Monthly Archives: October 2009

Startup Company – What Are Accredited Investors and Why Should I Only Raise Money From Them?

Posted by on October 27, 2009 Comments Off

smile, be happy!
Creative Commons License photo credit: B.O.G.D.A.N.Question:

I’m an entrepreneur and have finished my business plan. I’m getting ready to raise $2 million for my startup real estate company – but a friend of mine said I should only talk to accredited investors. I’m not exactly sure what an accredited investor is and I don’t understand why I can’t talk to anybody I want to about investing in my company?

Answer:

The term, accredited investors, has to do with securities laws – both federal and state – and making sure you comply with the very onerous restrictions that go with the fundraising for your start up company. I’ll give you both the short and long answer to what an accredited investor is in a minute. But the first thing you need to know is that if you raising capital from angel (AKA private) investors, you will almost certainly need more than just a business plan. You need what’s known as a Reg D Private Placement Memorandum – PPM – in order to comply with federal and state securities laws. Read more »

Choosing the Right Business Model for Your Startup

Posted by on October 24, 2009 Comments Off

There are many ways to set up a business model, and more are developed every day with the growth of the world wide web. The classic brick-and-mortar storefronts, pure service ventures, and manufacturing and warehouse models still exist, but have been expanded from their classic versions to remain competitive in today’s environment. In addition, purely web-based businesses and incorporating internet opportunities into the classic models have been added to the mix. These various distribution channels serve to both multiply the startup opportunities and increase competition for consumer spending.

With so many options available for how you set up your business, it is critical to consider which alternative best fits both your personality and your business idea. If you are looking forward to working with the public and doing something different every day, a purely online business is probably not for you. If you are eager to work independently with few distractions, and you prefer to be in an office in front of the computer most of the time, a brick-and-mortar store is probably not for you. Be realistic about the environment that motivates you to do your best work. Brainstorm the different ways that your business idea can be developed to be successful in that environment.

Different business models require different resources to successfully launch. A brick-and-mortar store or manufacturing operation requires significant startup capital to cover the lease costs, furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) expenses, staff to cover the open hours, and inventory. A purely online retail business requires more time than capital — it can take months to show up on the top search engines, especially if your business’s key words include significant direct or indirect competition. The actual expenses can be kept fairly minimal, as you can use dropship distributors so that you carry no or very little inventory or you can use a just-in-time inventory system to keep your costs down. You can run the business from home so that your overhead expenses are kept low as well. If you have a good idea of the resources you will have to launch your startup, develop a business model for your startup that is within those means.

Whatever your basic business idea, there are likely a number of business models that could be effective for launching and growing your venture. Ultimately, it is best to diversify both in product and distribution channel, and those future expansions should be in mind when determining where to start. For example, if your goal is to own a chain of pet supply and training stores but you don’t have the funding to open even one storefront, consider starting out with a limited online retail store. Add self-published how-to books for training and animal care and perhaps a local in-home training service. Build a reputation as an expert by submitting good articles to websites and print magazines that draw your target customers. Consider adding seminars on related topics for other trainers or pet owners. Over time, you will increase your revenues to the point that leasing space is within the budget, and you will have multiple income streams up and running before your overhead becomes a major factor.

The business model you choose is not the primary factor in whether your business succeeds. Many business ideas can be modified to fit different methods of distribution, as long as the benefit to the customer is convincing. Selecting a business model that doesn’t fit your personality is set up for failure because you will lose your motivation and desire to keep pushing through. Every venture requires dedication and perseverance to succeed, so you have to enjoy at least the method enough to keep you focused on building the business.

