Start Archives - GUJRAT INDIA

How to Start a Tax Accounting and CPA Firm

Having gained considerable experience developing five of my own accounting practices and spending the next two decades individually assisting over 2000 accountants develop their own practices, there are a few basic principles accountants can observe to provide themselves the greatest opportunity for success.

The best way for accountants to succeed in starting their own Accounting and Tax CPA practice is by providing themselves with the greatest opportunity for that success. This can be done by remembering that the basic principles for a successful practice are good clients together with the basic tools to service them. Many accountants seeking to develop their own practice position themselves with large amounts of unnecessary overhead undermining their opportunity for success. Unnecessary costs can be deferred until they become necessary. Obtain only necessary items to service the initial clients. It is important to keep the initial overhead as low as possible to create a positive cash flow quickly to finance the development of the practice.

When starting an Accounting and Tax CPA Firm, it is recommended that accountants start from their home. In today’s technological world, clients are very accepting to accountants working out of their homes. In some respect, it provides the clients with the perception that they are receiving a greater value. They feel if the accountant is incurring less overhead, perhaps part of the savings is being passed on to the clients. By saving the cost of rent and other office expenses, accountants will accelerate their positive cash flow, which may be used for financing the expansion of the practice without going into debt. Once the cash flow is sufficient to support an office, then the accountant can decide if expansion into an office is warranted. Accountants who do work from home may also find they enjoy it so much that they may choose to forgo moving to an outside office.

Another way accountants can maintain a low overhead is by avoiding unnecessary costly software. Numerous accountants procure very expensive unnecessary software to support clients they have yet to develop. There are extremely good software companies that provide an excellent product at a low to medium price range. Drake Tax Software is a very cost-efficient software program that has an excellent reputation. In the September 2011 edition of The Journal of Accountancy, the results of a software survey were published, and Drake Tax Software received an excellent score. Accountants who are starting their own Accounting & Tax CPA Firm are encouraged to pursue good software at affordable prices giving them the basic tools to service clients.

There are many other simple ways accountants starting their own Tax and Accounting Firm can reduce startup costs. Simply the name that accountants decide on for their firms will reduce their initial costs. If accountants would use their first name, middle initial, and last name followed by CPA and/or Certified public Accountant, they may avoid DBA registration costs, bank charges, and filing fees. In addition, active licensed Certified Public Accountants have legal rights to practice public accounting under their own names saving them costs associated with fictitious names. Many times, Certified Public Accountants can choose fictitious names, which would diminish potential clients’ perceptions of them, which in turn would impede a start-up business. For example, a licensed Certified Public Accountant doing business as “Bay City Tax Service” or “Accounting & Tax Service” loses credibility. Prospective clients may perceive this company as uncertified and unlicensed.

Accountants who are considering developing an Accounting/CPA practice and who are currently employed are encouraged not to terminate their employment in pursuit of starting their own Accounting & Tax CPA Firm. Instead, they should develop their practice concurrently while still employed. This can be a time-demanding decision when compared to terminating their employment and devoting full time to their practice; however, the sacrifice is well worth the reward. As the practice grows, accountants can grow with it and transition themselves full-time into their own practice without placing unnecessary financial pressure on themselves or on their families.

With the relief of financial pressure while operating the new practice concurrently with employment, there will be a substantial boost in income without incurring large expenses. Cash reserves will substantially increase as employment income is maintained, and new income will begin to flow in from the new practice as well. This increase in cash reserves will be of great assistance in financing a full-time transition, and this will make the move go more smoothly when the time comes

In making that move to a full-time practice, accountants will find it easiest to transition full-time into their own practice in the month of January. January is the beginning of tax season, and along with it comes the beginning of revenue from income tax preparation. The increase in revenue will come right at the time the accountants need it the very most. It is important that accountants position themselves to begin marketing at the start of tax season to aggressively develop individual tax clients taking full advantage of their first tax season. In addition, January encompasses year-end work for many businesses, such as payroll and financial reporting. This will also add additional revenue to the accountants’ practices in the month of their transition.

January is also the best month of the year to transition full-time into the practice because it may be the best month of the year for developing new businesses as clients. Most business owners resist changing accountants. It takes a very solid reason for a client to leave a predecessor accountant. Once a client makes the decision to change, usually he or she will not invoke the change until the end of the business year not desiring to have two accountants split a fiscal year. Accordingly, year-end is the most opportune time for approaching business owners, and it will make the transition into the full-time practice easier.

