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Starting an Online Small Business
Written by: Rita CartwrightArticle Overview: The first step in starting your online or offline business is to name it. When considering the name of your business, make sure it reflects the products or services you will be offering.
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Starting an Online Small Business
Although this article provides information for starting an online small business, the information can also be used for starting a brick and mortar small business in any industry.
The first step in starting your online or offline business is to name it. When considering the name of your business, make sure it reflects the products or services you will be offering. Take into consideration not only the products you will offer today, but also the products or services you could possibly offer in the future. Once you have named your business, it is a hassle to change it; especially, if you have done extensive marketing.
If you choose a name for your business that is different than your surname, you have to file a FBN (Fictitious Business Name) Statement with your county. For example, if your business name is Brown & Baker Associates or Brown & Baker Sons, you are required to file a FBN Statement. Although, your surname is Brown, as well as Baker being the surname of your partner, associates' and sons' surnames are unknown; therefore, filing a FBN Statement is necessary. If the name of your business is Sally Brown Business Services, then you are not required to file a Fictitious Business Name Statement, because you are conducting business under your legal name, Sally Brown.
Once you have filed your statement, it is effective for five years and will need to be renewed at the end of that time period. You are also required to publish your FBN Statement with court-approved newspapers once a week for four consecutive weeks. If your business is located in San Diego County, the county clerk's office provides you with a list of newspapers for you to make your selection. If at the end of your five-year period you haven't changed your business name, ownership, or business location, it is not necessary to publish your renewed statement. Copies of your filed statement are available, including a certified copy. You will need your certified copy to open a business bank account.
Be sure to check with your county for their exact requirements as they may vary from the aforementioned, which are based on the requirements of San Diego County.
You will also need a business license, which is required by your city and is renewable annually. When you renew, there is an administrative fee plus $.05 on every $100 ($.0005 x gross receipts) you earned in the previous year. Different cities may have different formulas to determine the fee for a business license. The City of Oceanside uses the previously mentioned formula. Again, check with your city for their exact requirements.
After you have taken care of all the administrative tasks, now the real work begins. Marketing your small business is very time-consuming and a lot of work. However, majority of the internet marketing tools available to small business owners today cost little to no money.
You may want to consider working with a Virtual Assistant, who is also a small business owner. You can think of virtual assistants as your online administrative assistants. Chances are they are using the same internet marketing tools and strategies to market their business; therefore, they will know how to apply the same marketing strategies to your business. They can also help you with your other administrative tasks.
Overall, operating a small business has its pros and cons. It is your company. No one can fire you or lay you off. However, it consumes a lot of your time and it takes discipline. Becoming a successful small business owner doesn't happen overnight. Working with a Virtual Assistant will free up a great deal of your valuable time, as well as help you to be organized. This will allow you to focus on your products and/or services, in addition to gaining clients.
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Article Tags: online business, small business, starting a business, virtual assistant
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About the Author: Rita Cartwright RSS for Rita's articles - Visit Rita's website  After Rita earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing, she was hired and trained by Sears to be a Sales Manager. She soon discovered retail sales was not for her. So, Rita decided to become an entrepreneur offering virtual assistant services. Since 2002, she has provided word processing services and other virtual assistant services to entrepreneurs and small business owners. During the past eight years, Rita has used various Internet marketing strategies to market her online business and discovered that she has a passion for Internet marketing. As a result, she decided to focus on offering Internet marketing services and recently, decided to change her business name to RJ's Internet Marketing Services in order to reflect the niche service offerings. Rita enjoys being an entrepreneur, as well as working with other entrepreneurs, especially, business and life coaches. She admires how they transform people's businesses and/or lives by helping them to become successful. Today, Rita is glad she didn't receive any job offers 10 years ago. She has been more successful at searching for clients as opposed to searching for employers. Click here to visit Rita's website   Working with a Virtual Assist |
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My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
These maybe the coldest franchises out there:
- Here are the worst 15 performing franchises in regards to having the highest Small Business Administration (SBA) loan failure rates. The list is dotted with sub sandwich shops, fitness centers and car shops.
WORST FRANCHISE LOAN FAILURES Failure %
1 OBEE'S SOUP SALAD SUBS 55.56%
2 LADY OF AMERICA 41.94%
3 COUNTRY CLUTTER (BED & BREAKFAST) 41.18%
4 COPY CLUB 36.36%
5 ALL TUNE AND LUBE 35.71%
6 PICKERMAN'S 35.71%
7 PHILLY CONNECTION 35.59%
8 ROLY POLY ROLLED SANDWICHES 34.78%
9 COTTMAN TRANSMISSION 34.48%
10 HAIR COLOR EXPRESS 33.33%
11 LEE MYLES AUTOMOTIVE TRANSMISSIONS 33.33%
12 GODFATHER'S PIZZA 33.33%
13 SMOOTHIE FACTORY 33.33%
14 BLIMPIE 31.39%
15 GOLF U.S.A. (RETAIL GOLF EQUIP.) 30.77%
Source: Small Business Administration, SBA Loan Performance Within Franchise Code for the Period of FY 2001 - 2005
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company
- [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi]
B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses.
B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.
Exclusive: Interview with Results
- Hi Forum Members,
I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles).
As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business.
This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business.
I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months.
At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews.
I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum.
If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM.
Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: Biz Plan Competition
- i just wanted to say that posting Small Business Events on CanadaOne is a great resource. Thanks Julie!
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