Product Description

An indispensable how-to guide from the small business columnist for USAToday.com.

Hundreds of thousands of people start their own businesses every year, and untold more dream about the possibility of becoming their own bosses. While entrepreneurship has its many potential rewards, it also carries unique challenges.

Steven D. Strauss, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on small business, has developed an easy-to-read compendium of everything an aspiring entrepreneur needs to start and succeed in business. He explains what works, and what doesn’t, while giving entrepreneurs scores of tips and hints. Readers will learn:

• Why following one’s passion is important when picking a business.

• How to analyze a franchise property.

• Which business form is best-corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship.

• What funding options are available-from venture capital to SBA loans.

• How much to charge for goods or services.

• Why having more than one revenue stream is important.

• How to start a business on a shoestring.

• Strategies for growth once the business is up and running

Unlike other books on business formation, Strauss’s advice not only explains what steps to take, but also includes proven strategies, worksheets, forms to fill out, and success secrets. To that end, it is a business primer, step-by-step guide, and success strategies book all rolled into one.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #326206 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-12
• Released on: 2002-12-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
"Steven D. Strauss is one of the world's leading experts on entrepreneurship. A lawyer, author, and public speaker, Steve's "Ask an Expert" column is the most highly syndicated business column on the Internet, being seen weekly at USA Today, AT&T Small Business, and Staples.com, among others.

Steve has spoken around the world about entrepreneurship, including at the United Nations, and he has been seen on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, The O'Reilly Factor, and many other television and radio shows. You can contact him or sign up today for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" at his business web site."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface

Your own successful business can be many things. It can be your meal ticket, ensuring the economic health of you and your family. It can be your source of creativity, giving you an outlet for all of those ideas you have. It can be your security, the comfort that comes from knowing that there is no boss who can fire you. It can even be your pride and joy, an accomplishment that you point to with satisfaction, knowing that you alone created it out of whole cloth.

But more than anything else, I think that owning your own business and being an entrepreneur is about freedom. Yes, the money that comes from a successful business is great. And yes, being energized and enthused about your day is special. Being free is priceless. If you do it right, you are free to start whatever sort of business you want. You are free to start it where you want, and free to work the hours you choose. You are free to make as much money as you are capable of, without yearly limits or performance reviews.

But you will notice that all this only comes about if you do it right. When you choose to become an entrepreneur, there are no guarantees. In large part, whether you succeed or fail is up to you. So, how do you do it right? Read this book. It is dedicated to helping you succeed. And unlike other start your-own-business books on the market, what sets this book apart is that it offers a model of business success, a simple model that is easily duplicated.

It might help to think of your business as having two parts. The first part is found in Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of this book—choosing and doing something that you love to do. That is the "technical" aspect of the business. The dentist fills the cavities, the photographer takes the pictures. Practically every business is set up to allow the owner to make money doing some sort of technical work that he or she loves.

The second part of your business is everything else—the actual running of the business itself. That is found in the rest of this book, Chapters 4 through 20. The dentist must network and bring in new clients, and the photographer must get referrals, bill customers, and generate leads. There are myriad things that go into running the actual business, aside from doing the "thing" that you love to do. When I talk about a model of business success, it is all of these other things to which I am referring.

The vast majority of this book is dedicated to teaching you this second part of business. If the dentist and photographer follow the model laid out in this book, they will be free to spend more time doing what it is they love, rather than worrying about the business. Do it right and the business will take care of itself, and you, in turn, will be free. You can plug almost any "technical" job into this business model and it would work.

The model is neither complicated nor complex. It is simple, easy, and fun. Learn it and free yourself up to grow, make more money, and do what it is you love. When you learn how to run your business properly, you get to a point where the world will be paying you to do what you love most. And that, as Alan Ginsberg once observed, is the real trick of life.

Customer Reviews

Not Quite "Everything," But A Very Good Start
"The Business Start-Up Kit: Everything You Need To Know About Starting And Growing Your Own Business" by attorney and small business columnist Steven Strauss is a solid introduction to starting a new business.

Strauss covers these topics very well:

* Buying A Franchise Or Other Business
* Planning Your Business
* Laws, Taxes, and Insurance (A Brief Overview)
* Bootstrap Financing

Strauss tells us that one million new home-based business start-up every year and that as many as 15-40 million home-based businesses exist in the United States. Quoting an SBA survey, we learn that almost 25 percent of all home-based businesses have a yearly gross income between $100,000 and $500,000.

