8% of U.S. consumption.

China’s Lengthening Reach

Meanwhile, China’s aggressive moves in Canada’s energy sector are raising eyebrows in Washington. Chinese government has earmarked $100 billion for overseas acquisitions of oil and gas. The Chinese are going on a buying spree investing in Canadian energy companies and recently plunked down $2 billion to build a thousand mile pipeline from Alberta tar sands to port on the west coast and onward to Beijing and Shanghai. While the oil reserve numbers for Saudi Arabia are under scrutiny, Canada has recoverable reserves of roughly 175 million barrels. Much of it is in oil sand that is processed profitably at oil prices of $20 or higher and T. Boone Pickens thinks that Canada’s oil sand production could reach 6 million barrels a day

There are now about 1 million ethnic Chinese residing in Canada and China is now Canada’s second largest trading partner. Last month, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Canada and declared that the two countries had upgraded their relations to a “strategic partnership”.

The US’s Waning Grasp

This Chinese-Canadian power play puts America in real jam. You could write a book about the long simmering lumber dispute but a Nafta panel recently ordered the U.S. to return $5 billion of collected tariffs to Canadian lumber companies. Relations with Canada were also weakened earlier this year when Canada announced that it would not contribute to the American-led missile defense program even though 90% of Canadian citizens live within 100 mile of the border between the two countries and Americans purchase 85% of total Canadian exports.

What’s going on? Part of the answer is that the vast majority of Canadians oppose the policies of the Bush Administration. The issue is sensitive in many areas across Canada that are highly dependent on the lumber industry and Mr. Martin and his party are preparing for national elections expected early next year. It is always a vote getter to poke a stick in the eye of the elephant to the south.

How to Play

While Canadian-American relations have seen better days, the energy boom has certainly been beneficial to investors in Canadian markets. The Canada iShare (EWC) tracks the MSCI Canada Index that has 40% exposure to Canada’s energy and materials sector. While the S&P index is up only 3%, the Canada iShare is up 16.6% year to date and 28.8% over the past twelve months.

Speaking of timber, it is smart to have some timber exposure in your portfolio and I have had timber REIT Plum Creek Timber (PCL) in our core portfolio for over two years. Here is why I like it. First, timber is a great inflation hedge and over the past 100 years has risen 3% above the average annual inflation rate. Secondly, timber is not correlated to stocks or bonds and thus is a great “shock absorber” to cushion your portfolio when shares are declining. During the 1970s bear market, timber rose in value while stocks went down. Thirdly, from 1973-2000 timber yielded an average annual return of 15%. Last but not least, timber valuations are attractive after some declines during 2000-2002 especially relative to real estate prices. During 2004 Plum Creek was up 23% and this year it has traded between $34 and $39 finishing last week just over $35 with an attractive dividend yield of 4.3%.

It behooves the U.S. to negotiate a settlement to the lumber dispute as soon as possible and lock up Canadian energy sources before the Chinese get the jump on us. Investors can’t do much about improving Canadian-American relations but they can improve their portfolios by adding exposure to timber as well as to Canada as both an energy and China play.

The global demand for heavy construction equipment has increased dramatically over the preceding years. This demand of heavy construction equipment is highly accredited in part to the recovery from a recession in assorted Asian countries, as well as in Latin America, Russia, and Africa. Regardless of the fact that the heavy construction equipment industry is not as heavily concentrated as it had been in previous years, acquisitions are still going strong and substantial partnerships between competing companies are on the rise.

As technical advances in the heavy construction equipment design and security help marketing efforts get ahead, the price increases have a tendency to remain modest in retrospect. This also speaks for all new, used, rented or leased heavy construction equipment alike. Each year the heavy construction equipment industry is meeting a global demand of turnout at about six percent each year. The heavy construction equipment industry has been sharing in the worldwide drive with a number of countries to construct new projects and to restore older public and private structures.

Heavy construction equipment mainly consist of the following main categories: mixers, cranes, loaders, trucks, tractors, graders and rollers, just to name a few, as well attachments and parts. All heavy construction equipment is used in a wide range of applications from major infrastructure projects to office buildings and from housing to factories, power plants and mining. The extent of use of heavy construction equipment is so broad that key measures in demographics, such as the population growth, along with ample growth in economics, are the main influence of the demand for heavy construction equipment in the world today.

