7 Tips For Selecting the Best Small Business Brokers to Sell Your Business

Are you thinking about selling your business? Have you ever gone through the process before? Are you confidant that you can do it yourself? Where would your time be better spent, running your business at peak performance while trying to sell it, or focused on the advertising campaign, networking, negotiating, and coordinating the closure of the sale of your business? Maybe you should consider doing what you do best, running the business, and search out small business brokers and let them do what they do best, sell businesses. If you go that route, here are 7 tips to choosing a business broker that makes sense for you.

1. Don't get lost in the shuffle

You want your broker to have a proven record and a great reputation but you don't want the organization to be so big that your deal is passed off to a junior staffer. You want the active involvement of the principals.

2. Do your due diligence

You're about to engage the services of someone that is going to have a big impact on your financial life. Make sure you are comfortable with the relationship. Check with the International Business Brokers Association and see if your broker is a member in good standing. Follow up on the references provided and determine just how satisfied past clients are. Check with your local better business bureau and see if there are any unresolved complaints.

3. Use a specialist

Real estate agents and other professionals sometimes hold themselves out as business brokers on a part time basis. You want someone who makes their entire living selling businesses full time. Preferably somebody who has experience in your particular industry and someone who can point to successful sales they have made for your competitors.

4. Avoid heavy up front fee structures

Typically a business broker will charge between 10% and 15% of the sale price as a fee. While it is customary for them to ask for some up front fees to initiate the process, avoid those brokers who are looking for greater than a third. Also make sure that the up front fee is deductible from the sales fee when the business sells. Following this advice will save you from having to invest a ton of cash before you actually sell the business.

5. Only contract for the business selling services

Smaller business brokers will offer accounting and legal services that you will need during closing for an additional fee and these services are typically outsourced by the broker. It may be to your advantage to contract for those services directly leaving the broker with only the requirement to focus on the selling process and not generating add on fees.

6. Share your expectations

Before you select a broker you should have at least a general idea of what you want to accomplish by selling your business. You should have a rough valuation number and you should know if you want a cash sale or stock. Share this with the broker and see if he agrees with your plan. While there probably will be differences in valuation, your broker should be in tune with the rest of your objectives. If he's reluctant or believes that it will be difficult to achieve your goals, find another broker.

7. Keep the whole process confidential

The last thing you want to do is let the word that you are seeking a business broker or that you are in negotiations with a buyer leak out. Once it becomes common knowledge that you are selling, your relationships with your employees, customers, vendors and bankers could be adversely affected. Have an exit plan for after the sale that includes sharing the news with all those listed above.

Using business brokers to help sell a business is usually the smart route to take for any business of substance. You want your organization to have as much "curb appeal" as possible during the process and that means you should be focusing your time on optimizing the business not chasing down buyers.

How to Find a New Business Agency

It is important to keep a good stream of customers and clients. It is very easy to get complacent when you have enough clients - but if one of those clients disappeared would your business feel the effect? Or worse would it crumble?? Working with a New Business Agency can help you win clients and grow your business. There is no denying that new business / lead generation can be time consuming, hard work and expensive but overall it can be worthwhile and cost effective.

Many Creative and Marketing Agencies work with New Business Agencies; it is an effective way to get your work in front of companies you want to work with. I wrote this article after to speaking to the Directors of Creative Agencies and other Business Development Managers. This article is for small Creative and Marketing Agencies new to new business and looking to work with a New Business Agency for the first time.

I think it fair to say in the world of new business you do get what you pay for. You can get a telesales person to call thousands of companies and pay a minimal fee, or you can choose an agency that approach new business intelligently. The second will be costly but can you afford not to?

New Business Agencies specialise in finding you clients in order to grow your business. Although agencies work in different ways, the long and short of it is that, they will phone companies on your behalf with the view of setting up a meeting between you and the potential client. Sounds simple enough, but the new business process is more than simply cold calling.

Before you jump in at the deep end there are a few factors to bear in mind when choosing a New Business Agency. They are all different and will all have diverse ideas about the way new business should be conducted. Here are a few questions to ask your new business agency before you work with them?

Question 1 -Results or Numbers?

