http://www.homebusinessideasmadeeasy.com Find, create and evaluate home business ideas that work for you

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Business planning expert Tim Berry explains how to develop your business by developing a business plan in this 8-part web seminar was cosponsored by the Small Business Administration and Palo Alto Software.

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The excitement of owning your own business can lead you to great places. Make sure though, that you take the time to accurately assess your ideas and know what you will and will not do. Be specific. You are going to need to have a list of goals in order to design your business in a way that is viable. If you think you can make this up as you go, you may find that you get frustrated when the paperwork starts to pile up.

If you need a startup loan from a bank, you will need to write a business plan. Business plans must follow a strict format, requiring details ranging from a mission statement to financial projections. Even if you do not require a loan or a business plan, many other forms require you to narrow the focus of your business as well.

Your type of business will be coded on your business license. Performing tasks outside the scope of your license can open you up to civil liability. Your insurance company will also need to know the specifics of your type of work in order to insure you appropriately.

Taking the time to hone the focus of your enterprise will aid you in making a lot of decisions. It can help you decided where, and to whom, you will advertise. It can help you identify the needs of your customers and can help you try to find a specific niche that may give you a leg up on your competition.

Brainstorming can help you to choose a direction. Begin with your general idea, and then write down every job task or product that fit into the category. For example, your basic concept may be “painting.” Examples of specific job tasks are: faux finishing, interior painting, exterior painting, and commercial painting. Also list related job tasks. For painting, related jobs might be: carpentry, drywall installation and/or repair, and fence construction and/or repair.

Once you have generated a list of tasks, decide which ones interest you. Cross off any that are simply not in the direction you want to go. Categorize those that remain into those you wish to perform immediately, and those that you plan to offer as part of an expansion later. Your list of expansion tasks will then give you a goal to work towards, as part of a five-year plan.

With a final list of products or services that you plan to offer immediately, you can begin to shape the focus of your company. You mission and vision statements can now be decided. These short statements project volumes about your company, and should be taught to every employee you hire.

By taking the time to write down what your company does, you prevent yourself from making the mistake of trying to do things that you may not be equipped to do. As you sit and formulate your goals and ideas you may come to a better understanding of what you want to accomplish and you may find your unique hold on the marketplace. If you can identify services and products that no one else can, then you have a tremendous advantage.

John Edmond
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/narrowing-the-concept-of-your-new-small-business-97832.html

Many banks are so conscious of their reputation in the local community that they don’t want to be known for refusing business loan requests by respected community residents. One alternative that many of these banks have adopted is the art of never saying “no” in such commercial financing situations. What they do instead is to attach onerous conditions when they say “yes”. In most cases the bank doesn’t expect the commercial borrower to accept the conditions, and therefore the bank has avoided making the business loan without saying “no”. Here are two examples of a bank saying “yes” when they mean “no”.

EXAMPLE # 1: STRICTER TERMS FOR BUSINESS LOANS

A traditional bank has decided to drastically reduce the amount of commercial loans that they make to restaurants and bars. Instead of “officially” eliminating this category from their lending portfolio (which they feel would hurt their desired image as a full-service commercial lender), they have decided to add stricter terms to their commercial loan underwriting criteria for such properties. They might now require three years of tax returns, impose a higher minimum loan amount (to effectively eliminate smaller restaurants and bars), increase the percentage required for a down payment, limit loans to 3-7 years (instead of 15-25 years), require a detailed business plan, and impose annual review criteria which would allow them to “recall” the loan if cash flow is not maintained at a prescribed level. Because the bank has said “yes” when they mean “no”, if a business owner accepts the terms anyway, the borrower will end up with commercial loan terms that are detrimental to the long-term health of their business.

EXAMPLE # 2: LIMITED CASH OUT WHEN REFINANCING BUSINESS LOANS

When a business is refinancing their current commercial mortgage and wants to get a significant amount of cash out for various uses, it is not unusual for the bank to limit the amount of cash to amounts as small as $100,000. Even though the bank might make the business loan, if they won’t provide the amount of cash needed by the commercial borrower, this is equivalent to declining the loan. The bank has said “yes”, but a business might have over a million dollars in equity in their property and only be able to access $100,000 (which is really a “no” to the business owner who wants to use a significant portion of their equity to expand the business).

