As a small business owner, you are a risk taker. There is excitement and challenge in such a venture, but to succeed you need good management information, an ability to be a good manager of people and the intelligence and inner strength to make the right decisions. From unnecessary risk taking, thousands of workers die each year and many suffer injury or illness from conditions at work.

How often does an owner or manager actually see work-related deaths, serious injuries or illnesses in the workplace? In some small businesses, the answer is rarely. For this reason, many owners or managers do not understand why there is controversy about the government having occupational safety and health agencies with enforceable laws. But others have learned why; unfortunately, they have experienced a loss. These owner/managers will tell you that it is too late to do anything once a serious accident happens. They have learned that prevention is the only real way to avoid this loss and unnecessary risk taking.

Reducing losses and risks are goals that you as an owner or manager must set in assuring the safety and well being of all in the business. Small business owners and managers place a high value on the well-being of your employees. Family members and personal acquaintances may be part of the business and even hired employees will become almost like family as time goes by.
Investing in safety and health activity now will better enable you to avoid possible losses in the future.

Nobody wants accidents to happen in the workplace. A serious fire, a permanent injury, or the death of an employee or owner can cause the loss of profit or even an entire business. To prevent such losses, you don’t have to turn your business upside down. You may not have to spend a lot of money, either. You do need to use good business sense and apply safety prevention policies. There are reasons why accidents happen. An accident always has a cause and a reason why. Once you know why an accident happened, it is possible to prevent future incidents.

The business needs a plan to prevent accidents. Not all dangers at the workplace depend on an accident to cause harm, of course. Worker exposure to toxic chemicals or harmful levels of noise or even radiation may cause gradual illness over a long period of time. There needs to be a plan that includes prevention of these unseen health hazard exposures. There needs to have a safety and health management system. It is not difficult to develop such a plan. Basically, the plan should address the types of accidents and health hazard exposures that could happen in the workplace. Because each workplace is different, the program should address the specific needs and requirements for the business.

There are four basic elements to all good safety and health programs. These are as follows:

1) The manager needs to lead the way, by setting policy, assigning and supporting responsibility, setting an example and involving employees.
2) The workplace needs to be continually analyzed to identify all existing and potential hazards.
3) Methods to prevent or control existing or potential hazards are put in place, maintained, and updated.
4) Managers, supervisors and employees need to be trained to understand and deal with worksite hazards.

Regardless of the size of the business, the plan should use each of these points to prevent workplace accidents and possible injuries and illnesses. Developing a workplace program following these four points is a key step in protecting you and your workers’ safety and health. If you already have a program, reviewing it in relation to these points should help you improve what you have.

Following this four-point approach to safety and health in your business may also improve efficiency. It may help you reduce insurance claims and other costs. The plan will certainly give you a way to express and document your good faith and commitment to protecting your workers’ health and safety.

This approach usually does not involve large costs. Developing a health and safety protection plan does not have to be expensive and generally does not require additional employees, especially in smaller businesses. Safety and health can be integrated into your other business functions with modest effort on your part and will become part of the daily routine.

The key to the success of a safety and health plan and program is to see it as a part of the business operation and to see it reflected in the day-to-day operations. Once implemented, the safety program will become second natured to the owner as well as the employees.

In today’s high tech world, it no longer has to take extensive amounts of time to start a small business. Many of the business startup steps can be handled quickly via the Internet, including the ability to incorporate online, apply for a tax ID number, and apply for a small business loan.

Incorporation
To begin with, it is beneficial to incorporate your small business for many reasons. The main advantage is the protection of personal assets that is offered. Under this setup, business owners property cannot be a target of lawsuits or creditors. Also, corporations are taxed at a lower rate and credit ratings are established for the corporation, not based on the individuals rating.

There are websites that offer secure application forms for incorporating your business in as little as 10 minutes. The information you will typically need in order to complete the form are the state you are incorporating in and what type of corporation you will be establishing (e.g. Basic Corporation, S-corp, or LLC).