If a New Business Agency promises to target 500 companies a week and guarantees you five meetings, be aware. This can be a potential time waster for some agencies. If a New Business Manager is pressured to get you in front of x amount of clients, they will. Whether the meeting is worthwhile or not, is not their problem they just have to reach their targets.

If the person handling your new business account is a really good sales person with a hard sales technique they may be able to force a potential client to have a meeting with you whether they have work, or you are suitable. These are good sales people, but they may not be producing qualified leads.

For example, if you are a design agency who specialises in content managed websites for small businesses, you do not want to end up at a meeting to rebrand Kellogs. Yes, this would be a fantastic opportunity, but in competition with top branding agencies do you stand a chance? If you only work for big brands similarly you may not want to show up to a meeting to discuss a £300 website.

A good New Business Manager should be keen and results driven but also able to evaluate a qualified lead. By giving too many targets you are ultimately pushing them into a corner to produce meetings. You do not want to attend any old meeting. A perfect meeting is a potential client who is looking for an agency for a particular project or looking to change their roster of agencies. A good meeting is also a simple credentials meeting with one of your wish list companies, who you plan to impress with solid ideas.

Rather than an agency driven by numbers, consider an agency driven by results. Unfortunately, but realistically, new business is not always about getting work now. It is about creating a pipeline and raising your profile. If your Account Handler has a good conversation with a Decision Maker about a suitable project which will be commissioned later that year, this is better than a credentials meeting. You can then keep in regular contact with the decision maker until that project comes up. By the time you have the meeting you will be talking about a particular project rather than running through a portfolio.

Look at the pipeline as much as the amount of meetings.

Question 2 - How Targeted is their New Business Approach?

Are you trying to reach as many companies as possible to offer your services to? For some businesses this may work but I doubt if this works for many. A New Business Agency which suggests a highly targeted approach will more than likely receive better results. For example a design agency looking to build up a client list does not want to target 'any' business with "we do design" it really is not going to stand out, and it simply becomes a game of chance.

A web design agency who mainly works with restaurants producing content managed websites could contact other restaurants with a similar offer. However, you don't need to limit yourself to restaurants, always look to expand your market but do it with careful consideration. If you work with restaurants you could then aim at hotels, pubs, bars and clubs. Of course, you can always expand your market but showing a potential client experience in your field is going to be beneficial. (My next article will go further into this subject).

Look at the size of the business - if you have only ever worked with SMEs build this up gently don't suddenly aim for Coke. Look at the location of businesses, do you have the time and money to travel from London to Glasgow for a meeting or do you need to stay local. A good New Business Agency will create a database tailored to your business capabilities. In order to tailor a database it is advisable to initially work with your New Business Agency, they should be able to give advice to you. But you need to know which direction you are heading with your business, and where you sit, and would like to sit in the market place.

Although this may sound as if I am stating the obvious, a few of the new business managers I spoke to told me stories of how their clients took little interest in the strategy and simply left to them to get meetings with no direction. These clients then refused to leave London to attend meetings and refused any project under £5000 (although they had never completed a project for this much money).

Question 3 - How do they find the Decision Maker?

When your New Business Agency is going to send your information to the company, how are they going to find the right person? There is plenty of information available on the internet these days on Marketing Directors of companies. Although it would be wonderful to gain a meeting with someone so high up in the company how likely is this?

The Marketing Director of Nike is not generally going to interview agencies for a microsite. In most cases it would be a waste of time and money trying to reach them on the phone to set up a meeting. Aim lower. Nike is a huge corporation and it will take patience and careful research to find the person in charge of commissioning microsites and it won't be the Marketing Director.

Especially in recent years more and more new roles are appearing in companies, new media managers, advertising managers, mobile managers, interactive managers, account directors, creative directors - who are you looking to work with? Aim for less companies as research can be time consuming, but ensure your representative is talking to the right person. Letters simply addressed to the Marketing Director are hard to follow up with a phone call. Find out how and who your New Business Manager will be trying to contact.

Question 4 - Who else is the agency working with?

It is great to work with an agency that has skills in selling what you are offering, even better to get a New Business Manager with these exact skills. But if your New Business Manager is working with three Mobile Marketing Agencies is your account being kept separate? What is your agencies ethics of sharing potential clients?

