I want to start a small business. Any help??

The best routes to take are to research the process of starting a business as well as the industry you're interested in.

I recommend checking out the SBA, Entrepreneur, The Start Up Journal & Nolo. All 4 are great informational resources for the new/small business owner. I posted links for you in the source box.

Research, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

* How to Really Start Your Own Business, Fourth Edition by David E. Gumpert

* How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide by David E. Gumpert

* What No One Ever Tells You about Starting Your Own Business: Real-Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs (What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business) by Jan Norman

* Business Start-Up Kit by Steven D. Strauss

* Start Your Own Business (Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Up) by Rieva Lesonsky

* Getting Wiser to Teens: More Insights into Marketing to Teenagers by Peter Zollo

* The Great Tween Buying Machine: Capturing Your Share of the Multi-Billion-Dollar Tween Market by David Siegel

* Creating Ever-Cool: A Marketer's Guide to a Kid's Heart by Gene Del Vecchio

There are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check the source box for links to articles.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

n my small business class we had to purchase Building Effecting Relationships, an entrepreneurial approach 8th edition. In this book it comes with Business Plan Pro, which breaks the plan down literally step by step. It tells you what it wants from you, gives you examples, and then when you are done, it puts it all together and voila. 30 or more page business plan. And everything is printed in the correct order.

Once you have this plan you take it to your banker to get a loan, and use it as a guide for setting up your business

hope this helps :D

That is a wonderful idea and I wouldn't pay attention to those telling you won't work. There are some places like that in my area and they do wonderful.

First off you need to put together a business plan:

http://www.home-business-expo.com/8142006_Business...

Doing that should answer a lot of your questions. Now one thing you need to take into consideration is the way you go about setting this business up. It sounds to me like you can turn it into a non-profit organization. Don't let the name fool you, there is plenty of room for you to make good money. That designation just means the extra profits must be rolled back into the business. You can continue to increase your salary as the business grows. More importantly that type of business qualifies you for special financing and it makes it easy to accept donations. I recommend contacting some local non-profit organizations and talking with them. Best of luck and I hope you go through with it because our society needs more places like this.

hm... good to know that you have analysed the needs of the society before setting up the business....

one thing i want to say is sell those which the customer needs and don't sell what ever that you can....

identify the best place to start with as you said safety is the next concern here as they are kids.

the other thing you can concentrate is extra curicular activities for the kids that might attract a few like music or skatting or any other mental excercise....

the next thing is publicity since it is a creech where kids are going to come mostly it will be a local advertisement. so spend more on local area advertising than mass media advertising coz people are not going to come far places even if they are interested.

have some value system for your business

Good Luck!

The business your considering is a good candidate to be classified as a not - for - Profit organization. It's rather complex to set up but once you are you can have members do donations ect. Visit my web site and maybe I can help. Don't forget to sign the guest book. It's free to look. Theres a myth that not for profit companies can't make a profit but thats not true. You can probably get government grants also.

Your going to need a lot of money, money to pay the employees, and more info than you can learn in a book. Your proposal makes sense but its not practical. You cant have a place for kids to go that has food, pool tables, fooseball, darts, video games, pinball, a dance floor, and last but certainly not least TUTORS??? no one will want to do hw with all of that fun stuff around. I say drop the tutors, they can do their hw on their own time its not your responsibility. You have to find your target market and find out the demographics of your area to make sure you have enough people who even fit into your target market to market to. There is a lot of planning involved in opening a small business...

I will suggest you to plan an advertisement strategy for your business. Today starting a new business is not that big challenge but actual challenge is to advertise that business in a better way. Start a business which has scope in your area. Whenever someone thinks to start new business first he/she should consider area (country, state and target customers) then make a proper strategy for new business.

I suggest you consider security and insurance costs, these may be a deal breaker. With all those kids around and America as sue happy as it is,you have an extreme liability factor. Consider you will need the$$$ or credit for all fixtures ,equipment,employees, utilities insurances and rent for about 6mos.That is to cover costs untill you show a profit,(if you do). Advertising,flyers newspaper and direct mailings, are another cost to consider.Have you looked into what types of licencing you'll need? For your specific business you may want to speak to an arcade owner or manager. Good luck.

well, i'm in an honestly is the best policy mode, so i apologise in advance.

" It will be a place for kids to go after school. There will be food, pool tables, fooseball, darts, video games, pinball, and a dance floor. I will also have tutors there to help with homework and stuff. "

we've always had a place like this in town. different places/different owners at different times, but essentially the market has always been served.

seriously, your customers, and the behavior that you allow them to partake in will be something that will shape your life. you're going to be their parent/janitor/maid/drill sergeant. you make the choice, and it will vary daily.

you'll need one hell of a machine guy to put in equiptment (unless you plan on buying it. i have mine put in on a 50/50 basis with minimal maintenance fees taken off the top. i don't pay for things like pool chalk, or broken foozeball guys, but i will absorb half the costs on some upgrades).

things will get broken. pool sticks will fall and the tips will pop off, they will warp from being left leaning against a wall, felts will be torn (usually accidentally) by inexperienced players, sodas will be spilled on the fooseball table, someone will bang the snot out of a pinball and knock something loose. someone has to maintain these things. get a good guy, or soon after opening you'll have a lot of broken stuff instead of working amusements.

if you let your customers (who look to be children/adolescents) dictate the acceptable behavior (cussing, teasing, smoking, chewing, music volume levels, etc.) expect to have the envelope pushed on you. that is the nature of a person, especially at that age. be prepared for confrontation when you set the boundaries you deem acceptable (i'm not saying physical, but certainly verbal).

this part " I want the parents to know that their kids are safe there." screams "i will babysit your kids for you". now i know you may be thinking that by that you mean, well-lit, heated/cooled, no strange men in trenchcoats, but, it's also a subconscious invitation for every poor(quality)/negligent parent in town to push their kids off on you. expect that to happen.

i'm not going to keep going too far, and i don't mean to paint an exceptionally bleak picture, but i do mean to say that without protection, that you must provide, a project like the one you've outlined can go south in a hurry.

if you get a good group of kids in, it can be fun. if you get a mixed group, you'll be charged with overseeing them and putting out social fires constantly. if for some reason the poorly behaved outnumber the well-mannered, and you do not weed them out (either because they constitute the greater part of the market, or the opportunity to weed them out escapes you) it'll be a shitty, depressing endeavor at best.

there are genuine "business" concerns (insurances, costs, procedures like bookkeeping, liscensing for amusements and any foods you may serve, etc, etc), but weight the practical concerns first.

oh, the standard disclaimer on all business endeavors applies:

develop relationships (often paid ones) with:

- a banker

- an accountant

- a lawyer

ok, i'm gonna hit the hay, hope this helped.

I wish you good luck.