Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Book 1: Moving from Idea to Reality 5 Chapter 1: Your Business in Context 7 Getting an Overview of Feasibility Analysis 8 Understanding Your Industry 11 Researching an Industry 16 Defining Your Market Niche 21 Zeroing In on a Brand-New Product 24 Chapter 2: Refining and Defining Your Business Idea 27 Recognizing the Power of a Good Idea 28 Brainstorming New Business Ideas 32 Identifying Business Opportunities 36 Putting a Promising Idea to the Test 40 Chapter 3: Creating a Business Model 45 Identifying Who Needs a Business Model 46 Assessing Common Aspects of All Business Models 47 Understanding Business Models in Their Simplest Form 49 Checking Out Examples of Business Models 50 Chapter 4: Finding Your Target Market 63 Gauging the Target Market 64 Determining Industry Attractiveness 65 Looking for Niche Attractiveness 68 Checking Out Customer Attractiveness 74 Finding Your Place on the Industry Value Chain 75 Chapter 5: Considering a Franchise 79 Understanding What a Franchise Is 79 Recognizing the Importance of Brands in Franchising 81 Identifying the Three Types of Franchising 82 Being Aware of the Roles and Goals of Franchisors and Franchisees 85 Reviewing Franchise Relationships 88 Knowing the Nuances of the Franchisor/Franchisee Relationship 94 Considering the Pros and Cons of Franchising 95 The advantages 96 The disadvantages 97 Book 2: Planning for Your Business 101 Chapter 1: Writing a Business Plan 103 Selling Yourself on the Importance of Business Planning 103 Breaking Down the Pieces of a Business Plan 105 Setting Out Your Planning Objectives 107 Identifying Your Business Plan Audiences and Key Messages 109 Establishing Your Plan''s Time Frame 111 Preparing for the Real World 113 Chapter 2: Finding the Funding 115 Starting with a Plan 116 Tapping Friends and Family 119 Finding an Angel 120 Daring to Use Venture Capital 122 Selling Stock to the Public: An IPO 126 Finding Other Ways to Finance Growth 130 Guarding Your Interests 131 Chapter 3: Setting Your Franchise''s Wheels in Motion 135 Surveying Your Options for Locale 136 Locating Your Franchise''s Habitat 141 Looking at Protected Areas, Exclusive Areas, and Encroachment Policies 145 Signing the Lease 148 Meeting Your Franchise''s Requirements 149 Getting the Goods: Merchandise and Supplies 152 Receiving Merchandise 156 Maintaining Inventory 159 Getting Good Training for Yourself and Your Management 162 Chapter 4: Starting a Home-Based Business 167 Looking at the Basics of Home-Based Business 168 Examining the Good News and the Bad 173 Taking the Home-Based Business Quiz 175 Starting Something from Scratch 178 Transitioning into Your Home-Based Business 180 Chapter 5: Creating an Online Presence for Your Business 193 Feng Shui-ing Your Website 194 Creating Content That Attracts Customers 197 Nip and Tuck: Establishing a Visual Identity 204 Using clip art is free and fun 207 A picture is worth a thousand words 207 Creating a logo 209 Inviting Comments from Customers 209 Moving from Website to Web Presence 213 Chapter 6: Starting with the Right Legal Structure 215 Introducing the Legal Business Classifications 216 Going It Alone: The Sole Proprietorship 218 Choosing a Partner: The Partnership 220 Going for the Gold: The Corporation 222 Deciding where and how to incorporate 225 Offering Flexibility: The S Corporation, the LLC, and the Nonprofit Corporation 225 Discovering Your Best Choice 228 Book 3: Handling Your Finances 229 Chapter 1: Setting Up the Books 231 Bookkeepers: The Record Keepers of the Business World 232 Wading through Basic Bookkeeping Lingo 233 Pedaling through the Accounting Cycle 235 Tackling the Big Decision: Cash-Basis or Accrual Accounting 237 Seeing Double with Double-Entry Bookkeeping 240 Differentiating Debits and Credits 242 Outlining Your Financial Road Map with a Chart of Accounts 242 Starting with the Balance Sheet Accounts 244 Tracking the Income Statement Accounts 250 Recording the money you make 251 Tracking the Cost of Goods Sold 252 Acknowledging