Coverage includes getting started with the right business, funding, and types of corporations. Following is discussion of marketing, getting sales, production plans, employees and payroll, accounting, and running a successful company. The accompanying CD contains many forms, documents, and agreements, and supplemental chapters on internet businesses, choosing an office location, using technology, keeping the corporation legal, and credit policies. This edition has been reorganized, updated, and revised, with new chapters on small business benefits, buying a franchise or existing business, dealing with China, and other topics. Emphasis is on presenting a plan to possible investors. Paulson is an entrepreneur, business consultant, and a college professor at DePaul U. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Part 1 Starting the Right Business for You	p. 1
1 You Are Your New Business	p. 3
Lifelong Employment Is a Myth	p. 5
Cut Yourself Some Slack	p. 5
Your Business Starts with You	p. 6
Do You Have What It Takes?	p. 7
What Makes a Great Entrepreneur?	p. 8
What Are Your Strengths and Abilities?	p. 9
What Are Your Needs?	p. 12
Financial Needs and Goals	p. 12
Family Motivations and Goals	p. 14
What Are Your Spiritual Goals?	p. 15
Escaping the Big House-Leaving Corporate America	p. 16
What Is Your Personal Bottom Line?	p. 18
2 Navigating the Critical Planning Process	p. 21
Why Prepare a Business Plan?	p. 22
Think of It as a Simulation	p. 24
The Overall Plan-Writing Process	p. 24
Being Honest	p. 25
Getting Help	p. 26
You'll Never Have All the Information You Need	p. 27
The Minimum That Your Plan Must Cover	p. 28
Dealing with a Bad Business Idea	p. 29
Short- and Long-Term Planning	p. 30
3 Your Recipe for a Professional Business Plan	p. 33
Briefly Describing Your Business Idea	p. 35
Your Mission: Why Does Your Company Exist?	p. 35
The Pieces of Your Plan	p. 38
Cover Sheet	p. 39
Table of Contents	p. 40
Executive Summary	p. 40
Business Description	p. 40
Market and Industry Analysis	p. 41
The Competition	p. 42
Marketing Strategy	p. 43
Operations Plan	p. 43
The Management Team	p. 43
Financial Overview and Funding Needs	p. 44
Summary and Conclusions	p. 45
Appendixes or Supplementary Materials	p. 46
Ethics and Your Plan	p. 46
4 Finding the Money You Will Need	p. 47
Risk and Reward Are Intimately Linked	p. 49
Investors Give Money to Get Something Back	p. 49
The Greater the Perceived Risk, the Greater the Required Return	p. 50
Don't Treat Investments Personally	p. 51
Comparing Debt and Equity Funding	p. 52
Company Stages and Funding	p. 53
Seed Stage	p. 53
Startup Stage	p. 54
First Stage	p. 54
Second Stage	p. 55
Third Stage (Mezzanine)	p. 55
Harvest Stage-Exit Strategy	p. 56
Know How Much Money You Will Need	p. 56
Will You Make Money?	p. 57
How Much Can You Afford?	p. 57
The Plan Estimates Your Money Needs	p. 58
What's Your Potential?	p. 58
Basic Types of Funding	p. 60
Typical Funding Action Sequence	p. 60
Funding Out of Your Own Pocket	p. 61
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Family Funding	p. 62
Venture Capital-May Not Be for Everybody	p. 63
Agency Guaranteed Bank Funding	p. 64
SBA and Governmental Program Realities	p. 64
Stock Sales (Not an IPO...Sorry)	p. 65
Seller Financing	p. 66
Ethics and Funding	p. 67
For Your Plan	p. 67
5 Buying Experience with a Franchise	p. 69
Franchises: Paying for Their Experience	p. 70
Franchising in a Nutshell	p. 72
Getting to Know the Franchiser	p. 74
