Industry sign banking georgia business letter template safe
congratulations and taking the first step towards successful entrepreneurship I'll tell you a bit about what we do our services and what we'll cover during this workshop the southern-coastal SBDC combined services from the University of Georgia and Georgia Southern University to serve 13 counties in southern Georgia we offer confidential consulting services for business planning financing marketing and accounting our continuing education classes are free or low-cost it's a public service and outreach division of the University of Georgia and an accredited member of the ASD DC that one will determine your company's paint ability and step 2 we'll cover financing your business step 3 work when operating legally in step 4 you will pull it all together hi my name is Liz Overstreet and I'm the program coordinator for the University of Georgia small business development center in the southern coastal reach in this section we are going to begin discussing how feasible your business idea is based on your personal considerations we will also discuss the characteristics of entrepreneurs and the potential pitfalls that face new business owners business success begins with a great idea but the implementation of the day-to-day details are just as if not more important one of the biggest problems we see here at the SBDC is a lack of planning or awareness of the many things that are involved in starting a business our hope is that after this online class you will have a greater awareness of the details and potential problems or failure factors affecting new business ventures by being educated to face the worst we hope that you will have a greater chance at success businesses fail for a multitude of reasons it could be the wrong location too much competition fraud could actually be taking place maybe you've hired the wrong employees or possibly tax or regulatory issues are stifling your business oftentimes there simply isn't enough money for the business to survive maybe your pricing structure is wrong it's even possible for a business to grow so fast that they outgrow the resources they have in place let's look at some examples wrong location we've all heard that saying about the three most important things in real estate location location location but the right location really has to do with the type of business that you own let's look at the difference between an architect and a retail store which one would you think would need more visibility the retail store of course you aren't generally going to just walk by an architect's office and decide to go in and get plans for a building it's more of a destination location on the other hand you may walk by a retail storefront see an interesting display and enter on impulse the need for less visibility can save you on rent have you ever avoided going to a store just because it's too hard to pull in and out of other things to think about are how far away are your direct competitors are there businesses nearby that complement what you do is the location safe for you your employees and your customers these are all things to consider when choosing a location for your business it's unfortunate but not everyone you hire will have your business's best interests at heart look at the medical field many doctors have a lack of education for running a business and depend on their employees not taking advantage of that fact restaurants can be another business where we see fraud my friends family owned a restaurant in town they kept their till in a drawer under an espresso machine they were recently robbed the only thing taken was the cash in the drawer it was obvious to the police that it had to be an inside job the robber knew exactly where to find the money after reviewing security videos they realized an employee on duty was wearing the same clothes as the man on the security camera upon further questioning the could confess to stealing the money unfortunately the money was already spent management turnover hiring the right people can be crucial you want to make sure that the people on your team share the same values have the same work ethic that are incorporated in the culture of your business again let's look at a restaurant they have a high turnover rate if a manager is popular in leaves other employees may follow you also have to retrain when a manager leaves unless you have someone that you can hire from within recruitment takes time and time is money by ensuring good hires upfront you may save yourself and your business expenses and resources later out of all of the possible failure factors out there the two most common are lack of capital and lack of knowledge the rule of thumb says you should have six months of working capital available for operations we just had a client build in twenty thousand dollars of working capital into a loan they received from the bank they didn't figure in closing costs and legal fees which took up twelve thousand dollars so now they were down to eight thousand dollars in working capital you've got to plan ahead so you don't wind up in the hole right from the start in his book the e-myth revisited Michael Gerber describes the ultimate business owner as having three two state personalities the entrepreneur the manager and the technician the entrepreneur is the visionary the manager is the systems designer and the technician is the doer most new business owners are frustrated technicians people who love what they do and are good at what they do but don't want to do it for someone else unfortunately without the other two personalities the technician becomes more frustrated because owning a business is more than working in the business it means working on the business - the manager is needed to create order and the entrepreneur is needed to keep the business innovative if there are gaps in your business skills consider furthering your education you can learn on someone else's dime for example we had a husband and wife team interested in opening an internet cafe they liked the idea of the cafe but had no experience in the industry they decided to both get jobs in a cafe to gain experience by furthering their education they confirmed that they enjoyed the industry and learned about the daily operations of running the business the experience they gained was crucial to the success of their new venture you can also gain knowledge by joining forces with a partner or outsourcing certain functions get the right people on your team at some point nearly every business needs to seek the advice from the ABCs of business an attorney a banker or CPA as well as insurance agents and people with skills and IT services all of these people should be on your team so let's really look at the personal considerations and ask yourself some tough questions do you accept responsibility for your actions as a small business owner you'll be not only responsible for your actions but for the actions of your employees do you like being in charge are you one of those people who takes control do you like making decisions can you delegate authority what about things you can't control can you be flexible