the money you spend 252 Setting Up Your Chart of Accounts 254 Chapter 2: Reporting Profit or Loss in the Income Statement 257 Presenting Typical Income Statements 258 Taking Care of Housekeeping Details 264 Being an Active Reader 266 Deconstructing Profit 267 Pinpointing the Assets and Liabilities Used to Record Revenue and Expenses 271 Reporting Unusual Gains and Losses 276 Watching for Misconceptions and Misleading Reports 278 Chapter 3: Reporting Financial Condition in the Balance Sheet 281 Expanding the Accounting Equation 282 Presenting a Proper Balance Sheet 283 Judging Liquidity and Solvency 288 Understanding That Transactions Drive the Balance Sheet 290 Sizing Up Assets and Liabilities 294 Financing a Business: Sources of Cash and Capital 301 Recognizing the Hodgepodge of Values Reported in a Balance Sheet 302 Chapter 4: Reporting Cash Sources and Uses in the Statement of Cash Flows 305 Meeting the Statement of Cash Flows 306 Explaining the Variance between Cash Flow and Net Income 311 Sailing through the Rest of the Statement of Cash Flows 318 Pinning Down "Free Cash Flow" 322 Recognizing Limitations of the Statement of Cash Flows 324 Chapter 5: Controlling Costs and Budgeting 327 Getting in the Right Frame of Mind 328 Getting Down to Business 329 Looking into Cost of Goods Sold Expense 342 Focusing on Profit Centers 345 Reducing Your Costs 347 Deciding Where the Budgeting Process Starts 348 Homing In on Budgeting Tools 349 Flash reports 352 Preparing an Actual Budget or Forecast 353 Understanding Internal versus External Budgets 357 Creating a Living Budget 358 Using the Budget as a Business-Management Tool 360 Using Budgets in Other Ways 362 Chapter 6: Satisfying the Tax Man 363 Tax Reporting for Sole Proprietors 363 Filing Tax Forms for Partnerships 364 Paying Corporate Taxes 365 Taking Care of Sales Taxes Obligations 366 Keeping Up with and Researching Tax Strategies and Rules 367 Paying for Tax Help 370 Book 4: Managing Your Business 381 Chapter 1: Tackling the Hiring Process 383 Starting with a Clear Job Description 383 Defining the Characteristics of Desirable Candidates 385 Finding Good People 386 Becoming a Great Interviewer 390 Evaluating Your Candidates 394 Hiring the Best (and Leaving the Rest) 398 Chapter 2: Setting Goals 401 Knowing Where You''re Going 402 Identifying SMART Goals 404 Setting Goals: Less Is More 406 Communicating Your Vision and Goals to Your Team 408 Juggling Priorities: Keeping Your Eye on the Ball 409 Using Your Power for Good: Making Your Goals Reality 411 Chapter 3: Embracing Corporate Social Responsibility 415 Understanding Socially Responsible Practices 416 Developing a CSR Strategy for Implementation 418 Doing the Right Thing: Ethics and You 420 Chapter 4: Managing with Technology 425 Weighing the Benefits and Drawbacks of Workplace Technology 426 Using Technology to Your Advantage 429 Chapter 5: Delegating to Get Things Done 433 Delegating: The Manager''s Best Tool 434 Debunking Myths about Delegation 435 Taking the Six Steps to Delegate 439 Sorting Out What to Delegate and What to Do Yourself 440 Book 5: Marketing and Promotion 445 Chapter 1: Optimizing Your Marketing Program 447 Knowing Yourself, Knowing Your Customer 448 Finding Your Marketing Formula 456 Controlling Your Marketing Program 459 Refining Your Marketing Expectations 461 Revealing More Ways to Maximize Your Marketing Impact 462 Chapter 2: Laying a Foundation for Growth 465 Measuring the Growth Rate of Your Market 466 Responding to a Flat or Shrinking Market 467 Finding Your Best Growth Strategies 469 Growing a Market Segmentation Strategy 474 Developing a Market Share Strategy 476 Designing a Positioning Strategy 479 Growth Hacking to Build Leads and Market Share 480 Selling Innovative Products 483 Chapter 3: Taking Stock of Your Business Image 485 Making First Impressions 486 Auditing the Impressions Your Business Makes 494 Surveying your marketing materials and communications 494 Creating an impression inventory 495 Improving the impressions you''re making 496 Chapter 4: Fo.