Information, Resources, and Advice
for Starting Any Small Business
This is the place to get:
Getting Health Insurance and
Important Tax Info
Did You Know Health Insurance is Tax Deductible?
"The U.S. tax system," observed self-employment
specialist Barbara Winter, "is set up to benefit the very
wealthy and the self-employed." You may not be a millionaire
but if you're thinking about working for yourself you'll be
happy to know you can deduct a FULL 100% of health care
expenses – including dental – for yourself, your spouse, and
dependents.
Finding Affordable Health Insurance
In addition to featuring the largest selection of major
medical health plans from leading companies,
eHealthInsurance also offers a wide selection of quality
short term, student, travel, and dental plans. You can
obtain FREE instant quotes, side-by-side comparisons of the
best available prices. Apply right online but if you have
questions you can talk to a live customer service rep who
can help you find the right plan for you.
Tax Savings Every Freelancer Should Take As an
independent contractor, you're your own boss. You call your
own shots. But with that freedom come responsibilities --
quarterly taxes among them. Find out where you can save...
what the IRS really needs to know... how to make the most of
those deductions for travel, meals, entertainment, home
office, and more...
Get answers to hundreds of tax questions along with
practical worksheets you can use to make sure you're paying
as little as possible to Uncle Sam.
Health Insurance
Portability Act Under this law you cannot be denied
medical coverage due to a present ailment and you cannot be
made to wait for coverage by your new insurer due to that
pre-existing condition.
A Health Savings Account (HAS)* is an
alternative to traditional health insurance; it is a
savings product that offers a different way for
consumers to pay for their health care. HSAs enable you
to pay for current health expenses and save for future
qualified medical and retiree health expenses on a
tax-free basis. You must be covered by a High Deductible
Health Plan (HDHP) to be able to take advantage of HSAs.
An HDHP generally costs less than what traditional
health care coverage costs, so the money that you save
on insurance can therefore be put into the Health
Savings Account. You own and you control the money in
your HSA. Decisions on how to spend the money are made
by you without relying on a third party or a health
insurer. You will also decide what types of investments
to make with the money in the account in order to make
it grow. You must have an HDHP if you want to open an
HSA. Sometimes referred to as a “catastrophic” health
insurance plan, an HDHP is an inexpensive health
insurance plan that generally doesn’t pay for the first
several thousand dollars of health care expenses (i.e.,
your “deductible”) but will generally cover you after
that . Of course, your HSA is available to help you pay
for the expenses your plan does not cover.
For 2005, in order to qualify to open an HSA, your
HDHP minimum deductible must be at least $1,000
(self-only coverage) or $2,000 (family coverage). For
2006, the amounts increase to $1,050 and $2,100,
respectively. The annual out-of-pocket (including
deductibles and co-pays) for 2005 cannot exceed $5,100
(self-only coverage) or $10,200 (family coverage). For
2006, these amounts increase to $5,250 and $10,500,
respectively. HDHPs can have first dollar coverage (no
deductible) for preventive care and apply higher
out-of-pocket limits (and co pays & coinsurance) for
non-network services.
* This information comes from the United States
Department of Treasury.
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Getting a Website or Starting an On-line Business
Find a list of steps and resources on getting your
own website or starting an on-line business including
getting set up to accept credit cards.
Should You Incorporate Your Small Business? While
not necessary for most small home-based businesses, there
are none-the-less situations where it does make sense to
incorporate. This company provides information on when you
need to incorporate as well as an overview of the different
forms incorporation can take. They also offer customized
incorporation packages starting at just $59 + state fees
which if you've ever consulted an attorney you know can save
you literally thousands.
Business Plan and Idea Generator
A friend who needed help thinking through and planning a pet
wellness center she wants to start bought this business
planning software loves it. What I really like about it is
that they offer over 500 sample plans on such wide ranging
business ideas as a karaoke bar, a laser tag gaming center,
a men’s salon, newsletter or magazine publishing, horse
training, global event planning, pet photography, and
interior design – just to name a few. They also have a
version just for eBay sellers. Even if you’re not quite
ready to start your own business, browsing the various
sample plans will help demystify the process of planning a
business, might generate some ideas you hadn’t thought of,
and will definitely start building those entrepreneurial
muscles!
Small Business Administration Free resources and
individual counseling for small business owners.
