FREE Nuts & Bolts Small Business How-To Workbook From Small Biz Startup

800,000 Americans have already lost their jobs this year
and the tragic figure is expected to rise to 1 million by
late December.

Due to outsourcing and downsizing, real employment options might not exist. For many, there is no real alternative but to start a small business.

Small Biz Startup presents a FREE Fill-in-the-Blank How-To Really Start Your Small Biz Workbook available at our partner blog: www.smallbizstartupworkbook.blogspot.com

The Small Biz Startup Workbook attempts to demystify entrepreneurship for first-time small business owners and includes strategies,
tips, techniques and checklists on finding the perfect business,
choosing a name and logo, organizing the launch, investigating business opportunities and
franchises, setting up an accounting system, and much more.

We offer it to you with the hope that it will be your small business partner as you embark on this exciting Be-Your-Own-Boss journey.

How To Investigate A "Business Opportunity" or "Turnkey" Package

A fast way to start a small business is to purchase a “business opportunity” or “turnkey” package. These “kits” come with a manual, DVD, inventory, promotional products, ads, and marketing & bookkeeping software, too. They often come with a lot less! There are no royalties to pay as with a franchise, but there is often no follow-up support such as an 800-hotline for help, etc.

The theory with a “turnkey biz opp package” is that all you have to do to launch the business is buy the package, read the material, study the manual, "turn the key" and open your business. Some of these start-up business opportunity packages cost $100 or less. Others cost thousands of dollars. But there is one common denominator: the opportunity should be investigated. Remember, let the buyer beware.

I sent for an “envelope stuffing biz opp” to see what it was: $25 and all I got was a letter suggesting I place ads in magazines and online offering “Envelope Stuffing From Home Business Opportunities”!!!!!

There are several ways to investigate a business opportunity. Do this before you send any $$$$ to anyone:

1. Call the Better Business Bureau in the city where the company is based. Ask if they have a "reliability report" filed on the company. This report provides information on the company and will include whether or not complaints have been filed on the company. It will also let you know how the company handled those complaints. Also visit: www.fraud.org for the National Fraud Information Center and phone the Call for Action Hotline at 301-652-HELP.

2. Call the Chamber of Commerce in the town where the company is based. Just because the company might not be a member doesn't mean they aren't reputable. But ask the Chamber of Commerce if they know of any reason why someone shouldn't do business with them. It doesn't hurt to hear what the word of mouth is about a particular enterprise.

3. Call the Attorney General's office in your state--often located in the State Capitol's office. Also check with the Secretary of State's office to see if there are any complaints filed on the company or if there are investigations pending.

4. Where did you hear about the business opportunity? At a local trade show? Through an ad? If it's in an ad, call the magazine who carried the ad and ask to speak to the advertising department. Do they have information on the company? How long have they been in business? Do they pay their bills on time? Has the magazine or trade sponsor received any complaints about the company?

5. Use your judgment. As you study the ad, ask yourself, "can I figure out what the business opportunity is from this ad?" If not, then run in the other direction. They are trying to be evasive. If you can't contact the company and get more information on what it is you are sending money to receive, then don't send a dime. Remember the old line, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Not in every case, but in many.

6. Ask the company offering the business opportunity package if you can get a list of folks who invested in the package during the last two years. If they are legit, and if they are proud of what they are offering, they will be happy to put you in touch with their satisfied customers. If they won't do this, there very likely is something shady going on with that particular business opportunity program. Companies that have a legitimate business opportunity package for you to look over should not be scared or dismayed if you want to receive some free additional information about the company before you invest in the program. This is a perfectly acceptable request.

7. Perform a Google search on the company and see what turns up.

8. The Federal Trade Commission offers a free package of information about the FTC Franchise and Business Opportunity Rule. Write to: Public Reference Branch, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC 20580 or call the FTC at 202-326-2222.

9. Use your instincts. If the opportunity doesn't sound or seem just right to you, stay away. Do some more research before you get involved with the company and follow tips one through 8 to conduct your "due diligence" investigation about the business and the specific opportunity.

10.Don't send money unless you completely understand what you are buying into, and even then, check it out before you send any money.

Helping Small Biz In These Tough Times

The Great American Small Business Challenge is a new, national non-profit event, co-sponsored by over 25 SBA funded Small Business Development Centers. The Challenge has been created to help small business owners develop the essential leadership skills they need to cope with the current economic crisis. All Challenge participants receive free access to valuable organizational-improvement software, leadership-training and support.

"Small Business owners feel like they hit a brick wall. Sales are slipping, accounts receivables are mounting and vendors are tightening their credit terms. To survive the current economic downturn companies need to operate at peak performance," says Michael Kramer, co-founder of the Great American Small Business Challenge.

The Great American Small Business Challenge is a new, national, non-profit event created to help small business owners develop the essential leadership skills they need to create a flexible, resilient and sustainable company. The Challenge is co-sponsored by over 25 SBA funded Small Business Development Centers who provide Challenge participants with free access to valuable organizational-improvement software, leadership-training and support.