Your new business account should be, if at all possible, separate to any other companies. You do not want to paying for someone else's new business. It can be all too easy for a New Business Manager to find details of a company looking to rebrand all their marketing collateral... and keep two design agencies happy.

Question 5 - Who is your Account Handler?

Always ask to meet the person handling your account. It is your business, and they are representing you, be sure you like the way they come across. Your New Business Manager should not really read from a script and should be confident and knowledgeable enough to hold an in-depth conversation. If you are a New Media Agency does your New Business Manager know their augmented reality from their rfId barcodes, and how far can they carry on with this conversation?

In order to find common ground with a potential client it is good to know about their business before having a conversation with them. This means your New Business Manager has to be knowledgeable about the sectors they are targeting.

New Business Mangers should be versatile. They should be good researchers, communicators and able to pick up information quickly. Providing a New Business Manager has had experience in marketing or creative agencies they will understand the processes and jargon and can generally adapt to other industries that have specialist interests. Someone on the other hand, who has no background in design, marketing or creative industries in general will probably find it harder to learn everything from scratch and find out about niche markets.

Building Business Credit Made Easy With Business Credit Card

The importance of building business credit need not be stressed if you are small business owner. You might already be aware of how a good business loan profile can help you climb the ladder of success with ease. There are several ways to build business credit and one among them is owning a business loan card and using it wisely. Enterprise bank cards can be obtained easily in comparison with other line of credits and probably that's why we find at least 65 percent of business owners having a business charge card. What could be more attractive than conserving cash while you are able to meet your overheads? However, just like your personal charge card, you need to be careful while using business credit cards and use them solely for business purposes.

If you are planning to build corporate credit through business credit cards, here are few other benefits they offer --

• Enterprise bank card aids to establish business loan when you use them wisely. So if your goal is to have a good business loan score, make your payments on time and do not misuse or mismanage enterprise bank cards. However, you need to do your business with people who report transactions to the credit bureaus.

• Running a business involves making a lot of purchases that cannot be done through personal credit cards due to the lower credit limit. Enterprise credit cards have a higher credit limit about $50,000 that makes purchasing simpler.

• With the use of business bank cards you can keep your personal and business finances well sorted. You no more have to break your head with transaction details while you are paying taxes

• business bank cards enable you to set limits for employee spending.

• You will be entitled to discounts on business travels or business purchases if you have collected reward points.

A Business bank card doesn't only serve the purpose of reserve cash but it also helps on promoting your business while you display its success. Home based business owners make use of business bank cards to increase their credibility.

Business loans cards need to be used with care. When used properly they help your business prosper but at the same time mismanagement leads to unwanted results. If you take a simple example of the 21 days grace period, when you miss the payment on 21st day you attract extra fee plus a negative effect on your business loan profile. Also be careful while availing cash advances. They incur a lot of interest and extra fee. If possible, avoid them.

Do not settle for the first loan card company you inquire about. Compare and contrast all features like interest, grace period, reward points, privileges and extra fee for the same. Also, keep in mind the more credit enquire you make your scores come down. Limit yourself to just 2-3 charge cards. Building business credit with business charge card is fairly simple as long as you follow simple rules.

How Online Business Mentoring Can Make Or Break Your Internet Business

Online Business Mentoring is becoming more and more crucial in obtaining success with an Internet Business. As more and more people flood to Internet opportunities, to earn money online, having the right training, and mentoring becomes exceedingly important. While websites lay the foundation for easy carefree days, the reality is you have to learn important and fundamental strategies in order to be successful.

The sea of information that can be found online can prove to be useful in obtaining your goals. There are plenty of experts who will give some information in order to build a business. Yet the alarming side to this wealth of Information is that there is plenty of misinformation that can have your business heading for destruction. The Internet may provide us with information at our fingertips, but when it comes to business building strategies it is difficult to be trained effectively, by simply following terms online.

More online business mentoring teams are organizing effective training platforms to assist new Internet Business builders in gaining their success. Compared to prior years where the training was non-existent many saw a desperate need to give mentoring to those who desired true success online.

