Small Business for Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance))

✍ Scribed by Veechi Curtis

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 371
• Edition: 6
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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.

✦ Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1 Getting Started
Chapter 1 Is Small Business for You?
Working for Yourself — A Dream Come True?
Doing what you love to do
Earning pots of money (here’s hoping)
Being your own boss
Staying home
Working for Yourself — Reality Strikes
Teetering on the edge
Working night and day for little pay
Weathering feast and famine
Getting the Timing Right
Timing it right for your idea
Timing it right for you
Timing it right for the economy
Staying Safe or Inventing the Wheel?
Playing it safe
Finding your own niche
Going out on a limb
Assessing your chances of survival
Getting the Government to Help You
Setting Yourself Up for Success
Chapter 2 Figuring Out What’s So Special about You (And Your Business)
Understanding Strategic Advantage
Identifying your secret weapon
Focusing on real-life examples
Justifying Why You Can Succeed
Uncovering your inner mojo
Asking three key questions
Growing your advantages over time
Making sure a demand really exists
Understanding How Risk Relates to Gain
Figuring Out Who Your Competitors Really Are
Understanding why you need to do this
Grouping competitors
Profiling your competitors
Thinking about future competitors
Choosing Your Competitive Strategy
Pick one, and only one, competitive strategy
Connecting your competitive strategy to your strategic advantage
Chapter 3 Starting from Scratch, Buying a Business, or Joining a Franchise
Weighing Up the Good and the Bad of Buying a Business
Buying an existing business — the upside
Buying an existing business — the downside
Asking the Right Questions
Finding out who owns the intellectual property
Analysing sales trends, profit and break-even
Clarifying what the purchase price includes
Calculating the ‘True’ Earnings of a Business
Valuing an Existing Business
The times earnings method
The capitalised earnings method
The strategic advantage method
Dotting Your I’s, Crossing Your T’s
Buying a Franchise
Considering the positives
Weighing up the negatives
Exercising Due Diligence
Wising up
Putting a franchise through the griller
Doing your sums
Part 2 Finding Your Entrepreneurial Spirit
Chapter 4 Separating Yourself from Your Business
Deciding What Path You Want to Take
Doing the thing you love to do
Getting help and delegating what you can
Building a business that’s separate from you
Creating a way of doing business
Wearing Different Hats
Building a Business with a Life of its Own
Defining your difference
Documenting and building systems
Setting goals for you and your business
Planning for a graceful exit
Appreciating the Limitations of Your Business
Chapter 5 Staying One Step Ahead
Taking an Eagle-Eye View
Looking at what’s happening in your industry
Being realistic about industry decline
Riding the wave of opportunity
Rating Your Capabilities
Putting yourself through the griller
Prioritising where you need to do better
Identifying Opportunities and Threats
Doing a SWOT Analysis
Putting theory into practice
Translating your SWOT analysis into action
Creating a Plan for Change
Chapter 6 Creating a Business Plan
Getting Started with Your Plan
Charting a True Course
Setting off on your mission
Saying what you’re about
Matching goals to your mission
Assessing the Environment
Analysing outside influences
Checking out the competition
Justifying market demand
Declaring Your Battle Plan
Building your SWOT analysis
Choosing a strategy
Expressing your competitive advantage
Outlining Your Marketing Plan
Developing your marketing plan
Defining your customers
Articulating your online business strategy
Describing Your Dream Team
Presenting Financials
Balancing dreams against reality
Building on history to create a picture of the future
Staying real with benchmarks
Chapter 7 Getting the Legals Right
Picking a Business Structure
Independent and single
Tea for two
We’ve got company
Matching the Name to the Game
Using your own name
Thinking about how others will find you
Making sure you’re not on someone else’s patch
Checking for trademarks
Registering your business name
Avoiding trouble
Protecting Your Brand
Registering trademarks
Protecting other kinds of intellectual property
Registering with the Powers That Be
Getting that baby’s number
Signing up for taxes (unavoidable, I’m afraid)
Checking out what else you need
Working with Contracts
Understanding when you’re legally bound
Dealing with standard form contracts
Knowing what to look for in a contract
Signing on the dotted line
Negotiating Lease Contracts
Part 3 Planning for Profit
Chapter 8 Figuring Out Prices and Predicting Sales
Choosing a Pricing Strategy
Setting prices based on costs
Setting prices based on competitors
Setting prices based on perceived value
Building a Hybrid-Pricing Plan
Offering a premium product or service
Cutting back the frills
Getting creative with packages
Charging different prices for the same thing
Forming Your Final Plan of Attack
Monitoring and Changing Your Price
Building Your Sales Forecast
Calculating hours in a working week
Increasing sales with extra labour
Predicting sales for a new business
Predicting sales for an established business
Creating Your Month-by-Month Forecast
Chapter 9 Building Profit Projections
Understanding the Cost of Your Sales
Costing your service
Costing items that you buy and sell
Costing items that you make
Forecasting Expenses
Forecasting monthly expenses
Forecasting expenses for the year ahead
Allowing for loan repayments and interest
Allowing for personal and company tax
Building Profit Projections
Step one: Starting with sales
Step two: Adding variable costs
Step three: Showing gross profit
Step four: Adding expenses and revealing the bottom line
Understanding the Whole Deal
Factoring Personal Expenses into the Equation
Chapter 10 Calculating Your Break-Even Point