in a changing environment how will you react to the risks with fear or the sense of opportunity you need to be the number one salesperson for your business you're going to be selling your idea to customers vendors potential employees possible lenders how effectively can you communicate your idea one-on-one in a group and through media a business without sales cannot succeed are you a fearless negotiator consider Lisa's what's up for negotiation pretty much everything you want a win-win situation for you and your landlord because they will be a great member of your team speaking of teams get an attorney to help with this process make sure you understand the terms of Elise who was responsible for build-outs who was responsible for repairs who owns the fixtures and equipment just like you have to be your best salesperson you have to be your best negotiator am I willing to risk most or all of my financial assets the first money that goes into the business is yours your assets and your families are on the line you may be using your savings your retirement accounts equity from your home are you giving up steady income to start the new venture can you afford your personal monthly expenses are you prepared for these risks and how they will affect your lifestyle people have different motives for starting their own business is your current employment situation unbearable or going away do you want to be your own boss control your own hours remember you are still accountable to your customers suppliers and possibly financers and as far as time is concerned as a small business owner you get to pick the 80 hours per week that you want to work so if you're looking for a part-time job owning your own business might not be a good idea finally does your family support this decision and the risks involved directly or indirectly your family will be affected by the business you can all be working together there could be financial sacrifices as well as time constraints if you don't have family support things are going to be very difficult stress at home will spill over to work and that is a recipe for disaster let's look at some more personal characteristics are you in good health remember we talked about the long hours entrepreneurs work you could be standing for 12 hours are you physically up to the task of running a business what about insurance if you're going to have to supply that for yourself previous conditions could affect the affordability of health insurance for a small business owner do you have a need for control do you have that type a behavior what about self-confidence are you a leader you're going to have to be a leader of people as a small business owner do you have a sense of urgency are you a decisive or indecisive person can you make good decisions quickly the way you are going to be thinking about situations is going to change there is no manual no step-by-step instructions entrepreneurship is a process you have to be able to look at the big picture and when a roadblock goes up be able to change paths in the process it's not a straight line but a winding road you're going to have to think conceptually how about your need for status entrepreneurs see their business as bigger or more important than themselves they put the business's needs first you'll be everything from manager to janitor good business owners are realistic and objective you can't view the world through rose-colored glasses if sales aren't where they're supposed to be you have to be realistic and expectations and how to take corrective actions if sales are better than expected how can you sustain that advantage entrepreneurs ask why and they're involved in what is going on in and around the business owning a business is like having a child and emotions run high how are you going to handle the emotional rollercoaster what about your PMA or positive mental attitude you're going to be hit with challenges daily facing them with a positive mental attitude will get you through the tough times your attitude affects everyone around you your employees vendors family and ultimately your customers hopefully you have a better understanding of the personal considerations that affect the feasibility of your idea in the next section we will discuss the market feasibility of your idea hi my name is Kyle Hensel in the next part we're going to talk about is the demand for your business and getting information in order to make your business plan better we'll also talk about sales potential and breakeven points for your business when you're working on your business plan for your business there's a lot of information that you're going to need in order to successfully submit it any type of bank or any other area the first thing that you need to ask yourself is what is the demand for my business do people actually want what I have to sell there's a lot of information that you're gonna need to look into as well as research from different places like the library or different areas at universities or any of the great organizations around Savannah that can help you out the big goal is to do your research upfront so that you won't be surprised later on the more questions you can answer at the very beginning the better off you're gonna be when trying to present your plan to a bank one of the first areas you need to look is to get primary research on the business that you're trying to build you know one of the first things that you need to do is start asking around talk to your friends talk to your family talk to strangers ask them is this business needed is this something that people actually would pay for in the long run now one bit of advice don't ask your family too much about this because they would be willing to buy anything from me but not willing to actually pay so make sure to keep them and ask to service questions about that not necessarily how much money they're willing to pay but definitely your friends and family should be a first step also ask other people who are in the industry already whether they're competitors if they'll talk to you or if there's any type of vendors you know they'll provide some of the best information for you as well as they could provide really good contacts for the future so don't be afraid to ask them they will be able to share a lot of good info and normally they don't want to charge you because they want to succeed too in the long run if you do well they might get more business from you too you know another thing to do is to start looking around start observing what other people have I mean if you're trying to open up a sandwich shop why don't you go to one that's actually nearby count the amount of people that actually walk in what type of things do they buy how much are they willing to pay the more you know about this in advance the more homework you do up front the better off you're gonna be in the long run so just take a look around and just sit down and watch I mean it might be a good idea to actually pay so they don't think you're just squatting there all day but at the same time they can provide some great information primary research sometimes doesn't have to be difficult you just need to