With the high demand of mentors and trainers there are some online business mentoring teams tapping into the market place that are not delivering on their promise of mentoring and training. You need to know what to look for when seeking online business mentoring? Following fundamental key strategies in discovering who is actually going to give your Internet Business the success you are looking for.

Below Is Ten Of The Most Critical Steps To Finding The Right Online Business Mentoring

1.) Training Credentials - Who will be training and mentoring you. How long have they been in business? You want to ask questions about the mentors. Their specialties and how they will directly help your business success.

2.) Back Ground Check - Use the search engines to search your mentors. Get their names and correct spelling. Do a search online and see what credentials or information you can obtain. Make sure they have been online for some time. Make sure they have had previous mentoring and training. It is exceedingly important to insure there is no fraudulent activity. If they have led illegal or fraudulent activity it will be noted when you do a search. If they have all these credentials this is a good sign, however it is not enough to insure they will give you the training you desire.

3.) Training Game Plan - Professional Online Business mentoring will have a suggested action or game plan to build your business to success. While it may change some according to your products and services they should be able to provide you with a game plan. If they can't then I would question if they have the knowledge or capability to train you effectively

4.) Marketing Trainings - Marketing is the core of your business. In order to have a well versatile training you should have trainings that specialize in a wide variety of marketing's. You cannot just depend on one or two to truly be successful. You want a wide variety of knowledge. Marketing trainings should specialize from free marketing strategies, to paid marketing strategies.

5.) Customized Training - Putting ten people into the same structured training is not as effective as customized training. Out of ten people everyone will learn differently and at different speeds. Often failed training is because training was not customized to the trainees needs. It becomes imperative to insure that the training is going to be met according to ones needs. Question the online business mentoring team how they customize your individual game plan. If they are leading in training this should be easily explained, and action plan should be available for you

6.) Testimonials - You want to insure testimonials are available. The question has become how do you know which testimonials offer the most credibility. Pictures are still worth thousand words. If they have just a blank testimonial with no picture credibility would be questioned. Also video is another great resource, but for many load time many put a few videos then pictures with their testimonial. No less then 10 testimonials is recommended. If they are delivering on their promise then having testimonials becomes important decision factor.

7.) Back Office -Everyone has a back office with training and mentoring. This is a valuable resource; however make sure it's not your only resource.

8.) Webinar Capability - Webinar allows you to follow your trainers screen while exercises are being completed. This is extremely important not only for comprehension of trainings, but also for long-term trainings. Most good online business mentoring will have these capabilities for you to utilize.

9.) Ongoing Support - Classes, forums, group training is great. But individual training time is increasingly important. Finding online business mentors to give you the one on one time is important. Insuring that you have a follow up should you have problems is important. While email, and support desk are great resources it still can't beat the one on one personal effect from your mentors

10.) Group Networking - A team of people compared to one mentor is very useful for success. Having a network of like-minded, and goal-orientated people can be a benefit to your Internet Business. Question the networking, and how people work together to help you achieve your goals.

Most new Internet Business owners understand the importance of getting mentoring and training. As the demand of for online business mentoring has increased so has the fake training platforms. There are mentoring platforms that can have your business going to new heights. You just have to do your research to insure that you are getting the best possible training for Your Internet Business

Is Your Business Ready to Reach For the Cloud

Technology buzzwords that depict recent innovations and popular trends are often misunderstood and/or misrepresented, which can hinder a general understanding of how the new technology could potentially enhance businesses.

Cloud computing is one of the latest buzzwords that falls into this category. What exactly is cloud computing? How can it help meet business needs? Are businesses ready to adopt this new paradigm?

A quick Google search on this buzzword resulted in over 47 million hits. Intimidating, to say the least. A typical business owner or executive may find it difficult to comprehend cloud computing and how it can help their business.

A basic understanding of cloud computing and the potential impact for businesses is a good place to start. Education is key, and trusted IT advisors can help business owners and executives sort through the confusion and determine if it is right for their business.

In simple terms, cloud computing is Internet-based computing, where access to servers, applications and storage is available for pay-as-you-go services. It doesn't matter where the devices or software services are located in the cloud, only that businesses can access, manage and share the information on a secure basis.