Projects that require the sporadic use of heavy construction equipment also call for significant amounts of capital investment. In privately funded projects, investors seem more receptive when interest rates are low and when there is a reasonable rate of return. Most public works programs are ventured upon during recession as part of a broader financial turnout. In developing countries, the rate of sustainable economic growth is a major concern as sporadic trends tend to be shorter and more under consideration in mature markets. This may influence a country’s ability to attract external capital or to generate its own.

Heavy construction equipment and its components can be manufactured in fewer locations to service the global market. Heavy construction equipment can now move without any obligation between mature markets, while some emerging countries still require exports to qualify for liberated imports.

Regions and countries vary widely in their demands of heavy construction equipment to perform tasks of building and re-building. The need for heavy construction equipment in these regions are more related to upgrade and maintenance of the existing infrastructure and buildings than it is to new projects. In other developing regions, the need for heavy construction equipment is used to build new projects such as highways, airports and urban buildings, etc. With a growing global demand of heavy construction equipment, the possibilities of building are endless.

Last week I told you about a recent report from The Conference Board that has a lot of big company CEOs concerned about competition from smaller, more innovative and entrepreneurially-minded companies. To refresh your memory, The Conference Board’s CEO Challenge 2004 reported that 87% of the 540 global businesses surveyed cited innovation and enabling entrepreneurship as priorities for their companies, and 31% considered these issues of “greatest concern.”

These CEOs understand that their big company status no longer guarantees that they will win contracts and retain market share based solely on their size and track record. They understand that the greatest threat to their businesses is not coming from the boardrooms of their largest competitors, but from small companies born in garages, on kitchen tables, and in tiny, rented offices.

It’s a fact that smaller companies, by need and design, are more innovative, more flexible, more decisive, and faster to move than their larger brethren who are entrenched in operational processes and corporate procedures. Small companies are typically not led by career executives for whom every decision must be predicated by hours of meetings and mounds of documentation. Most small companies are led by their founders; men and women who were cut from an entrepreneurial cloth that has yet to fade. It is when a company grows to the point that the founder steps aside to make way for professional managers that the company loses its innovative nature and entrepreneurial flair.

The good news for large companies is that they have definite advantages over small companies, especially when it comes to resources and funding. Turning a Goliath into a raging horde of David’s is never easy, but it can be done if the company is willing to make changes to internal processes and attitudes, and commit the time, money, and personnel to make it happen.

Since size and number of years in business are no longer differentiators in the competitive marketplace what must large companies do to become more innovative and entrepreneurial? To begin they must do three things: shorten the process time, cut through the red tape, and promote innovative and entrepreneurial thinking from the top down. If the board, the CEO, executives, managers, supervisors, and employees are not dedicated 100% to making the changes necessary to transform the company, the effort will fail and the giant will lumber on.

Shorten The Process Time

At large companies everything is done by the book, i.e. by established processes and procedures. Very little gets done at large companies without what I call the “Multiples of M.” Multiple Meetings to discuss the issue; Multiple Memos to reiterate the issue; and Multiple Management approvals required to sign off on the issue. To become more innovative and entrepreneurial large companies must streamline the decision-making process down to a single set of M’s: Move on or Make it happen.

Cut Through The Red Tape

Here’s a true example from my corporate days that illustrates how procedures and red tape get in the way of efficient operations A fluorescent bulb in my office blew, which made the other bulb in the fixture flicker like a strobe light at a discotheque (causing flashbacks that we won’t discuss). I assumed getting a new bulb would be a simple matter of calling down to the facilities office and reporting the problem. My assumption was wrong. I was told that I would have to come to the facilities office, which was in another building 2 miles away, fill out a facilities request form, and take the form back to my immediate supervisor, who was required to stick his head in my office to confirm that the bulb was indeed out before signing the form. I assume this was to make sure that I was not trying to commandeer a fluorescent bulb under false pretenses.