be there and actually do it another thing that you need to think about too is to have other people help you in the long run now if you have any interns or if you have any current employees or co-workers from the place where you currently work this would be an excellent way to just start getting information have them go around and talk to people in your mind your idea for your business is one of the best things that you could possibly do but how do other people feel if your friends and your employees and interns feel the exact same way and the people that they talk to feel the same way then maybe you do have a good plan overall and again one thing to consider is that when you ask someone a question they may lie to you a little bit and tell you what they want to hear if at the same time someone else is asking the question about starting a business they're going to be truthful and honest about everything and so you might get a lot better information so primary research is definitely one thing that you should consider as you're building your business plan another thing that you need to think about as you're working on your business plan and getting research is secondary research now secondary research is research that's already been published by someone else so you don't have to actually do the legwork to gather any of it there's so many places that you can go to gather research in so many databases that a lot of times people are confused about where they actually need to go and what they actually need to do keep in mind that not all of this information is free but a lot of the resources that we're going to talk about right now will be free if you go to your local library or if you go to any type of university there's a lot of people that out there that are willing to help you just need to ask for that help one of the first things that you need to do is look at different market studies that have already been done on your industry now a lot of people have spent a lot of t
me and some other great market studies that are currently out there if you go to your library is a program called reference USA reference USA is a program that has information about every single company that is in the Savannah area as well as the rest of the country it will also give you an estimate on what their sales are and how many employees they have it also gives you a lot of great tips about how much they're probably spending on their marketing or how many competitors they have near you they'll actually be able to map out all of your competition in any geographic area and all this information is free at your library so going to the library is definitely a big step in building your business plan if you go to the library or if you just start searching online you'll find a lot of articles based on your industry all you have to do is go to a search engine and know exactly what to type one tip for you don't necessarily call what you want by what you would call it but what your customers would call it it may not have a whole big fancy name associated with it or it may not be a product name or a product number it could be a very generic item that they're searching for always try to search things by how your customers would search them and not you because eventually they'll be the ones that are buying from you another great place to look for information is on the websites of your competitors they can be a great source of information based on the pricing a lot of people don't think about it but when they're building their website they put all of their pricing information all of their policies and all of their rules up front and on the very beginning of their website well use a competitor now have all this information at your fingertips look at their Facebook pages their Twitter pages and find out exactly what all their marketing strategies are this will help estimate what your demand is and what your advertising costs might be in the future don't be afraid to look at your competitors its market research another place that you can look at is an economic forecast every single year the University of Georgia as well as Georgia Southern University and several other universities put out an economic forecast on how businesses in the area should be performing in the next year one thing to consider is are the house prices going up are people expected to spend more money is construction increasing all of these different forecasts will help identify whether or not your sales could go up or your sales could go down your estimates need to go in line with what these forecasts say cuz bankers are definitely going to look at them you may have a very optimistic view of your plan but the banker has to agree so make sure that you look at all different types of forecasts trade associations are out there for almost every single industry they have a national one and they most likely have a local one in Georgia now eventually they'd like you to become a customer there's so upfront they will provide you with a lot of free information on what's going on in your industry make sure to use this information and also list them as a source just make sure in the future that if you do well join their trade association and they'll be thankful in the long run and they'll be willing to help other people much like you another place you can look is the SBDC we offer free consulting to small business owners and we have access to every database that I just talked about so if you need any help and getting your business started please don't be afraid to give us a call or to look on our website we're here to help you in the long run thing to consider is how is the industry doing that you're looking at if you're thinking about doing government contracting there's a lot of codes that you need to consider there's the si si code which is the standard industrial code as well as the NAICS code which is the North American industry classification system these codes are how the government tracks all different sales that are being imported and exported from the country as well as what the sales are inside of our own country if you're trying to work in these industries there'll be a lot of information for you a lot of times - in the retail categories and restaurants you can use this NAICS code in order to predict your sales in every single County this information is published every five years by the US government take a look at your industry and see how they're doing and is your industry growing it will always tell you the amount of competition that you have unless there's only a couple of competitors then they won't tell you very much as mentioned before there's a lot of articles that you can look at whether it be from a trade association or from your library as a whole so make sure you do your research on the industry and whether it's going I almost guarantee you that there is a magazine or some type of research out there about your industry the more you look at these trends or statistics you should be able to do well for example if you're selling books in a bookstore you might notice that sales are going down a little bit Amazon and Barnes and Noble and all the other