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Create Your Own Job

Create For Cash is about anything you create and make money from. That could be a business, a product, a service, a piece of art, or an old tennis shoe. As long as it makes money.

How to Avoid Risk in Starting a Business

risk in business
risk in business

There is always a risk when you start a new business, but there are also many rewards to being a business owner and controlling your own destiny. Many people avoid starting their own businesses because of the risk. But you can start minimizing risk in small business by being prepared and knowing where the landmines are. You don’t have to be overly cautious, just know that a certain amount of risk is to be expected with a new venture. So, how do you avoid risk in starting a business?

Look into the future and try to predict what could possibly happen. You can’t predict everything, but cover as much as possible. There are a few things to consider before you open your doors for business.

How to avoid risk in starting a business

 

Get everything in writing

Even if you are working with your family or best friend, you need to have it in writing. This isn’t to say that they will turn on you, but it will help everyone sleep at night knowing it’s formal. Just the act of writing a contract and putting down on paper what you expect from the arrangement is helpful to clarify who does what. It avoids misunderstandings later. If you stand to lose a large amount of money in the future, then a contract is necessary.

 

Make sure you are properly insured

Anticipate what could go wrong and prepare accordingly. You at least need to have general liability insurance and product liability insurance if you sell a product. Disability insurance will cover part of your income should you lose the ability to work.

 

Set up the correct business entity from the beginning

Get the advice of a qualified attorney and accountant and do it right to start with. Use separate entities to protect your assets.

 

Manage cash flow

It’s easy to underestimate how much you will need. It seems like it will always keep coming in when times are good, but you need to prepare for downturns in the economy, the loss of a key customer, changes in technology or your industry or any other event that could cause your cash flow to dry up. Figure out how much money you have now and how much you would need to have coming in if anything changed. Have a backup plan and make sure to keep at least three to six months of money in the bank just in case you need it.

 

You can’t eliminate all risk, but if these things are in order you will at least have a good chance of minimizing risk in small business.

Cause Marketing for Small Business

cause marketing
cause marketing

Aligning your business with a social cause and cause marketing builds goodwill and improves your image. Corporate philanthropy isn’t a new idea. It’s been going on since the late 1880s when titans of business such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller gave large donations to charity. And some of our terminology isn’t new, either. The term ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ was officially first used in 1953 in the book “Social Responsibilities of the Businessman” by Howard Bowen.

Cause marketing for small business

Being a good corporate citizen (or a caring small business) is a smart move. Because a significant number of consumers will choose to do business with a company over a similarly priced competitor largely because of their involvement in certain social causes.

Cause marketing as competitive advantage

In fact, 70 percent of consumers say they’re willing to pay more for products and services from businesses that support worthwhile social causes, according to research from the PR firm Edelman. And more than half would even help promote them through social media. You can also use a social cause as your company’s competitive advantage. Ideally, you want customers to think about your brand whenever they think about the social cause. And if that cause is something they strongly support and believe in. Provide them good value, and you may have a loyal customer for life.

Competing with causes

Here are some companies who are using causes as a competitive advantage:

Duracell

It makes sense that a company that makes reliable batteries would support areas hit by floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Their social program is called Duracell PowerForward, which has trucks that can reach any U.S. destination within 24 hours. Duracell builds trust within communities by providing assistance in the face of events. Like the recent devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico. Now, when customers think of the Duracell, brand they think of them in a positive light. And they think of them as a durable battery.

Warby Parker

Warby Parker isn’t just known as a company that sells fashionable glasses in an innovative way. They’re also known as a company that gives back, thanks to their buy-a-pair / give-a-pair program. Working with their non-profit partner, Vision Spring, they give away glasses to people in developing countries.

Wells Fargo

Up to 1.5% of Wells Fargo’s revenue each year goes to charitable causes such as food banks and startup incubators. They also give 2 paid days each year for their employees to volunteer for charities.

TOMS

Like Warby Parker, TOMS shoe company is well known for their buy-a-pair / give-a-pair program. They also provide safe drinking water and medical treatments for people in third world countries.

