Short, easy to read, simple how to start a business book. Yet it is comprehensive and delightfully in depth. Written by Craig Harston.
As a small business consultant, this book reviews all the things necessary to start, continue, grow, and sometimes save a small business. Of course, the legal and bureaucratic mechanics are covered. In other words, where do you get a business license, how to get a sales tax certificate, how to set up a corporation or LLC, and, oh yes don’t forget insurance, were typical topics covered. As a word of advice these activities will put you on various tax roles, so I had to break the bad news to many about different types of taxes that cover the ground from local city tangible personal property taxes to sales taxes, franchise, excise, SUTA (State Unemployment Taxes), Federal Income taxes as well as FUTA (Federal Unemployment Taxes). Also there are State Certifications and permits for some professions and types of commerce. That is why antacids sat on my desk and were available for my clients. It is upsetting; taxes that is.
Additionally and most importantly, we got into business issues. This is where I spent most of my time and where folks most needed help. That is because getting a business license and paying taxes are easy compared to the real problems of starting and running a successful business. Naturally, repeating patterns of issues emerged through the years of visiting with many clients. I met with 200 to 300 distinct clients a year with well over a hundred hours a month counseling. Some were seen only once, but others came to see me for 10, 20, 40, 80, 120, or more hours. Some of these continue to succeed but not all. Many just survive.
One pattern that seems relevant is that those who are capable of detailed business analysis, often called a business plan, do better than those who fail to plan or examine the foreseeable issues they will face. Naturally there are many business plan outlines and even sample business plans published and available on the internet at web sites such as www.sba.gov . But still many write the words with vague glowing descriptions of what will happen as their business succeeds with no real analysis, thought, or insight into what is relevant. For example, marketing strategy consists of “we will advertise in the radio, newspaper, and TV.” That is not a market plan, but I will explain later. Something more is needed to bring serious and concerned folks to the level of useful analysis and understanding. Sample business plans help, but an understanding of what questions the analysis/plan should address is critical. Maybe that is why I find myself tapping away at the keyboard, when there are other fun, interesting, and challenging things to do like making a rich chocolate raspberry hazelnut torte.
You will notice that this material is not complete. You can go to any business text book in accounting, marketing, finance, and management and find more comprehensive and complete presentations of relevant business material. Indeed there are entire books dedicated to subtopics in each of these fields. In contrast, this book or booklet is much more restricted. It is not my objective to be complete but to be useful. To this objective this book is short, so that people can read it and digest it in a limited time. Additionally, this material focuses on issues that, in my experience, have surfaced as being salient. What I am trying to get at are the essential basics to get going and grow. Naturally there is much more on every topic that can be searched, explored, learned, and put to practice. Here we hit the fundamental highlights quickly because everybody is busy and needs to get the important stuff fast.
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