Identifying Your Tipping Point
Understanding the concept of break-even
Factoring personal expenses into the equation
Putting theory into practice
Changing Your Break-Even Point
Looking at Things from a Cash Perspective
Chapter 11 Creating Your Marketing Plan
Laying Down the Elements of Your Plan
Going to the heart of the matter
Expressing your difference
Defining Who Your Customers Are
Analysing your customers
Understanding what it is your customers really want
Thinking creatively about channels
Researching the market
Analysing Your Competitors
Setting Sales Targets
Expressing sales targets in dollars and cents
Expressing sales targets in other ways
Building Sales Strategies
Growing a brand that people want
Pricing things right
Defining your social media strategy
Engaging customers and building trust
Expanding Your Reach Offline
Networking (yes, actually in person)
Investing in public relations
Creating marketing alliances
Keeping Yourself Honest
Comparing targets against actuals
Measuring conversion rates
Part 4 People Power
Chapter 12 Making Service Your Business
Creating a customer service culture
Asking for feedback at every touchpoint
Being prepared to listen
Cultivating a positive workplace
Going the Extra Mile
Delivering on your promises, and more
Understanding how to build trust
Brainstorming how you can do better
Appreciating the need for speed
Continuing service after the sale is made
Evaluating Your Performance
Designing surveys
Measuring your speed
Reflecting on other service benchmarks
Showing That You Care
‘I appreciate how you feel’
‘I’ve done that sometimes!’
‘Let me confirm what you just said’
Can I help you with anything else?
Dealing with Complaints
Why complaints are serious
How to respond to complaints
Chapter 13 Becoming an Employer
Becoming an Employer: The First Steps
Getting employees to fulfil their part of the deal
Covering employees for accidents
Ensuring your software is up to speed
Subscribing to super
Meeting Minimum Pay and Conditions
Understanding what laws apply
Choosing between part-time, full-time or casual
Playing Safe and Playing Fair
Being practical, not pedantic
Blonde jokes are over
Chapter 14 The Art of Management
Drawing Up a Position Description
Playing the Recruitment Game
Reaching the best applicants
Selling the position
Picking the Best
Asking the right questions
Avoiding the wrong questions
Matching people and positions
Offering Someone a Job
Sending an offer of employment
Setting a probationary period
Learning to Lead
Daring to delegate
Building a positive workplace
Communicating every way you can
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
Rewarding with more than money
Reviewing performance regularly
Managing change
Managing Difficult Employees
Figuring out whether the problem is actually you
Knowing when to draw the line
Giving an employee a warning
Terminating an employee
Part 5 High Finance
Chapter 15 Financing Your Business
Budgeting Enough for Start-Up
Creating a start-up budget
Adding enough to live on
Assessing how much you really need
Separating Start-up Expenses from Operating Expenses
Dealing with initial start-up expenses
Putting theory into practice
Sizing Up Your Finance Options
Taking out a business loan
Finding a new lease of life
Getting hitched with chattel mortgage or hire purchase
Canoodling with credit cards
Seeking equity partners
Choosing Your Lender
Compare interest rates and loan fees
Consider other interest(ing) factors
Watch out for honeymoon periods and interest-free credit
Chapter 16 Cooking the Books
Figuring How Often to Do the Deed
Doing your books just once in a while
Doing your books regularly
Choosing Software that Fits
Creating Recordkeeping Systems
Keeping track of income
Tracking expenses
Storing your business records
Doing the bare basics
Keeping Track of How Much You’re Owed
Asking nicely
Getting drastic
Meeting Bookkeeping Deadlines
Chapter 17 Understanding Financial Statements
Discovering What Reports You Need (and When)
Telling a Story with Your Profit & Loss Report
Understanding how it all works
Looking at sales
Counting the costs
Weighing up your expenses
Taking a Snapshot with Your Balance Sheet
Understanding the fine print
Building documentation to support each figure
Appreciating your net worth (someone has to, after all)
Why Profit Doesn’t Always Mean Cash
Gazing into the deep, black hole
Looking through rose-coloured spectacles
Doing the sums for sustainable growth
Budgeting As If You Mean It
Creating your first budget
Recognising relationships
Understanding the psychology of budgets
Developing your budget in tune with your business plan
Looking at Cashflow
Chapter 18 Taming the Tax Tyrant
Getting a Grip on GST
Deciding whether to register or not
Choosing your cashflow destiny
Reporting for duty — how often?
Coughing up
Staying out of trouble
Growing Some Recordkeeping Smarts
Treating receipts with respect
Cultivating your obsessive-compulsive streak
Riding that (t)rusty chariot
Declaring home office expenses
Planning Ahead
Getting an instant deduction
Managing stock valuations
Salting funds away into super
Staying Out of Trouble
Don’t claim what you can’t
Be able to back up your story
Avoid Personal Services rulings, if you can
Monitor shareholder or director loans closely
Don’t kid yourself about the cash economy
Budgeting for Tax
Planning for that difficult second year
Putting funds aside
Budgeting for GST and PAYG
Fessing up if you’re short on cash
Part 6 The Part of Tens
Chapter 19 Ten Things to Do If You Hit Hard Times
Work Out How Bad Things Really Are
Get Breathing Space
Innovate!
Slash Those Expenses
Pull Back Personal Spending
Get Rid of Dead Weight
Chase Up Overdue Accounts
Run Special Offers
Re-Jig Your Margins
Don’t Be a Shag on a Rock
Chapter 20 Ten Tips for Selling Your Business
Start with a Game Plan
Prepare Well in Advance
Give Your Financials a Make-Over
Get a Professional Valuation
Go for the Max
Plan for a Few Bills
Woo the Buyer
Do Due Diligence in Advance
Be Straight Up with Employees
Spread the Word
Index
EULA