Ben and Jerry’s

They’ve always incorporated a social cause into the culture of their business model. According to Ben Cohen, “Business has the responsibility to give back to its community”. He’s also used the phrase “caring capitalism” since the 1980’s. Like many companies today, Ben and Jerry’s started their own foundation which began with a commitment to give 7.5% of its annual pre-tax profits to community organizations across the US. Today, the foundation typically awards about 2.5 million dollars a year in grants. Do people buy Ben and Jerry’s because of their social causes? Or because they make really delicious ice cream? I’d imagine it’s both.

Seattle Kitchen

Seattle Kitchen is committed to giving something back to the community. And not just a little. According to owner Tom Douglas’s Seattle Kitchen website: “Tom has long maintained that, as food people, we need to feed people whether they can afford to eat in our restaurants or not. This principle has inspired his long-term leadership with organizations such as Share Our Strength and Food Lifeline, where Tom has dedicated over 30 years and millions of dollars towards ending hunger. Along with Tom, our family of coworkers also share in the priority towards giving back.

Volunteering

They do this by volunteering time and skillset to organizations such as Teen Feed, FareStart, Midsound Fisheries Enchancement Group, Mary’s Place and more. “We believe that a community is made richer by supporting the arts. We work closely with the Seattle Theater Group to help fund the programming at the Paramount and Moore theaters as well as music epicenters like KEXP and Seattle Opera. Our environmental work is focused on local wild salmon habitat preservation and raising awareness around the threat of Pebble Mine in Alaska.

The PCC Farmland Trust is another important beneficiary since without farmland, there is no food. Lastly, education and nutrition programs for K-12 public schools receive support from our teams. We continue to work closely with the Seattle Public School’s culinary programs and Career and Technical Education classes to inspire potential job paths within the restaurant industry.”

Charitable Agents

Charitable Agents is changing the real estate industry by donating a fixed commission to a charity of the pre-or-existing homeowner’s choice. Brothers David and Avi Tal founded MyAgentFinder.com back in 2011. It’s an online platform connecting home sellers with vetted real estate agents. Then they created “Charitable Agents” – something that sets those who participate apart from other realtors.

According to their online press release: “After three years of growing its database of REALTORS and reaching over $100 million in real estate transactions, the two designed the Charitable Agents model to extend their tried-and-tested system into the realm of social responsibility. In a typical real estate transaction, real estate agents are paid a commission for representing either the buyer or the seller.

Charitable Agents’ network of more than 20,000 top-rated REALTORS, from all major domestic brokerages, have pledged to give 10% of their commission on a transaction to non-profit organizations affiliated with the site, as part of the agreement. With Charitable Agents, REALTORS go through the same process as they would with any lead-generation system. But with the added benefit of offering their clients the opportunity to donate funds to a specific charitable organization, following the close of any deal.”

Pride, Inc.

Businesses in Bismarck, North Dakota have gathered together for a charitable cause which helps the community and also promotes their businesses in a good light: Pride, Inc. Pride, Inc. provides quality services for adults and children with disabilities, and has helped thousands experience life to its fullest. In 2001 Pride started the Celebration of Trees event.

According to their website: “The trees are sponsored by local businesses and with the help of organizations that can connect us to members in the community. Such as: Burleigh and Morton County Social Services, Abused Adult Resource Center, Pride Youth Mentor Program, Bismarck- Mandan Public Schools, Community Action, Carrie’s Kids, Pride Manchester, and Make-A-Wish Foundation. The trees are donated to families who may not have a tree to decorate their home. All proceeds from the sponsorships of the Celebration of Trees are kept in the community. They’re used to help meet the needs of the individuals receiving services from Pride, Inc.”

Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility can help your business through customer and employee engagement. And by being a brand that your customers trust and remain loyal to. Even in the face of disruption.