stores are selling a lot of their product online so that might be an industry that would be highly competitive or sales actually look down when people walk into a store so knowing that statistic will help lead to you to what your sales projections might be another great resource is RMA or the risk management Association this organization has published numbers about the profitability sales and cost of goods sold of every single industry out there and they also have split up the information by region whether it be the south the North East or the west with that information in hand you can help predict what your cost will be as well as what your sales should be if you're doing a great job all of this information including the RMA s can be obtained by talking with an spdc consultant we're here to provide that information if you do need it well now that you've gathered all of this information so far it's time to make the sales forecast for your business so there's a lot of things that you need to start looking into one of them is market potential how much are all the people in your geographic area if the geographic area is important how much are they gonna spend if geographic new boundaries don't matter to you maybe you need to look at the country as a whole or maybe multi states what is your market who are you trying to reach once you know that what's the average amount that they spend on your product do they buy twenty-five dollars worth at a time or do they spend close to a thousand dollars every time they buy from you the market potential then can be added up and this is the maximum amount that people are willing to spend for your product for the entire industry then you can look at it and say how big is your competition and after estimating that you should be able to figure out what market share that you will need in order to reach your sales make sure to take into account that your competitors have been around for a long time so make sure that actually talk to them they've probably worked very hard and they've done a great job so don't assume that you're gonna take all their sales another thing that you need to take into account is what is the cost for you to provide your product or service you know with a service a lot of it is about the time and how much time you put into it what is your time actually worth are you charging the right amount of money based on your time you could go out and get a job and make ten or fifteen dollars an hour is that what you're charging for your business you need to make sure they've actually worth your time to do what you're doing if you have a product you know are you selling it at cost or are you marking it up you need to make a profit too so make sure that you do put the appropriate markup that you need to to survive but again remember the lower the costs that you can make it the more profit you will make in the long run another thing to consider is that if you're selling to another business owner or to just anyone else is what is your close rate or out of all the people that you try to talk to what percentage of them actually buy from you it's not really likely that every single person that you talk to every day will buy from you if you can get a close rate or the amount of people are gonna buy from you you can estimate what your sales are gonna be because remember sales minus the cost is the profit the more sales that we have the better off that you're gonna do there are very few industries where sales are the same in January and February and March and so on you have to predict what are the bad months gonna be what are the good months and tourism in Savanna parts of the summer are incredibly busy December not as crowded you need to realize what is the seasonality for your business predicting that is a really good idea all of the research that we talked about with reference USA and all the databases will have examples of what seasonality will be for your business you just need to go research it and provide that information in your plan well now we're to the point where we have to decide is the business that you are going to start gonna be profitable is it going to break-even doing this homework upfront will save you a lot of time because if you can't break even why do you even go forward maybe you should tweak the design of your business and try to do something completely different we don't want to ruin your life savings or have you take out a loan if you're gonna be unsuccessful breakeven is incredibly important so let's take an example of how you would actually do this breakeven first of all let's take a really simple product and we'll say that it costs 10 dollars when you sell it so your sales price is gonna be $10 then we have to get the cost of goods sold or what its gonna take in order for you to make it for the purpose of making it very easy we will say that the raw material or the product is gonna cost three dollars and then we're gonna say that will cost one dollar in labor in order for you to make this product the cost in the long run is actually gonna be four dollars so if you take your sales which is $10 and then subtract away all of your cost which is four dollars that means that your gross profit is going to be six dollars in your gross profit is the selling price minus your cost of goods sold then one simple way of looking at it is that you take that gross profit which again is six dollars from our example and divide it by the sales price and then you're going to get a gross profit margin of 60% now I will tell you 60% profit margin is a very good profit margin but again we're just using it for illustration on this type of product so we'll look at a couple more now fixed cost is one that doesn't change every time you make another product some great examples of a fixed expense may be rent utilities your salary especially for you or that miscellaneous that is used quite often in a lot of projections again for an easy example let's assume that your rent is gonna be $2,000 your utilities will be $1,000 your salary 3,000 a month and then miscellaneous or other we'll put it four thousand dollars this will be a grand total per month of $10,000 in expenses when we're trying to come up with the breakeven for any type of business what you're gonna do is you're gonna take your fixed cost and then you're gonna divide it by that gross margin that we talked about just to slide before so our fixed cost in this example is actually ten thousand dollars and if you remember from the last slide that we looked at our gross margin was gonna be 0.6 or 60% so if you take $10,000 divided by 0.6 that means that the sales you would need to break-even would be sixteen thousand six hundred and sixty-seven dollars another way of looking at this that might be a little bit easier for you to figure out if you take that fixed expense again which is $10,000 and then you take the price of your product which few remember was $10 and then you subtract away that cost and that variable cost from the last one was $4 including the labor for that product so what you do is you take $10 - your price which is $4 and you would get 6 then it is the same thing as your