Starting and running your own small business can prove a daunting task. Dozens of details must be tended to, and you are required to complete a book's worth of forms and agreements from a slew of various agencies and organizations. Considering the Small Business Association's estimate that more than half of small businesses fail within their first year, you'll need all the help you can get. Put yourself on the winning side of the statistics with The Encyclopedia of Small Business Forms and Agreements. This convenient book provides small business owners with ready-to-use checklists, worksheets, forms, contracts, and human resource documents all in one small place. Inside these pages, you will find more than 250 essential documents for all your hiring, firing, intellectual property, Internet, technology, legal, merger, acquisition, money, fundraising, sales, marketing, and starting-a-business needs. With its professionally organized, easy-to-read format, this book takes you step-by-step through the valuable forms, which may be easily printed out and customized thanks to the convenient companion CD-ROM. Hundreds of easy-to-implement tools, contracts, forms, and checklists, such as letters of intent, rental agreements, operating expense worksheets, potential location checklists, and sample job descriptions will help you organize your business and make it easier to manage while increasing your bottom line.

Each chapter provides instruction on how to navigate the often complicated process of both starting and running a successful enterprise, starting with the basics, including how to form a winning business plan, form a partnership, raise capital, create an operating budget, and seek and hire employees. It focuses on the issues, situations, and tasks that a small business owner faces, such as negotiating sales and service contracts, evaluating performance, filling out tax forms and invoices, and allocating employee benefits. You will learn everything there is to know about running a business, from ensuring that it complies with safety standards to resolving conflicts between the board and shareholders. This book also takes it a step beyond the nuts and bolts of operation to show you how to market your product or service to attract customers - and profit. Those who wish they had a resource containing every small business form and agreement they have ever encountered can breathe a sigh of relief. In essence, this book is a small business survival kit packed with materials for every aspect of starting and running a business. Whether you are an entrepreneur just starting your business or a seasoned business owner looking for a way to operate more efficiently, The Encyclopedia of Small Business Forms and Agreements is a must.