Strauss says home-based businesses have a big advantage-low overhead. And, some home-based businesses grow into much larger endeavors. We learn that Disney, amazon.com, and Microsoft are among some businesses that originated as home-based businesses.

Strauss writes: "Maybe your dream is to be a multimillionaire. That's fine. But so too is a dream to create a business that makes enough money to allow you to stay home, play with the kids... and shoot a round of golf on Friday afternoons. That's fine too. That you are the boss and can do what you want is one of the best things about starting your own home-based business. Doing what you want-that's the whole idea."

"The Business Start-Up Kit" emphasizes that industry research, planning, and letting the numbers do the talking are crucial to success.

Strauss writes: "For example, assume that your business is looking to add a new product line. How do you know if it will work? Such an important decision should not be based on guesswork or hunches. Instead, you have to let the numbers do the talking. Knowing how to crunch the numbers-figuring out what it will cost you to launch the new line, how much you can expect to make, and how quickly you can reasonably expect to make it-will make the decision easy for you. Can you afford a new product line? Will your cash flow allow you to afford it? What kind of return on this investment of capital and time can you expect? Let the numbers do the talking."

Throughout the book, Strauss encourages the reader by interjecting interesting tidbits about successful entrepreneurs. And, Strauss tells those who fear failure to let fear motivate them and not to give up easily.

We learn that Microsoft had only $16,000 in revenue and three employees in 1975. In 1976, Microsoft had $22,000 in revenue and six employees. It lost money both years. Strauss says that many entrepreneurs might have been tempted to give up after two dismal years.

To help entrepreneurs stretch their initial investment, Strauss suggests: "You must invest your time, money, and energy in only your best, most profitable ideas."

Strauss says entrepreneurs should enter a field they feel passionate about and an area where they see a need or an opportunity.

For example, Strauss writes: "...when Chris Haney and Scott Abbot got together to play a board game one night, they choose... Scrabble. As they pulled out Chris's Scrabble game, the two friends discovered that some of the tiles were missing. As they went out to buy another Scrabble game, Chris thought: This was the sixth game of Scrabble he'd bought in his life. The two friends decided then and there to start a business and invent a board game. ... the two friends sold more than 20 million copies of Trivial Pursuit within three years."

Strauss also discusses legal mistakes to avoid when starting your business. Strauss says many entrepreneurs will need to learn some basic law about:

* Contracts
* Avoiding negligence
* Protecting your ideas and products with copyrights, trademarks, and patents
* Basic employer-employee law
* Laws regulating your industry

Strauss says one of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make is to operate as a sole proprietorship or as a partnership, which can put your personal assets at risk. Strauss writes: "If instead of a sole proprietorship or partnership, you start the business as a corporation, LLC, or limited partnership, you avoid that possibility [not always] and thereby greatly reduce your risk." (Aside: In another chapter, Strauss correctly discusses the limited partnership in detail. But, this paragraph is a bit awkward. A limited partnership itself provides no protection to the general partners. Those with limited liability are typically the investors, who aren't active in the management of the business. Sometimes, another business structure, such as a corporation serves as the general partner. But, a limited partnership, itself, doesn't provide full liability limitation to the entrepreneur.)

In addition to providing encouragement and help with developing a business strategy, Strauss also provides a list of books, websites, and other resources for more information at the end of each section.

I highly recommend "The Business Start-Up Kit: Everything You Need To Know About Starting And Growing Your Own Business" to new entrepreneurs.

Peter Hupalo, Author of "How To Start And Run Your Own Corporation"

Quite Excellent
The title of this book indeed says it all - in it I found "everything I need to know" about starting a business - and then some! Strauss writes in a friendly, entertaing way that made even complicated subjects (finances, yuch!) pretty easy to understand. Another thing I liked about the book was the section on the "Shoestring Entrepreneur" - how to start and grow a business without a lot of money.

Overall, it was very helpful.

Junior School material
This book was not of any help to me. It mentions all the aspects of business you need to be familiar with before starting one of your own, but it does not give any help on any of these aspects.
For example in financing your startup, it mentions geting a loan and using your credit cards. Honestly if thats the way to finance a business then you can add going on a diet and saving your lunch money. It goes on giving you mostly unintelligent information and advice like "buy a computer", "save rent, work from home". Put your money on another book and save yourself the trouble of reading it.