According to data collected from the US Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration, there are over 25 million small businesses in the United States. Small businesses employ over 54 million Americans and contribute 40% of our Gross National Product.

"Considering the important role small businesses play in our economy, not enough is being done to help them maximize their success," says Jean Kulig-Tucker, co-founder of the Challenge. "The Challenge has been created to give small business owners the practical tools they need to streamline their operations so they can thrive in any economy," emphasizes Kulig-Tucker. Small Businesses can signup for the Challenge at The Great American Small Business Challenge web site: www.TheGreatAmericanSmallBusinessChallenge.com.

Advice From The Legendary BEN & JERRY

I was privileged to interview Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield about how they parlayed a $5 correspondence course in ice cream making from Penn State University into the current global giving empire now run by Unilever.

When asked what was the single most valuable piece of advice they could offer startup entrepreneurs, they said there were two thoughts they wanted to impart:

1. Be wary of family & friends who quickly become naysayers: Ben & Jerry said when they announced they were learning how to make ice cream to possibly start a small business, everyone was supportive; 'oh, yeah, go for it,' and all that--but the day they signed a lease on a space and started cleaning it up to actually begin the business, Ben & Jerry experienced the jealousy of former supporters. Be careful when this happens--and it usually will--because human nature is competitive. Even those who love and care about you will try and hold you back from your dream. Ben & Jerry said, stay strong, to fight through the nay saying!

2. Even if you have nothing going for you, and want to start a small business: Just Start!
They advise, don't let the fact that you have no outside facility or lavish equipment hold you back;
if you have a passion for an idea you believe in, then just start--start at your kitchen table or sell your t-shirts or whatever from the trunk of your car, but Just Start! If you believe in it, everything will fall into place.

The Be-Your-Own-Boss Explosion

More than 800,000 hard working Americans have lost their jobs this year and that figure is estimated to hit more than 1 million as we approach year-end pink slips. Many of our newly unemployed will never be able to transfer their knowledge into a similar position for a comparable salary—the only solution might be to start a small business.

It’s a small world after all--a small business world, that is. It is small business that is fueling our economy today not the Fortune 500 giants. In fact, small businesses account for about 90% of all new jobs created. Small business owners are the innovators who bring us inventions, and faster,cheaper, smarter ways to get from A to B. In the past two decades we’ve witnessed an explosion in entrepreneurship.

Everyone dreams of being his or her own boss--and for many good reasons. Being one’s own boss will always be associated with freedom and to a great extent, pure joy and satisfaction. It is difficult for employees to find this satisfaction on their jobs working for others.

For a long time, American workers have not been able to rely on the comfort and security once associated in working for a mega-giant corporation. There was a time when employees could count on protected pensions, health care and job security.

At the close of each year, CEOs and top management still pocket multi-million dollar profits, while the workers who drive corporations, teeter on shaky ground. We’re all too familiar with the devastation caused by layoffs, plant closings and corporate downsizing in the last few years. Since 1979, 50 million Americans have watched their jobs vanish, and according to The New York Times, only 29 million have replaced them.

We’re now searching for fulfillment and livelihood in new places, in new ways. We’d rather work 14 hours a day for ourselves doing something we love than work for “the man”. Having a small business means freedom from the 9 to 5 shackles. We’d gladly work twice as hard in our own venture. Owning a small business gives us pride and identity.

In the 19th century, Americans worked and plied their trades. Villages usually featured one shoemaker, one clothing retailer, one grocer, and so on down the line. Late 19th and early 20th century entrepreneurs ventured into oil, steel and railways and made a bundle overnight. They struck gold.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Americans fulfilled dreams by taking over the family business. After World War II new ideas, technologies and politics came into place changing the business climate as well.

Sons and daughters were no longer content to work in the family business. College was the dream and working for a large corporation became the fantasy. Business students earned MBAs and turned their sheepskins into big buck fortunes. But with the greed of the 1980s came the stock market crash and insider trading scams.

Social awareness, invisible since the 1960s, turned many of us off to the notion of big business. Government let us down, too. Environmental devastation along with concern for human needs, such as health care and shelter, took center stage.

Global alarms on AIDS, famine and natural disasters brought us closer together. Americans started to reject the notion of the big business machine and once again moved toward small business.

We watched garage-based ventures like Apple and Microsoft become world-class empires. It was proof that entrepreneurship--the New American Dream--was alive and well. Advances in technology have made it easy for small businesses to be launched from home.

With the Internet, It’s never been easier to be an “Open Collar” worker than right now and it gets less difficult all the time as one-person operations run from a kitchen table rack up profits and respect.

Running a business is fun and exciting. It has been written and said time and again: If you choose something you love to do, you will love working on it, at it, with it, for it. The money will follow. I hope this blog will serve as your "partner" as you begin your Small Business Journey!