Cloud computing is an umbrella term that includes hardware hosting, software hosting and services, storage services, spam filtering, application development services, web services and other elements. These services are available on a utility or subscription basis.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), a component of cloud computing, is a business software application that is delivered from a provider to the desktop browser via the Internet for a fee. Salesforce.com is a popular Customer Resource Management (CRM) application that is considered a SaaS.

Google Gmail is another example of SaaS. Businesses can use Gmail with their domain name through the Internet on a per-user fee, and requires minimal management and administration.

Many SaaS vendors are emerging to meet business demands, including Accounting/Finance, operations and ERP applications. SaaS vendors offer specialized vertical market solutions that offer businesses a complete suite of applications to run the business.

The strategic decision to move to this new IT delivery strategy should include a business justification and cost analysis. Potential options should be well understood, discussed and analyzed when developing an IT Strategy to meet business goals, and included if it makes sense for the business.

Business drivers to consider during an evaluation to move to cloud computing may include:

• Large mobile workforce

• Rapidly expanding business

• Limited IT resources with increased business needs

• Total cost of ownership.

Cloud computing is a transition from capital intensive investments to operational-based IT expenditures, and offers an attractive option for businesses. Instead of purchasing, implementing, managing and supporting servers and business applications, cloud computing allows businesses to pay-as-you-go with minimal initial investment.

Cloud computing is a means to efficiently deliver IT services to the business and can provide many benefits:

• Reduced IT costs - capital and operational resource requirements

• Increased reliability - high availability with Service Level Agreements

• Increased agility - scalable and flexible to meet changing business requirements

• Increased mobility - applications are available anywhere through the Internet.

On the downside, there are some concerns with cloud computing. Security and privacy are at the top of this list, as some businesses are apprehensive about storing critical business information outside of the data center. Standards are virtually nonexistent, and vary with each provider.

With all the buzz about this new paradigm, one would think many businesses are quickly jumping on the bandwagon. However, a Gartner analyst predicted only about 20 percent of businesses will migrate to the cloud by 2012, and concluded it may take 10 - 15 years for most businesses to make the transition.

A recent study by Microsoft Corporation revealed that many Small and Medium-sized Businesses are finding that cloud computing is a cost-effective means to access Enterprise-class applications to run the business. The report indicated that benefits included low cost entry, reduced IT management and support, increased business value and competitiveness.

Cloud computing is still in its infancy, but gaining popularity. Businesses should perform the appropriate due diligence to determine if this IT delivery strategy is right for them. Perhaps it is time for your business to reach for the cloud.

Use Internet Marketing to Level the Field For Offline Businesses

One of the biggest problems facing small offline businesses and new business startups has always been trying to compete against larger, established businesses with considerably more available capital in their advertising budget. Whether those larger offline businesses have been using flyers, consumer shows, focus groups, print ads, radio spots or TV commercials, traditionally they've just needed to outspend you to protect their higher market share and often nibble away at yours.

But now, thanks to the Internet, you have a way for your small business to level the playing field to one extent or another. Used properly, online marketing can have a major impact on your business for little or no cost, and for entrepreneurs and other solo business professionals can even give you a way to turn your small offline businesses into true family businesses.

For example, article marketing is a powerful online marketing tool that can be used by online or offline businesses alike at no cost. If you're not a good writer or are usually pretty pressed for time, do you have kids at home of high school or college age? Knocking out 300-400 word articles is usually a breeze for them since they're writing for school regularly, so enlist their aid in your online marketing efforts. Even paying them $5 or $10 an article gives them more incentive, keeps them in spending money and is a legitimate way to spread the income from the business. (Just check with your accountant to be sure it's a tax write-off in your area before entering it as such in the books.)

Is yours a stay-at-home spouse? If so, seek their help in establishing a social media presence for your business using Twitter, Facebook 'fan' pages, etc. If your small business lends itself to visual representation, use photos from your digital camera to get the word out on the photo-sharing sites and use the photos to illustrate points on your business blogs. Since most families have a digital video camera these days, learn to use the software that came with it to render your videos, then use them to market your small business through video sharing sites. Your videos can be you discussing your business, videos of you conducting business or teaching how the business operates, or even full-blown commercials like you'd see on television - any of those can help build small offline businesses.