Tax ID Number
Next it is necessary for new business owners to apply for a Tax ID number, also known as EIN (employer identification number). This is the nine digit number that is assigned by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to any type of business entity (corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership, etc.). The Tax ID number is used for tax filing, business, and banking purposes, as well as for the identification of your business by various federal agencies. Again, this is a quick process online – it can be done in about 5 minutes.

Small Business Loan
If you need funding for your small business, you will want to consider applying for a small business loan online. The process is simple and quick. For this type of loan, there is not usually extensive documentation required and reputable firms do not charge application fees. Also, you can typically find out if you qualify for an unsecured loan (no collateral) or a line of credit usually within a day or two. If you do not want to risk your personal assets and are in the market for a funding between $10,000 and $100,000, this is the avenue to take. It is however important that you have a good credit history and also be sure to apply with a trustworthy company.

Conclusion
All in all not only are these processes simple and quick, but they greatly reduce since margin of error since you are filling out your applications directly online.

Question: I am tired of running my restaurant franchise. How do I sell it?

Answer: Many franchisors face this same predicament. Not only are restaurant franchises resold every day, but it is very common to see all types of franchises for sale on the resale market.

The absolute first thing that you must do is to contact your franchisor. Do not be embarrassed! Franchisors expect that a certain percentage of their franchisees will someday want to sell their franchise. It is normal. There are many reasons for a franchisee to want to sell a franchise. Your reason for wanting to sell is probably a legitimate reason, something that the franchisor has probably heard many times before.

But probably the biggest reason that you need to contact your franchisor is that many franchisors will impose restrictions on franchise re-sales. For the most part these restrictions will follow closely with their existing guidelines used for recruiting a new franchisee. They just want the ability to approve any new franchisee.

Are you prepared to sell your franchise? Do you know what your franchise is worth? Will you need to carry financing? Is your financial information up to date? Have you talked with your attorney about the correct from of structure for a sale (asset based vs. stock based)? Are there property lease considerations? Will your landlord allow an assumption of your lease?

You have got to know the answers to these questions. Make sure that you are properly prepared to sell your franchise. You will need to research the marketplace in order to establish a price point. You may wish to talk to a Business Broker or other informed expert for guidance. Check with your accountant. He or she has probably seen a business or two that has been sold over the years. Lean on those around you for good quality advice.

Looking at many franchisor web sites over the last few months, many sites include a section on their web site for franchise re-sales. Consequently, your franchisor may be able to help you market your franchise for sale to others. There are other ways to sell an existing franchise. A good old fashioned newspaper ad can work. A more progressive way is to advertise your franchise for sale online with a web site that is designed to market your franchise. An example would be The Business Market which has a number of existing franchises for sale.

So don’t be embarrassed… be proactive! You can do it!

how to create a small business press kit, brochures

In last week’s article, we talked about why your small business needs a press kit. Because they’re not just for the press, I prefer to call them small business information package. To recap, you need a small business information package to augment your business card, which has only limited information about you and your company.
Your small business information package is the printed materials to give or send to prospective clients to tell them who you are, where you are, how to contact you, what you do, how to buy, and why to buy from you instead of your competition.

This week, we’re going to discuss what you should put inside your information package. For all intents and purposes, anything that promotes your company can go inside it. Some of the more common things include:

• Business card
• Small business brochure
• Letter of introduction
• Product or service review
• Price list
• Press releases
• White papers
• Recent articles written by you or about your company
• Biography of key officers
• Flyers, coupons or direct mail pieces
• Information pamphlets

So, let’s talk a bit about each. And let’s start with the big one-your small business brochure. Your small business brochure can stand alone. If you decide not to have a complete small business information package, at the very least, create a tri-fold brochure so you have detailed printed information to give clients.