How Long Has the Franchiser Been in Business?	p. 75
Key Personnel, Methodology, or Arrangements	p. 77
What About the Competition?	p. 78
For Your Plan	p. 79
6 Buying an Existing Business	p. 81
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Buying an Existing Business	p. 82
Buying and Selling are Similar...but Different	p. 83
Preparing to Buy	p. 84
Finding the Candidate	p. 85
Finding a Company to Buy	p. 86
Plan to Buy in Stages	p. 87
The Sales Meetings	p. 88
Getting the Right Professional Help	p. 89
For Your Plan	p. 91
7 Should You Start a Corporation?	p. 93
An Overview of the Various Business Structures	p. 94
Sole Proprietorship: Going It Alone	p. 96
Partnership: A Business Marriage	p. 98
Corporations: Share the Wealth	p. 99
Public or Private?	p. 101
Subchapter S-Corporations: Protection with a Smaller Tax Bite	p. 102
Limited Liability Company (LLC)	p. 104
Professional Corporations	p. 105
State to State	p. 106
Dealing With the Tax Man	p. 107
For Your Plan	p. 110
Part 2 Writing Your Successful Plan	p. 113
8 Determining Your Market Opportunity	p. 115
Understanding and Assessing the Market's Influence	p. 116
Don't Create a Market Need	p. 118
Determine Overall Market Characteristics	p. 119
Is the Market Growing?	p. 120
Who Are the Major Players in Your Market?	p. 123
How Long Will This Opportunity Last?	p. 123
Research Data Sources Are Everywhere	p. 124
Researching Your Plan	p. 125
For Your Plan	p. 121
9 Learning on Your Competitors' Nickel	p. 129
Is the Competition Real?	p. 130
Accumulating Competitive Information	p. 131
Comparing Yourself to Them	p. 134
Price Wars Hurt Everyone	p. 137
Are You a Specialty Store or a Superstore?	p. 138
Using Market Segmentation to Your Advantage	p. 139
Cooperation Versus Competition	p. 140
For Your Plan	p. 141
10 Focused Marketing That Makes Money	p. 143
Marketing and Sales: Linked but Different	p. 144
Know Who Is Most Likely to Buy Your Offering	p. 145
Target Marketing: Finding Your Best Customers	p. 147
Finding Your Right Price	p. 148
The All-Important Life Cycle	p. 151
Your Marketing Message and Positioning	p. 154
Advertising: Balancing Push and Pull	p. 155
Mail Order and Direct Mail	p. 158
For Your Plan	p. 159
11 Getting Sales: The Lifeblood of Your Business	p. 161
Manipulating and Selling: Not the Same Thing	p. 163
Getting Close to Closing the Sale	p. 164
Everyone Has to Sell, but Not Everyone Closes	p. 164
Is Your Offering a Special or Commodity Item?	p. 165
Is Your Customer a Likely Buyer?	p. 166
The Nine Stages of Selling	p. 168
The Suspect Stage-Stage 1	p. 168
The Prospect Stage-Stage 2	p. 169
The Entree Stage-Stage 3	p. 169
The Discovery Stage-Stage 4	p. 170
The Proposal Stage-Stage 5	p. 170
Trial Close Stage-Stage 6	p. 171
The Budget Stage-Stage 7	p. 171
The Close Stage-Stage 8	p. 172
The Post-Sale Stage-Stage 9	p. 172
A Commodity Sale Versus a Complex Sale	p. 173
Your Sales Channels	p. 173
Distributors as Sales Agents	p. 174
Should You Use Your Own Sales Force?	p. 175
Selling Services Instead of Products	p. 176
For Your Plan	p. 178
12 Production Plans That Produce Results	p. 181
Production in Product and Service Environments	p. 182
Are You a Mass Producer or a Job Shop?	p. 184
Linking Purchasing, Production, and Marketing Forecasts	p. 185
Create a Production Flow Chart	p. 187
Successful Project Management	p. 188
Maintaining Quality	p. 190
For Your Plan	p. 192
13 The Good and Bad News About Employees	p. 195
When You're Successful, You'll Need Help	p. 196