And most importantly, be sure you have one of the best business blogs in your line of work. That doesn't mean the fanciest or the most expensive - in fact it can be done quite cheaply. The best business blogs are those that are the most helpful to their target audience. You already know what information your potential customers need, what they should know about your area of expertise, what they should know about your and your small business, and what they should watch out for in your marketplace. You also know what goods and services are available to them, which they should use and which they should avoid, and why.

So get that information out there on your business blog - help your target market by educating them in the areas they want to - and should - know about. The more helpful you can be to them with the information you post on your small business blog, the more likely your are to turn those targeted leads into customers. And combined with the Internet marketing strategies above, your small business blog can help you level the playing field against those larger, richer offline businesses.

Home Based Business Checklist Revealed

There are some important aspects that you need to consider when starting a home based business with a network marketing company or a multi level marketing company because the home based business industry can be very over whelming and if you want to be successful then you are going to need to run an easy home based business.

Why?

Because there is a new person joining this industry looking to start a home based business for themselves every 17 seconds so it is very important that you can offer an easy home based business for even a newbie to run and become successful with.

What are the things to look out for in a company that can provide this easy home based business?

You want to join a company that has a great business overview webinar that you can send your prospects to so you don't have to do any selling because the best way to sell someone on something is to let someone sell themselves.

You want to be in a position so you can just focus on your prospect, find out why are they looking for a business and what they are looking for in a business.

If you join a company that has a great business overview webinar then you can follow this four step system to create an easy home based business for yourself.

1 - Generate a lead

2 - Have a conversation with your prospect, qualify them to attend the business overview webinar.

3 - Send them to the business overview webinar

4 - Call back and collect their decision

Your entire business model should revolve around this four step system, these are the action steps that will make you money in your easy home based business if you're not closing sales and bringing people into your business you aren't making money.

OK so let's face it without a constant supply of leads this four step system just doesn't work so when it comes to choosing a company to join you absolutely must have a training centre that teaches you how to market using the internet.

You want an internet marketing university that you can plug your new business partners into so they to can learn the very latest internet marketing strategies for generating targeted leads for their business, leads are the life blood of your business! Without leads you don't have a business.

If you are putting in the hard work you want to be getting paid the big bucks for your efforts so when you are searching for the right company to join you want a compensation plan that is going to pay big dollars, you don't want to have to bring 100 people into your business just to make $1000, you want a compensation plan were you can make $1000 - $14000 from bringing just one person into your business this is called a top tier compensation plan.

The compensation plan is a very important part to your home based business because this is your pay structure and you want to maximise your efforts by getting paid big dollars, this makes it all worth while also allowing you to transition from your current employment to working full time on your home based business.

One of the most important aspects to think of when partnering with a company to start a home based business is that you must have a passion for the product or opportunity that you are selling, you want to partner with a company that is closed to your heart and passions because at the end of the day this is a business and if you don't enjoy working on your business then it just becomes another job.

5 Reasons Why You Should Write a Business Plan

If you are in the process of starting a business or considering expanding an existing business, most advisors, and books written on the subject, say you must have a Business Plan. You may be doubtful given that it means you need to take precious time out of your busy schedule to put your plans on paper.

But do you really need a Business Plan?

A survey carried out on 400 UK entrepreneurs by SimplyBusiness revealed that 54% of business owners don't have a Business Plan. Shocked? I was. Based on my experience when dealing with both start ups and seasoned business owners I thought the figure was on the low side! Only 54%?? Come on. I can count on one hand the number of business owners who have a Business Plan.

So, is a Business Plan as essential as we're led to believe? Can you build a business without one?

What's the Answer?

The simple answer to these two questions is... yes.

Yes, a Business Plan is essential; and yes, you could still build a successful business without one, but the unknown aspect is, could you have been even more successful if you had written a Business Plan?

You'll never know but perhaps now is the time to think again.

Perhaps you are not sold on the idea that all the effort required to prepare a plan is worthwhile. If this is you let's consider 5 key benefits for you and your business.

