Senate passes jobless aid, business tax breaks
The Senate voted Wednesday to extend key pieces of last year’s economic stimulus measure, including help for the jobless and money to help financially strapped states pay for health care for the poor.
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Raising rabbits for meat is a common business but it requires more dedication and attention compared to normal pet rabbit care. In this kind of business, the first thing that should be considered is the breed of rabbit to produce. The types which are commonly used in the business of raising rabbits for meat are the Californians and New Zealands because they are the fastest producing breeds. Most owners have purebred stocks of these types while some crossbreed them to produce babies that grow more quickly and are more vigorous. The New Zealand breed is one of the most popular among rabbit meat because they can already be sold in the market in just 8 weeks. The Californians, on the other hand, are highly demanded because of their plump yet fine-boned body structures.
Raising rabbits for meat is a business which is highly dependent on the quality of feeding that the producer does to his pets. Generally, rabbits are kinds of animals which consume different kinds of foods. However, if a producer wants to get quality meat, only commercial pellets or alfalfa hay should be given to them. Feeding these animals with lettuce or cabbage is not recommended because these vegetables can cause diarrhea problems. Giving the proper amount of the food is also important in raising rabbits for meat because overfeeding will cause too much accumulation of body fat. Once a doe becomes too fat, it may have some problems with kindling or breeding.
Knowing when to breed the parents is also important in raising rabbits for meat. Medium breeds are usually bred between 5-6 months while large breeds are not bred until they are 8 months. In choosing the animals to breed, make sure to choose those that are healthy and are not closely related. In mating the doe and the buck, the doe should be the one which should be placed in the cage of the buck because female rabbits are often territorial with their own cages.
The gestation period of these animals takes 31 days. The actual birth of the young also happens in this time frame. Also make sure that the doe is already placed in a comfortable nest a few days before her actual giving birth. Feeding the babies should not be a problem because the does naturally nurse their young. In cases when the mother has died though, the babies should be fed with a mixture made of skim milk, egg yolks, karo syrup, and bone meal.
Downtown business owners air concerns
OROVILLE — The city held the first of what will be ongoing meetings for downtown revitalization and economic development last week.
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2/17/2009 - AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry today addressed National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Day luncheon expressing his support of small business in Texas, including the idea of raising the business margins tax exemption to $1 million. for more information: governor.state.tx.us Key Points: Gov. Perry addresses NFIB luncheon, expresses support of small business in Texas Governor recommends raising the business margins tax exemption to $1 million Governor also emphasizes need to continue funding state incentive programs
New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton says Scott Fujita departure was purely business
Fujita calls transaction ‘bittersweet’
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Business Briefly: GM announces big changes in executive suite
GM announced sweeping changes in its sales and marketing operations on Tuesday, splitting the two functions after CEO Ed Whitacre combined them in December, and shuffling executives across the company’s operations.
Read more on Everett Herald
Are you an entrepreneur? If you are, then i believe you will familiar with the pattern or business challenges faced when starting and building a business from scratch. If you are not an entrepreneur but you dream of becoming one someday, then i think you will find this article worthwhile.
Why am i writing on such a topic? I decided to write on the “10 business challenges every entrepreneur must face when building a business from scratch” to give entrepreneurs a glimpse of what to expect when they set out to start a new business venture. I am not writing to show my writing skills. Moreover, i am not a professional writer; i am an entrepreneur and investor to the core. I simply write to share my knowledge on building a business with anyone who is willing to learn.
This article is not meant to discourage or scare you from going into business. Instead, i wrote this article to prepare and highlight you on the business challenges to expect and how to handle them. Just as the popular saying goes:
“He that is prepared has half won the battle.”
Below are 10 Business Challenges Every Entrepreneur Must Face When Building a Business from Scratch:
1. Developing the Vision and Idea:
This is usually the first challenge faced by every entrepreneur. Finding the right business opportunity or creatively developing an idea is certainly not an easy task. I call “Envisioning the idea” the first true task of an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you must develop the ability to see what others cannot see. While others see problems, you must see opportunities.
But seeing opportunities is just the first task. The main challenge is going to be your ability to forge that opportunity into a business idea. I see this as a business challenge because the process of transforming opportunities into business plans is like trying to turn lead into gold. I call it the process of “Creating Value out Of Nothing.” If you are not an entrepreneur, you might not be familiar with the process. The process of:
Identifying a problem
Seeing an opportunity in the problem
Coming up with a solution
Developing your opportunity into a business idea
Integrating your solution into the business plan
Another way “developing the vision and idea” will be a business challenge is that an entrepreneur must sometimes assume the role of a sorcerer. Let me explain in detail. While others dwell in the past and present, an entrepreneur must envision and forecast the future. An entrepreneur must always be ahead of his time or else he might lose his relevance. He must have the ability to bring into present what is yet to be. Let me give you some practical illustrations:
In the late 70s and early 80s, while IBM saw increase in demand for their mainframe computers, Steve Jobs envisioned a personal computer in every home and Bill Gates envisioned the need for easy to use software for personal computers.
