Creating Your Business

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6 Steps to More Loyal Customers

Learn how to gain more loyal customers and increase profits at the same time from Kevin Stirtz, The Amazing Service Guy.

How to Reinvent Your Business

Creative ways to reinvent your business from Mr. All Biz.

Hiring a Web Designer

Launching a Web site is exciting—especially if you’ve decided on a custom-built site from a professional designer. You’re going for the high-end solution compared with your other options, so you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. No matter how knowledgeable you are about Web design and development, there are steps you can take to protect yourself during the transaction and help ensure your new Web site meets your high expectations.

Starting Limited Liability Partnerships

When choosing a business form, you may want to consider the limited liability partnership (LLP). The LLP is similar to the limited liability company (LLC), but there are some significant differences. Note that an LLP is technically a partnership, so that there must be at least two partners.

Introduction to Web Analytics

You’ve got a stunning Web site, you’re promoting it brilliantly, and yet, your conversion rate sits stubbornly at 3% or less. Or worse — you don’t even know what your conversion rate is. Web analytics can help you find your conversion rate and the reason it’s lower than you’d like it to be.

Email Newsletter Design Guide

You’ve been collecting customer email addresses for a while, but haven’t quite made the time to design your first customer newsletter. The good news is that it’s not very hard to get started. We’ll walk you through the process of designing your newsletter.

Don't Hand Your Free Publicity to the Competition.

Getting a journalist to write about your business is an excellent way to promote your brand for free. But most small businesses aren't making it easy for journalists to write about them.

Do I Need a Database Web Site?

A database is a great way to organize Web sites with a lot of regularly updated content. Databases power dynamic Web sites, meaning pages are created each time someone requests them. The pages are made by pulling information from the database into a Web page template upon request.

How To Find a Web Hosting Plan

Choosing the right Web hosting plan can be a daunting task with an enormous number of products and features available. Deciphering specifications and making sense of the jargon is only the first step. Finding a company you trust is equally important.

Name Your Web Site

Visitors will type your domain name into a browser or lick on it a search engine results page before you have a chance to wow them with your Web site. It's your first impression, so make it good. Your domain name should fit the style and tone of your Web site and clue visitors in to what they're about to see.

How to Choose a Business Partner

Choosing a business partner is one of the most important parts of starting a partnership-based business. Here's what to think about to ensure you make the right choice.

Tips on Starting a Corporation

There is a lot of information to know about starting a corporation, however, it may be easier than you think!

Delaware Fee Schedule for Incorporation and Other Business Entities

The state of Delaware is a popular place to incorporate for a variety of reasons. The state combines flexibility, low cost and other favorable characteristics to make it a desirable place to incorporate, even if you don't do business there. This fee schedule sets forth the cost of forming a business entity in Delaware, as well as the ongoing costs of managing a Delaware corporation.

DBA (Doing Business As) Filings

In some situations, you may want to operate your business under a different name than the one on your articles of formation or other filings. Typically, this is most true for sole proprietorships that may want to distinguish between business and personal activities, but other entity forms may do this as well to highlight different activities within an organization.

Starting Tax-Exempt Organizations

Most people start a business because they want to accomplish something or make money for themselves (usually both). But what if you want to do this for someone or some thing other than yourself? What if you want to start a successful charitable enterprise? This requires more than just choosing a form of organization.

Starting Nonprofit Corporations

A nonprofit corporation is an organization formed as a corporation for purposes other than generating a profit, and in which no part of the organization's income is distributed to its directors or officers. Nonprofits are formed pursuant to state law, often under the Revised Model Non-Profit Corporation Act of 1986.

Selecting a Registered Agent for Your Business

When forming your business as a corporation or limited liability company (LLC), you will need to select a registered agent. Virtually all states require corporations and LLCs that are formed or foreign qualified (registered to transact business there) to have a registered agent in that state; however, many business owners have no idea what a registered agent is or does.

The Foreign Qualification Process

When a corporation or a limited liability company (LLC) is transacting business in a state or states other than its state of formation, the company is required to foreign qualify in those states. This serves as notice to a state that the corporation or LLC, which was not formed in that state, is transacting business within its borders.

Doing Business Out-of-State: Foreign Qualification

When considering whether to form a corporation or a limited liability company (LLC), don't be confused by the term foreign qualification. Most of us, when we hear "foreign," think of something outside the United States; however, in the world of U.S. corporations and LLCs, the word foreign has a different meaning.

Owner's Checklist for Starting a New Business

The attached file contains a checklist for all the steps you should take before you start a new business. It's a "to do" list for starting a new business in much the same way that a grocery list is a "to do" for grocery shopping.

Checklist for Evaluating Your Personal Strengths and Weaknesses

The attached document will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses by asking you to rate yourself in several areas that are important to small business ownership. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is important because (1) it can tell you whether you're ready to start a small business, (2) in choosing a new business, it can help you match your skills to the right business, and (3) it can tell you whether you need to consider adding a partner who can bring skills to the business that you lack.

Projected Staffing Schedule

This worksheet will enable you to compute the number of employees you will need to start your new business. The worksheet is set up to be used for projecting and completing your new business staffing arrangements for a weekly time period. All you have to do is put in your employee names and the hours to be worked and it will show you and your employees at a glance the weekly staffing arrangements. This tool provides an example and a template for a weekly staffing schedule.

Real Property Lease Checklist

The real property lease checklist addresses the most common issues that you need to consider when you negotiate a real property lease. This comprehensive checklist identifies the terms and clauses that need to be addressed in a real property lease. It also contains questions under each term or clause that flush out the most important issues pertaining to that term or clause. It's a good tool to use when you have a real property lease in hand from the property owner and you want to know whether the lease covers all that it should cover so that you're properly protected. Of course, you should also have your attorney review the lease.

Checklist of Basic Franchise Agreement Terms

Franchise agreements are tailored to specific situations. Thus, it is impossible to identify every term and issue that should be considered in every situation. However, the Checklist of Basic Franchise Agreement Terms will provide you with a comprehensive listing of the basic terms that may be included in a franchise agreement. It also identifies many of the issues surrounding those terms that should be addressed. If you are considering the purchase of a franchise, use the checklist to help you understand the terms typically included in a franchise agreement and to review the agreement provided by the franchisor.

Family Monthly Budget Sheet

This worksheet is set up to be used for projecting your family monthly budget schedule for 12 individual months. The monthly schedule is easier to understand than an annual family budgeting tool. We've formatted the worksheet and put in most of the income and expense descriptions. All you have to do is put in your numbers and print it.