Feasibility and Viability

Taking time out to write a Business Plan will assist you in assessing the feasibility and viability of your idea. You may assume that sitting back and planning your future empire in your head is going to cover all the aspects of your business. Maybe, but the process of writing your thoughts down on paper will bring to the fore all the risks and potential pitfalls you hadn't thought of. A Business Plan forces you to put your ideas down in writing and in an orderly manner. The result of this could be you going in the opposite direction or even dropping your idea altogether. Not a pleasant thought, but which would you prefer? Losing your capital or the chance to re-consider your idea?

A Measuring Tool

A Business Plan is an ideal means of monitoring your progress against the objectives you set yourself. By checking the progress you are making against your Plan you'll be able to quickly identify if you are drifting from your original vision; know this and you will be able to take corrective action.

Consider if you didn't have this check in place; a slight change in direction, if not spotted or left uncorrected for too long, could be damaging to your business. On the other hand, it may be that a swing from your original vision would be a more profitable alternative, one which may not have come to mind before. At least with a Business Plan you have given yourself the choice.

Get the Numbers Right

Do you really know with 100% certainty how much money you'll need? Have you covered all the possible financial eventualities? It's difficult to answer yes to this question if you don't have a Business Plan.

A Plan will challenge you to consider whether you have the correct amount of funding needed to make your idea work. You may have a rough estimate of the funding you require, but until you prepare your Financial Forecasts you may not realise that a few extra thousand is needed.

Helping to Get the Bank on Your Side

One of the key reasons why banks don't support requests for finance is lack of information. If your manager doesn't have a good enough 'feel' for your idea or business then you are giving the bank every reason to say no.

A Business Plan will make the bank feel much more comfortable about the risks they are being asked to take. Without information to balance out the pros and the cons it would be easier for the bank to say 'no' and move onto the next request. By investing time in preparing a plan you are improving your chances of success of getting support from your bank.

A Business Plan Can Say it Better Than You Can

Not everyone has a smooth way with words and sometimes even the best communicator's need the back up of the written word. No matter how good a presenter you are, it's unlikely you will be able to convey your vision as clearly as a Business Plan. Too often a business owner will try to sell their idea to their bank or a potential investor and at the end of the session the manager is none the wiser than he was at the start. A Business Plan leaves little or no room for misunderstandings.

You should now realise that it's essential to have a Business Plan; it may be the difference between success and failure! It's all about understanding the importance of planning ahead. Invest time putting your plans on paper because it will pay you dividends in securing the funding you need and the future success of your business

How to Develop Your Best Business Ideas

The best business ideas for any new business, be that online or offline, are simply those that fit in with what you as the new business owner are interested in and enthusiastic about. If you are serious about planning for success in whatever business venture you choose to take on then a keen interest in your chosen niche is a must. It is a proven fact that the most profitable business ideas come from knowing exactly what to do and how to start doing it. This does not mean that you need to be an expert in your field right from the start. All you need is that enthusiasm and a willingness to learn as much as possible before you've wasted time and money trying to work out what's best for you. In other words, it's about finding the right income trigger blueprint for the road to success. An income trigger blueprint is just like a guide, or course, for starting and running a small business. It will provide you with the precise instructions on what you need to do in terms of steps that must be taken to plan out your business strategy whether you plan to have a business online, offline or both.

A small business course is more than useful towards the future of you running your own business the best way possible. In many cases you can get valuable insider information as well as finding other tips and tricks from those with much more business experience. Being an entrepreneur can be a risky career choice but if you know all the start-up steps, including things such as how to write a successful application to get a small business loan, you are well on the way to successfully go about owning your own business and starting out with everything you need.

Discovering the best business ideas can easily be done by following a plan to succeed that has been proven to work by the person who created it. Following a plan to succeed will be the best way to start out owning your own business. Often people believe that all they will need to begin their career as a business owner is to get a small business loan to get started. But that is not the only thing that you will need to be successful in setting up a small business. In fact, most people are actually very naive about starting their own business. It is not uncommon that once new entrepreneurs have started their business, the ideas they thought would turn out to be profitable business ideas failed them because they didn't bother to take part in a useful and educational small business course.

