Steve Strauss, founder of www.theselfemployed.com, discusses the basics of creating a website for your small business.
Q: Steve – my son is, despite what I tell him, going to start a new business. I don’t like the idea at all, but if he is going to do it, he is going to do it. One thing I know is that he will need a website and I would like to pay for that. Can you tell me what it would cost and how I would go about getting one done for him?
RM
About the Author
Steven D. Strauss is a lawyer and writer and is one of the country's leading experts on small business as well as an international business speaker. The best-selling author of 17 books, his latest is the all-new 3rd ed. of The Small Business Bible. You can listen to his weekly podcast, Small Business Success Powered by Greatland, visit his new website for the self-employed, TheSelfEmployed, follow him on Twitter, and "like" TheSelfEmployed on Facebook. You can e-mail Steve at: sstrauss@mrallbiz.com. © Steven D. Strauss
Steve Strauss, founder of www.theselfemployed.com, explains the concept of seller financing and how/when it may work for buying a business.
Q: I have been offered a chance to buy a business and the owner is willing to finance part of the purchase. What I mean is that I cannot afford the $50K he is asking but he said he would be willing finance half the cost over 5 years if I could come up with the other half -- $25,000. It seems too good to be true. Is it?
Robin
About the Author
Steven D. Strauss is a lawyer and writer and is one of the country's leading experts on small business as well as an international business speaker. The best-selling author of 17 books, his latest is the all-new 3rd ed. of The Small Business Bible. You can listen to his weekly podcast, Small Business Success Powered by Greatland, visit his new website for the self-employed, TheSelfEmployed, follow him on Twitter, and "like" TheSelfEmployed on Facebook. You can e-mail Steve at: sstrauss@mrallbiz.com. © Steven D. Strauss
Elizabeth Hughes-Callison has used her work experience to start a Decatur-based business intended to help companies in need of assistance. EHC Admin Services is able to provide administrative support for businesses, sales personnel and other busy people, Hughes-Callison said. Services include administrative bookkeeping, word processing, notarizing and accounts payable.
After taking the First Step FastTrac course offered by SCORE at Millikin University, Hughes-Callison decided her business plan was viable.
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Sometime you have to follow your heart. That was sage advice Monica received from her mother who is also her inspiration, and social media guru. You see, Monica was heading down the path to become a neurosurgeon. She wanted to save the world. While she was in school she also studied Eastern Asian studies. But at some point she began courting the idea of focusing on her East Asian Studies, dropping Neurosurgery altogether. She did in fact drop it, and completed her BA in East Asian Studies and Chinese. After finishing school she moved to China and taught as a visiting professor.
A family illness caused her to return to Dallas where she accepted what was to be a short term stint at an international IT firm. She clocked six years at the firm, gaining experience as a Business Analyst, and earning an MBA along the way.
Monica was able to tailor her MBA program in International Management to combine her varied background in psychology and neurosurgery with her passion for culture and language studies.
With her MBA in hand, Moffitt sought to get a meaningful job within corporate America leveraging her education and experience to help company with marketing and consumer behavior across international boundaries.
In Sept of 2011, Monica officially started business as Tianfen Consulting. Tien Fen, talent literally. She explains that that means heaven's gift, whatever your talent is. When asked why she became an entrepreneur, she joked, “It is so clear… because I love status quo.”
Tianfen Consulting is a cultural consulting firm with a myriad of integration points from Educational Services to Business Planning to Strategic Design. Beyond general management consulting they offer analytics and strategy design for HR, Sales, and Marketing.
Core offerings include:
Business Planning
Cultural Consulting
China Visa Prep/Consulting
Educational Services
Strategic Design
EB-5 Visa/Immigration Consulting
Foreign Direct Investment Specialists
How SCORE Helped
Shortly after hanging her shingle as a consultant, Monica went to SCORE. "My first big question was taxes. Things like QuickBooks. I needed to know what was out there. I also had to unlearn some things. My biggest concern was taxes. I didn't want to make any mistakes. I'm lacking in financial and accounting. Also, what about international taxes and how do i get paid.
When asked what advice she would give another entrepreneur, Monica said, “Think about your role in the business 5, 10, 20 years from now. How invested are you. Do you want investors? Start with your end goal and then work backwards. That is the basis of how you will move forward.”
