Common Business Mistakes to Avoid
Video from our FREE Online Business Course
http://www.myownbusiness.org
Session 4 – Business Organization
Question:
“What are some of the most common mistakes you see with people going into small business?”
Stan Henslee
Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.)
Topics covered in this video:
Business mistakes, capital, planning, separation, bank accounts, organization
Transcript:
Basically I think there are three. The first one is that they’re going into the business under-capitalized. They put everything they’ve got into the business at the very start and they don’t have anything to fall back on. If they just had some high limit credit cards that were fairly clean to have something to fall back on to pay the bills when the business takes off a little slower than expected.
The second problem I see is co-mingling funds: paying personal expenses out of the business bank account and paying the business bills out of the personal bank account. You have to keep them separate and you have to treat the business as a separate entity and let it stand on its own.
The third biggest mistake I see, and this cripples most young businesses, is that owners take too much money out of the business in the early stages; where they leave the business under capitalized and no longer have the money needed to replace the product on the shelf or to expand into new areas. That is the kiss of death to a young business.
Duration : 0:1:32
Business Insurance Mistakes
Video from our FREE Online Business Course
http://www.myownbusiness.org
Session 6 – Business Insurance
Question:
“For the benefit of our students, would you care to tell about your worst mistake made as an entrepreneur?”
Eddy Chavey
Independent Web Designer
Topics covered in this video:
Business insurance, health insurance, mistakes
Transcript:
Early on, I really wish that I would have spent more time looking into some of the auxiliary things to have in the business like health insurance. You know you’ve got to have health insurance. Me personally, I just kind of grabbed onto a program, looked into it a little bit later and found out I could have saved hundreds of dollars. It’s these little side things in starting a business that you have to look into.
Duration : 0:0:37
Writing a Business Plan Advice, Tips
Video from our FREE Online Business Course
http://www.myownbusiness.org
Session 1 – Evaluating Business Potential
Question:
“How important is it for a new entrepreneur to have a written business plan in hand before seeking out financing sources and why?”
Rod Banks
Executive Vice President, Small Business Market
Bank of America
Topics covered in this video:
Writing a business plan, loans, financing, cash flow
Transcript:
Well, a great question. Having a business plan is actually more important than the loan application because before you make an application for a loan you really need to have that business plan. The business plan needs to be your vision as to why you want to start this business and where you’re going to go with it.
You typically start with an executive summary because at some levels not everybody is going to read every single page. You need to have the executive summary that talks about why you’re going to start this business, what you’re going to do with it and then you need to describe your product. You need to describe the competitive environment you’re in. Talk about competition. Talk about cash flow, because in your business there is probably going to be seasonality. You need to talk about any financial headwinds that might come about, what might the difficulties be and how would you as an entrepreneur be able to weather those headwinds.
Duration : 0:1:26
Skills to Start Your Own Business
Video from our FREE Online Business Course
http://www.myownbusiness.org
Session 1 – Evaluating Business Potential
Question:
“You have some wonderful credentials including being a CPA, an MBA and being president of a large company. Were these credentials helpful to you when you purchased your own business?”
Maureen Costello
Wholesale Distributor
Topics covered in this video:
Business credentials, skills, experience, mistakes, employees, hiring, budgeting
Transcript:
Very much. One of the things I learned over the years is that for anybody to be successful in any role you have to have ability to begin with and then you need education and training and experience and probably most of all the willingness to do whatever it is the function is that you are going to take on. My educational experience certainly helped prepare me because it gave me an overview of what kinds of things happen in a business and I got some basic accounting skills which are really critical to a business. That’s probably the lifeblood of a business; making sure you have cash and that you know how the cash is coming in and going out. But the experience is invaluable and everybody is going to make mistakes in life, in the job.
Your employees are going to make mistakes. You can’t expect them to be perfect. Those mistakes are going to cost you money and you almost have to budget for that. I was able to make my mistakes on somebody else’s dime which was probably good for me, maybe not so good for them, but that is part of the cost of doing business. Now you as the owner of a business are going to have to accept the fact that when you bring somebody in new, part of the cost of hiring a new employee and training them is that they are going to make mistakes that cost you money and you may as well budget for it. But I had the opportunity to make those mistakes before I bought a business and that prevented me from making a lot of mistakes after I purchased the business.
Duration : 0:1:48
Starting a Business Goals, Costs
Video from our FREE Online Business Course
http://www.myownbusiness.org
Session 1 – Evaluating Business Potential
Question:
“What would your top recommendations be for people just starting out in business?”
Gwyn Myers, Ph. D.
Management Consultant
Topics covered in this video:
Business goals, costs, revenue, networking, persistence
Transcript:
Number one would be to make sure that you have a goal and that you are determined to make that goal–that nothing is going to stop you. There are going to be so many valleys that you are going to go through, but that you are absolutely determined to make it. And I think that it shown over and over that persistence is the key to really starting a business and sticking with it and making it successful.
The second thing that I would tell them is a well known business fact: revenue is on the outside, costs are on the inside. So spend as much time as you can on the outside during the times that people to going to listen to you: spreading your message, networking and finding out what people need. And maybe it’s going to be evening hours, early morning hours or weekend hours that you devote the time internally to get yourself organized to set up that infrastructure and get going.
So one thing is persistence and the second is get out there where the revenue is and make sure it’s coming in.
Duration : 0:1:20