gross margin which is 60% this is the bare minimum to break-even we have not talked about any type of marketing cost we haven't talked about paying anyone else a salary yet this is just to get you the money that you need to survive as well as to keep the lights on trying to break even is a great milestone for a business but ideally you'd want to actually make a profit one way of trying to estimate what your breakeven would be with profit is add the profit that you would want into your fixed expense let's say if your goal was to make five thousand dollars in profit after that first month or first year if you add that in you would then have 15,000 divided by 0.6 instead of that 10,000 so there's a lot of ways that you can use breakeven in order to be successful in your business hopefully you understand all the different ways about predicting the sales for your business as well as working on a break-even point for your business next we're going to talk about financing for your business with Connie Edwards hello my name is Connie Edwards and in this section we're going to discuss financing one of the main causes of startup business failure is that not enough capital was available from the beginning so it is critical that you spend some time and effort determining how much money you need this includes how much money you need to get yours has started and how much reserve cash you need to have on hand once you have started to cover expenses and any loan payments until the business is generating enough cash to cover these itself another reason you must know and understand your capital needs is so that you can explain it to any funding source you may approach the first step is to make your list of everything you have to spend money on in order to open the business start with your fixed asset requirements this typically includes purchase of equipment to determine whether or not an item is considered equipment think about whether or not you expect it to last more than a year items that you are purchasing which are not expected to last more than a year are not considered equipment and most likely should be considered supplies or perhaps small tools other fixed assets would include furniture and fixtures fixed asset requirements can also include purchase of land in a building plus any building renovations needed if that is applicable to your situation however most small business owners rent their space and in many cases they need to pay for leasehold improvements such as painting flooring etc depending on how many items you are purchasing in a category you may need to have a separate more detailed list for example your main list may show that you are purchasing fifty thousand dollars worth of equipment but you will likely need a separate equipment list that itemizes your equipment for yourself you also need to estimate other startup expenses such as initial supplies insurance legal and accounting fees rent deposit utilities deposits and more for some these categories on your main list such as supplies you will need additional more detail lists it is very important that you go into great detail and do not overlook or underestimate any of your start-up costs everything on your startup cost list is to be spent before you open your business except for the last item which is your reserved cash this is the money you need to have on hand when you open to keep your business afloat until it is generating enough revenue to sustain itself to determine how much reserve cash you may need you will have to develop and project your sales and expenses month by month it is typically less difficult to estimate your monthly fixed expenses by month fixed expenses are expenses that will not change as your sales increase or decrease this might be expenses such as rent insurance payments office supplies legal and accounting fees etc an example of a monthly expense that typically does change with sales is opera
ing supplies if your business is retail and therefore has a cost of goods sold this will of course change as sales change or you may be a manufacturing business that has a cost of sales which would include the labor and materials that are directly involved in manufacturing your product any outflow that does vary with sales cannot be estimated until you have estimated your monthly sales so you must first estimate your monthly sales based on your knowledge and research you can develop a month-to-month income statement projection using spreadsheet software such as Excel the income statement is also sometimes referred to as a profit and loss statement here we see an example of a blank income statement projection the columns only go out for six months but your projection will have a column for each of the twelve months of your first year plus a column for the yearly total this does not have to be a calendar year starting with January it should start with the first calendar month you expect to be open so for example it could go from march of one year through February of the next year this template first shows your projection of monthly sales depending on what makes sense for your business you could have several rows showing sales in different categories which then add up to your total sales for example a hair salon may have a row for hair services one for nail services and one for facials etc the template then shows on the next row your cost of goods sold or cost of sales depending on the type of business you are starting cost of sales or cost of goods sold is normally calculated as a percent of sales based on your knowledge and research once you subtract your cost of sales from your sales you will have your gross profit shown on the next row you will then list your monthly operating expenses such as advertising wages insurance and so on do not forget to include what you need to pay yourself out of the business and do not just guess at this amount develop a household budget showing your monthly expenses and any other sources of income and be sure you do not underestimate your needs possible it is great if you can postpone paying yourself or pay yourself only a small amount per month at first so that you can leave more money in the business for operations but if you plan to do this be sure you can afford it then you total your expenses and subtract the total from gross profit to get your net profit for the month remember that some businesses particularly service businesses may have no cost of sales or cost of goods sold and we'll simply have sales minus expenses resulting in that profit your net profit will typically be negative when you first open your business but if your business is feasible after some time your net profit will become positive remember that one reason you're doing these projections is to see if your business is feasible and as we have said before you also need an estimate of how much reserve cash you're going to need so understand that net profit is not the same as net cash depending on your business there may be issues that cause you to need to make additional calculations to determine your monthly net cash flow for example if you sell to other companies you may give them 30 days to actually