How To Raise Money to Start Business and Where to Get Money for Business

The common questions for anyone who want to start business are: How to raise money to start business, and where to get money for my business?To raise money to start business is not as difficult as most people seem to think. Actually, there's more money available for new business ventures than there are good business ideas. We will help you for where you can get money for business.A very important rule of the game to learn: Any time you want to raise money, your first move should be to put together a proper prospectus.This prospectus should include a resume of your background, your education, training, experience and any other personal qualities that might be counted as an asset to your potential success. If it's for an existing business, you'll need a profit and loss record for at least the preceding six months, and a plan showing how this additional money will produce greater profits. If it's a new business, you'll have to show your proposed business plan, your marketing research and projected costs, as well as anticipated income figures, with a summary for each year, over at least a three year period.It'll be advantageous to you to base your cost estimates high, and your income projections on minimal returns. This will enable you to "ride through" those extreme "ups and downs" inherent in any beginning business. You should also describe what makes your business unique---how it differs form your competition and the opportunities for expansion or secondary products.This prospectus will have to state precisely what you're offering the investor in return for the use of his money. Are you offering a certain percentage of the profits? A percentage of the business? A seat on your board of directories?An investor uses his money to make more money. The point here is, don't ever try to "con" a potential investor. In most cases, if you've got a good idea and you've done your homework properly, and "interested investor" will understand your position and offer more help than you dared to ask.When you have your prospectus prepared, know how much money you want, exactly how it will be used, and how you intend to repay it, you're ready to start looking for investors.As simple as it seems, one of the easiest ways of raising money is by advertising in a newspaper or a national publication featuring such ads. Your ad should state the amount of money you want--always ask for more money than you have room for negotiating. Your ad should also state the type of business involved ( to separate the curious from the truly interested), and the kind of return you're promising on the investment.Take a page from the party plan merchandisers. Explain your business plan, the profit potential, and how much you need. Give them each a copy of your prospectus and ask that they pledge a thousand dollars as a non-participating partner in your business. Check with the current tax regulations. You'll need the help of an attorney to do this, however, and of course a good tax accountant as well wouldn't hurt.It's always a good idea to have an attorney and an accountant help you make up your business prospectus. The next time you talk with your doctor or dentist, give him a prospectus and explain your plan. Look them up in your telephone book under "Investment Services." These companies exist for the sole purpose of lending money to businesses which they feel have a good chance of making money. In many instances, they trade their help for a small interest in your company.Many states have Business Development Commissions whose goal is to assist in the establishment and growth of new businesses. Not only do they offer favorable taxes and business expertise, most also offer money or facilities to help a new business get started. Your Chamber of Commerce is the place to check for further information of this idea.Industrial banks are usually much more amenable to making business loans than regular banks, so be sure to check out these institutions in your area. insurance companies are prime sources of long term business capital, but each company varies its policies regarding the type of business it will consider. It's also quite possible to get the directories of another company to invest in your business. Also, be sure to check at your public library for available foundation grants. These can be the final answer to all your money needs if your business is perceived to be related to the objectives and activities of the foundation.Finally, there's the Money broker or Finder. These are the people who take your prospectus and circulate it with various known lenders or investors. The important thing is to check them out fully; find out about the successful loans or investment plans they're arranged, and what kind of investor contacts they have---all of this before you put up any front money or pay any retainer fees.There are many ways to raise money---from staging garage sales to selling stocks. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the only place you can find the money you need is through the bank or finance company.Start thinking about the idea of inviting investors to share in your business as silent partners. Think about the idea of obtaining financing for a primary business by arranging financing for another business that will support the start-up, establishment and developing of the primary business. Give some thought to the possibilities of getting the people supplying your production equipment to co-sign the loan you need for start-up capital.Remember, there are thousands upon thousands of ways to obtain business start-up capital. This is truly the age of creative financing.Disregard the stories you hear of "tight money," and start making phone calls, talking to people, and making appointments to discuss your plans with the people who have money invest. There's more money now than there's ever been for a new business investment. the person with a truly viable business plan, and determination to succeed, will make use of every possible idea that can be imagined.
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Setting Up Your Affiliate Program

One Tier Verses Two Tier
One tier affiliate programs pay commissions on one level. For each sale an affiliate makes, they will receive a commission. For example, if you offer your affiliates 30% commission and your product sells for $39.99, for every sale your affiliate makes, they will receive a $12 commission.Two tier affiliate programs pay commissions on two levels. Affiliates will receive a commission for each sale they make and for each sale their recruits make. Two tier affiliate programs usually divide the commissions over the two levels. For example, if you want to give your affiliates a total of 30% commission for each sale, you would offer 20% commission on their first level sales and an extra 10% commission for second level sales. If your affiliate makes a $39.99 sale, they would receive a $8 commission. If one of their recruits makes a sale, they would receive an additional $4 commission.
