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Time To Startup!
Inspiration and Information for Starting Your Business

Archive for March, 2010

Building a Successful Marketing Plan

Posted on March 25th, 2010 by Heather
Category: Business Plans, How To Information, Marketing

Every business, small or large, will be more successful with a marketing plan. A good marketing plan summarizes the who, what, where, when, and how much questions of company marketing and sales activities for the planning year:

  • Who are our target buyers?
  • What constitutes our uniqueness in the market?
  • Where will we spend our resources?
  • When will marketing initiatives occur?
  • How much sales, spending, and profits will we achieve?

The financial projections in your business plan are based on assumptions in your marketing plan. It is the marketing plan that details when expenditures will be made, what level of sales will be achieved, and how and when advertising and promotional expenditures will be made.

There are five major elements of a marketing plan:

  • The situation analysis describes the total marketing environment in which the company competes and the status of your products and channels;
  • The opportunity and issues analysis examines external opportunities and threats to the company as well as internal strengths and weaknesses of the company;
  • The goals and objectives section outlines major company goals and marketing and financial objectives;
  • The marketing strategy summarizes all of your strategic elements: the target buyer, the market segments the company competes in, the unique positioning of the company and its products compared to the competition, price strategy, promotional strategy, the works.
  • The sales and marketing plan outlines each specific marketing event or action plan to increase sales. For example, it may contain a summary of quarterly promotion and advertising plans, with spending, timing, and share or shipment goals for each program.

When it comes to business planning, one proverb needs to be kept in clear view: “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” Don’t tinker and fuss so much that your plan never finds its way into practice. Get something good on the rails, then refine as you go until it’s great.

See also:
situation analysis
opportunity and issue analysis
goals and objectives
marketing strategy
sales and marketing plan

Given that most start-up and small businesses have limited budgets and resources that are already stretched thin–How crucial do you think a marketing plan is for a start-up?

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Filing Articles of Organization

Posted on March 18th, 2010 by Heather
Category: Corporation, Incorporate a Business, LLC, Small Business, Start A Business

Every venture has a moment of creation. When forming a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation, every business entity must file articles of organization with the state in which the business is being incorporated. Once the articles are accepted by the state there is a blinding flash of light, and lo, your business exists!

When forming an LLC, this crucial document is called the articles of organization. In the case of the corporation, it’s usually called “articles of incorporation.” Either way, they establish the same general who-what-when-where-why-how of the new business.

Standard forms for the articles of organization (for an LLC) are available from each state. The business owner can fill in the necessary information on the form. Ideally, however, the articles of organization for an LLC will be tailored to the business owner’s specific requirements, since no two situations are identical.

Regardless of the situation, articles of organization include these four main elements at minimum:

  • Name, principal location and purpose of the business
  • Agent for service of process
  • Classes of ownership interests
  • Initial managers and owners

But Wait! There’s More!

Yes, your company will officially exist in the eyes of the state when the articles of organization are filed, but there are a few more documents you might want to consider before your new business is ready to go out into the world.

The small business owner operating an LLC should also have an LLC operating agreement, which includes a buy-sell agreement (In a conventional corporation, bylaws take the place of an operating agreement, and the buy-sell agreement will be a separate document from the bylaws.)

Most states do not require that an LLC adopt an operating agreement. Do it anyway. An LLC operating agreement provides the owners with formal guidance on issues such as voting, management and division of profits. Without this guidance, it is much more likely that disputes among the owners will arise and that piercing of the veil of limited liability will be applied by the courts. And no one wants that.

Have you filed your articles of organization?

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The Business Start-Up To-Dos

Posted on March 12th, 2010 by Heather
Category: How To Information, Start A Business

Some people who wouldn’t think of heading off to the store without a carefully-prepared, category-sorted checklist, will head off into a business start-up with nothing more than a good business idea and a vague confidence that everything will turn out fine.

The fact is, nothing is more important to getting and keeping your new venture on track than a checklist of essential steps – the “to-do” list of your start-up business.

Just as the grocery list is sorted into canned goods, dairy, produce, etc, the business start-up has three essential categories: Background work, Business basics, and First steps.

Background work lays the foundation for everything to come. Skimp on your foundation and you’ll be dealing with cracks in the walls and leaks in the ceilings for years to come. You want to spend time assessing your strengths and weaknesses; establishing business and personal goals (both business and personal); assessing your financial resources, risks, and costs; doing market research; developing a marketing plan; and more.

Business basics. This is the point where you can get outside professionals involved and paperwork filed. Select a lawyer, an accountant, a banker and an insurance agent. Choose the kind of company you want or need (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, etc.), set up a checking account and a line of credit. This is where the rubber begins to meet the road.

