Business Management News

Starting a business from scratch can be both a liberating and exhilarating experience for the aspiring entrepreneur. However, it is not a decision to take lightly as it requires the person to willingly make significant changes to their lifestyle, mindset, and level of commitment that is required for building a business. After all, it is significantly different being a small business owner rather than being an employee that works for someone else. For instance, a person that is someone else’s employee enjoys the reliability of receiving wages and benefits for their daily efforts in helping the business stay functional. It also means the employee has vast amounts of company resources at their disposal, whereas the small business owner has to develop it themselves.

I hope 2018 was a great year for you and your business and that your expectations for 2019 are even better. Most of you haven’t even begun to think about taxes for 2018, but I wanted to start the year asking you to think about taxes for 2019. I know, I know, who cares about a tax return that isn’t due until April of 2020 but I will put my money where my mouth is. You may have heard me say that almost all tax savings ideas, the really good ones, end as the New Year comes in. Most great ideas have to be considered and implemented before the end of the year and before you actually start filling out any of those silly IRS tax forms. I want to help you save up to $5,000 in taxes for 2019 just by reading this idea and then saying, “Yes”!

No matter how experienced or skilled a salesperson may be, closing the deal is always the most challenging (and critical) part of the process. It doesn’t matter if you can reel a potential client in if you can never actually hook them.

When you are operating a business there is nothing as bad as a missed opportunity. Any unexpected event whether manmade or natural can greatly disrupt your business. To avoid such problems it’s very important to create a business continuity plan. A good business continuity plan will help you reduce the loss and downtime in case there is a disruption. It will also help boost your employee and customer confidence and ensure that your business is back on track. Read through to learn some of the tips that can help you.

When the frustration of the daily grind or the thoughts that “I could do this and be my own boss” start to cross your mind, then it is time to sit down and plan how to get from the “here” of a job to the “there” of starting your own business.

Somewhere between that “ah-ha” moment of a great business idea and cashing your first paycheck should be a lot of research to determine what the market is like for your idea. Many entrepreneurs are very good at coming up with services or products that sound like they fill a need, but fall short in how to enter the market. Often they will blindly jump into the business arena, only to find that they either failed to do any market research or grossly misunderstood the market.

Q: I've been a licensed professional counselor and marriage and family therapist for 21 years, and I've been in solo private practice since 1999 and have always rented office space. My wife and I are in the beginning stages of looking into arranging for me to work out of our home. Could you please provide us with any ideas or issues we need to be paying attention to in this endeavor?