Once my supervisor confirmed that I really did need a new bulb, he signed the form and I took it back to the facilities office, foolishly thinking that they would hand me a bulb that I could take back to my office. Oh no, that would have been too simple. I was told that once my form was approved by the facilities manager a maintenance worker would be dispatched to my office and would replace the bulb for me. Great, I said. When can I expect that to happen?

“I can have someone over there a week from Tuesday between noon and 5pm,” the man at the facilities desk replied. I suddenly felt like I was dealing with the cable company. How many big company employees does it take to change a light bulb? I lost count at four.

Encourage Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking

Next, you must create an environment in which innovation and entrepreneurial thinking are encouraged and rewarded. If your employees feel that their opinions, thoughts and ideas don’t matter, they will not submit them to you, but may take them elsewhere.

Again, based on my own experience, I can tell you that innovation, especially innovation that occurs below the management level, is often ignored, ridiculed, and in some cases, used as an excuse to give employees the boot. The perfect example of this was when I took an idea on how to improve an internal system to my manager and was told, “Knox, you think too much.” Now this was a new one on me. I had been accused of thinking too little and of not thinking at all, but never had I been accused of thinking too much. I do recall my dad telling me when I was young, “Son, if you had a brain you’d be dangerous.” I suppose my manager was simply trying to relay the same message. “Shut up and go to your room/cubicle like a good little boy/company drone before you get on my nerves and get spanked/fired.” Within a few months I decided to take my overactive brain and put it to work for myself. After 10 years of business success, I think I made the right decision.

To promote innovation and entrepreneurship big companies must encourage everyone to think like innovators and entrepreneurs. Make it a company policy that such thinking is required, expected and rewarded. Pose these questions: (1) How can we improve our current products and services; (2) What new uses can you think of for current products or services; (3) What new products and services can you think of that would be good additions to our current offerings or perhaps even launch a new line; (4) What new opportunities do you see in the market place that might be worth pursuing?

Get Outside Help

Most large companies find it difficult to develop and implement an innovation plan simply because they refuse to devote the time and resources to getting it done. And since most executives have never been entrepreneurs, they do not know how to encourage entrepreneurial thinking among their ranks. If your company needs help with innovation and entrepreneurship, bring in someone from the outside to direct and manage the effort for you.

You should never be embarrassed to ask for help, no matter how big you are.

Here’s to your success!

Using sample business plans and their structure, along with studying as many business plan examples as you can, will provide you with the necessary framework to consider your business from every possible angle.

Starting or running your business without a business plan is akin to being a human without a skeleton!

Not only will using a sample structure highlight any areas you haven’t fully thought through, but it will also provide you with a good idea of what makes a good business plan, and what doesn’t.

The importance of your business plan as a motivational factor in running or starting your business cannot be underestimated. You will find that your commitment continues to build as you collect information, research and write each section.

Your business plan should always accompany requests for Small Business Loans , and lenders or any kind of angel investor  will simply refuse to consider your business proposal without one.

Lenders and investors want to see your plan with the aim of satisfying key questions before they make their decision to grant funding or not.

Once you’ve commenced trading your small business plan will act as a steak in the ground, and help you measure where you expected to be against where you actually are. It will help you take corrective action as necessary.

Sample Business Plan Structure

All plans should include at least the elements listed below, and perhaps additional sections depending on the type of industry.

Executive Summary

Company Background

Products or Service Overview

Unique Selling Proposition and competitive advantages

The Marketplace

Operations

Leadership and management profiles including professional competencies

Professional Support

Risks and Threats assessment

Financial forecasts including key assumptions

Relevant appendices

Collecting the information for all the sections is time consuming and sometimes difficult. The business section of your local library is always a good place to start research. Ask your friendly librarian about how to look up market research reports, and how to investigate competitors.

If you are not familiar with spreadsheet software, constructing the necessary financial forecasts represents a significant hurdle. You have 2 choices:

Pay someone to put part or all of the plan together for you, or a small investment in some business planning software.

The advantage of using a professional is you will receive the benefits of their experience, combined with a professional looking plan.

The disadvantage is that it won’t be easy to make changes, and more importantly, because you will not have been as involved in its preparation, you won’t be as familiar with its contents as you  should be. Make sure to learn the contents well.

One final tip though, remember it’s the quality of the information you put into it that determines what comes out.