Thursday, February 24, 2011

How to be a Business Plan Consultant

Business plans are definitely an essential part of every entrepreneur's startup. If you desire financing or small business partners they are going to need to see a good proposal. Even for anybody who is on your own and don't think your business requires a proper strategic business plan, it really is advisable to do some investigating and jot down some kind of system before you get started.

Should you be trying now to be self-employed for the very first time, you simply will not be able to achieve this profession right away, considering that you are just now getting exposure to composing your first business proposal. If you are currently independently employed, though, and have drafted official business plans previously, you can offer your services as an expert for entrepreneurs that need counsel.

The Positive Factors
If you love developing business ideas, you are likely to love this job. You're going to be researching, preparing and writing just as if you are beginning your own personal small businesses over and over again. Also, aspiring entrepreneurs frequently have a positive liveliness and optimism that makes them all fun to do business with.

The Negative Factors
Your customers' desires and dreams are going to be sitting on your shoulders. A substandard plan may bring about a business's failure, which is definitely a very big concern for your customer. You will be under a considerable amount of strain to write a good approach.

Education / Knowledge Needed
One doesn't inevitably require a business college degree, however, any sort of knowledge can help. Of course, the best training is normally practical experience; you'll need business development experience and practice with the following abilities:

-Researching marketplaces and opposition
-Developing marketing plans
-Projecting fiscal necessities and earnings
-Handling legal and insurance coverage factors for a start up business

Again, practical experience is the perfect instructor. If you have created a company (or an array of businesses) you will be acquainted with these competencies.

Gear / Tools Needed
You can create each of your business plans in a word processing program, like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice. However, you might want to spend money on business proposal software, such as Business Plan Pro. Business plan applications provide you with a common outline that addresses all the elements you need. After putting in all the required material, the application gives you a nicely prepared, completed business strategy plan. This will save you a lot of energy that you'd otherwise devote to formatting and making every aspect look nice in a word processor.

Setting
You'll be able to operate this company out of your home, but may need to visit clients in some cases. If you've got a convincing web page, you may get clients from all over the world.

Start-up Expenditures
If you already have a PC and everything required for your home office, your startup expenditures will likely be minimal. You can find business plan software for about $200 or less.

It is important to put money into marketing your company, such as by making a web site, advertising in local business or industry publications, etc.

Legal / Insurance coverage Issues
Your customers should complete Non-disclosure Agreements (NDA) with you to defend their creative ideas. These agreements basically state that you will not steal your client's ideas and employ them for your own benefit.

You must be sure you can't be held to blame for unsuccessful enterprises. If you compose a strategic business plan and your customer then fails to launch or preserve that business, they could try to take legal action against you. Be sure that you sign legal agreements with each of your clients that hold you harmless against any fault.

Where to Begin
Start with an Internet site that describes your services and contains past samples of strategic business plans you have developed (alter the actual names and records to safeguard your clients' privacy). Stress your positive elements, for example "fast development," "economical charges," or "95% of my clients' small businesses are still operating right now."

Put classified ads in the phone book under "Business Creation" or "Business Instructors." Promote your business on regional small companies' web sites. Speak to the local chamber of commerce for potential leads or marketing possibilities. Ask friends and pleased clients to pass on your message.

Potential Customers
Aspiring entrepreneurs will be your main customers. You may also find work with established small businesses that want to get capital, because they need a solid proposal to provide to lenders.

Charges
You may be able to ask for a few hundred dollars or possibly a few thousand bucks for each business proposal, dependant upon your working experience and the size of the plans. Try to determine the rates of the competitors in the area. While you are beginning, you could bill less than your rivals to get some customers and establish expertise.

Some customers may be cautious about paying you thousands of dollars to obtain a business plan. Remind these clients that you have a lot of practical experience that enables you to write the plan in far less time than they would need to write it independently.

Additional Reading
- The Small Business Administration (SBA) has tips for writing a business plan and a template that tells you what's needed in a good plan.
- Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies by Rhonda Abrams
- Business Plan Pro Software | From Amazon

If you are interested in finding more self-employment ideas, please visit my web site at http://www.bestselfemploymentideas.com.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Six Personal Risks to Eliminate before Becoming Self-Employed

Becoming self-employed and creating a company is taxing. When you initially start out, it will likely be a hard challenge. You are going to be putting in tons of work to make your way to the top of that very first hill, and it's really hard to anticipate when the route will level out and become easier.

Given that you will be expending a great deal of time and effort on your small business, you need to first try to reduce the possibility of all personal issues that could lead to problems. What follows is a list of commonplace personal disadvantages that you can minimize or eliminate before starting.

1. Family members - You should definitely have the encouragement of your family members prior to starting your enterprise. Without having their assistance, the startup phase is going to be more demanding on everyone. Make sure they know just how extremely important your small business is to you personally. If you're going to be working at home, create rules about when and where you're going to be doing the job and make it very clear that you can not be interrupted.