pay you for the products and services you sold them so even though you show a profit in that month based on what you sold and on your expenses your actual cash flow for that month could be negative because you're still waiting to be paid remember that is cash flow not profit that will help you determine how much reserve cash you need when you start your business also remember that you must tailor this example template to your business based on your knowledge and research regarding sales and expenses typically you will want to project your businesses first two years by month once you have determined your startup cost including reserve cash you can then have a financial summary which shows the major areas of money required in this example financial summary we see equipment startup expenses inventory and then working capital which would include the reserve cash requirement so in this example it is estimated that this business will require a hundred and twenty thousand dollars to start and maintain it until it is generating enough sales to sustain itself this financial statement is also useful if you are planning to seek funding for your business your funding source for example your banker can see very quickly what your needs are but you will also need to have the detailed lists and financial assumptions behind these summary numbers in order to answer any questions your banker may have and do not forget it is critical that you go through this financial projection process for yourself even if you do not think you need to seek funding from an outside source you need to know what is required arts that you have the funds on hand once you have determined how much total funding you need you will have to determine where that money will come from you may find you need an outside funding source but some of these funds should come from you a banker for example is not going to be willing to fund a hundred percent of your needs this would mean that the bank is taking on all of the financial risk they want you to take on some of the risk by investing your money in the business this shows them that you have confidence in your business and that you have been able to manage your money well enough to have some savings this example financial summary shows the proposed business owner you investing twenty four thousand dollars from your savings and borrowing ninety six thousand dollars from the bank in order to finance the one hundred and twenty thousand dollar startup in addition your banker will expect you to provide collateral for the amount that you borrow collateral is basically something that you own that the bank can take away from you and sell if you are unable or unwilling to make your loan payments the bank has to get its money back somehow although you may be able to use some of the business assets you purchased as part of your collateral realize that these assets are not worth to the banker what you paid for them you will most likely have pledged your home or some other real estate as collateral the bank will also pull your credit report to check your credit history and credit score you should go ahead and look at your credit report now to be sure it is accurate if there are any inaccuracies or problems with your credit you need to address these as soon as possible you can obtain your credit report free of charge but you will have to pay to obtain your credit score be willing to spend that money as it is better to be sure you know your score now than to have a surprise come up when the banker looks at it we have already talked about two potential sources of funding for your business bankers and yourself there are other types of financial institutions you can approach and there is the Small Business Administration or SBA the SBA typically works with bankers to help make fun possible either by guaranteeing a portion of the loan to the bank or actually lending part of the funds but there is no guarantee you will be funded by the SBA because the SBA looks at the same criteria a banker does when making a loan decision however the SBA usually has more flexibility than the bank some persons starting a business are able to obtain money from their family or friends you should be prepared to share your financial projections with them you also need to be sure you have a written agreement with them concerning how things will be handled how this document is done will depend on what you have agreed on and also whether or not they are loaning you money or actually investing in the business to become part owner you also may seek an investor in your business through venture capital firms or angel investors venture capital firms typically are looking to make large investments of 500,000 or more and they focus on a particular industry which has the potential to give them a quick high return on their investment angel investors are individuals who are looking for small businesses in which to invest and are normally willing to make smaller investments than venture capital firms that may be more flexible concerning the time it takes to get the return they are seeking just remember that anyone who actually invest in your business versus lending you money becomes a part owner of your business you will be sharing your profit with them and they may want to have a say in how the business is operated it is possible to get financing through your suppliers and vendors in some cases but it is very difficult to get as they start up business because of your lack of a payment with them there is a myth out there that the government has grants for start-up businesses the Small Business Administration or SBA does not have grant programs to help you start your business the SBA makes loans as we have already discussed you can go online to SBA govt for more information about SBA loans you can also go online to Grant's to learn about government grants but you will see most likely that most government grants available are for nonprofit businesses not for a for-profit business in summary lack of capital is one of the major reasons for small business failure so be sure that you know how much you need and be prepared to approach a lender if necessary hi my name is Becky Brownlee one of the most important choices you will make when starting a business is the type of legal structure that you select for your company not only will this decision have an impact on how much you pay in taxes it will also affect the amount of paperwork your business is required to do the personal liability you face and your ability to raise money the answer the question of what business structure is the best depends on the individual circumstances of each business owner it is not a decision to be entered into lightly and it's important for business owners to seek expert advice from business professionals such as your attorney and CPA when you are considering the pros and cons of the various business entities there are five types of business structures to consider sole proprietor partnership C corporation S corporation and limited liability company the sole proprietorship is the most popular type of business organization in the United States it is the easiest