Martin Metzler is not your regular start up entrepreneur. First, he admits he is a bit of a hybrid because parallel to his corporate career he’s also been an entrepreneur. One of his earlier ventures was a wellness institute and med spa that he successfully built with his wife and later sold. Another un-classic startup entrepreneur trait is the fact that Martin's current venture wasn’t started by him. In fact, it was a restart. While advising the principals involved in the businesses it became apparent that the business could take flight if expanded methodically through a combined corporate and franchise model. It turns out that Martin has experience with all that. Though the partners were initially only seeking business advice from Martin, the practitioners were intrigued as they thought about expanding their unique service offering and successful business model. They joined forces and created a new corporate entity, Structura Institute Holdings LLC and 2 subsidiaries, one for corporate owned operations and one for franchising.
Structura Body Therapies provides advanced body therapy and massage services to clients for relief from pain and mobility conditions resulting from car accidents, scoliosis, rotator-cuff injury, athletic performance, and long forgotten injuries. Structura has built a prestigious reputation in customer service and effective treatments.
Martin is setting out to open 200 franchise clinics and 30 corporate locations within 5 years. Currently there are 3 corporate owned clinics and prospective franchisees are actively being taken through the information process. Yet there is still an eye toward the future. Martin added, “On a longer term perspective, international markets and adding additional therapies, services, and a retail line are all possibilities. For now, we have a great model and our clients love us. They are telling us that everybody has to know about us. Their encouragement drives our expansion.”
My Successes
Martin had something to share about competition. “People ask me so what happens when people emulate what you are doing? I tell them its fine, let them come. It is utopia to believe that you will find a business and be the only one forever. Guaranteed there will be competition. However, stay ahead. Have the next upgrade, even if you don’t’ release it right away. Embrace competition; it is an indicator that what you are doing is right.”
Martin is thinking big, 1000 stores big in 10 years. But just like the business partners that brought him into the business initially for counsel and then to expand the opportunity, Martin has subsequently turned to SCORE for counsel and more recently to franchisees to expand the opportunity. As the African Proverb says, “if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”
How SCORE Helped
Martin is proof that we all need a little help. An accomplished businessman and entrepreneur he still sought the help of objective counsel. That is why he turned to SCORE where he met Chuck Rudnick. Martin shared, “Chuck would give me feedback, his thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations. Then I would tweak things. He is a wonderful sounding board. I think that 2 heads are better than 1 and 4 eyes are better than 2. For me, I needed a more advanced level sounding board and advisor that I found in Chuck. With his vast experience he was able to help me focus and keep me on a successful track.”
When asked if Martin would recommend SCORE to other entrepreneurs, he said, “Absolutely and I don't care whether you are a green behind the ears entrepreneur with zero business knowledge or whether you are an experienced executive, you can always learn and improve. There is a counselor for everyone. People usually pay big bucks for this. At SCORE it’s free and its foolish not to use it as a resource.”
He added, “No matter whether you want to start a small business or a large business, get the right team of advisors early on. Don't try to do it all yourself. You’re not a lawyer or a CPA probably, so why deal with that yourself. Get the perspective of others in their field of expertise. Above all, be open minded. No matter how much you know, you can always pick up something new.”
Jason Brower is no stranger to opportunity, nor is he a stranger to hard work. While being completely satisfied at his high tech software engineering job where he worked alongside chemists, physicists, and electrical engineers to produce anti-counterfeiting devices, he wasn’t fulfilled. While clocking his normal 40 hours a week for his employer, he was moonlighting on a project that would later become Oceanside Software Corporation. He jokes, “I should have bought stock in 5 hour energy – I was living on that stuff.”
What sparked his idea was a seemingly innocuous conversation at a restaurant with a sales rep that was boasting about how much money he was making selling Point of Sale systems. That was the summer of 2009. Jason was intrigued and thought this might be his next big thing; after all it fit squarely within his love of engineering and software. 40,000 lines of code later, Oceanside Software Corporation was born.
Oceanside Software provides complete end-to-end point-of-sale solutions for quick-service and table-service restaurants. They provide everything from the hardware and software to merchant credit card and gift card processing.
Oceanside POS ® offers a fast and efficient way to place orders and accept payments in a fast paced restaurant line such as franchise customer Burrito Jimmy
My Successes
When asked what advice you would give another entrepreneur, Jason said, “Pick something you absolutely love, something you can imagine yourself doing 120 hours a week for 5 years straight and not get sick of. You have to have a strong passion for what you want to grow. Don’t do it for the money.” He added, “If the reason you want to start the business is that you want to be your own boss, then you need more reasons. Be willing to put your heart and soul and risk everything. It is a gamble and a risk. You’ll fight through every obstacle. You’ll be 2 days from running out of money. But, you’ll find a way to do it. I feel like I’m a very logical person but I also know that I have to believe in foolish miracles.”
