How do you start a business?

1) Base a business on what you know
Create an idea for a business based on what interests you and what you know. If you are not passionate about the business, customers and prospects will sense it.

2) Target your market
Keep an eye out for unmet needs. If your community lacks a product or service that you have the ability and willingness to provide, you might be onto a kernel of a business idea. Talk to prospective customers, experts in the field and leverage every available resource. If possible, conduct online surveys, phone interviews and face-to-face discussions to sharpen your idea.

3) Be flexible
Once you have an idea, be prepared to modify it — flexibility is critical to being a small business owner. Ask any owner — a few unexpected experiences likely brought them to their destination.

4) Create a short business plan
“Your business plans should spell out who you plan to sell to, what they will pay for products and/or services, how your offering is unique, how you will reach customers and how you will turn a profit,” says Susan Sobbott, president of OPEN from American Express. Five pages is enough, she says, and the process of creating this document will help to polish your idea further and create a plan to get started. Network with members of the local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (www.nawbo.org) in your area or visit a Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Center (www.sba.gov) to help with research for your business plan.

SOURCE:www.msnbc.msn.com

Do Not Dump One Line of Business to Grow Another One

The death knell of growth comes when you decide that a line of business is too much work for you to keep. Do not dump any line of business unless it is losing money and there is no way to adjust costs, or no other sales channel available to you to profitably sell those goods or services. Before you do anything drastic, perform what-if scenarios and make sure that you do not need any heroic change in other lines of business to survive.

I know of a company that dropped an old line of business on the assumption that the new line of business would grow at a 500% annual rate. It did not grow that much, and over time its growth declined to a modest 25% annually. As you adjust to meet the needs of today's economy, adjust proportionately and avoid sweeping changes that can severely hurt your business.

source: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/tips/

Before you start-up in business

Setting up on your own is one of life’s ultimate learning curves.

Not just about making sure you succeed and earn a living, but also in terms of what it will teach you about yourself. We guarantee that by the end of the first year, your self-awareness will be considerably more acute.

But it’s not just awareness of yourself that is vital to survival in the cut-throat world of commerce – what do you know about your competitors? More to the point – do you know who your competitors are in the first place? What are their weaknesses? What do they charge? Remember that research into your competitors is an ongoing process, as too many failed businesses have discovered to their cost.



Time management is another string you’ll need to add your bow. You need to be prepared for the fact that the usual nine-to-five existence you’ve probably enjoyed so far in your working life may have to become a 12 hour day or longer, at least for the first few months or so.

You’ll have to be prepared to put personal arrangements on hold and maybe even to change social arrangements at short notice. Your closest friends will want you to succeed and will hopefully cut you the slack you need. It’s one of the few downsides to starting your own business, but you know what they say about broken eggs and omelettes.

Money is likely to be your greatest sticking point. Even with a solid business idea, with all the costs of setting up a new business – from computer hardware and equipment to crafting your own website – you’re going to need a little financial back-up to keep you going in the early days.

Set a start-up date and save up with this in mind. Alternatively, you could present a well-structured business plan to your bank manager with a start-up loan in mind. And whenever you are working out costings for your business, always formulate these with the worst case scenario in mind. It’s far better to have a little money left over than find yourself in debt before you’ve even started to generate a profit.

But even though funds are likely to be tight in the beginning, it’s not advisable to try to do everything yourself. Think hard about yourself and write down your strengths and weaknesses. If marketing isn’t your forte, call in someone to help. Likewise, call in a few favours from friends who may have the necessary expertise you’re lacking in those areas.

Similarly, book yourself an appointment with the two professionals you will perhaps need the most during your first few years of business – an accountant and a business advisor. These people really can mean the difference between make and break.

Good ones will have already played an active role in the setting up of hundreds of businesses and will be able to tell you if there is any aspect you’ve overlooked. It’s not difficult to seek out free business advice at the start-up stage. You’re best advised to shop around for an accountant. Try not to pick one on price – select the one who you feel will work best with you and your type of business. Relationship and trust is more important than anything.

You’ll also need to shop around the find the right bank to handle your new small business affairs. Consider factors such as whether you will have an individual available to answer any queries as they arise, as well as what the bank charges for borrowing money and general transactions.