to form and operate because it does not require any specific legal organization beyond the normal requirements such as licenses and permits it is defined as a business with one owner this structure offers flexibility because all decisions made are controlled by one owner resulting in a quick response time a sole proprietorship is not considered to be a separate legal entity under the law but rather an extension of the individual who owns it the owner possesses the business assets and is directly responsible for all debts and other liabilities incurred by the business so while all the profits go directly to the owner this type of structure results in the maximum exposure to the business owner for liabilities raising money for sole proprietorship can also be difficult banks and other financing sources are reluctant to make business loans to sole proprietorships in most cases you'll have to depend on your own financing needs such as savings home equity or family loans part ships come in two varieties general partnerships and limited partnerships in a general partnership the partners manage the company and assume responsibility for the partnerships debts and other obligations a limited partnership has both general and limited partners the general partners own and operate the business and assume liability for the partnership while the limited partners serve only as investors they have no control over the company and are not subject to the same liabilities as the general partners one of the major advantages of a partnership is the tax treatment it enjoys a partnership doesn't pay tax on its income it passes through any profits or losses to the individual partners if you are starting a business with a partner we strongly recommend that you protect yourself and your business with a partnership agreement the honeymoon phase will not last forever so it's best to talk about problems before they occur a partnership agreement should answer the following questions what is each partners investment what are the responsibilities and duties of each partner if a partner becomes disabled how long will they get a share of the profits can the partners have outside partnership interest what happens if one of the partners wants out can partners transfer ownership can a partner pledge their interest as collateral for a loan are additional contributions mandatory and finally how will conflicts be resolved having a well written partnership agreement ensures that all partners have the same vision corporations are the most expensive and complex form of legal structure that a business may adopt however the additional expense of starting and administering a corporation is generally regarded as a small price to pay for the extended legal protection obtained by the owners of a corporation a corporation is a separate entity which exists under the authority of the state and approved by the Secretary of State a corporation must adopt and file articles of incorporate and submit an annual registration with the Secretary of State's office each year the forms fee amounts and instructions for these filings can be found at the Secretary of State's website since the corporation is a separate legal entity it files its own taxes corporate net income is taxed at the corporate tax rate and stockholders dividends are taxed as personal income the S corporation is more attractive to small business owners than a standard or C corporation this is because an S corporation has some appealing tax benefits while still providing business owners with the liability protection of a corporation with an S corporation income and losses are passed through to the shareholders and included on their individual returns as a result there's only one level of federal tax to pay like other corporations S corporations must file Articles of Incorporation hold director and shareholder meetings keep corporate minutes and allow shareholders to vote on major decisions an LLC is a hybrid entity it brings together some of the best features of partnerships and corporations LLC's were created to provide business owners with the liability protection that corporations enjoy without the double taxation LLC's must have an operating agreement and because they are relatively new tax treatment varies state by state this can make operating in several states more difficult if you decide to use the LLC structure be sure to work with a CPA that is familiar with the various rules and regulations of an LLC LLC's may be relatively new but you can see how they have been gaining in popularity among business owners in 2001 there were thirty thousand corporations formed and only fourteen thousand LLC's in 2011 the statistics were reversed with only sixteen thousand three hundred corporations formed in over 63,000 LLC's for after you've decided on the structure that best suits your individual and business needs you need to apply for federal and state ID numbers once you get a federal ID number you can set up a business account with your bank you will also need a state withholding number if you're selling products you will need a sales and use tax number and if you're paying employees you will need a State Department of Labor number there are other licenses that might be required for your business an occupational tax certificate or business license special permits if your business sells food tobacco alcohol and in some cases for certain professionals you may need a license from a professional board through the Secretary of State as in the case of a cosmetology license even if you are a home-based business you will need to check with your local zoning office to make sure that your location is properly zoned for your specific type of business any employees that you hire will need to complete an i-9 which is an employment eligibility verification employees will also need to complet
a w-4 this is the employee's federal withholding allowance as well as the g4 which is the Georgia withholding allowance certificate you must complete the Georgia new hire reporting form within 10 days this checks for back taxes or child support owed if you have three or more employees you are required to have workers comp if you are one of the three you can choose not to pay for yourself if you have more than three employees everyone must be covered it is also a good idea to have disability for yourself in case you are not able to work for a long period of time due to illness or injury trade name is obtained from the Chatham County Clerk of Courts for one hundred and fifty seven dollars you will need three notarized originals one for the clerk one for the local paper and one for your records trademarks and patents are for processes or product to register a trademark or patent contact the US Patent Office copyrights include manuscript text and software to register for a copyright contact the Library of Congress after opening your doors it's important that you make estimated income tax payments and file tax returns for both state in federal taxes you must comply with state and federal requirements for withholding and payment of payroll taxes ignorance of the law is not a reason for non-compliance you should