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To Start a Business – The Home Based Model

Ever since my first business dealings selling flowers in front of the candy store in New York I’ve always been intrigued with small business. From flowers to pottery to newspapers to yard work to music to game rooms to advertising to rentals to advertising again… And then add in 10 years of sales and consulting to the mix.

Oh and by the way – the sales part started at about 9 years of age and has continued for over 35 years.

As of this writing I say 25 plus years but in reality it goes back 10 or more years to child- hood. You see my Dad always wanted his own business and from the time I can remember  he had something going on the side. He was either underfunded or didn’t have the right product or timing. The only venture that took off was the one he and my Mom started but then they divorced and she kept the business.

Boy have I had one heck of a journey in small business and since 1985 I’ve operated home based businesses side by side with off-site offices, warehouses and store front operations.

This leads to the questions about starting your home based business…

The questions arise – to start a business or not start a business and should you get started out of your home or setup an office or off-site facility somewhere else?

These are questions you really need to ask yourself and any partners who will be involved with you in your new enterprise.

Starting up a new business can be very exciting, emotional and some what of a roller coaster so be prepared, because if you are going to start a business and it’s You Inc, then consider starting it out of your home. This way you will keep your overhead low and be able ramp up without being tied into an office or building lease and all the additional expenses.

To start a business out of your home is much easier than the overhead headache of starting out with an office where you have to rent or lease. You can realize your dream, run your own show and live in the land of the self employed while allowing for flexibility of coming and going without limitations.

The bottom line is that you want to start with low overhead, minimize your expenses and maximum your ROI (return on investment). One of the best ways to do this is through a virtual office and virtual phone number.

In addition make sure that your legal house is in order, finances are in place and your business blueprint is completed before you open the doors. More importantly make sure that you are committed for the long-haul and are willing to do what it takes to get your business off the ground and up and running.

Operating your own business out of the home can make for a great life but you should have rules and guidelines for your home based business. And these rules should allow for flexibility but also maximize your time and productivity.

So now it’s time to get to work on your small business blueprint and remodel that ole bedroom into your world headquarters.

To your small business success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher

SmallBiz Mechanix 

 

Small Business Startup – Time to Move On

At a certain point during your small business start-up you will realize that your plan is working, kind of working or not working at all.

To start a business is one thing. To keep it going and have it succeed, let alone make a profit is entiely another story and that’s what I’m going to dig into today.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, it’s best to find mentors to guide you along the way, especially if you have never been in business before. Find other seasoned business owners that are willing to help and assist you so you can avoid icebergs, sharks, barracuda, jellyfish and all the other hazards that could sink your new enterprise.

The earlier you find these people the better.

Because a small business startup take time, perseverance and a willingness to do whatever it takes.  But without a plan and guidance, you might find yourself back in a job with the other percentage of folks who didn’t make it.

And now we’ll continue with the startup saga of the Two Jacks and Dave…

This story continues where we left off in part two – Beyond the Startup.

After the initial opening of the business and settling in we leased an office we couldn’t afford. This was a mistake and cost us dearly because we then had to move the office into my partners Mother’s home.  Boy was this humbling and an experience that I will never forget.

Fortunately for me I was very young, flexible and had tons of energy but the agency/management/product business was fledgling, underfunded, unfocused and not going to make it, unless serious changes were made.

Believe it or not this was a really great experience for me. Both the hard lessons learned and connections made were worth it, although at the time I can say it was quite stressful and led me to living in a hallway for $50 a month.

Talk about a hit to the self image. VP of Ad agency living in hallway – that’s what a client wants to know….NOT!

Anyways -we looked and searched for funding, but no takers arrived. I funded some of our dealings with my credit cards and ended up paying these off over a period of years. It’s a nice reminder of your mistakes and misdealings when you go to pay a bill every month for a few years.

Time to Pull The Plug…

At the point where I realized it was time to move on, it was almost too late, but I got out just in time. Instead of sticking it out I decided to move on and start anew, and start anew I did, but in a totally different small-business venture that again included family.

This was painful but proved to be the right move at the time. I needed stability and could not move forward with my existing business partner.

The downside of the split was that Uncle Jack had to pay off the bank and neither of us had enough cash to pay off Uncle Jack. This led to Uncle Jack’s kids coming after Dave and then Dave had to take an advance on a credit card to pay off his distant relatives.

Sound like fun? If not, then avoid the pitfalls and road blocks in your start-up by taking advantage of these points:

1. Have solid partnership agreements in place, even if it’s family. Make sure to have your legal  house in order, no matter what the potential partner says. Because when it comes to money or debt or liabilities, you could end up holding the notes like I did.

