Small business for dummies

著者

• Curtis, Veechi

書誌事項

Small business for dummies

by Veechi Curtis

（--For dummies）（Learning made easy）

Wiley Pub. Australia, c2021

6th Australian ed

• : [pbk.]

注記

Includes index

内容説明・目次

内容説明

Get inspired to build a profitable business with this essential guide In the latest edition of this bestselling and authoritative reference, Small Business For Dummies explains how to set your business on the path for success. Using this guide, you'll discover how to nurture your entrepreneurial spirit, build a winning edge over your competitors, and respond to the increasing challenges of everyday business. From the basics of setting up a budget to working out your exit plan, this book explains how to grow a profitable business that responds quickly to opportunities. You'll learn how to identify what's different about your business, and how you can use this knowledge to build your brand and generate above-average profits. This new edition also covers: Using business plans to stay one step ahead Building positive teams and managing employees Creating financial projections that actually work Attracting the kind of customers you really want Expanding your online presence Whether you're a small business veteran or new to the game, this guide provides practical advice and inspirational guidance for every step along the way.

目次

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Getting Started 5 Chapter 1: Is Small Business for You? 7 Working for Yourself - A Dream Come True? 8 Doing what you love to do 8 Earning pots of money (here's hoping) 8 Being your own boss 9 Staying home 9 Working for Yourself - Reality Strikes 10 Teetering on the edge 11 Working night and day for little pay 11 Weathering feast and famine 12 Getting the Timing Right 12 Timing it right for your idea 12 Timing it right for you 13 Timing it right for the economy 14 Staying Safe or Inventing the Wheel? 16 Playing it safe 16 Finding your own niche 16 Going out on a limb 17 Assessing your chances of survival 17 Getting the Government to Help You 21 Setting Yourself Up for Success 22 Chapter 2: Figuring Out What's So Special about You (And Your Business) 23 Understanding Strategic Advantage 24 Identifying your secret weapon 24 Focusing on real-life examples 25 Justifying Why You Can Succeed 27 Uncovering your inner mojo 27 Asking three key questions 27 Growing your advantages over time 28 Making sure a demand really exists 29 Understanding How Risk Relates to Gain 29 Figuring Out Who Your Competitors Really Are 30 Understanding why you need to do this 31 Grouping competitors 32 Profiling your competitors 33 Thinking about future competitors 33 Choosing Your Competitive Strategy 35 Pick one, and only one, competitive strategy 35 Connecting your competitive strategy to your strategic advantage 37 Chapter 3: Starting from Scratch, Buying a Business, or Joining a Franchise 39 Weighing Up the Good and the Bad of Buying a Business 40 Buying an existing business - the upside 40 Buying an existing business - the downside 41 Asking the Right Questions 42 Finding out who owns the intellectual property 42 Analysing sales trends, profit and break-even 43 Clarifying what the purchase price includes 43 Calculating the 'True' Earnings of a Business 45 Valuing an Existing Business 47 The times earnings method 48 The capitalised earnings method 49 The strategic advantage method 50 Dotting Your I's, Crossing Your T's 50 Buying a Franchise 53 Considering the positives 53 Weighing up the negatives 54 Exercising Due Diligence 55 Wising up 55 Putting a franchise through the griller 56 Doing your sums 58 Part 2: Finding Your Entrepreneurial Spirit 61 Chapter 4: Separating Yourself from Your Business 63 Deciding What Path You Want to Take 64 Doing the thing you love to do 64 Getting help and delegating what you can 65 Building a business that's separate from you 67 Creating a way of doing business 68 Wearing Different Hats 69 Building a Business with a Life of its Own 71 Defining your difference 71 Documenting and building systems 72 Setting goals for you and your business 74 Planning for a graceful exit 75 Appreciating the Limitations of Your Business 75 Chapter 5: Staying One Step Ahead 79 Taking an Eagle-Eye View 80 Looking at what's happening in your industry 80 Being realistic about industry decline 83 Riding the wave of opportunity 83 Rating Your Capabilities 84 Putting yourself through the griller 84 Prioritising where you need to do better 86 Identifying Opportunities and Threats 86 Doing a SWOT Analysis 89 Putting theory into practice 89 Translating your SWOT analysis into action 90 Creating a Plan for Change 91 Chapter 6: Creating a Business Plan 93 Getting Started with Your Plan 94 Charting a True Course 95 Setting off on your mission 96 Saying what you're about 97 Matching goals to your mission 97 Assessing the Environment 98 Analysing outside influences 99 Checking out the competition 99 Justifying