always keep yourself informed it's important to follow the legal rules if you do a court can pierce the corporate or company veil and hold you and the other owners personally liable for the business debts you should keep accurate financial records for the corporation showing a separation between the corporation and the owners income and expenses on all references to your business always make sure that you sign as an officer or a member of either the partnership the LLC or the corporation you should sign any business related documents as that shareholder partner or member this depends on the way that you have chosen to structure your business my name is Connie Edwards and in this section we're going to talk about pulling together everything that we've previously discussed and using it to develop a business plan for your new business many people who are trying to start a business think they are doing the business plan for the banker or others from whom they are trying to get funding but you need to do your business plan for yourself regardless of whether or not you need outside funding the business plan is a road map to help you determine how you are going to make your business a success it organizes and documents most aspects of your business as you write your plan you are going to take your business idea and analyze all aspects of your potential new business from determining what you will be selling to how you will manage employees your business plan will help you determine whether or not your idea your business model will work it is very important that you write your business plan yourself you may get help with it but do not have anyone write it for you you need to thoroughly understand your business plan in order to use it and that won't happen if someone else writes it it is generally best to write a narrative portion of your business plan and some type of word processing software such as Word and complete the financial portion of your business plan in some type of spreadsheet software such as Excel if once you have completed your business plan you believe that your startup business is feasible then you are ready to finance the business and move forward if not then you need to reconsider your idea and revise your plan let's take a look at what should be included in your business plan the first section is the executive summary which basically summarizes everything in the plan it is particularly important if you are presenting your business plan to a potential source of funding it can give them a basic understanding of what you're trying to do how you plan to make it work how much funding is required and it can clarify some of their potential questions up front then they can go through the rest of the plan in more detail the next section is the business overview where you discuss what type of business you will be starting for example retail service construction manufacturing or internet-based you will also discuss your products and services and your location when describing your business and the products and services you offer think about how what you will sell benefits the customer don't just list features talk about what you are really selling and why the customer would be motivated to make a purchase location can be a critical factor in the success of your business but it is not so much about a building as it is about how you will interact with your customers how will your customer come in contact with your business and obtain your product or service will they visit your location will your business be home-based and so you will interact with them at the your location will you enact primarily through the internet the next section is marketing this is where you will discuss the results of your market research your target market your competition and your competitive edge you will also discuss your promotional strategy including how you will develop your business's image and communicate it to potential customers in a way that motivates them to buy from you you will discuss specific marketing methods you will use their costs and when they will be implemented the next section is operations where you will discuss how your business will actually function day to day this will vary a great deal depending on the type of business you are starting but you must determine and plan what has to be done to actually deliver on your promises to your customers this includes a discussion of management responsibilities and personnel needs this section should discuss what positions need to be filled and how you will fill them and train your personnel plan to hire and train employees that can establish a relationship with your customers and communicate to them how your product or service can solve their problem be sure you plan to have sufficient personnel to efficiently handle customer needs the financials section is where you will discuss and present the financial requirements of the business your financial projections and the assumptions behind these numbers supporting documents are exactly that this is any documentation which supports what you have discussed in your business plan it could be your resume an unsigned lease for your proposed location letters of intent from potential customers detailed market research documentation letters of recommendation and so on these details are important to you as you plan your business but this section becomes even more significant when you are presenting your plan to a banker for funding let's take a look at a summary view of your new startup business called management's view from the top in the same of the slide we have small business success surrounded by the major aspects of your business which affect success resources strategic policies liability accounting technology marketing capital access and projections the actions that you take as you start and manage your business will affect these different aspects of your business and can mean the difference between success and failure as you look at the bullet points you will see some of the decisions you must make must complete and areas of business planning and management that you must consider and master in order to improve your business's chances for success personnel considerations market conditions financial requirements succession planning whether your business will be sole proprietorship partnership corporation or a limited liability company tax planning risk management legal sophistication promotional channels establishing a timeline of events business vision break-even analysis and a written business plan all of these activities and areas will affect the success of your new business in summary you need to write your business plan for you and not just for a funding source there are many aspects that must be planned in order for your business to be successful this starting a business presentation was developed to give you an overview of what steps you need to take to start your business and what it takes to operate a successful business thank you for attending our workshop and visit us at Georgia SBDC org for more information on our continuing education classes and the services that we offer you