Finally, when starting an Accounting and Tax CPA Firm, it is important to avoid marketing services as a commodity or product. This often leads to very low response and low quality of clientele. It also can be extremely expensive. There are volumes of accountants who pursue very expensive marketing programs offered by various companies and who are lured by difficult-to-enforce guarantees. Many of these programs are commodity driven. The accounting industry is not commodity driven; it is driven by trust and loyalty. An accountant’s marketing campaign must be driven by truth, honesty, and professionalism, which will enable a client to be more comfortable knowing that he or she is hiring an accountant who can be trusted.

Accountant or CPAs who are currently employed and seeking to start their own Accounting and Tax CPA firms will find it beneficial to pursue the practice by following some very simple steps:

1) Avoid unnecessary costs and expenses.

2) Consider starting the accounting CPA Practice from home.

3) Develop the practice alongside current employment.

4) Avoid marketing the firm as a commodity or product.

Remember, opportunity starts with action. No action, no opportunity. Accountants who take action provide themselves with the opportunity to succeed. They should start their own CPA and Accounting Firms from home while employed. Their successful experience without jeopardizing their future will provide them the confidence and cash flow they need to enjoy the freedoms in ownership of an Accounting and Tax CPA Firm.

Home Based Baking Business – How to Start and Run Your Business

Before you start a home based baking business, you should know that it takes a special kind of person to run this sort of enterprise. Not only do you have to have full knowledge and be very experienced in this activity; you must also have the dedication, organization, and will power to succeed.

First and foremost, you would need to fill all tax requirements and get any licenses and permits that might be required. If you are unsure that you are the right person for this job, it’s better to find something else right away, because if you come into this career with too much expectation and not enough patience and preparation, you will only be disappointed in the end.

If you feel that you have what it takes to get started in a home based baking business, then you should be ready to move on to the next step: deciding on your niche. What exactly is it you want to do? Do you want to offer a wide variety of baked goods? Do you want to create custom made specialties for festive events? Or run a catering service, or an online bakery store?

Make sure you are specific about what kind of clients you want to reach. This will make marketing that much easier, and allow you to move on to the next step: buying supplies. Everything you buy should be strictly cataloged, with full records, receipts, and without surpassing your pre-determined budget. Never buy more than planned, and only purchase ingredients based on the number of clients you are able to draw in. After all, wasted food is wasted money.

If you don’t already have an accountant, you should get one right at the beginning stages of the company. Having someone else ready to deal with your budget, purchases, tax issues, and other financial issues, allows you to focus on what is most important to you: running your bakery enterprise. This is especially useful when it comes to keeping track of tax-deductible expenses, of which you should have plenty.

Owning your own business in this field can be difficult and overwhelming at times, but if you are prepared and love to bake, it is also a rewarding experience that can lead to financial success and a profitable career. So good luck, and keep on baking.

My Handmade Wedding Invitation Business – How to Start One

Everybody always wants to know how I set up my handmade wedding invitation business. It wasn’t all that difficult really. Anybody could do it. All you need is a little artistic ability and an imagination. And with all the neat stuff they have in the craft shops now, you don’t really even have to have that.

Have you seen all the beautiful papers they have out now. When I first started out you had your choice of white, ecru, and maybe a few pastel colors. And if you wanted them to have any kind of floral design or pattern on them, you had to do it yourself. But when it comes to wedding invitations, you have to be very precise and exact. Nobody wants a paint spattered wedding invitation and the more “store bought” they look the better. Even though it’s an original design, it still has to look professional.

But now you can get all kinds of beautiful papers. Floral patterns and stripes and polka dots. And some of the most breathtaking colors, too. Those days of peach or lavender are long gone! Another thing that’s helped in my design business is the increasing popularity of scrapbookking. With so many people turning to this as a hobby now, the manufacturers who create those products have created hundreds and hundreds of embellishments for those scrapbooks that are just perfect for wedding invitations and stationery.

No matter what theme the bridal party is looking for, you can find something useful in the scrapbookking aisle at your local craft store. I had someone ask me for a beach theme for their wedding stationery a few weeks ago and I found the most beautiful embellishments at the craft shop. They had these little pearlized seashells that matched perfectly with this muted seashell pattern paper that they had. I also found a lovely sand colored paper to use for inserts and finished it all of with a natural raffia bow. They were gorgeous! And the bride loved them!

Computers have helped a lot, too. Years ago, when I first started out, my only option for the lettering on my invitations was calligraphy. Can you imagine?! Hand lettering an invitation is a very time consuming process, even when you know what you’re doing. But now, I can let the bride sit right beside me as we choose the font styles for her invitations and I can even print our samples for her to help her decide. And in the blink of an eye, I can print out all of the inserts I need without ever lifting my calligraphy pen.

Of course, I make sure to make an extra of all of my invitations so I can put them in my portfolio. I have people ask to see samples of my work all the time. Which is only natural. No one buys wedding invitations without being able to see them first. So you see, setting up a handmade wedding invitation business these days is easy!