Increasing Affiliate Sales
Nobody knows more about your product than you do. Provide your affiliates with banners, sample ads, articles or anything that will assist them in making sales.To further increase sales, create an ebook that is directed towards your target audience and allow it to be freely distributed. This ebook should be packed with valuable information and, at the same time, used as a sales tool for your product. Customize a copy of your ebook for each of your affiliates and allow them to freely distribute it. You can customize the ebooks yourself or purchase an ebook compiler that enables your affiliates to customize your ebook themselves. Not all compilers will allow customizations. I highly recommend Ebook Edit Pro.To keep your affiliates motivated, set up an opt-in list to enable them to subscribe and receive new promotional methods, sales letters and articles to assist them in making more sales. This will not only increase their sales, but it will also enable you to keep in contact with your affiliates and introduce new products.
Setting Up Your Affiliate Program
When you're ready to set up your affiliate program, there are basically two options. The first option is to purchase an affiliate software program. Affiliate software will track your affiliate sales and enable your affiliates to view their stats. This option requires that you run your affiliate program and you are responsible for accepting payment and sending out commission checks.The second option is to use a third party affiliate tracking company to run your affiliate program for you. These companies will track your affiliate sales, enable your affiliates to check their stats and send out commission checks for you.
Affiliate Tracking Software
AssocTRAC- A great affiliate tracking software that features real time tracking of stats. It tracks both visitors and sales for each associate to determine not only the quality of visitors, but also if your sales copy is turning visitors into buyers. It includes an easy sign up process that instantly creates accounts for associates so they can be up and running within five minutes. An autoresponse email message is instantly sent out with linking instructions and other detailed information. This powerful software tracks through the use of cookies and CGI scripts.Pro-TRACK - A great affiliate tracking software that will enable you to keep track of sales and which affiliate the sale originated. Although the standard version won't compute any sales data (owners manually keep track of sales), it is an excellent way to track and compensate your affiliate sales. The Pro version will not only track where your sales originate, but also provide you with the statistics you'll need to track how well your affiliate program is doing.
Affiliate Tracking Companies
ClickBank - This Company will not only enable you to accept credit cards, but they will also run your affiliate program. Over 60,000 affiliates can choose to sell your products for you. ClickBank enables any web seller to automatically pay sales commissions to affiliates. They will bill your customers, pay you, and pay your affiliates a commission. They charge a one-time $49.95 activation fee, and a $1 + 7.5% fee per sale. There are no monthly fees.Click Trade - Lets you create your own affiliate program to allow others to send paying customers to you. Your business can reach new customers by being featured on thousands of affiliate sites. They have over 120,000 affiliates already interested in participating with your affiliate program.Take your time and select the best affiliate option for your business. If you're just starting out, you may want to use one of the third party affiliate companies, as this is the easiest route. You won't have to worry about anything, as everything is taken care of for you. This will enable you to concentrate on making more sales and developing new products.
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Making Sense of Self-Publishing Terms

Traditional Publishing: As stated above, a traditional publisher will handle all the publishing and printing costs of the book. Authors will receive royalties for their book's sales. Throughout the twentieth century, traditional publishing was viewed as the ideal situation for authors because traditional publishers have been viewed as the gatekeepers or judges of whether a book is worthy of publication. Also, traditional publishers would market the books and authors had no risk involved in the publishing costs.Changes in the marketplace, however, have made it more difficult for traditional publishers to compete, and by extension, it is more difficult for authors to be selected for publication. While traditional publishing still provides a certain sense of legitimacy, self-publishing is a more viable option for most authors, and in many cases, it can also be more lucrative.
Self-Publishing: Self-publishing means, in a general way, that the author publishes the book himself, and he absorbs the cost of publishing the book. The advantage is that the author receives all the profit, but the disadvantage is that self-publishing has a stigma, largely because many authors have self-published poor quality books that could not compete with traditionally published books for a number of reasons from cheap paper and low quality printing to multiple typos.Self-publishing itself has its degrees of what many consider legitimate self-publishing. A true self-published book, in many people's opinions, is a book where the author oversaw the entire production from layout to printing and where the author owns the ISBN number, printing the book under his or his own publishing company's name. While "vanity," "subsidy," and "POD" are terms often used in relation to self-publishing, they are more like half-sisters of self-publishing because another publisher besides the author is involved even though the author fronts the costs.
