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3 Essential Tools for Starting and Maintaining a Small Business  by: Ryan Hough We believe that there are 3 factors that drive the success of small businesses. 1) Acquiring start-up capital 2) Finding customers 3) Accounting for, budgeting and controlling sales and expenses The following resources will help your small business achieve these success factors. Acquiring Start-Up Capital An adequate supply of capital is essential as many profitable businesses fail because they don’t have enough cash to pay their employees and suppliers. But what is an adequate supply of capital? The only way to tell is by doing a significant amount of research on your potential market and formally documenting this in a business plan. I’m sure you know that a business plan is a very important document that is crucial to convincing your banker to lend you money. There are two ways to obtain a business plan. 1) Do it yourself by amending a business plan template, or 2) Hire a professional to do it for you. Obviously obtain 1) will be a great deal cheaper. Our research led to a website that has over 60 high quality and free business plan templates. We also found a directory that you can use to easily find a business plan writer in your city – where ever you live in the world. Finding Customers Finding customers is a difficult and expensive task for service business owners such as accountants, lawyers and plumbers. We believe that a cost effective marketing strategy for service business owners is to simply give all their personal contacts a few business cards. Our research led to a few websites that have pre-designed business card templates. We felt that the diversity and quality of these designs was outstanding. In addition, we found that you can obtain a significant saving by finding a printing service on the Internet. We found that you could get 2,000 full color business cards for as little as US $150. Accounting For, Budgeting and Controlling Revenue and Expenses Accurate accounting is very important for small business owners. It’s essential that you have timely access to information that could make or break your business. If stocks are running low – you need to know about it. If a large proportion of your debtors haven’t paid – you need to know about it. If you do not react to these situations quickly you may have a situation where you don’t have enough money to pay your employees – or worse still someone is stealing cash out the till. Our research led to a website that compares and reviews top accounting software for small businesses. The cheapest software cost US $89.99 and the most expensive software cost US $1,499. It was interesting to note that the top 3 ranked websites were not the most expensive and cost between US $250 - US $300. Hopefully you now have an idea of some of the tools that you can use to grow and maintain your small business. If you would like to benefit from our research please visit our website. We do not charge for this research and offer the content freely on our website. About the author: http://www.best-quality-small-business-resources.com/ Ryan Hough is the webmaster of best quality small business resources.com, who's aim is to help you save time and money by finding reviews and case studies that will enable you to choose the best resources at the right price.

More Resources

11/21/2008 06:24 AM

Small Business Tips for a Challenging Economy (Carteret County News-Times)

(ARA) - As the world's economy becomes more and more challenging, small business owners need to find ways to keep their business afloat. Here are some tips to maintaining good customer relations while managing the bottom line:

11/21/2008 06:04 AM

Business coach helps small companies realize potential (Klein Sun)

In a fledgling economy, some small business owners are seeking strategic guidance to help them meet their bottom line. But in their effort to thrive, sometimes family life has to take a back seat.

11/21/2008 05:16 AM

Honoring the courage of small business (Coeur d'Alene Press)

My wonderful husband and I are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary this week. We deeply treasure our family and appreciate our many blessings. Another of our accomplishments together is the small business we started nearly 25 years ago.

11/21/2008 05:12 AM

Lone Star College System to host 22nd annual small business awards banquet (The Potpourri)

Fifteen finalists have been selected for the Lone Star College System Small Business Development Center Business of the Year Awards, including three from Tomball.

11/20/2008 10:16 AM

Best Small Business to Start: Financial Adviser (US News & World Report)

Best Small Business to Start: Financial Adviser.

11/20/2008 03:20 AM

Small business loans dwindle (The Tennessean)

Cameron Goss, the president of Goss Suzuki of Rivergate, got a $650,000 loan late last year from the U.S. Small Business Administration to help renovate his car dealership at a cost of about $1 million.

11/20/2008 05:08 PM

EPA Reform of SPCC Rule Benefits Small Business (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)

WASHINGTON----The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent actions reforming the Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure rule contains provisions that will benefit small business.

11/20/2008 03:06 PM

SBA steps aimed to fuel small-business lending (Finance and Commerce)

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced two steps this week to improve access to capital for small businesses.

11/20/2008 10:53 AM

Chamber honors local small business leaders (The Evening Sun)

NORWICH – Commerce Chenango honored six local businesses for their contributions to the community at its 2008 Annual Salute to Small Business Dinner Wednesday.

11/20/2008 08:52 AM

Small-business owners grow more pessimistic (Dallas Morning News)

Confidence among U.S. small-business owners plunged in October to the lowest level in 28 years as sales slumped to a record low and spending plans were pared, a private survey found.