So You Want to Start a VOIP Business in Uganda?

I have recently been reviewing the business model for a company that is dealing in VOIP. For the uninitiated, VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol(VOIP). It is basically a technology/ies that allows telephone calls to be made over the internet rather than over traditional telephone lines.

I set out my simple and straight forward observations.

First the cons (of course)

1. Internet stability.

Internet in Uganda can be very unreliable and where it is reliable it is very expensive. Now this is very critical as to make calls over the internet you need VERY RELIABLE internet and so this is the starting point for anyone looking to invest in this sector. It is however not uncommon for an ISP to charge $1400 per month for 64 kbps. That’s not a lot of bandwidth as a typical telephone call requires about 8kbps at any time and so 64kbps supports only about 8 simultaneous conversations or less depending on internet conditions. The good news of course is that this is changing with fibre optic cables being laid all the time and so internet costs reduce. My best advice, use ADSL and shared bandwidth. UTL does a good job here, with a great value and generally reliable product if you can get the telephone line.

2. Competition

VOIP prides itself in being cheaper than the traditional telephone companies and many a VOIP provider will give you rates that are much cheaper than the networks. That was until recently. Many telecom providers in Uganda for example Orange have great international calling bundles that give the VOIP provider a run for their money. The VOIP provider is therefore having to compete with the telecom companies in offering customers international calling services. You have to therefore be prepared to look at your financials closely and constantly lest you fall into losses so do yourself a favour, get a good accountant!

3. The Exchange rate

The Uganda shilling is depreciating against the dollar and this may continue to be the case. In 2006 for example the rate was Shs 1,700 to the dollar. In 2011 at the time of writing, it is Shs 2800. For VOIP,this is critical as the main purchase is “digital airtime” from international VOIP providers. This is purchased in dollars and as such the prices charged to customers need to factor in the exchange rate, in addition to ensuring remaining competitive against the BIG BAD WOLVES (I mean the telecom companies).

4. Technology know how

VOIP is a specialised sector and so it of course requires someone with interest but this is not such a significant matter as employing an IT person will help reduce the entreprenuers need to worry about this.

5. Start up capital

From my rough estimates, a typical VOIP business (say a phone shop to support 6 phone booths) can ideally start up business from as little as UGX 8.7m. This should cover; rent at 500k per month (including 2 month deposit bringing it to 1.5m), internet installation and subscription; 700k, purchase of the VOIP and computer equipment; 1.975m, furniture/ fittings; 1m an inverter; 2m, legal and related costs; 700k and signage(to advertise); 500k.

From my analysis, a VOIP business on its own is however not profitable and therefore it is ESSENTIAL to also have an internet cafe running side by side. The costs of the internet cafe side plus the VOIP side stripping out the shared start up costs like rent and inverter will be 20,383,275. I have written about an internet cafe set up costs separately in the article on the internet cafe. The total start up cost is therefore about Shs 20m

AND NOW THE PROS

1. Profitability and quick return on capital

Like the rest of Africa, In Uganda there are tremendous growth opportunities in the ICT/ communications sector and per Uganda Investment Authority, this is one of their key sectors for investment. Call traffic continually increases as Ugandans enjoy higher incomes. Despite the biting inflation, there is a continual increase in call traffic. VOIP is not being left behind and assuming ICT sector growths averaging 25% per year turnover averaging Shs 53m would not be an exaggeration. On the basis of my knowledge of this sector, I set out a summary profitability picture as well as the return on capital (this includes a diversified model which includes an internet cafe). All estimates are in UGX. The exchange rate to the USD is about 1 USD = Shs 2,700.

Gross profit

1.Revenue- calls: 65,520,000. Assuming 7 days a week at 180k per day.

2.Revenue- internet: 13,884,000. Assuming Shs 290k per week from 4 computers and multi purpose maching.

3.Cost of sales: -49,140,000. Assuming it is 75% of revenue for calls on basis of exchange rate and reseller margin.

4.credit transfer cost: -1,228,500. Assuming 2.5% of cost of sales

5.Franchise fee: – 655,200. 1% of revenue-calls.

Gross profit: 28,380,300

Overheads

Rent: Shs 4,800,000

Internet: Shs 3,840,000

Staff costs:Shs 6,000,000

Other overheads: Shs. 1,800,000

Total overheads: 16,440,000

Net Profit: 11,940,300

Capital investment: 20,383,275

Return on Investment: 1.71 years.

2. Return on capital

On the basis of the above profit picture therefore, this business should be able to have a return on capital of 1.71 years. A word of caution here. The model above assumes full capacity growth and so may not necessarily reflect a start up business in say its first few months. In addition the model assumes the internet cafe and call shop will run side by side and concurrently. I have done a separate analysis of the VOIP model on its own and from my analysis it will take 90 years to get a return on your capital! In Uganda, there is therefore no alternative for a VOIP investor but to integrate the call shop and the VOIP services.

