Start Your Own Business

The Staff Of Entrepreneur Media

Description

Be Your Own Boss

Whether you're looking to earn extra money or are ready to grow your side hustle, Start Your Own Business is the first step toward entrepreneurship.

With more than 40 years of experience and advice shared on Entrepreneur.com and in Entrepreneur magazine, the team at Entrepreneur Media is uniquely qualified to guide a new generation of bold individuals like you looking to make it happen on their own terms.

Coached by business experts, practicing business owners, and thriving entrepreneurs, Start Your Own Business uncovers what you need to know before taking the plunge, securing finances, launching your venture, and growing your business from startup to household name. Learn how to:

• Avoid analysis aralysis when launching a business
• Define and research your ideal audience
• Test ideas in the real world before going to market
• Pitch and win funding from venture capitalists, apply for loans, and manage cash advances
• Evaluate if a co-working space is the right move for you
• Run successful Facebook and Google ads as part of your marketing campaign
• Use micro-influencers to successfully promote your brand on social media

Sujets

• Gestion de carrière
• Personal Success
• Strategic Planning
• Home-Based Businesses
• Small Business
• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Entrepreneurship
• Economics
• Business
• Entrepreneur
• Entrepreneuriat
• Emprendedor

Informations

• Publié par: Entrepreneur Press
• Date de parution: 10 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 30
• EAN13: 9781613084489
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Entrepreneur Press, Publisher
Cover Design: Andrew Welyczko
Production and Composition: Eliot House Productions
2021 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to Entrepreneur Media, Inc. Attn: Legal Department, 18061 Fitch, Irvine, CA 92614.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
Entrepreneur Press is a registered trademark of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
An application to register this book for cataloging has been submitted to the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-64201-135-7 (paperback) | ISBN 978-1-613 08-448-9 (ebook)
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Foreword by Jason Feifer
On Your Mark
PART 1
THINK
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
CHAPTER 2
Taking the Plunge: Get Ready to Be an Entrepreneur
CHAPTER 3
Good Idea! How Do I Know If I Have a Great Idea for a Business?
CHAPTER 4
Good Timing: Should You Launch Your Business Part or Full Time?
CHAPTER 5
Build It or Buy It? Starting a Business vs. Buying One
PART 2
PLAN
CHAPTER 6
Choose Your Target: Defining Your Market
CHAPTER 7
If You Build It, Will They Come? Conducting Market Research
CHAPTER 8
The Name Game: Naming Your Business
CHAPTER 9
Make It Legal: Choosing a Business Structure
CHAPTER 10
Plan of Attack: Creating a Winning Business Plan
CHAPTER 11
Call in the Pros: Hiring a Lawyer and an Accountant
PART 3
FUND
CHAPTER 12
All in the Family: Financing Starts with Yourself and Friends and Relatives
CHAPTER 13
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: How to Find and Attract Investors
CHAPTER 14
Looking for Loans: The Ins and Outs of Debt Financi
CHAPTER 15
Fed Funds: How to Get Government Loans
Get Set
PART 4
PREPARE
CHAPTER 16
What s Your Deal? Negotiating Successfully by Cliff Ennico
CHAPTER 17
Site Seeking: Choosing a Location for Your Business
CHAPTER 18
Looking Good: Creating a Professional Image
CHAPTER 19
Stock Answers: The Lowdown on Inventory
CHAPTER 20
Mailing and Shipping: Transporting Your Goods
CHAPTER 21
Charging Ahead: Offering Your Customers Credit
CHAPTER 22
Cover Your Assets: Getting Business Insurance
CHAPTER 23
Staffing Smarts: Hiring Employees
CHAPTER 24
Perk Up: Setting Employee Policies and Benefits
PART 5
BUY
CHAPTER 25
Buyer s Guide: Business Equipment Basics
CHAPTER 26
Business 24/7: Using Technology to Boost Your Productivity
CHAPTER 27
Your All-Important Website: Building Your Web Presence
CHAPTER 28
Keep in Touch: Using Technology to Stay Connected
Go!
PART 6
MARKET
CHAPTER 29
Brand Building: How to Build Your Brand
CHAPTER 30
Genius Marketing: Advertising and Marketing Your Business
CHAPTER 31
Talking Points: How to Promote Your Business
CHAPTER 32
Sell It! Effective Selling Techniques
CHAPTER 33
NOW Serving: Offering Superior Customer Service
PART 7
ENGAGE
CHAPTER 34
Net Sales: Online Advertising and Marketing
CHAPTER 35
Social Media: Using Online Platforms to Spread the Word
CHAPTER 36
Can YOU Relate? Social Media Networking
PART 8
PROFIT
CHAPTER 37
Keeping Score: The Basics of Bookkeeping by J. Tol Broome Jr
CHAPTER 38
Making a Statement: How to Create Financial Statements by J. Tol Broome Jr
CHAPTER 39
On the Money: Effectively Managing Your Finances by J. Tol Broome Jr
CHAPTER 40
Pay Day: How to Pay Yourself
CHAPTER 41
Tax Talk: What You Need to Know about Your Taxes with Insights from Mark J. Kohler
APPENDIX
Business and Government Resources
Glossary
Index
FOREWORD