On July 8th 2012, Jason announced on the 3rd birthday of Oceanside, that he is turning Oceanside POS ® into a community driven Open Source Project. Four days later, Peter Simendi from Connect Africa became the first project contributor to the world’s first Open Source Restaurant POS System.
It looks like Jason is not only well onto his next big thing but he is enabling the next big thing for other entrepreneurs too.
How SCORE Helped
When Jason was starting Oceanside, he didn’t head to SCORE right away for help. That would come later. He’d earlier attended an entrepreneurship training program at the Institute for Social and Economic Development ( ISED) so he felt h could write a business plan.
After gaining customers and additional traction, Oceanside Software started to become noticed by potential suitors. Not having much experience with equity and acquisitions, Jason decided to seek some help from SCORE. He had the good fortune to receive non biased advice from a SCORE counselor that had worked for IBM previously. He got more than he bargained for. He was also encouraged to apply for and was subsequently accepted to the “Getting Down to Business” program created by Capital One Bank, in alliance with SCORE.. This program ensures that small business owners have access to information, resources, mentors and financing that can help them grow and succeed.
“In May of 2012, Oceanside Software was one of 15 businesses accepted into Capital One's ‘Getting Down to Business 2012’ program. We are excited to be part of a program that focuses on businesses with under $1,000,000 in revenue. Thank you to Joyce and all members of SCORE and Capital One,” commented Jason.
Greg and his wife, Katie, have lived in the Dallas area for over 40 years and raised six children together. Greg and Katie each had a parent who suffered with dementia during the last years of life. In addition to being a father to six, husband, and member of the church and community for 41 years, he was also a provider, working as a corporate property and liability insurance underwriter and broker. But, the company he worked for was bought in 2009 and by March of the next year he was laid off. Greg Dodd knows firsthand what if feels like to be cast aside after working diligently and loyally for many years.
2010 became a “now or never” moment for Greg and Katie. They decided it was time to be business owners.
They were drawn to the franchise model where they could buy into a business that had procedural outlines, marketing, and proven results in other territories.
Greg and Katie Dodd joined Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home services in 2010 and are currently providing help to seniors and their families in Dallas and the surrounding area. Seniors Helping Seniors® services include companionship, light housekeeping, cooking, transportation, and assistance with personal care.
The need for such services isn’t going away. On the contrary, demand for elder services will grow with the prolongation of average life expectancy. The growth of the senior population is one of the most important demographic developments of the 21st century. By 2030, the U.S. Bureau of Census predicts one in five Americans will be seniors.
“We provide the in home help that seniors need, from people who understand them the most. Our helpers are also seniors - compassionate, active, dependable seniors, doing what they love to do. We provide a broad range of non-medical services, including assistance with personal care and medication reminders,” said Greg.
My Successes
In picking a franchise network, Greg has some additional advice. “Assuming you have decided on the product or service, I'd say the philosophy, the atmosphere, and attitude are important. You want the right mix or match. Is it privately owned or a subsidiary of a global corporation? How do they select their franchisees? Trying to get someone to buy an open territory is one thing, but building a franchise network with quality people should be the goal. That is one of the things that drew us to Seniors Helping Seniors. You can learn how to do QuickBooks, but integrity, passion, people skills, and compatibility are not things easily learned. Seniors Helping Seniors does a great job of building their network with quality people.”
What Greg and Katie learned from their franchise selection journey and their own experiences with their parents helps guide the way they treat clients, clients’ families, and how they manage their business. Greg commented that it is a very rewarding business. The clients and their families undoubtedly feel that way, too.
How SCORE Helped
Greg recalled hearing through the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce about SCORE. He arranged a couple of one on one counseling sessions to glean additional insights into the target demographic, gain advice on the brand, brochure, and advertising. Greg also sharpened his skills in the areas of social media and branding by attending SCORE webinars.
When asked if he would recommend SCORE to other entrepreneurs, Greg said, “Yes, SCORE has provided some good resources. I’m a little different, being a franchise partner but branding and social media applies to everyone.”
What advice would Greg give another entrepreneur? “Evaluate yourself first. You have to be able to do something that you have the basic skills to do well, and the interest. You want to have pride of ownership in the business you build and the service you provide. Know what role you’re going to play. Are you going to start or run the business – or both? Look at the importance of the product or service, and then meet the demand. Establish your niche, be a quality provider.”