market demand 99 Declaring Your Battle Plan 100 Building your SWOT analysis 100 Choosing a strategy 100 Expressing your competitive advantage 101 Outlining Your Marketing Plan 101 Developing your marketing plan 101 Defining your customers 102 Articulating your online business strategy 103 Describing Your Dream Team 103 Presenting Financials 104 Balancing dreams against reality 104 Building on history to create a picture of the future 105 Staying real with benchmarks 106 Chapter 7: Getting the Legals Right 107 Picking a Business Structure 108 Independent and single 109 Tea for two 109 We've got company 110 Matching the Name to the Game 111 Using your own name 111 Thinking about how others will find you 112 Making sure you're not on someone else's patch 112 Checking for trademarks 112 Registering your business name 113 Avoiding trouble 114 Protecting Your Brand 115 Registering trademarks 115 Protecting other kinds of intellectual property 116 Registering with the Powers That Be 117 Getting that baby's number 117 Signing up for taxes (unavoidable, I'm afraid) 117 Checking out what else you need 118 Working with Contracts 119 Understanding when you're legally bound 119 Dealing with standard form contracts 120 Knowing what to look for in a contract 121 Signing on the dotted line 122 Negotiating Lease Contracts 123 Part 3: Planning for Profit 127 Chapter 8: Figuring Out Prices and Predicting Sales 129 Choosing a Pricing Strategy 130 Setting prices based on costs 130 Setting prices based on competitors 130 Setting prices based on perceived value 131 Building a Hybrid-Pricing Plan 132 Offering a premium product or service 132 Cutting back the frills 134 Getting creative with packages 134 Charging different prices for the same thing 135 Forming Your Final Plan of Attack 136 Monitoring and Changing Your Price 137 Building Your Sales Forecast 138 Calculating hours in a working week 138 Increasing sales with extra labour 140 Predicting sales for a new business 141 Predicting sales for an established business 142 Creating Your Month-by-Month Forecast 144 Chapter 9: Building Profit Projections 147 Understanding the Cost of Your Sales 148 Costing your service 148 Costing items that you buy and sell 149 Costing items that you make 150 Forecasting Expenses 152 Forecasting monthly expenses 152 Forecasting expenses for the year ahead 154 Allowing for loan repayments and interest 155 Allowing for personal and company tax 156 Building Profit Projections 157 Step one: Starting with sales 157 Step two: Adding variable costs 158 Step three: Showing gross profit 160 Step four: Adding expenses and revealing the bottom line 160 Understanding the Whole Deal 161 Factoring Personal Expenses into the Equation 162 Chapter 10: Calculating Your Break-Even Point 165 Identifying Your Tipping Point 165 Understanding the concept of break-even 167 Factoring personal expenses into the equation 167 Putting theory into practice 168 Changing Your Break-Even Point 171 Looking at Things from a Cash Perspective 173 Chapter 11: Creating Your Marketing Plan 175 Laying Down the Elements of Your Plan 176 Going to the heart of the matter 176 Expressing your difference 177 Defining Who Your Customers Are 178 Analysing your customers 179 Understanding what it is your customers really want 179 Thinking creatively about channels 180 Researching the market 181 Analysing Your Competitors 182 Setting Sales Targets 183 Expressing sales targets in dollars and cents 184 Expressing sales targets in other ways 184 Building Sales Strategies 186 Growing a brand that people want 186 Pricing things right 187 Defining your social media strategy 188 Engaging customers and building trust 189 Expanding Your Reach Offline 191 Networking (yes, actually in person) 191 Investing in public relations 192 Creating marketing alliances 193 Keeping Yourself Honest 193 Comparing targets against actuals 193 Measuring conversion rates 194 Part 4: People Power 197 Chapter 12: Making Service Your Business 199 Creating a customer service culture 200 Asking for feedback at every touchpoint 200 Being prepared to listen 201 Cultivating a positive workplace 202 Going the Extra Mile 203 Delivering on your promises, and more 203 Understanding how to build trust 206 Brainstorming how you can do better 206 Appreciating the need for speed 207 Continuing service after the sale is made 208 Evaluating Your Performance 208 Designing surveys 208 Measuring your speed 209 Reflecting on other service benchmarks 209 Showing That You Care 211 'I appreciate how you feel' 211 'I've done that sometimes!' 