Pros and Cons of a Business Plan

pros and cons of business plan
pros and cons of business plan

What are the pros and cons of a business plan? I asked a group of business owners and here are their answers:

Leisurehiking.com

I am a serial entrepreneur with both successes and failures under my belt. I have even lost 2 x million dollar companies, the last one due to Covid (travel industry). Entrepreneurship surely is a rollercoaster…

 

Here is my view on the pros and cons of a business plan:

 

As a serial entrepreneur, I can say that except for my first business, I have never done business plans. Despite the first and only business plan being both lacking and incomplete, I built the business from an investment of $3000 to almost $2 million over 6 years.

 

I identify with Mark Zuckerberg’s “Move fast and break things”. I believe that business plans are for the most part, a waste of time. Get going and take action, then course-correct. Having said that, I do believe that business plans have their place, especially in larger ventures. However, just because I don’t believe in business plans, does not mean that I am not analyzing before I start a new venture. Far from it. I research heavily! I simply do not spend time making elaborate business plans and use them as guiding documents for running my business.

Marketing plans, however, are a totally different story! I use Allen Dib’s 1-page marketing plan framework in my businesses.

Thomas Sorheim

Founder of Leisurehiking.com

Web: https://leisurehiking.com/

Mirrorcoop.com

I’m John Linden and I am an interior designer from Los Angeles(www.mirrorcoop.com). When I started my business 7 years ago, my partners and I developed a very detailed business plan. We projected revenue, expenses, cashflow. We looked at where we wanted to be in 3-5 years.

And we did it all on paper and used it as a road map for our progress.We hired an accountant to do projections and answer questions throughout the year. He was vital in making sure our projections were accurate – which helped us reach our goals or course-correct when we were off track.In the end, I’m glad I had a business plan!

It helped me make decisions and set goals all along the way – from finding investors to deciding whether each opportunity was worth pursuing or not. Today, I still refer back to it (even though things have changed so much since then). Now, I don’t know if a business plan is essential for every startup.

If you’re in the early stages of brainstorming an idea with a couple of friends/co-founders, maybe it’s not worth writing one up. But for those who are serious about getting your idea off the ground as a legitimate business – it might be worth giving it a shot.

Also, there are plenty of free templates online to help you get started. Don’t pay someone to write one for you – many times these plans will turn out very generic and non-specific! Write your own or ask people you know for feedback. You can also find templates at your local library.

I do remember one thing that helped me when writing my business plan: I wrote it from a customer’s perspective. Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years? What problem are you solving? How does your product/service make someone else’s life easier or better? If you can answer those questions, then the details about prices, revenue projections, etc.will fall into place.

John Linden – Designer

(424) 252-2359

www.mirrorcoop.com

Income.ca

“When I first started my company, one of the first things I did was create a business plan. Looking back, although making the business plan was time consuming and not always accurate, I believe the positive impact of the plan helped my business to become more successful. The business plan helped me to understand where to allocate my finances and which parts of the business would need more investment.

By knowing what I needed to achieve before I could begin making a profit, this made the high initial financial investment seem less painful, because I had a goal I was aiming for and a clear way to achieve this goal. The business plan also helped me to focus on my target audience more efficiently. I was able to shape the business and advertising in a way that made it more appealing to my core demographic. If I could go back in time, I would definitely still create a business plan. I believe it has played an integral role in the success of my company.”

Randy Charach

https://INCOME.ca

GreenPal – Uber for Lawn Care

Our business just surpassed $20 million a year and annual revenue.
I remember the first year we got started eight years ago my two cofounders and I spent three months writing our business plan.
Writing a business plan in futile yet indispensable exercise. The excise is a forcing function to cause you to really understand if you really want to proceed with the business endeavor.
However, no business plan survives first touch with actual customers.
Its important to organize your thoughts, and your plan of attack, however, much of what is assumed and forecasted in a business plan for a new start-up are just placeholders and hypothesis.
My advice to start up entrepreneurs is to spend less time planning, and more time building something to get into the market place to begin testing assumptions.