Vanity Press: A vanity press is a publisher whom the author pays to publish his book. In the late twentieth century, horror stories were often told about authors who lost their life-savings by paying a vanity press $50,000 or some other outlandish amount to publish a book, only to have the book sell only a few copies. Deciding to self-publish by paying a vanity press was a serious risk because of the cost of publishing and a primary reason why most authors sought traditional publishers. Furthermore, the name suggests that the author was vain-believing his work was deserving of publication-even when the traditional publishers rejected his book. The term is rarely used any longer, largely because other terms have come into usage that better reflect the changes in publishing technology, which have resulted in self-publishing costs decreasing significantly.
Subsidy Press: A vanity press and subsidy press may be interchangeable terms. The difference is that the term subsidy is more commonly used now because it has less stigma. The author still pays the press to publish his book, but in the twenty-first century, the cost of publishing a book has dropped significantly due to digital or POD printing.
POD (Print-On-Demand): The self-publishing world frequently refers to POD publishers or companies, and it uses the term to mean "self-publishing companies" but POD actually means "print-on-demand." Due to new printing technology-digital printing-it is faster and more cost-effective to print a book. Until recently, books were laid out with moveable type and the process was laborious, time-consuming, and expensive, and consequently, only large print runs were made because it would have been ridiculous to spend the hours or days required to prepare the moveable type to print only one book. Modern computers in the digital age, however, now allow for "print-on-demand" which basically means if someone wants one book, it can be printed almost instantaneously. The result is that printing is faster and cheaper. Many of the smaller traditional publishers use POD.
POD Publishers or Companies: Most references to POD Publishers, besides meaning that these companies use Print-On-Demand or digital printing technology, mean that these are larger self-publishing companies that an author can pay to handle all aspects of book production. These companies are relatively cost-effective. Packages to publish a book can run under $1,000, which includes all aspects of design and layout and usually a small number of printed copies such as 10-50. The author then purchases copies of his books from the POD company, and the more copies he orders, the less he pays. The difference is that these POD companies still mark up the cost of printing the books to make a profit. They make their money selling books to authors, not in selling the author's books to the public. They still often function somewhat like traditional publishers, however, because they will sell copies directly to bookstores or book distributors, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or Ingram's; these book sales result in royalty checks to the author. POD companies will also provide their own ISBN numbers and publish the book under their name rather than the author's own publishing company's name. Such companies, as stated above, are like half-sisters to both traditional publishing and self-publishing because they mix a little of both worlds.
Co-Publishing Companies: Because of the high costs of publishing, some smaller traditional publishers offer co-publishing. As usual, the traditional publisher will handle all the publishing and printing costs of the book and authors will receive royalties for their book's sales. However, the author is asked to purchase, for e.g., 500 copies of the book.
True Self-Publishing: Finally, for those splitting hairs about true self-publishing, the author who truly self-publishes will individually contract with (hopefully) an editor, someone to do layout, interior and cover design, and a separate printer. In this case, the author publishes the book with his own publishing company name he has created for himself, and he separately pays each individual entity-printer, cover design person, interior designer, editor. The author also purchases his own ISBN number and therefore has the book registered as being published by his own company. While this form of self-publishing is a bit more work, and it will probably cost an author more money upfront than using a POD company, the author will be able to print a larger number of books for less per unit (individual book), and the author will also be able to have more control over the ultimate look of the book rather than relying on a POD company, which may use more of a basic template approach to how the book looks.

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Why a Website is Key to a Successful Business

Though most business today have a business marketing website, there are still a few out there that to do not have a presence on the web. Take a look at these reasons why every business should have a business marketing website and then try to find a reason not to build a website for your business.Your Business Marketing Website never closes. Unless your web hosting server crashes, your business website will be open all the time. Web hosting companies guarantee their servers will be up and running 99.9% of the time, so you won't have to worry about that. Whenever a person wants to find out more about your business, get his or her questions answered, or purchase a product or service, they can do so. You can check your website information when you come to the office the next morning and process everything you received after the close of business the previous day. A website is a great way to make money while you sleep.Your Business Marketing Website will reach a larger audience of people. Unless your business has multiple locations throughout the country or all over the globe, chances are you're not reaching a very large audience. People all over the world are connected to the Internet and the World Wide Web, so you can take control of larger portion of your target audience, dealing with potential customers across the country instead of your local area. A business website will increase potential for sales.You'll be able to promote and sell your products and services to your customers. You can use your website to advertise your products and services through contest and sales. Providing access to purchasing your products and services whenever the customer wants to is an excellent way to ensure you're not losing any potential sales. There are many different ways to sell your products online; many of them are free, or very low cost.You'll be able to provide instant gratification to your customers. If you sell digital products, offering instant gratification to your customers is a plus. As soon as the customer places his or her order and makes the payment, you can deliver the product right away via email, when you're not even in the office. If your business sells tangible products which must be shipped or provides a service requiring interaction, you can provide an e-book, a video, or a podcast of some sort to allow for instant gratification while the customer waits for you.Your Business Marketing Website will help enhance your customer service. By providing an online ticketing system you can have your customers issues logged and give them a way to track their issue until it is solved. You can also provide important information, such as a list of frequently asked questions, a mailing address, shipping information, and more so that the customer can find what he or she needs when he or she needs it instead of having to rely on a customer service agent via telephone and specific hours set forth by your business.With all these reasons as to why a business marketing website is a key to a successful business, there's absolutely no reason to avoid setting up a website for your business. When you see what the power of a website can do to strengthen your business, you will be thankful for the effort you put into developing it.