2. Health - Are you presently in a good condition, mentally and physically? You could possibly not have the opportunity to get plenty of exercise, eat well, and de-stress while you are putting your whole self into your business. I would suggest establishing a fitness regimen and making sure you can easily handle stress and anxiety prior to starting a business.

3. Personal debt - Your own financial debt can make it tougher to achieve success, regardless of how much or how little. If you currently have a $300 per month car payment, that is 300 additional dollars that your small business has got to generate to remain profitable. If it is possible to eliminate your debt prior to giving up your job to become self-employed, your company won't need to bring in so much. That will be very valuable in the beginning stage when you will not have very much money coming in. Pay the balance of as much financial debt as possible before beginning.

4. Work area - Make sure you have a satisfactory work area if you will be operating from home. Before starting your business, set up a functional work place which will be free of disruptions and interruptions.

5. Benefits (health care insurance, retirement account, etc) - It is important to procure your own medical insurance, life insurance, retirement plan, etc. if you're self-employed. Investigate your options and make plans prior to when you give up your current job and relinquish your insurance protection. The National Association for the Self-Employed offers member programs that include certain health, dental care, life, and other various insurance plans.

6. Self-Motivation - Will you be self-motivated? For those who procrastinate and also have difficulties accomplishing tasks, you have some work you need to do. Drive and efficiency are skills which can be improved, but you better master them prior to starting your company. Study some inspirational business and self-help guides to get energized before leaving your current normal work.

Mitigate or eradicate these hazards before you become self-employed and you will have a much higher potential for becoming successful.

If you are interested in finding self-employment ideas, please visit my web site at http://www.bestselfemploymentideas.com.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The Best Reason to be Self-Employed: Passive Income

One of many worthwhile reasons of being self-employed is that it uncovers the opportunity for generating passive (or residual) income. As the name implies, this is income that is generated without you having to do any work after the original set-up. As opposed to trading hours for income, you do some work up-front to create a passive income system and then let it operate on cruise control. Your system expands your bank account without you having to think about it, and you can go on to assembling the next residual income system.

Passive income is powerful. This is how people get rich. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, but with enough time and hard work you can construct increasingly more passive income systems and grow wealth. The subsequent paragraphs summarize a few methods of earning residual income.

Real estate investment is a well-known form of residual income. Real estate can be a risky or dangerous investment, as plenty of investors learned when the housing bubble broke a short time ago. But if you are cautious and play the market effectively, you can profit from the real estate market. You can buy inexpensive properties, hire contractors to enhance them, and then sell them to earn a gain (just ensure you can afford to retain the properties long-term if they fail to sell). Or you can lease your properties and employ a property manager to do the landlord duties (such as unclogging toilets). In either case, if you make investments in the right buildings you can earn profit with relatively little work on your part.

Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other investments are all kinds of passive income. If you place money into the stock exchange, it is not certain to grow in worth. Over the course of several years or decades, however, it normally does. For a few of these investments, such as mutual funds, virtually all you have to do is put your money into the fund and a fund manager will handle it and ensure that it thrives. You normally must pay a service charge for this manager, but it’s worth the cost simply because your money is going to be thriving without you having to complete nearly anything.

Even a common savings account at a neighborhood bank is a form of residual income. All you must do is start an account and keep money in it. It’s that simple! Your capital will grow repeatedly as it earns dividends.

You can start and build businesses and permit somebody else run the daily procedures. You still personally own the business enterprise and end up getting all the profits, however you rarely have a need to worry about it since it is being governed by someone else. Or you might construct an online enterprise that works largely on cruise control, with only a few hours from time to time to ensure that it stays operating smoothly.

Earnings from intellectual property is one more well-known type of residual income. Patents, stories, songs, software applications, and other kinds of intellectual property could possibly earn you royalties when people purchase or utilize your works. In recent years, numerous people have been creating information products to put up for sale on the internet and building inexpensive video games for Apple iPhones and Google Android devices.

Any other thing that appreciates with time, including collectibles or exceptional gold and silver coins, could be regarded as a form of passive income. Use caution, though; you have to ensure there exists a market for your valuables. If you own a  collection of priceless goods, but nobody wants to purchase them, they are basically worth little or nothing. Valuables are only really worth what people are prepared to pay for them.

These approaches are the most common strategies for earning passive income, but the topic is way too substantial for me to encapsulate every aspect in a single write-up. In reality, there are several entire publications and blogs devoted to generating residual income. I strongly recommend looking at The 4-Hour Workweek, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and The Smart Passive Income Blog for more tips concerning passive income.

If you are interested in finding self-employment ideas, please visit my web site at http://www.bestselfemploymentideas.com.