Michael F. OKeefe - Starting a Business: Learn What You Need in 2 Hours

CRASH COURSE for ENTREPRENEURS

STARTING A BUSINESS

CRASH COURSE for ENTREPRENEURS

Learn What You Need in Two Hours

Scott L. Girard, Jr., Michael F. OKeefe and Marc A. Price

Series Editor: Scott L. Girard, Jr.

A Crash Course for EntrepreneursFrom Expert Business Advice

Starting a Business

Sales and Marketing

Managing Your Business

Business Finance Basics

Business Law Basics

Franchising

Business Plans

Time and Efficiency

International Business

Supplemental Income

Social Media

Web-Based Business

Copyright 2012, Scott L. Girard, Jr., Michael F. OKeefe, and Marc A. Price

www.expertbusinessadvice.com

ISBN: 978-90-77256-36-7

The Expert Business Advice trademark is owned by Expert Business Advice LLC and is used under license.

Disclaimer: While every attempt has been made to verify the accuracy of information in this book as it goes to press, the authors and publisher cannot guarantee its future accuracy. Please consult competent expert advice before taking decisions in response to the advice herein.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or use in an information storage or retrieval system, without prior written permission from Nova Vista Publishing. Address .

Distributed by Career Press, Inc., 220 West Parkway, Unit 12, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444, U.S.A., www.careerpress.com

D/2012/9797/1

Printed in the United States of America

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Cover design: Wouter Geukens, Boris Bakker

Text design: Softwin

For Gaye, Lynda, Marci and Stef

You can spot entrepreneurs easily when they talk about their businesses and dreams. Their passion and fascination with their business and others businesses is remarkable. When I met Scott, Mike and Marc, I knew before they told me about the 17 businesses theyve collectively started that these were talented, insightful, seasoned entrepreneurs. We quickly agreed to develop the Crash Course for Entrepreneurs together.

The aim of this series is to give you high-level overviews of the critical things you need to know and do if you want to start (or youre already running) your own business. In a two-hour read. Of course, theres much more to know about every topic covered, but we believe that what youll read here will give you the framework for learning the rest. A Resources section and a Glossary will ensure you can ground yourself in the essentials. And www.expertbusinessadvice.com , the coauthors website, offers expanded support for entrepreneurs that is updated daily.

Entrepreneurs vary widely in what they want to do. Your dream may be to start a very small, one-person service, perhaps doing home maintenance or day care or accounting from your home. You may have developed or discovered a high-tech breakthrough that will need years of testing and dozens or hundreds of people to bring to market. This book sees the intrinsic value and challenges of both styles of business. It will definitely help you make the most of your opportunity, whatever its scale.

Most of the chapters in this book represent the authors collective experience and point of view, but a few are personal pieces. Youll find the initials of each author at the end of those. Heres a brief word from each of them.

I remember when I fully understood what our series of books should accomplish. Mike, Marc and I had only decided that we wanted to write a series of books for people only moderately familiar with entrepreneurship and business. Multitudes of books already exist on basic levels of business practices and procedures. We knew that writing another one of those books wouldnt really serve anyone or change anything, no matter how well written it was.

On the morning that I got it, I was drinking coffee and reading the news; the television was on in the background. I glanced up and saw a commercial for a foreign language software program in which, instead of learning by simply repeating vocabulary, the student is culturally immersed in the language, holistically surrounded with concepts of all manner of things applicable to the subject. In short, they dont list facts and terms and call it teachingthey show the student a vast array of information, on a multitude of levels, allowing her to bathe in knowledge.

I knew then that instead of presenting a bunch of facts that we think you should know about business, we should take a more holistic approach and help you immerse yourself in business thinking. Our method is most effective if you read this book cover to cover, skipping nothing. If you reach a section and either think it doesnt address your needs, or you think you know everything there is to know about the subject, read it anyway. Itll only take a minutethats why the sections are not lengthy. It will enlighten and organize your thinking, either way. Youll see important concepts woven through various discussions, as they holistically fit in.

If youre hoping to read a book and immediately become the worlds greatest business person, this book isnt for you. If your goal, however, is to quickly understand and feel familiar with the basics of starting a business, as your first stepping-stone to greatness, we believe that our book has no rival.

I sincerely hope that this book will not only increase your understanding of entrepreneur-ship and starting a business, but that it also gives you pleasure and satisfaction as you learn the key principles and language of business.

Scott L. Girard, Jr.

When we sat down and decided to take on the daunting task of writing a series of books for entrepreneurs and small business owners, I cringed. I thought, How can we ever reduce our advice and experiences to writing? And how can we cover it allcan we fit it into a book?

Either way, we decided to get started, so each of us began drafting sections related to our respective specialties and work experience. Only as the initiative continued did I discover a certain passion for sharing my advice in a personal way, trying to convey how it felt to go places, negotiate situations, and experience new things, both good and bad, in the course of starting businesses.

I hope that this book will capture your interest, provide valuable information, and share an interesting perspective into the world of entrepreneurship and small business conception.

Mike F. OKeefe

Everyone has heard the phrase Knowledge is Power. I would have it read Information is Power, for a couple of reasons.

We live in an age of instant information about every facet of our lives. We can receive news, on-demand weather and traffic reports, sports scores, social media happenings, and stock market updates. And yet, we forget much of this information within moments of receiving it, as new reports and updates are constantly replacing the data we were just beginning to process.

Most generic information travels fast these days. On the other hand, some information is meant to stay with us for a while, if not forever. And with that in mind, Scott, Mike and I set out to write a series of books to deliver lasting, valid information for entrepreneurs and small business people.