Taking a small business course will help to broaden your educational boundaries within the business industry that you take part in and it can only bring in positive results towards the success of your soon-to-be empire. The absolute best small business ventures are founded on a blueprint that will help to support the business plan and actually see it through. Again, this is where knowing how to compile a well laid out business plan that is designed the way that you want your business to be will help to turn those simple dreams into reality and you will be more than satisfied.

In a way, you can think of the small business course as a business expense and in most cases you are able to write it off when it comes time to file your tax return. Just remember, the most profitable business ideas can only come to fruition when you have a plan to succeed that is specific to your business. It is time to take control and decide that you are made to succeed in the world of business online and off. Owning your own business is just a stone's throw away by learning how you can find and refine the best business ideas for your niche and plan to succeed.

Elizabeth Todd is a small business mentor with quite a number of years experience running her own business. She studied accounting and information systems and started her career as a business analyst consulting in the banking and finance industry. She subsequently moved into other areas such as hospitality and viticulture Having owned and operated several business ventures since then, she now likes to use her experience to help other new business owners on their road to success.

How Much Equity Should I Own In My Business

Most SMB (Small to Medium Businesses) owners tend to hold onto too much equity because they worry that if they give equity away, they will lose control of their company. Some owners want to own 100% of their company because they want more cash when they sell their business, others are just not comfortable with the idea of it. This is a myth. Sharing equity is a valuable method that when used correctly can increase the value of your business marginally. Below are a few points as to why you WOULD want to share your equity with investors or third parties.

How much equity should I share?

When raising capital, investors usually require a share of equity in your business to lower the risk of them losing their funds. If things go down south and they have a minority interest in your business they will have some form of control as well the ability to sell their share of the business if needed. You have a much better chance of financing your business or acquisitions by offering a piece of your company. Usually investors will take between 10 - 50%+ of your business depending on how desperate you are for the cash or how the deal is structured. If you are a start-up business, expect to give away anywhere from 30%-50% of the business to get things going. The more prepared you are, the less likely you are to give away "too" much equity.

You can also increase the value and credibility of your business by giving away free equity to a high caliber entrepreneur in return for their advice and/or services. Some high-level entrepreneurs may charge high costs to consult businesses, so why not try to offer them a piece of equity in return for their services. For example, let's say you are looking to get into business, you ask the bank to fund your business idea...

The bank initially refuses to help because your idea is too "risky" and they don't believe you have the necessary experience to run the company by yourself (most small business entrepreneurs will encounter this problem)...

Equity in exchange for services

So you approach an experienced entrepreneur in the same industry with a deal by researching online. You offer to give away a small piece of equity (say 10%) in return for the entrepreneur to jump on board with you and help you run the business a couple of days a month. They would have a set number of tasks that they would need to accomplish. You then take the same idea to the bank and tell them you have an experienced board member that is going to assist you to run the business and show them the business and consultancy plan - bank evaluates the risk factor and your chances of getting the cash increase substantially because the project has now become less risky.

You can also distribute equity in your company or idea between investors, suppliers, board of advisors etc. The point of doing this is to share the risk of the business, but most important of all, to lower the risk of your business or idea. You have a much better chance of finding finance, selling your business or even successfully running your business with a team of experienced personnel that are helping you complete your objectives. A word of caution when sharing business equity with suppliers, board of advisors etc, nothing is forever - always have a buy back clause in your written agreement that states after a certain period of time or revenue point, you will buy back the shares and recover the shares that were tied up initially.

Finally,

Before attempting any share dilution of your business, contact a business consultant or corporate advisor to get a third opinion. Every business is different and requires a different approach when sharing equity. Simply ensure that you're not giving away too much of the business too quickly and that every agreement is in writing. You don't want to end up having a dispute with your mentor/business advisor because of control issues or "vague" written agreements.

Eddy Valentin has been involved in business planning, start-ups and getting projects investor ready over the last 7 years. His latest venture [http://www.ValentinReport.com] was built to help small business entrepreneurs avoid the pitfalls of the business world, as well as provide sound advice to help them make better business decisions.