Entrepreneur The magazine's website
offers a ton of great information on how to start and
grow a business. The searchable database is a lifesaver
if you need specific info on say bringing a product to
market or registering your website with search engines.
And, if you want to be an entrepreneur you have to start
“hanging out” with them. One simple way to do this is to
subscribe to Entrepreneur magazine so you can meet
inspired and inspiring small business owners on a
monthly basis. I guarantee it will be the best $1.33 a
month you’ve ever spent.
Subscribe
to Entrepreneur Magazine Today.
Home-Based Business Guides To take
the mystery out of starting a business Entrepreneur has
created a series of start up guides on what it takes to
start a wide range of businesses like a gift basket
service, home inspection service, event planning
service, medical transcription service, seminar
production, specialty travel and tours, wedding
consultant, cleaning service, herbs and herbal products,
information consultant, and personal concierge service…
just to name a few! Definitely worth a look.
Home-Based Working Mom's Association
Provides support, networking, information, and more to
mothers and fathers who are either working at home or would
like to.
A Better Way to Borrow Money from Friends and Family
Financing for most small or growth-stage businesses,
says the Small Business Administration, comes from
friends, relatives, employees, customers or industry
colleagues. Yet according to Asheesh Advani Entrepreneur
magazine columnist and founder of
Circle Lending, a company that manages
financial transactions between private parties, the
process of managing interpersonal loans is fraught with
emotional hazards, administrative hassles, and financial
risks. For example, the average default rate on
interpersonal loans is 14% compared to a 1% loss rate
for bank loans.
One of the main reasons the default rate is so high for
interpersonal loans is because repayment is typically
organized in a haphazard manner often involving a
lump-sum payment at the end of the loan term. Borrowers
are frequently unable to make lump-sum payments and need
the discipline of monthly payment plans to ensure that
debts are repaid.
When interpersonal loans are managed with repayment
plans though, the default rate drops substantially. The
mere act of making regular payments instills discipline
and good credit habits. That’s where Circle Lending
comes in. America Online calls Circle Lending “A good
source for both borrowers and lenders... which serves as
an intermediary between friends or family members.” If
you’re planning on borrowing from a non-professional
lending source such as family or friends,
Circle Lending may be worth a look.
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How To
Get Free Publicity On The Radio
A few years ago Alex Carroll wrote a book about how to beat
unfair speeding tickets. With a zero advertising budget he
decided to promote his book exclusively through radio
interviews. He's done over 1,264 radio interviews, gotten
more than $4,500,000 worth of free radio airtime and earned
$1,526,000 in direct sales. Carroll now offers a Radio
Publicity Manual and you can also order a database with the
names, hosts, and producers from every prime time talk
station in the US that have at least 100,000 listeners –
1,206 in all.
How to Get Booked on Oprah If you
are an author, coach, or workshop leader (or aspire to
be!), have an interesting business or story to tell (or
plan to have one!), or otherwise love the idea of
reaching tens of millions of viewers as a guest on Oprah
or other top talk shows, it may not be as hard as you
think. "The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah:
10 Steps to Becoming a Guest on the World's Top Talk
Show" shows you how to “pitch” a show idea to a producer
in 20 seconds, how to gain a producer's interest in one
paragraph, how avoid sending lengthy press kits (in
fact, the shorter the better), and more. You'll find out
how the pros get their calls taken and their clients
booked at the most prestigious shows. For a free excerpt
go to
ChangingCourse.com/recommends/prsecrets
Getting Winning Copy for Your Site, Brochure, or
Sales Letter
I’ve seen too many great business ideas flounder because
otherwise smart people rely on mediocre copywriters... or
worse, attempt to write their own promotional copy. Before I
really understood that there's a real science to
writing effective sales copy I would have said I was a
pretty good copywriter... and I spent seven years in
corporate marketing.
Little did I know that the difference between an
amateur (me) and a professional copywriter can be literally
thousands of dollars.
As you start looking for a really good
copywriter, be forewarned that like me, everybody and their
sister says they’re a copywriter. Don't believe me? Go to
eLance,
All In One,
or another freelance site and you'll have no trouble finding
someone who says they're a copywriter and will only charge
you about 50 or 100 bucks to write your copy. And, that’s
probably about how much that copy will generate for you in
sales. Bottom line... you get what you pay for.
