Allen Kathleen R - Consumer Dummies

Starting a Business All-In-One For Dummies

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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
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NJ 07030-5774,

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Copyright 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014957354

ISBN 978-1-119-04910-4 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-04908-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-04907-4 (ebk)

1. Table of Contents

Welcome to Starting a Business All-in-One For Dummies!

Its a good bet that you share the popular dream of starting your own business and being your own boss. Increasingly, this dream is becoming more relevant to the challenges of the economy thats emerging today. Its not just a pie-in-the-sky dream anymore; starting a business is a reality that has created opportunity and satisfaction for many people who decided to take the plunge just as it can for you.

This book presents and explains a very wide variety of information, all aimed at enlightening you on what you need to know and ensuring your success. Whether you need know-how and advice on turning your idea into reality, creating a business plan and business model, finding funding, picking a legal structure, setting up your books, or marketing and promoting, youll find the help you need here. Most of this book is applicable to you whether your business is a local business, startup corporation, franchise, or based out of your home.

The aim of this book is to provide you with the very best ideas, concepts, and tools for starting and successfully operating your business. Using the info here, you should be able to create exactly the kind of business youve always dreamed of and find exactly the level of success youve always wanted.

This book is a generous conglomeration of material from a number of Dummies business books, carefully selected with an eye toward getting the new business owner/entrepreneur up and running. Your current level of business experience (or lack thereof) doesnt matter. Dont worry about not having years of management experience under your belt or about not knowing the difference between a balance sheet and a P&L.

For a fraction of the amount youd pay to get an MBA, this book provides you with an easily understandable road map to todays most innovative and effective business techniques and strategies. The information you find here is firmly grounded in the real world. This book isnt an abstract collection of theoretical, pie-in-the-sky mumbo-jumbo that sounds good but doesnt work when you put it to the test. Instead, youll find only the best information, the best strategies, and the best techniques the same ones that top business schools teach today.

This book is also meant to be at least a little fun running a business doesnt have to be a bore! In fact, maintaining a sense of humor can be vital when facing the challenges that all new business owners face from time to time.

Within this book, you may note that some web addresses (URLs) break across two lines of text. If youre reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as its noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesnt exist. If youre reading this as an e-book, youve got it easy just tap the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

This book makes a few assumptions about you. For example, you have at least a passing interest in starting your own business. (Duh.) Maybe youve already started a business and are looking for tips to refine the techniques youre already developing. Or perhaps its something you think you may want to try and are looking to read up on it before you make your move. Either way, youve come to the right place.

Its also safe to assume that you can or believe you can produce and deliver products or services that people will be willing to pay you for. These products and services can be most anything. Youre limited only by your imagination (and, of course, your bank account, about which youll soon be reading quite a bit). Finally, this book assumes youre eager to scoop up and implement new tips and tricks and that youre willing to acquire some new perspectives on the topic.

Icons are handy little graphic images that are meant to point out particularly important information about starting your own business. Throughout this book, you find the following icons, conveniently located along the left margins: