- English
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- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Small Business for Dummies
About this book
Get inspired to build a profitable business with this essential guide
In the latest edition of this bestselling and authoritative reference, Small Business For Dummies explains how to set your business on the path for success. Using this guide, you'll discover how to nurture your entrepreneurial spirit, build a winning edge over your competitors, and respond to the increasing challenges of everyday business.
From the basics of setting up a budget to working out your exit plan, this book explains how to grow a profitable business that responds quickly to opportunities. You'll learn how to identify what's different about your business, and how you can use this knowledge to build your brand and generate above-average profits.
This new edition also covers:
- Using business plans to stay one step ahead
- Building positive teams and managing employees
- Creating financial projections that actually work
- Attracting the kind of customers you really want
- Expanding your online presence
Whether you're a small business veteran or new to the game, this guide provides practical advice and inspirational guidance for every step along the way.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Small Business for Dummies by Veechi Curtis in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Small Business. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Part 1
Getting Started
IN THIS PART …
Find out whether you’re ready to be a small business owner.
Uncover where your winning tactic lies.
Decide whether to buy an existing business, start from scratch, or purchase a franchise.
Chapter 1
Is Small Business for You?
IN THIS CHAPTER
I love small business. For me, small business is about believing in yourself, being passionate about what you do and creating opportunities. Our culture of getting up, getting out and giving it a go fits perfectly with this entrepreneurial existence, explaining why so many Australians are hooked on the self-employed way of life.
Although starting your own business can be daunting at first, the everyday challenges don’t leave you with much time to regret your decision. Besides, being self-employed is a pretty addictive thing: Working your own hours, being responsible for your decisions and raking in handsome profits (here’s hoping) are just some of the attractions of being your own boss.
In this chapter, I talk about what it means to start your own business. I take you on a roller-coaster ride over the highs and lows of small business terrain (for every upside to being out there on your own, a downside exists, too), through to making the decision when to actually ‘open shop’. After all, the success of any venture depends on timing — the best time for the business, the best time for the economy and the best time for you.
So, put on your Stackhat, hold on tight and get ready for the trip of a lifetime …
Working for Yourself — A Dream Come True?
If you ask most small business people what they like the best about working for themselves, you’re likely to get a pretty cynical reply — something about the delights of working for peanuts and the thrills of doing bookwork in the wee hours of the night. But dig a little deeper, and most self-employed people warm to the question.
Doing what you love to do
Doing what you’re passionate about has a lot going for it. If you want to play the trumpet day and night, you’re likely to be happiest as a professional musician. If you love hanging off cliffs on the end of a rope, you’re going to dig being a climbing instructor. And if you’ve never quite gotten over your LEGO phase, you probably need to go and build houses.
Happy people love what they do for a living. Besides, being self-employed is often the only way you can get to do just that. (Nine-to-five jobs tend to be rather thin on the ground for trumpet players or climbing instructors!)
Earning pots of money (here’s hoping)
With many trades and professions, your income always has a pre-defined upper limit, no matter how hard you work — teachers, carpenters or nurses on the regular payroll, for example, are limited in the amount of pay they can get. However, by setting up your own business, whether you’re tutoring private students, building house extensions or doing private home nursing, your earning potential immediately increases.
Being your own boss
No-one is going to dispute being your own boss is fantastic. And no matter how much you stuff things up, no-one can give you the boot — except perhaps your customers — leaving you with a feeling of security that’s hard to beat. Here are some other reasons being your own boss feels so good:
- You get to set your own rules: Your rules may involve anything from setting enormously high standards, to declaring mufti days seven days a week.
- You choose when (and how often) you work: Of course, choosing when you work often means working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, in theory you can pick and choose which hours you work and when you take holidays.
- You follow your own instincts: You can do what you think is right, as opposed to doing what someone else thinks is right. I know firsthand how frustrating it is to be forced to do stuff the wrong way, or the slow way, just because the person who is giving the orders happens to be your boss.
- You can use your conscience: You can afford to make decisions that may not be the best from an economic point of view, but are good decisions in terms of your own conscience. For example, a business colleague of mine who recently purchased an electric car was acting according to her principles, rather than seeking to save dollars.
- You can take risks: When you’re self-employed, you can take risks that you may not be able to otherwise take. Thousands of successful businesses have been started by former employees who went out on their own because their employers didn’t believe in the viability of their new ideas.
- You can provide employment for family members: Being in a business team with your family, and being able to provide employment when it’s needed, can be one of life’s most satisfying experiences. (Of course, it can also be one of life’s most frustrating experiences, but I’m not going there right now.)
- You can realise your dreams: No business book is complete unless it mentions dreams. Nothing beats putting your heart and soul into what you believe in.
Staying home
I confess that working from home somewhat lost its shine for me during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, over the years I’ve really appreciated the flexibility that working from home affords. Generally, I love walking to my ‘office’, ten seconds down the hallway, rather than commuting two hours by train to the city.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part 1: Getting Started
- Part 2: Finding Your Entrepreneurial Spirit
- Part 3: Planning for Profit
- Part 4: People Power
- Part 5: High Finance
- Part 6: The Part of Tens
- Index
- About the Author
- Connect with Dummies
- End User License Agreement