K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke University, is co-founder of LaunchX LLC. The LaunchX System, a five Unit series of step-by-step startup procedures, key business software, and marketing reference books, is designed to assist entrepreneurs in developing a business idea into a successful company. Take the free Business Readiness Assessment and get on the road to business startup today.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/choosing-the-right-business-model-for-your-startup-1369150.html

New Business Loans – Removes All Financial Barriers

Posted by on October 23, 2009 Comments Off

Power Breakfast with Bob Steel
Creative Commons License photo credit: James Willamor

New business loans offer financial assistance to those who are willing to start up their new business. At the time of setting up a new business you can easily rely on new business loans as they successfully cater all your financial needs. You can set up your office and business. You can easily get finance for any kind of business plan; either it is a small or a big one. You will be required to show your new business plan while applying for these loans. Your business plan must include the type of the business, size, the total estimate amount required and manpower etc.

These loans are available as secured and unsecured. Secured new business loans are the best options if you want to avail substantial funds for longer repayment term and at lower interest rate. For getting these loans you have to place your valuable asset as collateral. You can borrow an amount ranging from £50,000 to £300,000 for a term of 5-25 years. Read more »

Business Plan Tips: Your Table of Contents

Posted by on October 22, 2009 Comments Off

A business plan’s table of contents is presented just after the cover sheet, giving a full overview of the sections within the plan. Why, you might ask, is a table of contents needed if the plan is intended to be read straight through, from start to finish, by its audience of potential funders? The reality is that readers will often want to jump around during and after their reading of the plan if they become engaged enough to consider it an option for funding.

Looking at Strategic Fit

Readers will be concerned with the strategic fit of your business concept. Strategic fit is how the activities of your organization work in concert to contribute to your competitive advantage. For example, if the competitive advantage discussed in your competitive analysis describes building a premium brand based on high quality, discussion of coupons and rampant discounting in your marketing plan may not jibe. In a sense, all of the aspects of your business must build towards achieving the competitive advantage you mention. There is good reason for readers to flip back to this section as they examine the rest of the document.

Comparing Numbers

Another reason why readers may jump around is to compare the numbers you present in the financial statements and financial summary at the end of the plan with the methods and tactics you detail earlier.  They will look to see that, in their understanding, you will be able to accomplish what you say you will within the level of expenses you describe. They will also want to check that your revenue projections are reasonable given the market size and specific customer target markets you detail in your industry and customer analysis sections.

Preferences of Individual Funders

Different individuals reading your plan will have different backgrounds and expertise. They may feel most comfortable evaluating the section of your plan related most directly with their expertise (such as marketing, operations, finance, or human resources). For this reason, your plan must make it easy for readers to jump to any section they see fit. While the section may build upon ideas discussed in previous sections, each should also stand alone to a certain extent.

Eric Powers is associated with Growthink, a business plan consulting firm. Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for more than 2,000 clients. Call 800-506-5728 today for a free consultation with a Growthink business plan writer. Or, if you’re writing your plan yourself, Growthink also offers a business plan template.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/business-plan-tips-your-table-of-contents-1367040.html

The Key Sections of Your Business Plan

Posted by on October 21, 2009 Comments Off

A business plan’s contents are no secret. Many books, articles, and courses describe the major sections of a business plan. Although variations exist, there are key sections common to most outlines in business planning literature.

Executive Summary

An executive summary, generally one page to a few pages at most, covers all of the main points of the business plan to come.

Company Overview or Description

The next section begins with an overview of the current situation of the company. This covers who the founders are and why they started the company, what the products or services offered are or will be, and what steps have been taken toward the launch to date.

Market Analysis

Sections detailing research and analysis done on the market for the business come next. This should begin with an overview of the market or industry, including its size, breakup, and trends it is experiencing going forward. Data on the specific customer segments and competitors for the new business follow.

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan then covers what is generally called the 4 Ps of Marketing: Product (description of the products or services offered), Promotion (the promotional tactics to be used), Pricing (the pricing strategy for the business), and Place (the location for a retail facility or other means of distribution for the product or service).

Operations and Management Plans

The next section or sections detail the plan for how the company will operate and be managed. This must include details on who the managers are and their qualifications, whether they are  partners or hired employees.

