Starting Your Business: Assembling Your Team

Once you have your business plan in place, it's time to build the team that will help you put it into action. The team that you choose will help you start, operate and manage your business. Whether they are employees, contractors, interns or just experts to call in a crunch, there are some factors that you should consider when choosing your support structure.

Vision: Do they fully understand your company's’s vision, mission and goals?

Experience: Do they have the skills and experience necessary to effectively implement the business plan?

Function: Do they bring value to your organization?

At minimum, you'll need a team of professionals you can call on for advice or contract for startup activities. This team may include:

A Business Consultant/Writer: OK.... this is a personal plug, but you'll realistically need an expert who can help with building your business plan and achieving your goals. The amount of documents that need to be developed at startup can be overwhelming and a great writer can help mark off a bunch of those to-do items off your list.

Designer(s): A critical early expenditure that will assist you in building the brand image of your company. From development of the company logo, creation of marketing materials, and design of your website, a professional graphic and / or web designer will set you apart from the competition.

Attorney: Startup is the time to make sure all the t's are crossed and i's are dotted. An attorney will guide you through the legalities of selecting the business structure, guidance on legal matters, and contract review.

Bookkeeper and / or Accountant: The financial aspect is often the most difficult portion of starting up for many new business owners. An accountant can assist you in establishing an initial operation budget and implementing the accounting system. They can also be invaluable in filing quarterly and annual tax statements. On a monthly basis, a bookkeeper can keep the books up to date on a weekly or monthly basis with minimal cost.

Administrative or Virtual Assistant: An administrative assistant can help keep the business organized and moving forward so you can focus on the bigger picture. Most startups can't afford an in-house administrative professional right away, but there are a growing pool of virtual assistants that can be hired to take some of the noise off the line.

One of the first lessons that new entrepreneurs learn is that they can't do everything themselves. It is often cheaper and faster to hire an expert to help you maneuver the hurdles of startup. Take the time to map out your team structure and find the resources available to help you implement your business plan and you'll save yourself many headaches.

Are You Ready to Launch a Business?

The idea of running your own business sounds promising to many, but in reality most people aren't equipped to start their own business. Before you start down the path to opening a business, you need to ask yourself a few tough questions to see if you have what it takes to enter the world of entrepreneurship.

Leadership: Are you a leader or a follower? Am you decisive or do you second guess your decisions? An entrepreneur needs a certain comfort in making decisions and living with the outcomes.

Adaptability: Can you roll with the punches and take on a wide variety of roles? An entrepreneur needs to be able to take on a wide range of new duties and multitask. Being able to adapt and learn new function is a necessary skill for the successful entrepreneur.

Enthusiasm: Are you excited about the product or services you are offering? You've got to have passion for the service or product in order to successfully launch. You are ultimately the walking billboard for your business and have to be able to sell it to potential clients.

Uncertainty: Can you handle the uncertainty of not receiving a paycheck every Friday or the sudden inflow of a flood of orders? The one thing that is certain with every startup, everything is completely uncertain. You need to be able to adapt and have a certain expectation that things aren't always going to go as planned.

Time Management: Can you manage time well and keep a home-work balance? For many new entrepreneurs, the tendency to work 24/7 can be overwhelming. A successful entrepreneur needs to maintain a balance for the benefit of their business and lifestyle.

American Express Launches AcceptPay

The first lesson every small business owner learns once they open their doors is that you need to get used to getting paid a little irregularly.

Back when I held a "regular job", I took it for granted that my paycheck would get direct deposited into my bank account every Friday. Since starting my own business, I have had to become accustomed to the feast-and-famine scenario of running a small business.

American Express has launched a new online service that is designed to help small businesses expedite their payment cycle and put all of their billing information in one central location. Many small businesses run their invoicing and payment operations through a combination of applications -- Excel, Quickbooks, PayPal, Merchant Processor, and more. The new AcceptPay application released by Open for American Express seeks to streamline the entire process by processing the accounts receivable cycle from invoicing through payment.

AcceptPay lets you electronically invoice customers and accept online payments all in one place. Customers have the choice to remit payment through all major credit cards, eCheck or ACH. The funds are automatically deposited into your bank account helping you maximize your cash flow. You can even sync up the information with your Quickbooks application to make bookkeeping a little easier!