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"A Marketing Marvel" Practical Advertising at Work

Let's face it, as far as advertising goes, sometimes bigger is better. Fleet trucks are no longer simply delivering products - they're delivering advertising messages as well. Some see it as the 9th form of advertising - fluid and mobile to capture the attention of a consumer constantly in motion. - the ultimate form of Guerilla Marketing. Mobile ad companies are springing up across the country and banking on the visual impact, constant motion and the sheer size of this medium to put American businesses and brands back into the ad game.Wherein out door media now reaches 96% of Americans, mobile media is rapidly becoming one of the best tools for advertisers to communicate their messages.Right now, mobile (truckside) advertising may be the most direct way to reach the nearly 150 million people that commute every business day. With outdoor advertising space at a premium, Truckside Ads serve as readily available, highly affordable advertising space and studies show that the impact ratings of mobile media trucks scored higher than all other outdoor media - combined. Depending in the market, metro trucks ads are seen by 10 -14 million pares of eyes a year. 
Our Mobile Society
For many people, possibly most, the time spent in the car when they could see advertising is several times the amount of time they have to devote to traditional in-home media. (Arbitron Study)Highway travelers are probably the very best audience and the mobile-billboard ad is welcome entertainment, and there is little competition for this audience's attention as there is so little ad clutter.The increase in travel is making it harder for advertisers to reach their target with conventional advertising methods. The findings of a recent Arbitron Outdoor Media Study seem to suggest truckside advertising is the perfect answer to reaching today's consumer:According to the recent Arbitron Outdoor Media Study "media that targets vehicle drivers/passengers reach 96% of Americans weekly and outdoor media that targets pedestrian traffic reach 79 percent weekly." Among those who work full-time, 62 percent say they shop closer to home and 35 percent indicate they shop equally near home/work or shop most at work. "By examining the results of the study, marketers can identify out-of-home media that have the ability reach the working crowd, as well as gain important insight into outdoor advertising's role in the overall media mix."54% of all consumers do not watch morning TV. According to OAAA chief marketing officer Stephen Freitas, "Outdoor advertising is experiencing unprecedented growth in resources and revenue, and truckside advertising plays a key role in fueling this growth by providing advertisers an important new planning option." Over the past few years, the outdoor advertising industry has evolved into a rejuvenated media force... that's poised to compete aggressively in the 21st century media fray."Truckside advertising has the ability to target all segments of our society. The versatility and sheer impact of truckside advertising allows advertisers to capture the attention of business decision makers and consumers during part of their daily routines.U.S. marketers spent $6.3 billion last year on out-of-home campaigns, as billboard advertising is called--an 8% increase from the year before, making outdoor the second fastest-growing ad medium after the Internet. Stationary billboards work well if you can secure a great location. Truckside Ads routinely cover an area filled with hundreds of billboards in a single day. This is really the last major untapped ad medium, there's nothing else left.
Mobile Might
Mobile marketing campaigns offers better targeting and more frequency. The monthly cost of an ad trailer is around the national average cost of a static billboard. Trucks have become so much like rolling billboards that they are rated the same way in terms of impressions made, wherein all advertising media is measured in terms of cost per thousand (CPM) - truckside advertising is around $1.50 - currently the lowest in the industry.Does truckside and mobile billboard advertising really work? A surprising statistic shows that again, while outdoor media reaches over 96 percent of all U.S. consumers, most advertising media budgets only allocate it one-three percent. Wherein all advertising media is measured in terms of cost per thousand (CPM); truck-side advertising is around $1.50 - the lowest in the industry.(TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, Internet, Direct Mail & Yellow Pages all rely on ads to exist...)
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