Financial Plan

The business plan continues with a description of the financial results the business intends to see, and the underlying cost and revenue assumptions. The financial section also details the amount of capital needed, what the funding will be used for, and the sources of funding that are being sought.

Appendices

Finally, a business plan concludes with appendices of documents which support the plan further. The appendices include full pro forma financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement) as well.

Eric Powers is associated with Growthink, a business plan consulting firm. Since 1999, Growthink business plan writers have developed more than 2,000 business plans. Call 800-506-5728 today for a free consultation. Or, if you’re writing your plan yourself, Growthink offers a simple business plan template to help you develop your plan quickly and easily.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/the-key-sections-of-your-business-plan-1362481.html

Introduction to the E2 Visa

Posted by on October 21, 2009 Comments Off

The E2 visa is a special non-immigrant visa available to nationals of treaty countries entering the US to do the following:

a.) Develop and direct the operations of an enterprise in which they have invested, or are actively in the process of investing a substantial amount of capital;
b.) Invest substantially in an already-established US enterprise;
c.) Develop and direct investments from the treaty country.

The investment should create job opportunities for US workers. While it is preferable to have the U.S. workers hired at the time of application for the treaty investor visa, reasonably achievable projections of jobs that will be created in the future is often sufficient. Read more »

Doctors and solutions in Marketing their Medical Practice

Posted by on October 20, 2009 Comments Off

In this article we would like to touch on physicians and the need to market their medical practice.

More and more physicians find themselves working harder then ever and seeing  a decline in their patient base. Many depend too much on their existing referral base, but in today’s economy some of the physicians have relocated, some retired, some joined a group practice. In these tough times some of the patients lost their jobs, some had to relocate to find a job, in some cases they don’t have the same coverage, or none at all.

Part of practice management is to understand the problems your practice is facing and be proactive, not reactive. It is especially important to have a plan on how to build your patient base especially for new practice start ups.

For some existing medical practices the key might be to bring in a young physician with a lot of energy and hunger to break into the medical community. A good idea would be to develop a relationship in a community and volunteer some of your services. Create an identity for your practice and spread the word. Word of mouth in a community goes a long way.

Meeting personally with physicians to build a relationship, inviting a physician for a business lunch, is also a good idea. With a little time you will see an increase in your referral base.

Medical industry has changed over the past several years. Patients have become more and more computer savvy. A good website goes a long way in promoting your practice, but it must be professional.

Location is one of the most important decisions that a practice owner has to make. Adding an additional location in today’s market is also a great idea. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Given today’s real estate market and low interest rates, this is a perfect time to start a new, or an additional practice. Yes, expending works, and it does bring new business that will increase your bottom line.

Look at your competition, know what type of marketing direction they are taking. See what you can do better. To do that, you must understand your strengths and weaknesses and be your own critic. You have to find that market niche.

Every practice has an opportunity to improve patient care, operations, billing, efficiency and the bottom line. It starts with the practice owner, practice manager and in most cases with a little help from a professional consultant. The outside view always helps. A little extra effort is all it takes to make a difference.

 

 

by David Zilber
Sr. Practice Management Consultant
Real Practice Solutions, LLC.
http://www.realpracticesolutions.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/doctors-and-solutions-in-marketing-their-medical-practice-1347293.html

Simple Business Plan Templates: The Value They Add

Posted by on October 20, 2009 Comments Off

A business plan template is an important tool, especially for an entrepreneur learning business plan format for the first time. These are some of the benefits of buying and using a business plan template to create your business plan.

Shortcut For Outlining

A template will present you with a workable outline for your plan, giving you all of the major sections and subsections of the business plan in the order you should present them. All of the section headings and a table of contents will be prepared for you, saving you the time of creating this. With a template, you are more or less ready to jump into writing the text after you buy a business plan template.

Example Text

Some business plan templates will come with text for a sample business within each section of the plan. This serves as a placeholder and, if well-written, a good example of the type of writing you must create. This should show you what a professionally written business plan will look like and what questions must be answered in your own writing. Read the sample text carefully before starting your own writing so you are better prepared.

