The McGraw-Hill Guide to Starting Your Own Business A Step-By-Step Blueprint for the First-Time Entrepreneur
by Harper, Stephen C.Edition: 2nd
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2003-06-30
Publisher(s): McGraw Hill
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Summary
The bestselling first edition ofThe McGraw-Hill Guide to Starting Your Own Businesssold more than 75,000 copies, and took the reader step-by-step through the entire process of starting a new venture. This completely revised second edition once again shows entrepreneurs the keys to determining the best business opportunities, creating a business plan, and formulating a winning marketing strategy. In addition, it now profiles alternative sources of funding from SBA loans to angel investors and provides valuable do's and don'ts from over one hundred entrepreneurs.
Author Biography
Stephen C. Harper, Ph.D. is a professor of management at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and president of management consulting firm Harper and Associates, Inc.
Table of Contents
| Lessons for Starting Your Own Business | p. xi |
| Preface | p. xv |
| Acknowledgments | p. xvii |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Prerequisites for Start-Up Survival and Success | p. 5 |
| Creating a New Business | p. 6 |
| Can You Beat the Odds? | p. 7 |
| Don't Be One of the Losers | p. 8 |
| Prerequisites for Start-Up Survival and Success | p. 9 |
| Key Entrepreneurial Qualities | p. 9 |
| Conclusion: Starting a Business Is Survival of the Fittest | p. 15 |
| Entrepreneurial Qualities Self-Test: Part 1 | p. 16 |
| Identifying New Business Opportunities | p. 19 |
| An Opportunity Can Be Found within Every Problem | p. 19 |
| Creating Customers | p. 19 |
| Maintaining Customers | p. 21 |
| Are There Any Opportunities Left for New Businesses? | p. 21 |
| Find Gaps in the Market | p. 22 |
| Yes, There Are Opportunities! | p. 26 |
| What Kind of Business Should I Start? | p. 26 |
| Entrepreneurial Qualities Self-Test: Part 2 | p. 47 |
| Scoring Breakdown for Question 8 | p. 48 |
| Notes | p. 49 |
| Preparing Your Business Plan | p. 51 |
| The General Overview and Legal Structure | p. 52 |
| The Executive Summary | p. 54 |
| Overview of the Business Concept | p. 55 |
| The Objectives for the New Business | p. 55 |
| The Legal Form of Organization | p. 56 |
| Profile of the Management Team and Organization Chart | p. 64 |
| Description of the Market(s) to Be Served and the Location of the Business | p. 67 |
| Basis for Financing the Business | p. 69 |
| Timetable for Establishing the Business | p. 71 |
| Exit Strategy | p. 73 |
| The General Overview Helps You Think Things Through | p. 74 |
| Selecting the Right Target Market | p. 75 |
| Studying the Industry | p. 76 |
| Analyzing the Market | p. 77 |
| Competitive Analysis | p. 78 |
| Identifying Your Prospective Customers | p. 82 |
| Putting Together the Customer Profile | p. 88 |
| Product and Price Strategy | p. 92 |
| Product-Service Strategy | p. 93 |
| Pricing Strategy | p. 100 |
| Promotional Strategy and Physical Distribution Strategy | p. 108 |
| Promotional Strategy | p. 108 |
| Physical Distribution Strategy | p. 117 |
| Be Prepared to Change Your Marketing Mix | p. 122 |
| Determining Your Initial Capital Requirement | p. 123 |
| Determining Your Initial Capital Requirement | p. 123 |
| Estimating the First Year's Sales | p. 126 |
| Identifying Your Cash Outlays | p. 131 |
| Estimating Monthly Cash Outlays | p. 132 |
| Identifying Starting Costs That You Have to Pay Only Once | p. 140 |
| Completing the SBA Worksheet | p. 144 |