And if, after all of this, you’ve decided that starting a business is the thing for you, you’ll need to think about the business structure you will be trading under – are you going to be a sole trader, set up a limited company or form a partnership?


source : www.bytestart.co.uk

Financial strategy

Financial strategy aimed at the use of financial resources to support business strategy, both long term and short term. This strategy includes the financial capital acquisition strategy, capital allocation, diveden allocation and management of working capital.
The acquisition of capital usually involves consideration the reasonable cost of capital, the proportion of short-term debt and long-term, the desired balance between internal and external funding, risks and limitations of ownership and the level and form of a lease that must be used. Microsoft to develop the company do shares with a sales price of 21 dollars and 28 dollars closed in 1986. Microsoft’s stock price reached the peak price of 119 dollars in 1999.

Capital allocation priorities include the consideration to the allocation of capital projects, the basic selection of the end of the project and the allocation of capital is allowed without the approval of operational managers managers higher. Microsoft does not share dividend from 18 September 1987 until 16 January 2003. Capital that are used for a project to develop the Microsoft Office launched in 1989 and Windows 3.0, which is issued in 1990. In 1993 the Windows NT 3:01 and in 1995 launched Windows 95 equipped with Internet Explorer and MSN (Microsoft Network). In 1996 the Windows CE.1.0. and in 1997 launched the Internet Explorer 4.0. and in 1998 raised a Windows 98. Windows XP, released in 2001.

The allocation of dividends and management of working capital include consideration of the division of the profit should be distributed as dividends, dividend stability, the form of dividends other than cash, cash flow needs, the minimum cash balance and the maximum credit policy, credit policy billing, the provisions and procedures of payment. Berkshire Hathaway more pressure on the company’s net wealth rather than allocate greater dividends in the division, such as AOL Time Garnet, Exxon Mobil and Toyota.

Toyota Motor Company on 31 March 2007 net profit to total 23.95 trillion yen, an increase of 13.8% compared to the previous fiscal year. Contribution of positive operating income of 720.0 billion yen from 330.0 billion consists yen from marketing efforts, 290.0 yen from the positive effects of exchange rate changes in foreign currency and 100 billion yen from cost reduction efforts. Toyota Motor Company to share half profit as cash dividends for the six months worth of 70 yen per share, up 15% compared to the past period, so the total dividend paid a full year is 120 yen shares. President of Toyota Motor Company, Katsuaki Watanabe, said: “The result is the ratio of dividends distributed increased from 21.3% to 23.4%, continually trying to get to our target of 30%.”

Learn from failure

Failure is a label that often we connect with an action that is not successful, and so applied, the label is to make people who said we could not afford. This is the spirit lower our people to become successful. At the moment we are still small, the failure does not have meaning, because we do not have the concept of “failure”. If we have the concept of failure, then we will not be able to speak, will not be able to write and will not be running. Due to speak, write and walk through failure that must be incalculable amount. Similarly in the business world can also emulate a failure in our infancy and we can learn from the failure.
Coca-Cola experienced a failure in the first year of sales. Sales made by Coca-Cola beverages in place in the front desk and spend 73.96 dollars to the campaign through banner ads and coupons. Failure to make the Coca-Cola to create awareness of other media, the mass media, which have more strength disbanding other media at that time and promote Coca-Cola with the atmosphere of merriment.
Matsushita to produce the first plug adapter. Indeed, this adapter has been proposed to the leaders earlier but did not get a response. To make these products, Matsushita with four friends take four months. Once the product is so, it appeared that no one would buy this product.
In 1993, Compaq, which at the time as the sale of the PC market leaders, through cutting the price to rival Dell. The result Dell Computer suffer losses 65 million dollars in the first six months, which caused nearly. Dell to learn from failure. He tried to find other ways to sell computers. Dell eventually make a very fundamental change in business process re-engineering that is called. in the business introduce the E-Commerce. In 1999, Dell can sell 1.7 million dollars per day through the site E-Commerce. Dell shares rose 2,000 percent in two years. Dell is able to compete with world-class companies such as IBM, Compaq, HP, and Bell-NEC. Even the market share and profits continue to increase and eventually become the largest PC seller in the world.
When I started the business with friends, I experienced repeated failure of the back. I started with the failure of a book salesman, salesmen telex by phone, and car salesmenmaterials. Primagama that only get 2 students in this campaign has been doing quite frequently. CV. Wijaya, the company that serves the car care services, which eventually die. Similarly start a business center computer education “IMKI”, only 3 students and AMIKOM trusted by only 6 students. I’m with friends to try to learn from failure, and then make corrections and try to fix the reach of success.