While everyone saw humans flying as an impossibility, the Wright brothers envisioned a flying machine.
Back in those days when cars were custom made and exclusively for the rich, Henry Ford envisioned affordable cars for the masses.
I believe with these few examples, my point is clear. Developing the vision and idea is the first true task of an entrepreneur.
2. Raising Capital:
After developing your idea, the next challenge you are going to face is the challenge of raising capital. As an entrepreneur, you are the only one who knows the idea to the core. You are the only one who knows the story of the future. Trying to convince investors about something that doesn’t exist is definitely a challenge.
There is more to raising capital than just simply asking for money. Most investors want to invest in already established businesses with minimal risk. When building a business from scratch, raising capital will definitely be a business challenge you must face.
To overcome this challenge, you must develop the ability to sell your idea and vision to potential investors. When i say “sell your ideas”, i mean improving your communication skill and your manner of presentation. In the game of raising capital, you must have a good story backed by a strong business plan. If you are interested in learning how to successfully raise capital, you can check other articles i have written.
3. Assembling a Team:
The third challenge you must face in the course of developing a business is assembling the right team. When i talk about a team, i am not talking about regular employees. I am talking about a “round table strategic business team” that will meet regularly to brainstorm on ways to grow your business.
As an entrepreneur, you are bound to have strengths and weaknesses. That is the more reason you need to assemble a strong team that will cover up for your weaknesses. A team is a necessity in your quest to build a business. Now finding a business team is just the first hurdle, transferring your passion and vision to your team is the real piece of cake.
You must strive to make sure your team sees the future you see. They must believe in your possibilities and must also be passionate about making that possibility a reality. If they can’t grasp your vision, if they can’t see they future with you, then they are not worthy being your team.
Your strategic business team should comprise your banker, financial advisor, accountant, attorney or legal adviser and any other specialist that will be of tremendous impact to your business. A question on your mind might be “how am i going to pay this team? My answer is i don’t know. You will have to figure it out yourself or better still, you can consider bringing them on board as partners.
If you are still at loss with the thought of assembling a business team, then i will recommend you either take some time in learning how to build a business team or you can visit strategicbusinessteam.com to get some advice.
4. Finding the Right Location:
You might feel that finding a good location is a piece of cake but i bet you that finding a good location at the right price is definitely not easy. I don’t have much to write on this but i feel it is worthwhile i bring it to your notice so you can prepare for it. The following are features you must consider before choosing a location. These features are subject to change with respect to the industry of your business:
Suitable price
Easy access to raw materials
Good road network.
Basic amenities and infrastructures
Adequate Power supply
Easy access to cheap labour
Nearness to high traffic roads
Moderate state and federal tax
Favorable Government fiscal and monetary policy
Favorable federal and state laws.
Current economic policy and political situation.
5. Finding the Right Employees:
Most writers crank up the process of finding good employees as an easy task. They define finding an employee as simply presenting the job description and the right employee will surface. But i think it’s more than that.
Those who are really business owners know how difficult it is to find a hardworking, trustworthy employee. Most employees want to work less and get paid more. Finding a good employee who will be passionate about delivering his or her services is quite difficult.
Employees are your representatives to your customers and the outside world. They are a reflection of your business culture and ethics. If an employee of yours is bad or rude to your customers, it is going to portray a bad image of your company. So you must be careful when hiring employees. Remember the golden rule of business; “Hire slow and fire fast.”
6. Finding Good Customers:
The sixth business challenge you will face is the challenge of finding good customers. Note the keyword “good customers.” When in the process of building a business from scratch, you will come to find out that there are good customers and bad customers.
You must really be on guard for bad customers. Good customers are really hard to find. A good customer will be loyal to your company and will be willing to forgive you if you make a mistake and apologize. A good customer will try to do the right thing that will benefit both himself and the company mutually.
A bad customer will always look for loopholes in the company’s policy to exploit and make some few gains. Bad customers will always try to exploit the company’s goodwill and look for ways to rip off the company. Bad customers are responsible for bad debts.
Good customers build your business and bad customers will always try to liquidate your business. Just as you fire employees, you must also be prepared to fire bad customers without hesitation. In the game of trying to find a new customer, always remember the customer that sued McDonald’s to court claiming the coffee was too hot.
7. Overcoming Competition:
Competition is the next challenge you will face. Most individuals see competition as a plague but i see competition as a good challenge. I see competition as a benchmark for creativity, the main engine for innovation and quality products at great prices. Without competition, there will be no innovation and without innovation, the world will be stagnant.
I see competition as a welcomed challenge and i want you to do the same. Competition keeps us on our toes and drives us to constantly improve our products and services. But you must be warned. Competition can make your business lose its relevance in the eye of your customers so you must always be on guard. At this point, i leave you with a quote:
“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” - Robert Kiyosaki
8. Unforeseen Challenges and Expenses:
Just as a sailor prepares for unexpected storm, just as a pilot is always on the watch for unpredictable bad weather and thunderstorms, so must an entrepreneur be prepared for what ever comes. Unexpected challenges can come in the form of:
Unexpected law suits
Inconsistent government policy
Not being able to make payroll
Unpaid bills and taxes
Unexpected resignation of staff from sensitive office
Bad debts from customers
Loss of market share
Dwindling working capital
Inadequate stock or inventory
These challenges, if not handled properly can ruin your plan to build a successful business from scratch. Another challenge you must expect is an unforeseen increase in business expenses. If not handled properly, it might result in constant negative cash flow and eventually, the business failure.