| Proceed with Caution | p. 146 |
| Projecting Your Financial Status for the First Years | p. 147 |
| Profit Planning: Conducting Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis | p. 148 |
| Cash Flow Projections | p. 155 |
| Preparing Your Pro Forma Financial Statements | p. 158 |
| Preparing Your First Calendar-Year-End Balance Sheet | p. 162 |
| Running the Numbers Is an Essential Part of the Business Plan | p. 167 |
| Sources of Funding, Alternatives to Starting from Scratch, and Entrepreneurial Do's and Don'ts | p. 169 |
| Sources of Funding | p. 170 |
| "Show Me the Money!" | p. 170 |
| Few Entrepreneurs Have All the Money They Need | p. 170 |
| Entrepreneurs Have to Be Willing to Accept Risks | p. 171 |
| Don't Expect to Get a Loan from a Bank | p. 171 |
| Take a Good Look at Yourself ... Are You Credit/Investment-Worthy? | p. 172 |
| Sometimes You Have to Give Up Something to Get Something | p. 172 |
| Raising Money Takes Considerable Time | p. 173 |
| You Will Need to Be a Salesperson to Get Funding | p. 173 |
| Raising Funds Also Takes Resilience | p. 173 |
| Not All Money Is Alike | p. 173 |
| You Need an "F-Plan." | p. 174 |
| Developing the F-Plan for Your Venture | p. 174 |
| Bootstrapping: Proactive Ways to Raise and Conserve Cash | p. 175 |
| Bootstrapping Techniques | p. 176 |
| Funding Sources Come in All Shapes and Sizes | p. 178 |
| Criteria That Banks Use When Considering a Loan Request | p. 188 |
| Other Factors to Consider When You Seek a Loan | p. 197 |
| Conclusion: Anita Roddick Was Right--Finding Funding Can Be a Real Challenge | p. 197 |
| Notes | p. 199 |
| Buying an Existing Business | p. 200 |
| Sometimes It's Better Not to Start from Scratch | p. 200 |
| Why Buy an Existing Business? | p. 201 |
| Some Businesses Are for Sale, Others Can Be Bought | p. 203 |
| Buyer Beware: All That Glitters May Not Be Gold! | p. 204 |
| Guidelines for Analyzing a Business | p. 206 |
| The Book Value Approach to Valuing a Business | p. 207 |
| The Capitalization-of-Earnings Approach to Valuing a Business | p. 209 |
| The Cash Flow Approach to Valuing a Business | p. 214 |
| Valuation May Be a Hybrid of Various Approaches | p. 215 |
| Closing the Sale: Don't Forget Your Accountant and Your Attorney | p. 215 |
| Notes | p. 217 |
| Acquiring a Franchise | p. 218 |
| Buying Someone Else's Formula for Success | p. 218 |
| The Benefits of Buying a Franchise | p. 219 |
| The Drawbacks of Buying a Franchise | p. 220 |
| Finding the Right Franchise Opportunity | p. 225 |
| Checking Out the Franchisers | p. 228 |
| Look before You Leap | p. 230 |
| Epilogue: Entrepreneurial Do's and Don'ts | p. 231 |
| Take a Good Look at Yourself, Your Life, and What Is Driving You | p. 232 |
| Time: You Will Never Have Enough | p. 233 |
| Preparation: Stack the Odds in Your Favor | p. 234 |
| Management: Who Ever Said It Would Be Easy? | p. 235 |
| The Business Plan: The Mental Journey Must Precede the Physical Journey | p. 238 |
| Strategy: How Do You Plan to Gain Sustainable Competitive Advantages? | p. 239 |
| Human Resources: Your Business Will Be Only as Good as Your People | p. 240 |
| Legal: It's a Minefield Out There! | p. 241 |
| Financial Side: Money Is like Oxygen--You Need It to Live | p. 241 |
| The Business Opportunity: Analyze the Marketplace and Do the Right Marketing | p. 242 |
| Suppliers: You Can't Live without Them | p. 243 |
| Closing Points | p. 244 |
| Sources of Helpful Information | p. 245 |
| Index | p. 248 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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