We’ve all experienced the treat that gets handed down from generation to generation. No doubt you have experiences with Grandmas’ cookies, that special bread, or cupcake. L’Dor V’Dor literally means from generation to generation. Idalee Cathcart has been baking since she was 3 years old, since she was tall enough to stir a batter. She never stopped perfecting her treats, becoming quite the sensation with her co-workers at her telecom employer. Idalee said, “I was baking out of my apartment, mostly for luncheons at work. People would ask if I could bring some of my truffles.” She started her business, Confectionately Yours, at that time but didn’t work in the business full time until being laid off from her telecom job.
Then Idalee caught a lucky break. She had a friend that was one of the largest caterers in Houston. This friend invited her to a party and asked her to bring some of her truffles. Idalee recalls, “She did not tell me who was going to be at the party. It turns out there were buyers from Neiman Marcus, Sanger-Harris, Macy’s, and others there. Within 6 months my products were in 23 states. “
Idalee recalls this being a very busy but exciting time. She was going all over the country to fancy food shows, showing off products, etc. For the next 9 years she admittedly worked way too much, 7 days a week and countless hours per day. In 1991, Idalee sold off part of her business that made corporate gifts, you know the type – chocolates in the shape of the Exxon tiger or turn down gifts at the Hyatt or Hilton. After selling this off she went back to Culinary School and studied under master pastry chefs at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Confectionately Yours offers delicious products for resale and marketing. Whether you are a caterer, retailer, party planner, hotel, corporate event planner, country club, coffee shop or gift shop they have scrumptious products for you. Candies, baked goods, caramel bars and more can be purchased in bulk, in specialty packaging or in private label boxes.
After graduating from culinary school in 1992, she returned to Texas but instead of returning to Houston, she went to Dallas. She is intrigued with the science of baking and has met some people that have appreciated that. Idalee shared, “I like research and development. The R & D work has also led to consulting about childhood obesity, giving classes on better nutrition and honing culinary skills.”
My Successes
morph her talent and ambition into a bakery cafe with a retail presence. She envisions a “looking through” design where people can see the action through the glass. She’s not quite done with SCORE. She’d like to get some additional help in creating that ultimate bakery café where she can continue to share gourmet confections and candies, whether they new creations or those handed down generation to generation, L’Dor V’Dor.
The Dallas Chapter of the Texas Chefs Association, named Idalee Cathcart as its 2012 Pastry Chef of the Year.
How SCORE Helped
When asked if she would recommend SCORE to other entrepreneurs, Idalee said, “I would definitely recommend them. It was good to get information from them to start my venture up again. I learned of them through the SBDC. I wanted to talk to retired entrepreneurs, that’s why I went to SCORE.”
When asked what advice she would you give another entrepreneur Idalee said, “Write down all of your ideas, get a mentor to help you screen them, start small, don't go out there thinking you’re going to have a multi-unit facility. Grow step-by-step and don't let go. There were times I got really depressed. I would keep pushing forward. If you want it to happen you have to keep making progress.”
Dr. Sue is an uncharacteristic entrepreneur. Not because doctors don’t think of better devices or start new ventures. No, Dr. Sue is different from most entrepreneurs in that she didn’t begin her business with the intention of leaving her day job.
Dr. Sue really likes her job as a doctor, but she also has another love as well, cooking. Trained by her mother in cooking and making candies, she had long been entering her creations into the county fair. But, after becoming an internal medicine doctor and spending time talking to patients about leading a more healthy lifestyle, she discovered that dark chocolate actually had health benefits. She shared “It was exciting to me that we might be able to give people permission to enjoy something like chocolate. Chocolate is fascinating in and of itself. It is beautiful, challenging, and there is lots of science in it.”
She became intrigued and enrolled in a course for would be Chocolatiers. Soon after completing her course, she was making chocolate bark (slabs of dark chocolate with fruit or nuts or chilies or flavors in them) for friends. Friends would say, “You should sell that.” She recalls laughing at the thought, "Yeah I'll get right on that second job."
Dr. Sue continued to make tasty treats giving them to friends and family as gifts. It was a solid hobby. She had been making chocolate bark; she had recipes, but hadn’t sold a thing. She was giving it away. But, the hobby was growing and bigger and faster than she expected. She needed to make it a real business.
My Successes
About Dr. Sue’s Chocolates
We make chocolate that people feel good about eating. Our chocolate tastes rich, delicious and luxurious, but has the added benefit of all-natural, local and organic ingredients rich in antioxidants and flavanols. We exclusively use dark chocolate because of medical research suggesting its potential health effects when consumed daily in small amounts
Dr. Sue is only getting started. She is in the middle of her first significant expansion project, building a “cold” kitchen and purchasing equipment to meet projected demand in the 2012 holiday season while at the same time expanding presence in their retail partners' networks. She has hired her first full time managing director and is happy to be able to donate money to events that support the Dallas Farmers Market and programs that educate the community on nutrition
How SCORE Helped
Dr. Sue hadn’t been an entrepreneur before. Lacking business experience she turned to researching how to start a small business. That is where she learned of SCORE. She was amazed to learn that the SCORE volunteers are free, knowledgeable, and experienced. She joked, “You have got to be kidding me. You just have to make an appointment?