2. If you have a vision for your business and the market is ripe… Pursue and stick to your vision like GLUE!  Just like we should have with the ‘On Hold Product’ that we produced.

3. Like I said in the beginning of this post – FIND Mentors and people who will guide and help you along the way. It may take a month or two or three but it will be worth it.

Enjoy the journey…because it’s the only one you have.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

Secrets of the Tiny Store

 

 

 

 

Beyond the Small Business Startup

The story continues as Dave and the two Jacks move forward in their small business start-up. Maybe you missed part one in the continuing saga. If you did – check out my post Start Up a Business Now and you’ll see where the story began.

To bring you up to speed, the agency business was started by the two Jacks and myself. This was back in the late 1980’s, pre-Internet, when the fax was a mainstay for business communication and Motorola brick phones were a big deal for small business guys like us.

I left off with my Uncle coming into review the books the first week, but we had barely finished setting up our little office and the loan money hadn’t been in the checking account
for more than a few days. It was awkward and the other Jack was a night owl who didn’t function well in the morning.

We did have a plan and networked like crazy, but my Uncle Jack(the loan cosigner) didn’t see the ‘big bucks’ rolling in immediately, so he pulled out within months.

The good news was that we started to bring in a few accounts and cash flow picked up, but not enough to sustain both of us and the business.

So what did we do?

Like all determined small business owners starting out ….(well, maybe not all)…we started a management division and started managing musicians.  Oh boy was that a roller coaster and that took our focus off the agency.

Then we developed a marketing product for the telephone. It was one of the earliest ‘on hold marketing programs called ‘Marketing On-Hold’ and this started to take off but we didn’t focus on it.  Clue here for you my friend – if something you are doing starts to take off and grow – WATER AND FERTILIZE!

What’s sad about this story is that the MOH product really had the potential to be a big hit for the fledging little agency and initial testing proved that the product was sound and that there was a market for it. But the partners didn’t agree or focus on it long enough. This along with not doing our legal homework brought a lethal blow to the new product and our future together.

Now I could go on and on about the details – crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s, but know this – the lack of attention to detail cost us dearly.

So pay close attention to the details before, during and after your small business startup and find mentors and coaches who will guide you along the way. I know this sounds elementary but the details and guidance are very important. This way you will minimize the bumps in the road and have less repairs to make along the journey.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga about the Two Jacks and Dave. It’s worth the read.

Dave Krygier
Publisher

Secrets of The Tiny Store 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start Your Own Business – Part I

Have you been thinking lately that maybe it’s time you start your own business and run your own show? With all the options to choose from in today’s marketplace how does one make a decision as to which business is the right one?

One thing is for sure, starting a business can be a lot of work and takes time, effort and money. If anyone tells you different, turn and run the other direction.

Now making the new business a success and becoming profitable is entirely another story and this pertains to both online and offline ventures. So which way should you go, online or offline; home based, office location or ???

For the remainder of this post I’ll focus on starting your own business online and some of the current options available to you.

Online Business Options:

Although some online businesses might be less money to start up than offline ventures, there’s still a learning curve and money that you will need to get your business started.

One of the things I see is that people think with online businesses you can start them for free or next to nothing. Well I’ve got news for you, no matter which online business you choose, there are expenses involved like hosting, domain registration and site development, let alone traffic generation.

A few of the options that you might consider and look into are:

1. Affiliate Marketing is where you market other people’s products and services and when a sale is completed you receive a commission on the sale. Commissions can range from 3% to 70% and in some cases even 90% or greater. The range of affiliate products available to the online marketer are many. Affiliate marketing also works well with my next option and that is email marketing.

2. Email marketing is where you develop a list of subscribers and convert them into buyers through the process of selling products and/or services, either your own or someone else’s. This process is also called list building and can be referred to as building an email list. To start a business with email marketing is a great way to go, especially if you already have existing expertise on a specific subject or you have a passion about a product or service that you would like to market.

Email marketing can also be used if you decide to establish an e-commerce site of your own where you market your own products or affiliate products.

3. E-commerce is the original online method of moving goods and services. Back when I first started out on the web in 1995, this was how transactions were primarily done. E-commerce is still a sound method, especially for those business owners looking to develop and grow their own business online while having the freedom to mix their own products with other brands.

Look for part two of this series about starting your own business and I’ll go further into more online options plus how you can transition an offline business some things to watch out for. In the meantime – here’s another resource that might help you in starting your small business: Start a Small Business

Should you find that your start up is missing a part or needs something to get going – go see the Small Biz Mechanic and he’ll get you fixed up.

Dave Krygier
Publisher