Some templates include lists of questions for you to answer within each section rather than sample text. This can be just as useful, as the questions funders will want to see answered will be similar for most types of businesses.

Financial Statement Preparation

A template should include an Excel financial model which facilitates the creation of financial statements, charts, and summaries for your business plan and appendices. Using a template for this should save a great deal of preparation time as the basic outline for all of the statements should be prepared with formulas to automatically update the statements based on your changes to financial assumptions of revenues and costs. The time and skill required to set up a financial model like this is considerable. With it you can try out different types of projections and immediately see how this impacts your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

Eric Powers is associated with Growthink, a business plan consulting firm. Since 1999, Growthink’s business plan writers have developed more than 2,000 business plans. Call 800-506-5728 today for a free business plan consultation. If you’re writing your own business plan, Growthink offers an easy business plan template to help you finish it faster.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/simple-business-plan-templates-the-value-they-add-1354279.html

Timely Filed H-1B Petitions – Avoiding 4 Common Mistakes to Prevent Rejections

Posted by on October 20, 2009 Comments Off

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will accept H-1B petitions for fiscal year 2009 on April 1, 2008 for jobs starting on October 1, 2008. Mistakes in filing procedure or including improper filing fees will cause the rejection of an H-1B petition. Such rejections may have dire consequences for your H-1B candidate and your company. Here are four common mistakes to avoid.

Mistake #1 Thinking You Have Plenty of Time to File: Lessons from History

Filing H-1B petitions for delivery at USCIS service centers on April 1, 2008 is no longer an option. This past April thousands of employers saw their petitions rejected because they did not file early enough. On the very first day H-1B petitions were being accepted this April, USCIS received 133,000 petitions seeking one of the 65,000 available H-1B slots. Those employers whose petitions arrived on the second day of filing were rejected because the H-1B quota had already been met. Do not be one of those to get rejections because you filed too late. Early document preparation is essential to making timely filed H-1B petitions. Read more »

Buying a Business Plan Template To Jump Start Your Writing

Posted by on October 19, 2009 Comments Off

A business plan template is a product which can give your writing a significant jump start, shaving hours and maybe days off of your business plan development time. Rather than working on a plan from scratch, pulling together directions and guidance from multiple websites or sources, using a business plan template offers you direct and practical guidance on how to create a full business plan all in one package.

Guidance

The template should include directions to show how to customize it to reflect your specific business. This may come within the template itself or in a separate set of instructions. Regardless, the effect is like having a business plan consultant with you, nudging you in the right direction throughout your writing process.

Format

A business plan template comes pre-formatted, with appropriate fonts, colors, and sections. The cover sheet, table of contents, headings, and page layouts will be preset. All of this work allows you to sidestep concerns about your format and presentation style, and move on to focus on the ideas behind the plan’s major sections.

Graphics and Charts

A template may present many potential spots for graphics and charts to replace text. This will make your plan much more attractive and save you the time of developing these graphics yourself.

Financials

A financial model in Excel or a similar program will give you a significant short cut when it comes to the financial section. After entering your financial assumptions (such as average price, units you expect to sell, revenue growth rates, startup costs, and operating costs), the model should automatically generate valid pro forma financial statements in the format required by funders (generally, greater detail for the first one to three years, with annual numbers for the first five years of operation. Not only do you not need to be an accounting whiz to use such a template, but you can quickly and easily try out different financial assumptions and see how they change your statements and return over the years.

Eric Powers is associated with Growthink, a business plan consulting firm. Since 1999, Growthink’s business plan writers have developed more than 2,000 business plans. Call 800-506-5728 today for a free business plan consultation. If you’re writing your own business plan, Growthink offers an easy business plan template to help you finish it faster.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/buying-a-business-plan-template-to-jump-start-your-writing-1353124.html

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