Learn more here.

Kimberly-Clark Launches Grant Program for Momtrepreneurs

Do you consider yourself a Momtrepreneur? If you do Kimberly-Grant has introduced a new grant program created just for you!

The Huggies MomInspired Grant Program is awarding up to $15,000 for the development of products and services inspired by motherhood.

Visit their site to submit your unique product idea that addresses an unmet parenting need for the chance to receive a grant of up to $15,000 for startup money.

Time is of the essense with the grant submission period already open. You have until June 9, 2010 to submit your proposal.

If you need some help with your proposal, I'm offering a discounted rate for assisting with the proposal process. Email me at terri@thebusinessgirl.com with the subject MomInspired for details.

White House Fashion Favorite Closes Its Doors

The one thing that is certain - both the fashion industry and politics are unpredictable.

It seemed like the fashion dream-come-true for Chicago based designer Maria Pinto. Her fashions were being seen everywhere -- in the newspapers, on TV, even at the Democratic National Convention. The future first lady Michelle Obama had selected the designer as her go-to wardrobe choices during her husband's run for the presidency. Whether it was the teal dress worn at the convention or the red dress she sported to meet the Bushes on their way out of the White House, Mario Pinto style had arrived in Washington.

So it was incredibly surprising when a "closeout sale" sign was posted in the window of her Chicago store in February. The strain of the recession and the inability to expand beyond her loyal Chicago following had ended the business. Of course, Ms. Pinto admits that she made some rookie startup errors in financial management and general operations that hurt the budding brand.

The nail in the coffin came after the introduction of the spring 2010 line in New York last fall. The rave reviews came in, but there were no orders to follow. Buyers had shied away from her higher price point items -- between hundreds and thousands of dollars per ensemble. The brand just couldn't outlast the current trend to budget friendly fashion.

Lesson to be learned -- even the best of press won't help you if you can't adapt quickly to the changing market.

Market Watch: Organic Food Sales on the Rise

Americans are on the move to a healthier lifestyle!



Despite the recession, U.S. sales of organic products skyrocketed in 2009 according to a new report by the Organic Trade Association.

Organic product sales climbed by 5.3% in 2009 to a record high of $26.6 billion ($24.8 billion was organic food and beverages.) In comparison, the total U.S. food sales grew by only 1.6%.

Wooing the New American Consumer

There's no doubt about it, American consumers have been profoundly altered by the recession in a way that will undoubtedly have a lasting effect on how they shop and spend.

A new report released by Decitica, "Marketing to the Post-Recession Consumers," gives one of the first glimpses into the diverse reactions to the recession and how it has changed consumers spending habits.

While age, gender, and income continue to affect the way consumers respond to marketing, today's shoppers have become much more savvy in how they react to marketing messages.

Decitica has identified four new distinct consumer segments: Steadfast Frugalists, Involuntary Penny-Pinchers, Pragmatic Spenders and Apathetic Materialists.

1. Steadfast Frugalists comprise nearly one-fifth of American consumers spanning across all income and age groups. The core value of the Steadfast Frugalists is self-restraint. They are the least brand loyal and expect their new budget conscious shopping behaviors to stay with them for a long time. This group takes pride in their frugal attitudes.

2. Involuntary Penny-Pinchers have been forced to embrace thriftier shopping methods. Unlike the Steadfast Frugalists, they're more flexible in their decision making and less likely to restrict themselves to buying store brands or generic labels. As a group, they have average household incomes of less than $50,000, are largely in their 30s and 40s, and are primarily women (six in 10). The vast majority have been scared into tightening their budgets by the recession and are more worried about the future than the other groups.

3. Pragmatic Spenders have curbed their spending (for now) but are expected to resurrect their past spending habits. As a whole, they have higher spending power, they are primarily male (six in 10), and they are largely individuals in their 60s from the Northeast and West. More than one-third of people with household incomes greater than $75,000 are in this group.

4. Apathetic Materialists tend to be the least changed by the recession. As younger consumers under the age of 40, with most in their 20s, this group group is seemingly unaffected by price and the long-term aspects of the recession.