On the other hand, few of us can afford the very
top copywriters in the field... some of which charge their
corporate clients as much as $10,000 for single page of
copy! I know that's way out of my range. But I can tell you
that I have paid as much as $2500 for eight pages and easily
received 20 times that investment in sales.
If that's still too much of a stretch starting
out, find someone who's received professional training in
the direct marketing field BUT who's also just launching
their copywriting career. Why? Because newly trained
copywriters are often willing to charge less early on in
their career because they're looking to build their
portfolio.
So where do you find an affordable yet well
trained copywriter? I’ve been so impressed with the
freelance writers I’ve worked with – all graduates of the
AWAI and Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for
Six-Figure Copywriting Program – that I've asked the AWAI to
set up a special Copywriter Matching Program just for
visitors to Changing Course.
(Read my review of the AWAI's copywriting course.)
To be matched with a skilled writer, just send
an email to
Louis Hart detailing:
1) What exactly you’re looking for. Is it, for
example, copy for your website, a four-panel brochure or
sales letter, promotional copy for eBook or other
product or service?
2) As much information as possible about your business,
your product or service, your target audience, and what
you want the copy to accomplish (get prospects to
contact you for more information, hit the buy button,
etc.)
3) Your budget for this project.
4) Your contact information (an email address is
sufficient).
The AWAI will put your request out to students
enrolled in their Advanced Mentor Program (these are course
graduates who signed on to work one-on-one with a
highly-experienced and successful senior copywriter).
Interested students will email you a sample headline and the
copy lead. Then it's up to you to pick the writer who best
captures your message.
Learn How to Write Your Own Winning Marketing Copy
Let's face it, the secrets of how master marketers and
copywriters conjure up promotions to bring in millions of
dollars could hold critical answers for you in your own
career. When it comes to copywriting, nothing matters more
than your ability to be a seller. Each month, Monthly
Copywriting Genius uncovers the secrets behind the strongest
direct-response promotions in the mail, in space
advertising, and on the Internet today. Now you can learn
directly from the masters, as they give you a rare,
first-hand look at one of their most successful controls and
break it down for you element by element. But Monthly
Copywriting Genius doesn't stop there. Along with theses
interviews, you'll get a PDF copy of the winning promotion.
Line by line, you'll get a critique of the format,
headlines, subheads, product positioning... every element
that goes into a package.
How to Write and Sell a Mega-Best-Selling Book
You don't need to be a genius to make it big. Mark Victor
Hansen. Hansen, who co-wrote the astoundingly successful
Chicken Soup for the Soul series, walks you through his
method, step-by-step. He and a hand-picked panel of highly
successful colleagues will teach you their insider secrets
to writing, publishing, and promoting your own best-seller.
This CD program, based on Hansen's renowned Mega Book
Marketing University Course, brings you the formula and
inspiration it takes to build an information empire...
simple but highly effective marketing strategies... the
secret behind negotiating a six-figure advance... how to
sell $50,000 a month on the Internet... what it takes to
land a coveted spot on a TV talk show... how to find (and
write to) markets that buy... and more.
From infomercials to one-day seminars to book-signings to
coaching programs and more, Hansen reveals every nuance –
and every lesson – he relies on to create businesses that
make millions. Learn more information about the CD Program:
Mega Book Marketing University.
Marketing to Women
You don’t have to be a woman to market to women.
But you do need to know how to reach this very large
audience. If you’re going after a niche market, say
single women or African American women, then seek out
opportunities to reach these groups. Here are a few
ideas to get you started:
Advertise or Find an Event for Women
The Women's Calendar features over 3,000 conferences,
workshops, and other events in the U.S. and Canada
connecting women with resources to help people grow
their businesses, build awareness of social issues and
fuel active involvement in local and worldwide
communities. If you're a non-profit you can post your
seminar or conference for free otherwise there is a
nominal fee.
Women’s Radio It appears that this
resource is still getting off the ground but if you’re
marketing to women it may be worth a look to see if
there are some synergies between what each of you have
to offer.
Marketing to Women Conference This
annual event features speakers and workshops all aimed
at helping companies big and small to sell to women.
Career and Educational Conferences for Young African
American and Latina Women WomenatWork1
sponsors this annual event in Los Angeles. If your
products or services mesh with the goals of the event it
offer a good opportunity for exposure and marketing.
For creative
business ideas hop over to
Cool
Jobs.
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