There are a lot of factors to consider when starting a business. Primary among these are the three “P”s – Plan, Prepare and Persist.
Plan
After you have selected some ideas from your brainstorming to base your business around, create a plan of attack. List what you'll need before your business starts. What will your ongoing expenses be? Factors include rent, utilities, permits, licensing, legal fees, inventory, staff, design, marketing collateral, mailing lists, software, advertising and more. Get as much as you can out on paper and set deadlines to get things accomplished. This will allow you to evaluate your pace.
Prepare
Once you have a plan, carry it out. Preparing to start a business can be a lot of work. Tasks include getting an identity designed, creating business cards, brochures, web sites and other marketing material, consulting with CPA's, lawyers, and HR professionals, in some cases finding and renting or buying a storefront or office, furnishing the business space, getting utilities in place, receiving and organizing inventory, getting a database for your customers and leads and any number of other tasks. By running a home business, some of these steps will already be taken care of, yet opening a business of any kind can be an enormous task. While planning your business make sure to leave plenty of time to get up and running. Better to plan your setup time too long than too short and finding yourself running out of money.
Persist
This is the most important step of running a business. Without persistence, you won't even be able to finish your business plan. Hang on like a pit-bull. When the going gets tough, get tougher. Have worst case scenario plans to fall back on, as well as best case scenario plans.
Some businesses become over-night successes, while other take year to develop. If you plan, prepare and persist, you’ve got a very good chance of making it.
Starting A Business – The Three 'Ps'
You Can Find A Stay At Home Business That Suits You With Three Simple Questions
The ability to stay at home is increasing rapidly as new opportunities appear constantly with positions from sales representative opportunities to customer service and more. Finding the stay at home career that suits you can be as easy as asking yourself three simple questions. What do I truly enjoy doing? What amount of money or what is my budget for this business? What resources and tools do I have at hand that can be applied toward the business? Asking these three questions will allow you to narrow down which field or areas of home business would best suit your interests as well as your personal needs.
Job Enjoyment
If you do not enjoy the job field you are in, over time you will begin to regret your job choice. It will become displeasure to go to work each day. The dissatisfaction of your job will lead to a decline in attitude and personal happiness, which can affect your relationships with family and friends as well as co-workers. Your job performance will also lack due to this feeling of dissatisfaction. Allowing yourself to understand what areas of work or business you enjoy will allow you to enter a job position knowing that this is a career you can perform every day and it will not lead to total dissatisfaction. There are always days where we do not feel like going to work even if we are in a dream job, but an enjoyable position is a must for job longevity.
Business Budget and Income Levels
When entering into a home business you have to take the necessary time required to thoroughly study your budget and income needs. You need to have enough savings to live within the means required to pay your bills, purchase personal items such as food and any other needed items for a minimum of three months. This allows enough time for your business to become established and to provide a flow of income. You also have to understand the required amount of funds needed to begin your business. What is the cost of materials, advertising, web hosting and so on? You want to provide an adequate amount of funding for each area of your business thus allowing a sturdy base for your business to be built upon. The majority of home businesses fail within the first year often due to lack of budgeting.
Resources and Tools
You also have to take the time to consider what tools or resources that you may possibly already have on hand. Consider computers, Internet access and a home phone line. These items are generally already on hand and in use daily. With these three tools you can begin the home businesses building process.
Once you have the answer to each of these questions you will be able to make the most knowledgeable choice for your home business. This will allow you to begin your business by putting your best foot forward on solid ground. Taking the necessary time to prepare for your stay at home job will ensure that your business will thrive and succeed.
Grow Your Home Business - Three Sites To Have That Will Help
There are a lot of things that go into running a successful home business; and having an online presence is one of the most important. This is not necessary for all home businesses, but the majority of home businesses are the type that should have one. In many cases, the bulk of revenue of a home business comes from online activity.
A good place to start when it comes to online marketing is to learn and understand the three types of websites used in creating an identity on the internet. The three sites are: a branding site, sales letter and a squeeze page. Listed below are these three types of sites and a brief description of each. This will give you a better understanding of each one and help you decide which ones, if not all, will help your home business grow.
Branding Site- This is a site typically used to promote the individual behind the business, or the actual business. This type of site usually will contain link titles such as home, about us, products and affiliate links. To help you understand this site a little better just look at the name branding site, the word "brand" means to trademark or label. So if you decide to do a branding site keep that in mine, let people know who you and/or your business are.
Sales Letter- This type of site is quit simple. The sole purpose of this site is to sell a specific product or service. A sales letter is one seemingly long page that explains all of the benefits of whatever they are selling. A good sales letter should have 12-15 order now buttons, meaningful testimonials and a well written description of the product or service being sold. This site is very important to have because; a good sales letter can generate a ton of sales for your home business.
Squeeze Page- This is without a doubt the most important page to have. The purpose of the page is to do one thing and one thing only; capture a person’s information, such as, name and primary email address. A squeeze page will help you build a huge mailing list that you can market your products to. A good squeeze page should be able to grab the attention of anyone who sees it. Squeeze pages usually consist of a headline, sub-headline, testimonial, and a sign up box.
Having these three sites listed above really is a great way to get started on the internet. Each site is completely different and has their own individual purpose. Use the one’s that you feel will benefit your business; although, it is not uncommon for a home business to implement all three into their internet marketing plan.
Commercial Hard Money Loans - Three Business Scenarios
The primary rationale for a business considering a commercial hard money loan is that traditional commercial financing options are not viable. There are three financing options for most commercial real estate scenarios: traditional banks, intermediate lenders and hard money lenders. In those situations where traditional banks and intermediate lenders both say "NO", it then makes good business sense to explore under what terms a hard money commercial loan might be available.
Many viable business projects can be funded ONLY via a hard money lender. Before accepting "NO" from the traditional banks and intermediate lenders as the "FINAL ANSWER", a prudent small business borrower should determine if a hard money lender will say "YES".
Compared to traditional bank business loans, commercial hard money loans will generally involve a higher interest rate (prevailing range of prime rate plus 4-8% for typical scenarios), higher fees and shorter-term financing (one to three years). However, because many hard money loans offer interest only terms, the payments can be lower than a fully-amortized loan with a lower interest rate. Commercial hard money loans are typically completed more quickly than a traditional commercial loan.
Several common commercial financing scenarios using hard money loans are described below.
COMMERCIAL HARD MONEY LOAN SCENARIO # 1:
Need to Obtain Commercial Financing Quickly
Traditional commercial loans will normally require several months to complete. Hard money loans can be obtained within a few days in some situations. This difference will be critical if commercial financing is required within a short time frame.
COMMERCIAL HARD MONEY LOAN SCENARIO # 2:
Special Small Business Situations Not Easily Understood by Traditional Banks
• Foreclosure
• Bankruptcy
• Special Purpose Properties
• Tax Liens
• Losses
• Negative Net Worth
• Less than one year in business
• Environmental Requirements
COMMERCIAL HARD MONEY LOAN SCENARIO # 3:
Low Credit Scores
Most traditional commercial loans have very strict standards for acceptable credit scores by the guarantors for a commercial real estate loan. Hard money loans are much more flexible and low credit scores are acceptable.
As noted above, there are several common business situations in which a commercial hard money loan should be considered as a viable commercial financing option. The Commercial Mortgage Loans Guide ( http://aexcfgllc.com ) and The Credit Card Receivables Guide ( http://aexcfg.com ) will provide additional insights into viable commercial financing strategies for difficult commercial loan scenarios.
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