Good Help Isn't Hard to Find	p. 200
Independent Contractors	p. 201
Putting Retired Folk to Work	p. 203
Take Your Employee for a Test Drive	p. 203
When a Contractor Is Really an Employee	p. 204
More Employees, More Restrictions	p. 205
Medical Insurance	p. 207
Sexual Harassment	p. 208
Solicitation and Competition	p. 209
Interviewing Techniques	p. 212
For Your Plan	p. 215
14 Properly Handling Payroll Taxes	p. 217
Payroll Taxes: You Can't Avoid Them, So Learn How to Deal with Them	p. 218
Payroll Tax Overview	p. 219
Filing and Paying Payroll Taxes	p. 222
Tax Deposits and IRS Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return	p. 222
State and Federal Unemployment Taxes	p. 225
Rules to Live (and Save Taxes) By	p. 225
Using a Payroll Accounting Service	p. 227
15 Accounting: How Business Keeps Score	p. 229
Accounting 101	p. 231
Accounting Periods	p. 232
Sales and Costs	p. 232
Cash or Accrual: Which Accounting Method Is Right for You?	p. 234
The Cash Basis Accounting Method	p. 236
The Accrual Accounting Method	p. 236
Understanding Financial Statements	p. 238
A Chart of Accounts	p. 239
The Income Statement	p. 240
The Balance Sheet	p. 242
Cash Flow Analysis	p. 247
For Your Plan	p. 250
16 Reaping All Your Small Business Benefits	p. 253
The Grim Truth	p. 254
Are You Self-Employed or an Employee?	p. 257
Differentiating Various Business Types and Taxes	p. 259
You Still Need a Retirement Fund	p. 262
The Standard IRA and Roth IRA	p. 262
An SEP and SIMPLE Plan	p. 263
Various Other Deductions	p. 265
Home Office Deductions	p. 265
Medical Benefits	p. 266
A Final Word About Providing Benefits	p. 268
Part 3 Running a Successful Business	p. 271
17 Cash Is Like Air for Your Business	p. 273
When You're Out of Cash, You're Out of Business (Usually)	p. 274
How Success Can Kill Your Business	p. 275
Factoring, Credit Terms, and Loans	p. 277
Factoring Receivables	p. 277
Using Credit Terms to Enhance Your Cash Position	p. 279
Buying on Credit	p. 280
Taking Out a Loan	p. 281
Applying Break-Even Analysis to Determine Startup Cash Requirements	p. 281
Knowing When Enough Is Enough	p. 285
Projecting Startup Cash Requirements	p. 286
For Your Plan	p. 287
18 Properly Handling Credit Card Sales	p. 289
The Way Credit Cards Work	p. 291
The Costs of Credit	p. 292
Terminal Fees	p. 293
Monthly Fees	p. 294
Covering Your Legal Bases	p. 296
What to Do if a Charge Is Contested	p. 298
19 Banking On Your Banker	p. 301
What Does a Bank Bring to the Table?	p. 302
The Loan Officer Is Your Friend. Really	p. 303
Banks Will Give You Money Only When You Don't Need It	p. 304
Bank Loans You Can Get	p. 306
Sell Your Banker on Your Company	p. 308
Commercial Checking Accounts: A Different Animal	p. 310
Enter the Small Business Administration (SBA)	p. 311
Big Banks, Small Banks	p. 312
20 International Business-Did I Mention China?	p. 315
International Business and the Internet	p. 317
Taking and Processing Orders	p. 317
Giving Product Information	p. 318
Shipping and Handling	p. 318
Pricing and Exchange Rates	p. 319
Making Sure You Get Paid	p. 320
Going International-All the Way	p. 324
Working with China	p. 326
Some Facts About China	p. 326
The Importance of Relationship in Business	p. 327
The Importance of Size	p. 328
The Challenges	p. 328
Appendixes
A Business Buzzword Glossary	p. 331
B The Kwik Chek Auto Evaluation Example Business Plan	p. 349
C Resources	p. 383
D Bibliography	p. 391
Index	p. 394

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