Business Builder Plan Blog

The first thing to consider when starting your own vending machine business is that it is not for slackers. It takes work. Just because you are going into business for yourself, will have no boss to deal with, and pretty much determine your own plans, that doesn’t mean the vending machine business is easy money.

Assess your financial situation. How much money will it take to start out? Before you mortgage the house and buy a hundred vending machines, start with one or two and see how things go.

Self-employed small business owners make up 27 million of America’s 45 million uninsured. If you’re one of them, here’s how to get affordable small business health insurance.

Look for Group Options

Business Owner

You can find the best rate by finding a group to be part of. Some states allow small business owners to qualify for more affordable group plans as a “group of one.” Check with your state’s Department of Insurance to see if this option is available to you.

If your state requires at least two employees, you may be able to put your spouse or other relative on the payroll. You’ll likely need to show a tax return or business filing to show that you have a real business.

“I would rather expire at my desk than to sell my business and pay Uncle Sam one dime in taxes.” How many owners that have paid their fair share of taxes for twenty years of building their business feel this way? The tax bite is the single biggest factor in an owner’s reluctance to sell his/her company.

I have previously written articles discussing various aspects of transaction structures to minimize taxes. As a result, I am often contacted by a panicked seller that is a week from closing his business sale as he looks in disbelief at his accountant’s spreadsheet detailing the tax burden of his impending sale.

If you are one of the 25 million small B2B business owners in the US today, you have most certainly run into one or more of the following problems. Since you are probably too small to qualify for a billion dollar bailout check, you need to find a different solution. Accounts receivable factoring can be that solution. Let’s see how factoring matches up with these common problem areas.

1) Payroll Granting payment terms is an accommodation to customers that often leads to more business. However, matching payment terms to payroll needs is often impossible. This is one of the most common reasons for a company to factor.

Business Owner

2) Taxes (usually payroll) Factoring advances can help speed up cash flow and provide immediate cash to help catch up on delinquent taxes and arrearages

Most people starting out looking to make money from their own home based internet marketing business are drawn towards the affiliate marketing arena with claims of easy money.

But is it really as easy as just sending prospects to your affiliate link? In a word, no. Nothing’s that easy. There is work involved. There’s no such thing as a free ride.

Affiliate Marketing

And most people that fail at affiliate marketing are the ones that enter it with that mindset. You, as an aspiring affiliate, need to realize that it is still marketing and as such you will need to hone your skill set to achieve any level of success.

Most business owners know that there are two types of leases they can enter into when acquired equipment for their businesses. Those two types of leases are capital leases and operating leases. We will focus on the Capital Lease for the purposes of our discussion.

When the business selects a capital lease transaction then the transaction is ‘capitalized’ on the company financial statements. There are two parts to this capitalization process – first the asset is recorded on the balance sheet as a fixed asset, and at the same time the firm records a liability for the lease on the Liability section of the balance sheet.

If you are a small business owner, quite often you are the only person who is making the hiring decisions. It is up to you to define job descriptions, collect resumes, interview and then decide who will be the best fit for the positions you need filled.

Obviously, all of this is over and above the daily requirements that you face to gain clients, manage the resources and make sure you are profitable. Doesn’t it sound like a daunting task?

Business Owner

You have to be superhuman!

Quite often hiring comes across as an activity that does not need as much attention as possibly, courting a new client. With the never-ending list of things to be done, it is understandable as well.

Email is by far the most ubiquitous form of digital communication for small business owners (outside of phone calls of course) and one of the easiest to get started with. There are literally dozens of email marketing platforms available for small business owners to leverage. Finding the right platform is critical. Think about your specific goals when choosing a platform. Do you need a platform that is more hands-off? Perhaps you’re looking for a service that provides a service for creating and deploying your emails for you? Or maybe you are more of do-it-yourself kind of person and all you need is the technology? Either way, there are platforms that cater to each kind of need. When I work with clients I recommend a platform called AWeber. Aweber is one of the most used email marketing platforms in the world. There are 3 major reasons why I like Aweber over other email marketing platforms.

There are some very simple considerations to avoiding becoming a victim of unscrupulous internet marketers, make sure you use a safe affiliate marketing program. The first thing you need to do is to do a thorough research of the merchant or brand regarding his/her reliability and reputation among Internet users.

If you want to become an affiliate of a genuine program, you do not always need to invest your own money to try out a program, and if you do make sure there is at least a 30day money back clause, you do however have to give them the required personal details.

Affiliate Marketing

How To Avoid Affiliate Marketing Scams

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, you’ve heard that; and it’s true.

Some 98.6% of all businesses are considered small, so they’re significant, and every large business was at one point, small.

Business Owner

Here are five challenges every small business faces:

(1) Staffing. How can small businesses attract and afford the best talent? This is tough, because larger firms and even the nonprofit sector and government might dispense better health benefits and even compensation. So, the small enterprise has to sell potential employees on the fact that they’ll gain experience, get hands-on training, and see more growth possibilities with them.