If your prospective client reads only one thing in your whole information package, it will most likely be your brochure. Why? Because it captures the reader’s attention better than any other item in your information package. Most of your other items will be letters, articles or reviews. They’ll look good, and they’ll all match because they’re on your letterhead, but they won’t jump out at your readers like your full color tri-fold brochure will.

So, you want to make sure it’s the first thing people see when they open the front cover of your information package. If you can capture their interest with your brochure, they’re more likely to read the rest.

The first page of your small business brochure should have your business name and logo, and possibly a photo or some graphics. Make it colorful. Make it interesting. Add a slogan or motto on the front that will make people curious as to what’s inside. You don’t want them to just look at the front cover and put it aside!

Inside, try to introduce yourself and review your product or service briefly. If you can, keep the introduction and review to the length of the first inside page or so. Adding a few graphics or photos throughout the whole brochure, together with informative text helps keep your readers’ interest. And, make good use of your headings, remembering that most readers will scan from left to right, stopping at graphics and headings, and sometimes reading the last paragraph.

Now, this part is important, and is possibly the biggest mistake most small businesses make with their brochure-at least some of the other two inside pages could be better used to show prospective buyers how your product or service can benefit them, rather than to describe your product or service features.

I cannot stress this enough. Too many times small business brochures are used simply to talk about you, your company or your product/service. Most of your readers simply won’t care who you are, what you do or how you do it. What they really care about is how you can benefit them. How you can save them time or resources. How you can make their lives just a little bit easier.

Often, the last outside page of your brochure summarizes the inside pages, or lists products or services in point form. You could even add a price list, if you have one.

The next several items in your small business information package are all written on your letterhead, and the sky’s the limit as to what you can use.

You could put the letter of introduction just behind your brochure, or you could include it outside the information package cover if you’re mailing it. Usually this is just a short, one-page letter introducing yourself and your company, and thanking the recipient for taking the time to look at your information package.

Your product or service review could be long or short, depending on what you’re offering. This is not the place to stress benefits, but simply to list and describe your services or products. You can combine a product or service review with your price list very effectively.

Include any press releases about your company, and articles written by you or about your company. If you don’t have any, don’t worry. You can write some specifically for your information kit. Include announcements of your grand opening, for example, or a new line of products, or your new location. Or write an article about one of your products or services.

White papers are becoming increasingly popular. Are you an expert in a particular area? If you are, you might want to write a white paper to include with your information package. A white paper discusses specific business issues, products, technology or other such topics. It usually summarizes information about the topic, and then suggests a proposal for action, referencing research data to justify the reasons for the action. It explains your topic in terms most people can understand, with the goal of educating consumers and marketing your product or service. White papers help establish the writer as an authority.

The biography of your key officers is basically a resume. Include short one-page biographies of key officers to highlight areas of expertise and level of experience in your industry.

Fliers, coupons and direct mail pieces can also be included in your small business information package. Fliers and coupons emphasize current specials or discounts. Here’s a few tips. When you’re thinking about specials or discounts, try to create a sense of urgency with them by making them time- or quantity-limited. And, consider the 10/10 rule, which theorizes that people are most likely to buy when they see discounts of 10% or $10. Or, better yet, offer something extra free.

Recent direct mail sales letters can also be included. There’s simply too much to say about them to really give justice in this short article, but some things to remember are: to stress benefits, create a sense of urgency, the 10/10 rule and a bolded P.S. including a call to action.

Keep direct mail sales letter simple and relevant. Be enthusiastic, know your product, use your imagination and understand your target audience. Establish trust and credibility. Include testimonials. Give free nuggets of information. And, just like in your brochure, write your direct mail sales letter for how people will read it, scanning left to right, and stopping at graphics and headlines, and the P.S.

Now that you’ve gotten all your information package items written and printed, it’s time to put them all together. You can buy covers in your company colors and have your logo and business name printed on them. Put your business card in the front slot and your information in the inside pockets, making sure your brochure is the first item they’ll see. Then send it out, and sit back and wait for responses you’re sure to get!