Dr. Sue recalls that the volunteers at SCORE were encouraging from the start. “They thought this might work. I brought in my first business plan, knowing it was grossly inadequate. I fully expected to be laughed out of the room. Instead they were totally supportive. They were very kind, very nice, and tried to show me how to play to my strengths.”
Dr. Sue attended a SCORE workshop, How to Start a Small Business, and after a couple of initial meetings was assigned a Mentor, Chuck Rudnick. Though it started with inception and a business plan, Dr. Sue is now working with her SCORE mentor structuring expansion and growth, bringing in other people, and developing systems to stay organized and keep execution on track.
When asked if she’d recommend SCORE to other entrepreneurs, Dr. Sue said, “I would absolutely recommend them. I literally think it is one of the best assets out there for anyone, but especially those that lack experience like me. They are honest, kind, straight shooters. Experience is expensive, it is hard to find. To be able to call or email somebody and ask ‘what do you think?’ that is priceless.”
Sreenivas Bhashyam Asuri (Bash) is a multicultural man with a technology and business background. He spent 10 years working in India and another decade in the US working primarily in technology firms. He understands the binding similarities between a seemingly very different United States and India. Bash shared, “We are the world’s 2 largest democracies, both have a largely British legal system, and both are filled with small businesses that are striving to be innovative and thrive.”
Though Bash had wanted to start something for a while, the trigger point for Bash to start a business was after he read an article the New York Times back in the fall of 2008. He read that the Fortune 500 companies had posted record profits – the largest ever. He found this troubling since unemployment was 10%, small businesses were suffering and consumer spending had all but disappeared. He knew firsthand that small businesses in his community were suffering, many shuttering the doors.
Bash observed a lopsided world where large multinational corporations had teams and divisions that spanned geographies and could exploit human resources and capital goods to their own profit advantage. But at the same time, smaller companies didn’t have the same opportunity; he set out to level the playing field.
With his experience deeply rooted in technology companies like Autodesk, Siemens, and InfoSys, Bash would be a likely candidate to start a technology company. Yet, he doesn’t consider his latest venture a technology company. True, he leveraged his technology background to build a solid trading platform, the underpinning of the company he founded, UI Business. But, the foundation of his company is inherently nontechnical and relies on what traders of the past centuries knew and practiced. Bash shared, “You need face to face communication and to establish trust with the people you trade with. People don’t like doing business with people they don’t know and they are afraid of scams and being cheated.” As true as this was in the annals of trading history it is ever true today in the age of the Internet.
Owner/Founder
Sreenivas Bhashyam Asuri(Bash)
My Successes
UI Business (UIB) is a trading platform and services company setup to enable trade between businesses of the US and India. Exclusively serving businesses in the US and India allows a focus on specific cultural, trade, taxation and other issues to create the best user experience. UI Business is able to help build trust and familiarity between trading partners because unlike other Internet only plays, UI Business has people in India and in the United States that can meet with businesses, check out goods, and provide background checks and verification for all parties to a transaction. They also bring sales expertise and enable all sorts of transactions from jewelry and industrial goods like forklifts to medical equipment including CT Scanners and MRI machines.
What’s next for Bash and UI Business? Bash shared, “Well, we now have a business plan that a venture capitalist would read and understand. We are all setup and running. Now we’d like to bring in outside investment from angel investor groups. With additional funding we can hire additional sales people, run marketing campaigns, and scale the business.”
When asked what advice he would give another entrepreneur, Bash said, “For any business you start, you need to have passion. I believe that any business should be part of a larger social objective, not just to make money. It should contribute to society, improve the community at large. Whatever you do, if it is tied to a bigger purpose, passion and energy will come automatically.”
How SCORE Helped
When asked why he went to SCORE, Bash shared, “I needed validation. In my heart I knew I was right but I wanted to make sure. You have a lot of self doubt when you are running your own enterprise. At the time of my first meeting I had a functioning business but no business plan. "
When asked if he’d recommend SCORE to other Bash said, “I sure would. There are knowledgeable people just sitting there waiting to help you for free. They don't expect anything in return. They have no self interest; they are very good. I believe it is organizations like SCORE that make the US the world’s best place to do business.”
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