9. Keeping Up With Industrial Changes and Trends:
Change in trends is really a business challenge you must be prepared for. Trends have made and broken lot of businesses. I know a lot of profitable businesses that have been wiped out by slight industrial changes and trends. A typical example is the Dot com trend, where many industrial based businesses were wiped out by new web based dot com companies.
When the Dot com era began, business owners were left with only two options. Either they join the dot com train or they get crushed by the dot com train.
Seasoned entrepreneurs know that trend is always a friend and are always willing to swiftly adjust their business with the current trend. Keeping your eyes open to spot trends is really a challenge but the big task will be your ability to quickly use the trend to your advantage.
10. Exiting the Business:
“In the world of business and investing, your exit is more important than your entry. A good thumb of rule is this; exit before you enter.” - Robert Kiyosaki
When building a business from scratch, you are going to face the business challenge of determining your exit strategy. Just as the quote above states, you have to plan your exit strategy before you even start the business. Most entrepreneurs run their business without any plans to exit and even if they have an exit strategy, they find it difficult to implement it.
Before starting a business, it is advisable to always plan your exit. There are benchmarks you can use to determine your exit from the business. Most smart entrepreneurs will use this benchmark as a target and once this specific target is reached, they exit the business. Examples of such benchmarks are:
Annual sales
Annual Turnover
Asset Base
Market Saturation
Customer base or number of users. This is more applicable to dot com companies.
Now when it comes to exiting the business, there are three exit strategies you can apply. The exit strategies are:
Turning over the business to professional managers: When your business reaches a certain stage of maturity, you can exit by turning it over to professional managers. In this case, the business still belongs to you but you are not involved with its day to day affairs. You will have to give up administrative role to assume the role of a watchdog. When you exit in this manner, you will have more free time to look into other projects or retire.
Selling the business privately: In this case, you are exiting the business by selling it to a private investor. In the business world, it is called M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions). After the sale and transfer of assets is complete, you have nothing to do with the business again.
Taking the company public: The unique thing about this type of exit strategy is that while you are selling your business (in form of shares) to public investors, you still own and control the business.
Please before you apply any of these exit strategy, i will advise you consult with your attorney or legal adviser. But ultimately, it’s up to you to decide the exit strategy you want to apply. Always remember “your exit is more important than your entry.”
At this stage, i thank you for reading and taking your time to learn. Till i come your way again, remain blessed.
Business Digest
Business confidence down in state, says AIM survey; Stop & Shop, union disagree on wages; Boston Chamber launches initiative to spur growth; Blount Fine Foods set to expand plant, hire staff; Apple sues HTC over its iPhone patents
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In 2009, mobile communications conference on Asian nokia Siemens (hereinafter referred to as the President of China’s west) ZhangZhiJiang accept sina tech interview revealed the TD, Internet has LTE - through the first telephone, future TD - LTE should be first, then the data on the phonetic business,
Through the first TD - LTE telephone
In the meeting, China mobile, China mobile plan in Shanghai 2010 expo garden built covers the whole park TD, some experiment - LTE company has been selected as the equipment suppliers. China’s President, west of Shanghai world expo, ZhangZhiJiang revealed - LTE experiment nets, but will make one’s west interior distribution system and navigation system, etc.
He says, the west very support the development of LTE - TD, TD - LTE commercial process is very confident and believe TD - LTE can catch up with the pace of LTE FDD -.
He revealed in October, the west has for the first time with the 3GPP LTE standard TD, this call - call base on commercial software (3GPP LTE and standard Rel. 8 standard March 2009 version), this is the development of LTE - starting an important milestone.
Huawei r&d TD - LTE respectively
In TD - whether to continue with the era of LTE, ZhangZhiJiang revealed, huawei technologies of 3G era in TD, huawei and west two companies is BaiBa percent in ding bridge, but research into TD - LTE era, the two companies have agreed to continue our cooperation, so each.
It’s west, hangzhou is the global TD - LTE r&d center. Currently has further expanded’s west in hangzhou, China and Beijing r&d team, to support the commercial deployment TD - LTE.
The 2009 mobile Asian conference, nokia Siemens communications and media, video downloads business has exceeded domestic ADSL rate of speed.
Data services
About how the business starting - LTE ZhangZhiJiang development, that is data card must start, because TD - LTE chip out late, now may not have terminal, so the voice communications business is not in a hurry.
He also thinks, starting with the future - LTE FDD - a total of LTE, this can help operators platform to reduce costs
Business News
DETROIT — Toyota’s pain is its rivals’ gain. Click for more NEW YORK — The stock market had its third straight winning day on signs that companies are becoming more optimistic about the economy.
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