Bryan Clayton / CEO
bryan@yourgreenpal.com / 6154974175 (M)

GreenPal
1-866-798-4485 (O)
1312 5th Avenue N Nashville, TN 37208
http://www.yourgreenpal.com

Resinartsupply.com

I bootstrapped my e-commerce business in early 2019 without a business plan growing 100% year over year to $1 million in revenue. Not having a business plan or investors allowed us to adapt and bring products to market faster than our competitors. WhileI don’t think a formal business plan is necessary when capital isn’t being raised it is still vital for entrepreneurs to understand their value proposition, potential market share, and margins to ensure there are sufficient demand and profit for their product or service.

Amazon listing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0826KNT8W

Website: ResinArtSupply.com

Founder, ResinArt

Levi Parker

660-265-9803

Digital Harvest

I have a successful digital marketing company today and made a comfortable living with my previous two ventures.
I have never used a business plan and believe they are a waste of time. Several business plans were written in both my undergrad and graduate programs, and most of what goes into them is completely made up. The only real important part of a business plan is the marketing plan which details how you will bring your product/service to market, position it, price it, etc.
Companies live and die on sales, and marketing is responsible for bringing in the prospects to sell. It doesn’t matter what your projections are for revenue, or what the SWOT analysis says about your company/industry unless you’re able to generate sales.
Once you start generating sales, all the other plans go out the window because nothing teaches you what you need to know to operate your business like real-world experience.
Avram Gonzales
Chief Strategist, Digital Harvest
P (505) 365-1545
E avram@digitalharvest.io
W https://DigitalHarvest.io/

Viva Flavor

I run an online food and drink business that I launched in 2019. I’m very much in favor of producing a business plan, even if you’re bootstrapping the entire operation and aren’t seeking outside funding.

When you launch your first startup in particular, the post-launch excitement can quickly give way to self-doubt. The benefit of a business plan is that it gives you a personal contract of sorts that you can refer back to. You know what the business objectives for success are, and you’ve assigned hard numbers to your output goals.

Having this sort of “emotionally neutral” reference point is a powerful tool when the early days enthusiasm runs out. If you haven’t met those targets, you haven’t earned the justification to doubt the viability of the business.

Bio: John Bedford is the founder of Viva Flavor, a site dedicated to helping amateur cooks explore the world of food and drink.

Name: John Bedford
Title: Founder
Company: Viva Flavor
URL: https://vivaflavor.com

SportzPoint

Being a startup, my business needs lots of business plans. However, here are the pros and cons of a business plan.
The Pros of a business plans –
  1. It provides us with a overview of what my business should or might look like in near future.
  2. Business plans outlines the work we need to do make something happen.
  3. It also provides us with a list of things that we should cut out from our business.
  4. A long term business plan also gives us a roadmap to future of our business plans.
The Cons of a business plans-
  1. Time consuming. Sometime while planning for the future we tend to lose our focus on the present.
  2. Having static business plans gives us no options to overcome they failure, if there is any.
  3. Sometimes, business plans makes us stay within a roadmap, which hinders our will to think out of the box.
The Conclusion: With all the cons, I still think having a plan is important. Though, being flexible with the plan is the most important thing. Going with the need of the hour is what a startup needs. Moreover, if we waste too much of time planning something, it might be an issue for a small business to flourish. It can also cause some financial criticalities too.
So, I rather think about small plans and small goals. I try to tick them off, then move on with another target or goal. This gives me more time to focus on current things. Also I only try to achieve the goals which will have a long term impact on my business.
Koushik Biswas,
Founder,

Certain Pay

My mentors have both said this about the pros and cons of a business plan:
Pros:
  • Allows you to think creatively
  • Allows you to create a plan
  • Forces you to map out your attack
  • Gives validity to your cause
  • Helps you and investors see the big picture
Cons:
  • No one will read it
Lol, that’s the long and short of it. Most investors don’t care about a business plan. They care about the team they’re investing in and want to know they have a plan. The ProForma is more important, and if it’s formula-based and the entrepreneur/team can think “big picture” in unison, it allows them to pivot faster given unpredictable variables.

adamniec.phonesites.com

 

Adam Niec

Co-Founder

Certain Pay

 

When it comes to the pros and cons of a business plan, entrepreneurs have different ideas about whether they work or not. What do you think?