By Jason Feifer
Editor-in-Chief, Entrepreneur Magazine
Y ou are about to do something hard. Let s not sugarcoat it. If business was easy, this book would be a lot lighter. But it s not. It s heavy! It could prop open doors. And that s because, in the beginning, you re likely going to be doing everything for your business. Sales. Marketing. Customer service. Product development. You will be 20 teams rolled into one. Things will go wrong that you didn t even know were possible.
But you know what? If you re meant for this, you re going to love it. You re going to say This is hard, but there s nothing else I d rather do. And that attitude will prepare you for anything.
I talk to entrepreneurs every day, and I keep hearing the same things. Even during hard times-even during the pandemic, and all the uncertainty that followed-they were making plans, revising, adjusting, and striving. How do they do it? If you re reading this far, it means that, deep down, you already know the answer.
It s because they knew it would be hard, but they did it anyway.
This sounds simple, but it s not. It s a profound distinction. Many people are afraid of failure, so they never take risks. Many others think they re invincible, so they make reckless decisions. But entrepreneurs are different. Entrepreneurs understand that their road is rocky. They accepted-a long, long time ago!-that nothing good comes easy. It s almost like an emotional immunization. If you know bad things will come, then bad things cannot overwhelm you.
Along this journey of entrepreneurship, you will repeatedly say I can do that even when you have absolutely no idea how to do that. Doesn t matter! You know you can figure it out.
Here s one of the scariest things you might hear along this journey: Nine out of ten businesses fail. That statistic comes up repeatedly; people cite it to me all the time. But it s not true, and it shouldn t scare you. In fact, it should encourage you.
First, let s dispel the statistic itself. Nine out of ten businesses do not fail. About half survive past four years, according to a study from the Small Business Administration, and a third of the ones that close were successful at the time of closing. So what happened? It appears that many owners may have executed a planned exit strategy, closed a business without excess debt, sold a viable business, or retired from the work force, the study says. In other words: Closing doesn t mean failure. It could mean anything.
We need to define for ourselves what success and failure look like. If you launch a business and it supports your family for four years, is that a success? What about a decade? Must it outlive you, passed down for two generations? Three? Five? You can decide all this for yourself, and don t let anyone tell you otherwise.
This leads us to the other misleading part of that statistic. Even if it were true that nine out of ten businesses fail, that doesn t mean nine out of ten entrepreneurs fail. To an entrepreneur, a failed business is simply a data point. It teaches us what to do better next time. The greatest entrepreneurs in the world have cycled through many, many businesses before they hit upon their billion-dollar idea. At no point did these people give up. They didn t close one business, declare themselves a failure, and get a desk job somewhere to toil away in obscurity. No! They dusted themselves off and started again.
You are not a failure, regardless of what happens next. By simply taking the leap into entrepreneurship, you are seeking to take control of your own life. You ll need to be nimble, humble, and willing to ask very uncomfortable questions. You ll need to sacrifice. You ll need to make hard decisions and say no more often than you say yes.
That s why we created a book like this-to help you along the most challenging early hurdles. You will need to embrace systems and processes, even if you ve always thought of yourself as a freewheeling person. You ll need to make consequential financial decisions like whether to buy an existing business or launch a new one, and whether to pay for real estate or start solely online. You may need to hire employees and become a good manager and leader. You ll need to learn marketing, sharpen your sales skills, and embrace customer service.
You know it won t be easy. But nothing great is easy. If you re willing to do all this-to truly put in the work, embrace the emotional challenges, and make the decisions that are best for the long-term health of your business-then I promise you: By some measure, you have already succeeded.
ON YOUR MARK
W hy did you pick up this book? Perhaps you know you want to be an entrepreneur and take charge of your own life. You ve already got a great idea for a business you re sure will be a hit. Or perhaps you think, somewhere in the back of your mind, that maybe you might like to start your own business, but you re not sure what venture to start. Perhaps you don t know what entrepreneurship is really like and want to learn more about it to determine whether or not it s for you. Whichever of these categories you fall into, you