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS LOANS IMPACTED BY THE ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES:

There are better options for commercial loans available elsewhere! Business owners should explore other business loan alternatives before accepting business loan terms that put them at a competitive disadvantage. Look for lenders who specialize in commercial loans and have commercial mortgage terms such as the following: (1) Stated Income (no tax returns and no income verification); (2) long-term loans of 15-25 years (or more) without recall or balloon provisions or annual review criteria; (3) business plans not required; (4) unlimited cash out when refinancing; and (5) minimum loan of $100,000.

Here are two suggested resources for more information: The Commercial Real Estate Loans Guide ( http://www.aexcfgllc.com ) and The Business Cash Advance Guide ( http://www.aexcfg.com ).

Copyright 2005-2006 AEX Commercial Financing Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Stephen Bush
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/business-loan-strategies-why-do-some-banks-say-yes-when-they-mean-no-84404.html

If you are searching for ways to earn an income using the
internet, you must have already come across many programs with
unbelievable claims of overnight income. This article outlines 7
criteria that I use to evaluate any opportunity that presents
itself before me.

1>Is there a Product in Demand

If you are thinking about a business on the internet, there has
to be a product that has a huge demand and that can be sold on
the internet. Many fly by night programs focus on building a
downline and recruiting other people without having a solid
product, there has to be a product that people can use. If the
company has a product that you cannot understand, then stay away
from such a company. Even if you have a product in demand, it
has to be sellable online, For Example, if you try to sell Pepsi
or Coke on the internet no one will buy it online, as they would
prefer to buy such products in the super market. What type of
products are sold only online ? Domain registration, Website
hosting, email etc – these are few examples of products that
have a huge demand and that can be sold online.

2>Is it a Stable Company

A stable company means that the company promoting the product
has to be a debt free company in existence for a period of many
years. Avoid Here today gone tomorrow companies that try to sell
the concept “get in at the top to make huge income”. Look for
companies that have been growing for a long time. Even better if
you can find a stable company that has been selling its products
for many years without the help of any affiliates, and has
recently launched an affiliate marketing program.

3>Can it produce a good income for me

How many sales will you need to make to produce a sizeable
income ? Is the effort that you put in to make a sale justified
by the compensation that you receive ? You should study the
compensation plan of the company and determine if it is worth
promoting their products.

4>Is the product affordable

The end customer who purchases the product should find value for
the price they are paying. It does not matter to the customer
how many levels of up line are being paid commissions. The
business opportunity should come second to the product value. If
the same product is available elsewhere for a greatly reduced
price, then it would be difficult selling such a product.

5>Can the product produce repeat sales

A one time sale will produce only a one time income. Products
that keep producing repeated income are preferred to products
that produce a one time income. For example, if you sell an
ebook information product you will have a one time profit from
each client, where as if you were to sell monthly membership
access to several ebooks that are updated every month, then you
have an income that will continue every month as long as the
member remains subscribed. Products like domain registration,
website hosting, email etc are excellent sticky products that
will produce residual income because the value to the customer
increases with time for the same cost. For example, when a
person has built their website they are more likely to renew
rather than loose their work, similarly when a person has
branded their domain name and given their email address to their
friends and associates, they will want to pay the recurring fee
to continue using their domain and email.

6>Do they have a strong backend marketing system

The backend systems for the product you promote should be able
to present the product to your client, automatically follow up
on leads, provide live statistics so you can track your
prospects and customers and generate your sales report any time
you want. The latest trend in email marketing allows you to
enter the email ids of your friends into the prospecting system
and they automatically follow up with intelligently personalized
emails sent from your email id so the replies can come to you.
Intelligently personalized means that in addition to including
the names of the prospects in each email, they have a system to
track if the email is opened, if a link is clicked etc and the
next email uses this information to send a different message for
each follow-up.

7>Will I feel Comfortable promoting this product

Given a product and a company that satisfies all the above
criteria, this is the most important criteria that you should
apply to determine if this company is right for you. For
Example, No matter how good the income, I would never feel
comfortable promoting a product like Viagra ! On the other hand
I would gladly promote a domain registration and hosting
business as it ads to my reputation as a tech savvy online
entrepreneur. Conclusion: To summarize, you should look for an
affordable, in-demand product that can produce repeat sales for
a stable company with a good income potential and excellent
backend systems. Just recently I came across one such company
that sells .ws domain names with email and website builder, it
has only just started its affiliate wing. They have spent over a
quarter million in making this 7 minute entertaining flash
presentation at http://website.ws/wsbiz/show – I was impressed
by their cutting edge technology.

Mufad
http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/how-to-evaluate-a-new-business-opportunity-396.html