How to Start Your Own Business and Make Money

Own a Business

Owning your own business is the best way to make money. This guide provides an overview of the large and often daunting process.

Things You'll Need

• Competitive mind
• Desire to succeed
• Creativity
• Desire to make money

Instructions

1. 

   Define your idea. Write it down - as if you were going to present it to a friend or relative. This will get you thinking about what exactly your idea is, and how other people might view it. You should draw categories and make lists, such as defining what industry you'll be entering (for a lot of people it's the restaurant or food industry). You should then narrow it down, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, etc. Define as much as possible during the brainstorming process. If you're not sure what you want to do, go to www.entrepreneur.com. There are hundreds of ideas already listed on that website and you can browse by industry.

2. 

   Get some net worth. (This is optional) Net worth is the vaule of your assets minus your liabilities, or your money and land minus your credit and loans. For business ownership you should try and get at least a portion of your start-up costs. For some businesses you won't have any start-up costs, but for most there will be large costs and you may need help with financing. There are many ways to increase your net worth with almost no effort using the stock market and buying tax deed properties. You don't need a lot of money to do this either. See my guides here:

   http://www.ehow.com/how_4918574_buy-tax-deed-properties.html
   http://www.ehow.com/how_4824210_money-stocks-easily-safely.html

3. 

   Research it. For example, if you were to do a restaurant, you might make a list of things to research that relate to your business, such as:

   1. Location (real estate zoning, acquisition)

   2. Market (competitors, demand)

   3. Customers (demographics, customer service)

   4. Products (quality, production)

   5. Operations (transaction types, systems)

   6. Benchmarking (you'll be similar to?)

   Visit www.entrepreneur.com for tools & resources that will help you thoroughly research your idea(s). You might also consider taking some rudimentary entrepreneurship classes at your local community college.

4. Consider starting with a franchise. Franchises are easy ways to get some business ownership experience, which is a real plus if you need financial help for your own idea. See my guide here for more details on how to start a franchise:

   http://www.ehow.com/how_4918642_start-a-franchise.html

5. Talk to current business owners that have similar businesses, or even work for them for a while. They could become potential business partners and provide financial support or training. If you work for them you'll gain valuable experience and knowledge about the do's and dont's of your industry.

6. Estimate it. The basic principle behind estimating your business is to determine all expenses and all revenues for a period of time. Most detailed business plans show a 3 year estimate. For each piece of data, you should have bullets, footnotes, or references with key assumptions about how and why each number is what it is.

7. 

   Write the business plan. A business plan is a detailed explanation and estimate of your business: what it is, how it operates, what its advantages are, how it will make money and what its main goal is. The purpose of writing it is mainly for investors, but also for the business owner (who is ideally the author as well) to gain a strong understanding of the detailed operative aspects of the idea. A business plan can be short or long, and there's no specific format. I wrote a business plan a few years back that was around 65 pages, but I've seen several that are more than 200 pages long.

8. Here are a few examples of business plans:

   Standard templates: http://www.myownbusiness.org/plans/sample_html/all_product.html

   http://www.myownbusiness.org/plans/sample_html/all_service.html

   Restaurant: http://www.bplans.com/steak_buffet_restaurant_business_plan/executive_summary_fc.cfm

   Ethnic restaurant: http://www.bplans.com/ethnic_food_restaurant_business_plan/executive_summary_fc.cfm

   Computer consultation: http://www.bplans.com/computer_consulting_business_plan/executive_summary_fc.cfm

   Rental/remodeling: http://www.bplans.com/rental_remodeling_business_plan/executive_summary_fc.cfm

   Scrapbooking: http://www.bplans.com/scrapbooking_store_business_plan/executive_summary_fc.cfm

   Wedding/event planner: http://www.bplans.com/wedding_and_event_planning_business_plan_templates.cfm

   General: http://www.bulletproofbizplans.com/bpsample/Sample_Plan/sample_plan1.html

   After reviewing those, select one or more from those websites to use as a benchmark or template.

9. If you need help financing, present your business plan to your lenders and investors. Be sure to be confident. Know your business and your industry better than anything. Study your business plan daily. For tips on presenting business plans I will include some articles in the resources section (not my articles). Good luck!

Tips & Warnings

• Be realistic

• Consider a franchise first

• Think like the customer

• You may need a patent or copyright, look at ehow articles on that topic

Resources

• Money Making Blog