photo credit: MoonSoleil

When you’re starting a new business, taking on a new debt can be counterproductive. Business start up funding can be confusing. The whole point of launching your own business is to eventually become financially independent, and starting out with a mountain of debt seems to take two steps in the opposite direction.

Before you think about registering your business name and ordering stationary, you need to calculate exactly how much your new enterprise is going to cost to set up and run. This can be a tedious process, but it is wise to account for any real and potential expenses that you’re likely to come across.

Your business expenses should be loosely grouped into three categories: needs, wants and contingencies.

Needs covers anything that you literally could not go without, in order to launch your business. For example, let’s assume that your new business will be a pet-grooming salon. Needs would include:

• Registration of the business name

• Permits from relevant council/authorities to operate

• Business insurance

• A physical space to run the business from, including fit-out of taps, tubs, etc (including bond and first 3 months rent)

• Signage

• Cages/spaces to house the pets

• Pet shampoo and grooming products

• Business cards

• Promotional flyers

• Blog/basic template website

• Wages (for first 3 months) – even if you’re the sole staff member, you need to remember to pay yourself!

Wants includes anything that you would ideally like to launch with, but that you could wait three, six, 12 or 24 months to implement, such as:

• Professional logo design

• Custom-designed website

• Letterheads and stationary

• Larger run of promotional flyers

• Advertising budget – local newspaper, etc

• Product range to sell in-store

• Magnets printed with your contact details

Contingencies acts as your back up plan, in case something derails your schedule or an unexpected expense pops up, like a burst water pipe. You need to set aside money to cover contingencies, including:

• Insurance excess – in case you need to cash in on your policy

• Staff hiring expenses

• A 10% buffer on all expenses: tradesmen’s quotes can go up and product prices can increase, so you need to be prepared

Now that you know roughly how much the business is going to cost you to set up and run for the first few months, you can calculate how much capital you need to get your idea off the ground.

In this example, let’s assume the ‘Needs’ will cost $15,000, the ‘Wants’ $6,000, and the ‘Contingencies’ $4,000. The total is $25,000, so ideally, you’d want to launch with that amount in the bank. The minimum you need to get started, however (‘Needs’ + ‘Contingencies’) is $19,000, so that is the amount of capital you need to raise to get your business up and running.

Personal savings

If you plan to launch your business in 12 months, you can put that time to good use and implement a personal budget. Your budget doesn’t need to severely impact your lifestyle – in fact, if it does, you’ll be less likely to stick to it and your business start up funding plan. You simply need to make smart choices about what you spend your money on.

Saving a few dollars here or there might not sound like it would make much difference, but making several small changes can help to boost your bank balance significantly. The key to implementing your budget is to really think about how you spend every dollar. When you’re about to hand over $7 for a latte and a muffin, consider: What else could I buy with $7? Would I prefer a book, or a couple of magazines? Or would I prefer to keep the money in my pocket, and have a coffee and a biscuit when I get to work?

You can make your morning coffee instead of buying it; invite friends over for a dinner party with each friend bringing a plate, instead of eating out; cut down to half a packet of cigarettes a week instead of a whole. If you spend $100 a week on lunches, coffees and takeaways, even just cutting this in half to $50 will see an extra $2,600 in your bank account at the end of the year.

If you can trim your expenses across food, entertainment and clothing by $125 week, you’ll have $6,500 to put towards launching your new business after 12 months. Not a bad start!

Start Selling

As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure – and nowhere is that more evident than on eBay!

Do you think no one will be interested in your old Michael Jackson cassette tape? Think again: eBay is teaming with literally millions of people who are prepared for fork over their cash for your unwanted goods.

A great place to start is your DVD and CD collection. Old and new DVDs and CDs usually sell for between $5-$15 apiece, because people often seek out back catalogue bargains and new releases online.

When you cull your collection, be brutal, but don’t sell anything you might regret later – if you can honestly see yourself watching ‘Mean Girls’ again, then by all means, hold onto it! But if you’re keeping it because you bought it on sale, or you received it as a gift, or you think you might want to watch it again ‘one day’, transfer it to your outgoing pile.

Next, go through your closet. Your unwanted clothing, handbags and shoes can be a goldmine online, particularly designer labels and vintage items. These can be a little trickier to sell, as buyers often want to know exact measurements and color references. However, unique and sought-after pieces often sell for upwards of $20-$50 a piece, and designer clothing and accessories will always find a buyer on eBay – and they often sell for as much as you originally paid!

Between your entertainment cabinet and your wardrobe, you’ll be able to rustle up at least a few garbage bags worth of unwanted goods. A few weekends spent photographing and listing your items should net you another $500-$3,000 to add to your business start-up fund, bringing your total to around $8,000

Low Interest Borrowing

You now have around half of the start up capital you need, so for the remaining funds, investigate your options with small business start up loans. You can find these resources on my website.

Between your super savings plan, eBay profits and low-interest borrowing with a start up business loan, you’ll be well on your way to launching your own business – without having to take on a monster debt to reach your goal.

