For Women Ready to Start Their Business@Home!

8 Tweets for Small Business Success

This set of small business @home tips focused on one Tweet for each of the small business basics. Can you identify the "Basic" for each tweet?

1. "A clear set of business objectives can free up your time and explode your small business profits."
2. "Quick reports are a mandatory small business management tool if you want to boost your profits."
3. "Do you know how much it will cost to finance the small business project you just started?"
4. "Don't take your small business personnel issues too personally - it won't get the job done."
5. "Small business Marketing Match Game : Problem + Customer + Product = Purchase."
6. "Equipment with the right ROI can save your small business operations time and money."
7. "Are your true production costs built into your small business pricing?"
8. "Are your products and services valuable resources used by other small business owners?"

A "Take Action" sheet is available to help you explore each Business Basic Piece and act on those small business pieces you need to work on to optimize your success and profit.

The Small Business Money Pit

Protect You from Your Start Up

In our increasingly litigious society, it is becoming ever more important to limit your exposure and protect yourself from liability associated with your small business start up.

Forming a corporation or LLC for your business can protect your personal assets.

The primary reason many start up businesses form corporations or LLCs is to protect their personal assets. As a sole proprietor, your liability for business debt is unlimited, meaning personal assets such as your home, personal bank accounts and other valued assets may be at risk.

Small Business Start Up Owner Buy In

How much of your own money are you using to buy in to your own small business ownership? As you seek start up loans each lender you approach will end up with a percentage of ownership in your business or as a creditor with a guarantee for repayment backed by your personal assets. You need to approach your own contribution to start up funding the same as each potential outside or family funding source does.

Are you going to be a 100% owner with no outside funding? Do you intend to take on partners, investors or shareholders? Is debt financing the right way to go? In all cases your own resources will be required to prime the pump of equity and debt financing.

TIPS Action Plan : Small Business Start Up Owner Buy In

If you won't back your small business start up idea with your own money you effectively hold a 0% share in commitment to success and profit. A lender or creditor won't commit unless you do. How much of your small business start up have you really bought into?

$20 Start Up Loan Answers

Anybody can spare $20 but they still want to know if they’re going to get paid back. They might even ask what you need the money for.

Most small business start ups are short of cash and seeking a loan. Whether its $20 or $20,000 the same questions apply - when will you pay me back and what do you want the money for.

Strangely enough the enthusiasm for seeking money rarely matches the energy needed to create a payback plan for a small business start up loan. For a casual $20 loan we have a ready answer to the potential lenders questions. For a small business start up loan you need to know what you need the money for, how you’ll pay it back and when the loan payback will be made.

TIPS Action Plan : $20 Start Up Loan Answers

Need $20 or more for your start up? Be prepared to answer lenders questions to get the small business start up loan you need.

Spend Your Start Up Loan on Paper First

The one thing most small business start ups look for first is money. When asked how the money will be spent the answer is often unclear or very vague. The first place to spend the small business loan money you're looking for is on paper.

Set up a spreadsheet with a column for areas of expenditure: marketing, equipment, research, inventory, etc. Use a second column to allocate the amount of loan money you belief you'll need. A third column should show the projected date of the loan money expenditure.

This on paper exercise will help you see how much loan money you'll need and when. It will also add to the business plan data your potential lender or investor will need to review to consider making you a small business start up loan.

Don't Start Up, Transition Up

The toughest part of implementing your small business start up idea is often paying your bills while struggling to find bill paying clients. The near-term cashflow, let alone true profit, for a small business @ home is either nonexistent or to small to cover business expenses and pay your personal bills.

Debbie LaChusa of 10stepmarketing has some tips for how to solve this problem based on her own start up experiences. Listen to this Financing Your Small Business Podcast to hear what she has to say. Her advice suggests that the best way to finance your small business idea may be to tranistion up rather than abandon all of other sources of income while you start up your new small business.

Bet Your Numbers

At Vegas you may start by betting your favorite numbers or some you just made up. Luck may put you in the win column or send you packing. Small business start ups sometimes take the same chances. If you want to increase your success start up odds, you'll need to come up with real numbers based on hard evidence.

The Profit Puzzle Budget worksheet provides a list of common expenses for most small businesses. Even if you have to make an educated guess, this Learn' Do worksheet is a good start.

List the amount you intend to spend in each category and figure it's percentage of the total planned expenses. Each week of the month enter your actual expenses.

Every month total each category and figure your budget over or under for each category to refine next month's budget.

The Profit Puzzle Course Workbook can give you some guidance in coming up with the best numbers to bet your small business start up on and come out a winner.

Granting Business Wishes

What if all your small business wishes could be granted? Won't that be great! Well, when it comes to small business funding via grants, there are some things you can do to increase your chances of your wishes being granted.

8 Steps To Submitting a Successful Grant Proposal written by Melody Wigdahl founder of WomensNet, a networking and resource site for women entrepreuneurs, offers some excellent suggestions for how to get your small business wishes granted.

SBA Small Business Start-Up Loans

The SBA offers numerous loan programs to assist small businesses.  It is important to note, however, that the SBA is primarily a guarantor of loans made by private and other institutions. PROGRAM:  Basic 7(a) Loan Guaranty FUNCTION:  Serves as the SBA’s primary business loan program to help qualified small businesses obtain financing when they might not be eligible for business loans through normal lending channels. It is also the agency’s most flexible business loan program, since financing under this program can be guaranteed for a variety of general business purposes. Loan proceeds can be used for most sound business purposes including working capital, machinery and equipment, furniture and fixtures, land and building (including purchase, renovation and new construction), leasehold improvements, and debt refinancing (under special conditions). Loan maturity is up to 10 years for working capital and generally up to 25 years for fixed assets. CUSTOMER:  Start-up and existing small businesses, commercial lending institutions DELIVERED THROUGH:  Commercial lending institutions