212 'Let me confirm what you just said' 212 Can I help you with anything else? 213 Dealing with Complaints 214 Why complaints are serious 214 How to respond to complaints 214 Chapter 13: Becoming an Employer 217 Becoming an Employer: The First Steps 217 Getting employees to fulfil their part of the deal 218 Covering employees for accidents 219 Ensuring your software is up to speed 220 Subscribing to super 220 Meeting Minimum Pay and Conditions 222 Understanding what laws apply 222 Choosing between part-time, full-time or casual 224 Playing Safe and Playing Fair 226 Being practical, not pedantic 226 Blonde jokes are over 228 Chapter 14: The Art of Management 229 Drawing Up a Position Description 230 Playing the Recruitment Game 231 Reaching the best applicants 232 Selling the position 232 Picking the Best 233 Asking the right questions 234 Avoiding the wrong questions 234 Matching people and positions 235 Offering Someone a Job 236 Sending an offer of employment 236 Setting a probationary period 237 Learning to Lead 238 Daring to delegate 239 Building a positive workplace 239 Communicating every way you can 240 Don't Worry, Be Happy 241 Rewarding with more than money 241 Reviewing performance regularly 242 Managing change 243 Managing Difficult Employees 243 Figuring out whether the problem is actually you 244 Knowing when to draw the line 244 Giving an employee a warning 245 Terminating an employee 246 Part 5: High Finance 249 Chapter 15: Financing Your Business 251 Budgeting Enough for Start-Up 251 Creating a start-up budget 252 Adding enough to live on 253 Assessing how much you really need 253 Separating Start-up Expenses from Operating Expenses 254 Dealing with initial start-up expenses 254 Putting theory into practice 255 Sizing Up Your Finance Options 257 Taking out a business loan 258 Finding a new lease of life 260 Getting hitched with chattel mortgage or hire purchase 261 Canoodling with credit cards 262 Seeking equity partners 262 Choosing Your Lender 263 Compare interest rates and loan fees 263 Consider other interest(ing) factors 264 Watch out for honeymoon periods and interest-free credit 264 Chapter 16: Cooking the Books 267 Figuring How Often to Do the Deed 268 Doing your books just once in a while 268 Doing your books regularly 269 Choosing Software that Fits 270 Creating Recordkeeping Systems 272 Keeping track of income 272 Tracking expenses 273 Storing your business records 273 Doing the bare basics 274 Keeping Track of How Much You're Owed 276 Asking nicely 276 Getting drastic 277 Meeting Bookkeeping Deadlines 278 Chapter 17: Understanding Financial Statements 281 Discovering What Reports You Need (and When) 282 Telling a Story with Your Profit & Loss Report 283 Understanding how it all works 283 Looking at sales 285 Counting the costs 285 Weighing up your expenses 286 Taking a Snapshot with Your Balance Sheet 287 Understanding the fine print 288 Building documentation to support each figure 289 Appreciating your net worth (someone has to, after all) 291 Why Profit Doesn't Always Mean Cash 291 Gazing into the deep, black hole 292 Looking through rose-coloured spectacles 292 Doing the sums for sustainable growth 293 Budgeting As If You Mean It 294 Creating your first budget 294 Recognising relationships 295 Understanding the psychology of budgets 297 Developing your budget in tune with your business plan 298 Looking at Cashflow 299 Chapter 18: Taming the Tax Tyrant 303 Getting a Grip on GST 303 Deciding whether to register or not 304 Choosing your cashflow destiny 304 Reporting for duty - how often? 305 Coughing up 306 Staying out of trouble 306 Growing Some Recordkeeping Smarts 307 Treating receipts with respect 307 Cultivating your obsessive-compulsive streak 307 Riding that (t)rusty chariot 308 Declaring home office expenses 309 Planning Ahead 310 Getting an instant deduction 311 Managing stock valuations 311 Salting funds away into super 312 Staying Out of Trouble 312 Don't claim what you can't 312 Be able to back up your story 313 Avoid Personal Services rulings, if you can 314 Monitor shareholder or director loans closely 314 Don't kid yourself about the cash economy 315 Budgeting for Tax 315 Planning for that difficult second year 316 Putting funds aside 316 Budgeting for GST and PAYG 317 Fessing up if you're short on cash 318 Part 6: The Part of Tens 321 Chapter 19: Ten Things to Do If You Hit Hard Times 323 Work Out How Bad Things Really Are 324 Get Breathing Space 325 Innovate! 325 Slash Those Expenses 326 Pull Back Personal Spending 327 Get Rid of Dead Weight 327 Chase Up Overdue Accounts 328 Run Special Offers 328 Re-Jig Your Margins 329 Don't Be a Shag on a Rock 330 Chapter 20: Ten Tips for Selling Your Business 331 Start with a Game Plan 332 Prepare Well in Advance 332 Give Your Financials a Make-Over 333 Get a Professional Valuation 334 Go for the Max 334 Plan for a Few Bills 335 Woo the Buyer 336 Do Due Diligence in Advance 337 Be Straight Up with Employees 339 Spread the Word 339 Index 341

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詳細情報

• NII書誌ID(NCID): BC0386511X
• ISBN:
  • 9780730384847
• 出版国コード: au
• タイトル言語コード: eng
• 本文言語コード: eng
• 出版地: Milton
• ページ数/冊数: xiv, 350 p.
• 大きさ: 24 cm
• 分類:
  • DC23 : 658.0220994
• 件名:
  • LCSH : Small business -- Australia
  • LCSH : Small business -- New Zealand
• 親書誌ID:
  • BA22893377
  • BB25678979