Easy-to-follow advice on launching, managing, and growing your business, and making it pay off
Small Business For Dummies is the essential guide you need to owning and operating a small business. You’re ready to add your name to the roster of business owners, and this book is here to give you the advice you’ll need at all stages of the game. Start off with insight on preparing to launch a small business, including picking the right business to pursue and getting all the paperwork in order. If you want to purchase an existing business, this book also has you covered. Plus, you’ll learn how to wear all the hats a small business owner must wear, including being your own HR manager, accountant, and marketer—and to make it all work.
- Create a business plan and learn how to fund your business idea
- Tackle the basics of small business bookkeeping so you can budget for success
- Explore the idea of purchasing a business, and hire excellent employees
- Avoid the most common mistakes that first-time business owners make
This jargon-free book meets small business owners wherever they are on the road to business success. Small Business For Dummies is great for those just toying with the idea of opening a business, and for those who already call themselves “boss” but need a few extra pointers on making things run smoothly.
Daftar Isi
Introduction 1
Part 1: Getting Started with Small Business 7
Chapter 1: Is Small Business for You? 9
Chapter 2: Laying Your Personal Financial Foundation 27
Chapter 3: Finding Your Niche 43
Chapter 4: First Things First: Crafting Your Business Plan 61
Chapter 5: Making Financing, Ownership, and Organizational Decisions 83
Part 2: Buying an Existing Business 115
Chapter 6: Exploring Buying a Business 117
Chapter 7: Finding the Right Business to Buy 129
Chapter 8: Evaluating a Business to Buy 143
Chapter 9: Negotiating Terms and Sealing the Deal 163
Part 3: Running a Successful Small Business 175
Chapter 10: The Owner’s Responsibilities in the Start-Up and Beyond 177
Chapter 11: Marketing: Products, Pricing, Distribution, Promotion, and Sales 205
Chapter 12: Tapping Technology 241
Chapter 13: Keeping Your Customers Loyal 251
Chapter 14: Managing Profitability and Cash 263
Chapter 15: Learning from the Experiences of Others 289
Part 4: Keeping Your Business in Business 303
Chapter 16: Finding and Keeping Superstar Employees 305
Chapter 17: Providing Employee Benefits 335
Chapter 18: Handling Regulatory and Legal Issues 355
Chapter 19: Mastering Small-Business Taxes 369
Chapter 20: Cultivating a Growing Business 383
Part 5: The Part of Tens 405
Chapter 21: Ten Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make 407
Chapter 22: Ten Tips for Small-Business Success 417
Chapter 23: Ten Ways Recent Tax Reform Benefits Small Business 425
Index 429
Tentang Penulis
Eric Tyson, MBA, is a nationally recognized personal finance counselor, writer, and best-selling author of Personal Finance For Dummies and Investing For Dummies. Jim Schell is an accomplished serial entrepreneur, nonprofit founder, and executive. He spent twenty-five years as an entrepreneur and thirty years as a nonprofit founder and executive.