Steven Schlagel is a CPA with over 30 years experience providing businesses and their owners consulting and financial skills. Steven understands business, wealth creation, and building successful and valuable enterprises. Visit http://www.expert-help-starting-a-business.com/business-start-up-funding.html to learn more about starting your small business successfully.

photo credit: *SMILING PUG*

By now everyone has heard of dog clothing and all the other countless specialty pet products, so unless your store is selling some new invention your pet products are similar to everyone else. How does one separate from the crowd? By having the usual products with unique flare – that’s what will keep customers coming back. Providing dog clothes with panache, lowering prices and providing superior customer service are a few ways to distinguish oneself from the crowd.

Unique pet products are the key to driving sales. In choosing what dog clothing to stock, search for unique designs and prints. Keep in mind the season and any upcoming holidays. Dog costumes are very popular around Halloween and Christmas, and manufacturers offer many holiday designs that will sell. Finding dog clothes with style is easy, the hard part is finding those everyday necessities with flare. For example, it helps boost sales and grab attention to have items such as dog collars with a unique design. It can be crazy, colorful or ritzy, but it has to be different if one expects to really make some money.

Superior customer service and lower prices will keep customers coming back. No matter what, a business should always make customer satisfaction a number one priority. Ship all orders quickly, and follow up with customers regularly. Send a lot of free little gifts. It’s very cheap for the store but can help someone decide to keep shopping. As for prices, the markup should not be more than 30% – 40%. Any more and customers will catch on that they’re paying too much. These steps will help any store owner have success.

Grant Carroll proud father of four dogs and co-owner of http://www.littlepamperedpets.com with Dog Clothes and Dog Coats.

Visit Elizabeth Austin Wholesale for Wholesale Dog Clothing and Wholesale Pet Products

My name is Kelley Blackston and I run a successful dog day care. The reason our dog day care has been such a success in our local area is because we have stuck to our dog day care business plan.

By making sure things are organized we avoid the pitfalls that many people have to suffer through when starting their dog day care business.

It would be very difficult for us to have a profitable dog day care if we did not have a solid dog day care business plan.

A dog day care business plan requires that you take into consideration the cost of resources and understand the laws of your area.

Be sure that your dog day care business plan takes into account all the various needs of your dogs and their owners.

You always want a strong dog day care business plan so that your dog day care business will continue to grow each and every week.

My main piece of advice for you is to make sure your dog day care business plan is very organized and easy to follow. Don’t make it more difficult than it has to be!

Good luck with your dog day care business plan.

Kelley Blackston

P.S. You may use this article in your publication, but the content and signature file must remain intact. Thank you.

“Thousands Have Discovered This Little Known Secret To Making Money With A Dog Day Care — Now It’s Your Turn…”

Dog Day Care Business Plan

Some of the ideas for starting your own pet business include starting a doggie daycare, offering dog training or grooming services, becoming a dog walker or a pet-sitter, making your own pet treats, opening a pet food store, or if you have an artistic side, you could create portraits of pets. Obviously, the more supplies you need or overhead you’ll have, the more funds you will need to get your business off the ground and running.

Luckily, most pet related ventures like dog training rely more upon know-how rather than actual supplies, and the business end of your company can easily be conducted right from home. Depending on the type of training you’ll be specializing in, you can plan on needing things such as leashes, books and training materials for reference, plenty of dog treats, as well as money dedicated toward marketing efforts.

Thanks to the internet, you can easily advertise your business for free on any number of classified sites that don’t charge for posting your information including a link to your website, which you can also get for free until you earn some revenue.

Pet-sitting is slowly but surely becoming a lucrative business, especially when two-income households are the norm and people need someone to care for their pets during the day, or during vacation time. Pet-sitters often offer additional services including watering plants, poop-scooping, and bringing the mail for extra fees, none of which require any money spent on your part, unless of course you never travel without your own personal pooper-scooper.

Start up costs for pet-sitting are relatively low, including advertising, which we know can be done completely free of charge, and all you’ll really need to pay for are your transportation costs to and from jobs and incidentals like paper for receipts or invoices.

If you do have the funds available for start up costs, or can get them through a small business loan, credit card, or some other means, you may want to consider starting your own upscale pet product company or a pet food business. Since the supplies you would need for both can be purchased at wholesale prices in bulk, with the right marketing skills it’s very possible to turn your small business into a rather lucrative venture in a short amount of time.

Also, since either of these ideas can be done entirely online through a website without the need to worry about rent, and paying the fees for your own site and web hosting just can’t compare to what it would be to rent an entire office or building to do business from. Perhaps the most expensive cost when it comes to starting your own pet business is the insurance needed if you will be pet-sitting or dog training, or the fee to become bonded. Insurance costs will vary by company as well as the number of clients you have.

Being bonded, meaning that an insurance company has put in writing that you are trustworthy, will definitely attract more customers as it tells them you are a serious professional. Don’t forget to keep careful records of all expenses so when it comes time for tax season, you can write it all off as business related deductibles.

For more tips, guidance and a free report on starting your own business visit http://www.business-start-up-packages.com Also stop by http://www.robertwilson-online.com for fitness, self improvement and money making tips.