 

 

 

 

How to Overcome Fear of Starting a Business

Don’t let the fear of starting a business stop you from becoming an entrepreneur! There’s always a little nervousness when you’re starting out on a journey into the unknown. But the best way to overcome your fear of starting a business is knowledge.

small business owner
small business owner

I have to admit that I haven’t always taken that advice. I’ve started many businesses but I’ve always just jumped into them without learning what I was doing. It was great that I actually did it, but I could have saved a lot of time, energy and money if I had done some homework first.

Being a business owner is never predictable. Make peace with the fact that you will probably always be living outside of your comfort zone. If you’re looking for a steady paycheck and no drama, get a regular job. You might still have some drama, but you’ll have a steady paycheck. You also get to shut off the business at the end of the day. Business owners never can.

Most people have a list of excuses that stop them from ever taking the first step. In order to overcome the fear of starting a business, let’s get the excuses out of the way first.

 

Here are 5 excuses for not starting a business and how to overcome them:

 

It’s Too Risky Yes, it can be risky to start a business. Risk comes with the job of being an entrepreneur, but so does reward. And the more you risk, the more chances you’ll have to be rewarded. In the past it was considered more risky to start a business than to work a steady job. But in these uncertain days of rampant unemployment and the constant fear that the axe will fall even if you do have what you think is a steady job, starting a business sounds a little less risky. Like any game, the only way to win is to play. You’ll never reach your dreams sitting on the sidelines.

 

I Don’t Have the Money Guess what, unless you get really lucky and find someone to give you a lot of money with no attachments, you’ll never have enough money to start a business. The best way to start a business is with no money. You simply have to be more creative. And it’s usually the most creative things that work the best anyway. You’ll have to run the business yourself, which means you’ll learn every single aspect of running a business from the ground up.

 

I Don’t Have the Time If you’re working another job, great! You’ll have an income and you can work on your business on the weekends or after your regular job. If you’re unemployed, great! This means you’ll be able to spend all of your time on it and can get it up and running even faster.

 

I’m Too Old Colonel Sanders was 65 when he franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken. And Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel when he was in his seventies. Ray Croc started McDonald’s when he was 52. No excuse.

 

I Don’t Know How There is a wealth of information out there to help you. Do research on your own. The Internet and your local library are gold mines of information. Treat it like you were in college and study every day. Look for a mentor. Those that have gone before you can offer knowledge you won’t even find in books. Seek them out. The best advice is to keep chipping away at it every day and never, ever give up. Any successful business owner will tell you that it takes time, perseverance and passion to get a business off the ground.

5 Reasons to Attend Face to Face Meetings

face to face meetings
face to face meetings

Face to Face Meetings

A Forbes Insight survey revealed that 8 out of 10 executives said they preferred face to face meetings as opposed to online or videoconferencing to build more meaningful business relationships. This proves what I’ve always believed to be true, that no matter how much technology we have, nothing beats a good ‘ole fashioned face to face meeting for putting together a strong business network.

A friend of mine who runs one of the most successful concert promotion businesses told me that he started his business with the idea that he would always make a point of meeting a potential customer or partner in person no matter where they were in the world. And he has stuck to that to this day. He’s racked up millions of frequent flyer miles and traveled to almost every country in the world.

His extensive phone book isn’t just for show. Because of his years of using this business tactic, he can literally pick up the phone and get almost anyone on the phone. And if he doesn’t have their number, he knows someone who does. But he accomplished that by building his network one person at a time and meeting them face to face.

Return on Investment on Face to Face Meetings

A recent survey by the Meetings Mean Business Coalition found that 96% of small business owners got a return on investment with face to face meetings. For this reason, over 90% of those same small business owners say they plan to continue going to live meetings and events.

This is good news for anyone who works with small business owners. Make sure you find out what conferences and events they attend and arrange to meet them there in person. This is also true if you want to work for a small business. Many say they prefer to find potential employees at a live, face to face event.

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