First steps. It may seem strange to have “first steps” as a third step, but think again of the analogy to a building. Up to this point, everything’s been at or below ground level. Now it’s time to start building the visible structure. Line up your suppliers, get your furniture and equipment, apply for any needed licenses. Join a professional organization and get your employer identification numbers from the government. Finally, set a start date.

These are only partial lists, of course. What have you found to be helpful start-up “to-do’s”?

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Make a Referral Week Begins Today

Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Heather
Category: Grow a Business, Promote My Business

Do you have a favorite small business whose product or service has a positive impact on your life? Maybe it’s the drycleaner on the corner who always gets the starch in your shirts just right, the yoga studio that makes sure your poses are always spot on, or your local florist who sends you a reminder the week before your anniversary. Here’s your chance to recognize them for making a difference.

Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small business economy one referred business at a time. The goal for the week is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars in new business. This week-long event also features daily education programs. The Refer-O-Meter will monitor referrals throughout the week.

Be a part of the solution, learn more, and make referrals here.

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Welcome to our new home

Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Heather
Category: Business Inspiration, Grow a Business, Start A Business

Hello Time To Startup fans, we have exciting news—we’ve re-located to BizFilings.com! As a leader in the online incorporation industry, BizFilings has helped over 500,000 entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses. This move will provide you not only access to our blog, but to BizFilings’ extensive learning center that’s filled with articles and guides to help you, as a small business owner, navigate through important considerations for starting and managing your business.

We’re still the same blog, and will continue to bring you the advice and information you need for your entrepreneurial journey—we encourage you to explore our new home. Following are some of the site’s highlights:

  • Client photos, videos and stories
  • Robust Learning Center—filled with articles and guides to help small business owners navigate through important considerations for starting and managing their business.
  • Incorporation Wizard—an intuitive tool that guides people step-by-step through a series of questions to help them identify the business type that’s best suited to their needs.
  • Business Type Comparison Guide—interactive tool that allows people to compare the benefits and pitfalls of different incorporation options.
  • Links to social channels—designed to provide our small business owners and entrepreneurs with fresh ideas and information.

If you have a question, or topic you’d like us to address—please drop us a comment. We look forward to hearing from you and to continuing to provide you with information and tips to help you grow your business.

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A little low-cost business security for the self-employed

Posted on March 4th, 2010 by Heather
Category: How To Information

When it comes to business security, being self-employed has plusses and minuses.

On the plus side, having few or no employees other than yourself reduces the number of people you need to watch and worry about. According to the 2008 National Retail Security Survey, employees were responsible for 43 percent of unexplained losses by retailers, compared to just 36 percent for shoplifting. Fewer employees means fewer fingers in the pie.

The flipside of fewer hands for the small business owner is that most of the security you do have will be your responsibility.

Fortunately most of the common security pitfalls in business can be avoided if you pay attention to some simple precautions:

Open the mail yourself. Don’t delegate this chore. Most of the mail you’ll receive will be routine in nature, and this task could easily be assigned to an employee. But that one piece in a thousand is the one you can’t afford to miss seeing first. It’s harder for a bookkeeper to embezzle funds if she knows you glance over every bank statement. Returned check notices come in the mail, as do complaints—and you don’t want either hidden from you. Once you’ve opened the mail, someone else can process it. But you must permit yourself to learn first-hand what’s coming into your business or, in some cases, what isn’t coming in.

Establish a secure network access and file management system. Use passwords, and change them often. Restrict access to your electronic files as much as you can. No one needs to know all about your business but you. Back up your data every day and store that backup disk or tape in a location away from the site of your computer.

Maintain confidentiality. Be discreet about how much you reveal of your business or personal information to anyone, including your banks. Your accountant and attorney need and deserve your full disclosure in order for them to serve your needs properly. Their confidentiality obligations to clients are universally respected. But others, such as banks, creditors, and suppliers will always ask for far more than they actually need. Just because they ask for it doesn’t require you to give it. Negotiate on a need-to-know basis.

Use locks and alarms—or the appearance of same. Lock up your confidential files and valuable equipment and change the locks periodically. Signs and cameras (convincingly fake or entirely real) can be a good deterrent to shoplifting and other crimes of opportunity. And there’s no need to let the staff know whether that camera leads to an actual security tape.

The sophistication of your security systems is limited only by your budget. Consult with a security firm and get a menu of choices and prices in order to evaluate what would be most cost effective for your business.

What are some of the other easy and low-cost ways to ensure security at a small business?

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