3. Diversified services

Despite the fierce competition, a VOIP business can survive by being diverse. Many VOIP providers do not only provide low cost international calls. They also provide other related services like cheap calls on your internet enabled phone, a foreign number(for example USA) even while in Uganda and use of VOIP in homes/offices. Some like http://www.telebm.com provide a special Uganda rate. In addition many integrate an internet cafe within their models as well as selling telephones and accessories. The diverisifed services spread the over head costs and enable continued profitability. In the profitability analysis above, I assume this business is diverse offering both VOIP and internet cafe services.

4. Franchise model.

The beauty about a VOIP business is that it is very scalable meaning you can keep on expanding to other towns, other urban centres, other countries. The typical VOIP provider will give you a software management system which can be accessed anywhere on the internet (after all since calls are made over the internet, call logs are likewise internet based). This gives a key advantage of remote monitoring for the business owner. You don’t have to necessarily worry about revenue as you can remotely monitor the sales(calls) on a real time basis because the call logs display calls(and costs) as they occur. The model can therefore be replicated by having you the business owner setting up agents who also get access to your system. I believe this is the model that http://www.mafudian.co.uk a Ugandan VOIP company is promoting.

SUMMARISING AND THE FINAL WORD

First the numbers

On the basis of my analysis:

* Capital investment(internet and VOIP equipment) (A): Shs 20,383,275

* Revenue per year: Shs 79,404,000

* Profit per year (after all expenses (B) is Shs 11,940,300

* Return on capital(years to get capital back)(A/B) is 1.71 years

Now the basics you must get right before investing.

* Internet stability and reliability. Get a good ISP who supports VOIP

* Diversification of services. Don’t only do the VOIP services, consider an internet cafe, multipurpose machine, WIFI hot spots or even selling cell phones and related accessories.

* Location, Location, Location. This business best thrives in an urban setting with heavy traffic particularly of business users.

* Get an IT person, VOIP can be tricky to continuously configure.

FINAL WORD, YES OR NO?

This is not an easy sector to invest in with internet stability as well as the fierce competition with local telecom companies who now offer some good international calling bundles. Furthermore the exchange rates are continually changing due to the falling shilling hence potentially eating into the profit. I know many VOIP businesses that have failed and so to invest in it you need to have not only technology know how but like looking at the financial numbers as the margins can be very tight! A business which has taken off can however enjoy a significant amount of turnover and diversifying and expansion through franchising seem to hold the key to success.

Traffic to Start Your Website Business

When it comes to an online business, the most important thing to improve on is your online traffic. Online traffic basically means the number of people who visits your website; better traffic means better profits. There are different ways wherein a higher traffic would help improve the profit of a website depending upon the nature of its business. In general, all websites would benefit from a high traffic because they will be able to increase the price of their pay per click links and other advertisements. When advertising on billboards and other locations, prime spots such as streets with high pedestrian or vehicle traffic are the most expensive spots to advertise in, this is the same when it comes to website advertising. A higher traffic would result in higher costs of advertising spots.

A common advertising model is known as pay per click which means the advertiser would pay the website where his advertisement is placed for every person who clicks on that link. The more traffic a website has then that website can charge more. The question which would remain of course is how can you increase the traffic of your online business in order to charge more for each link and advertisement?

There are actually a lot of different ways for you to increase your traffic in order to get your business up and running. The first step in increasing your traffic is to let other people know that your website exists in the first place and one method which is practiced by a lot of other websites is to write and distribute articles or press releases regarding their website. This gives your website some valuable publicity and let people know what you are all about. In distributing press releases and other articles about your website, it is essential that you give them to media which are related to your website’s nature so that you are able to target the people who may be interested in visiting your website thus increasing your traffic faster. This method is known to be the best and most effective way to increase traffic; you may also opt to compliment this by taking advantage of online video streaming websites in order to give your website more publicity. Create a video regarding the nature of your website then distribute them over these video streaming websites. Most of these sites are free so again, you get free publicity. Last, there are free online publications wherein you could place your website.

The online business industry has been estimated to be worth over 600 billion dollars annually, as a result more and more people have entered this business venture in hopes of making it big in the internet. What makes this more appealing is the fact that you will earn in the comfort of your own home. If you are strongly considering this business venture, it is important to learn and practice these methods of increasing your website traffic so you, like a lot of other people, can find success in the world of cyberspace.

How to Start Building a Profitable Affiliate Marketing Business

I remember when I first started out online. I had no clue about how to get customers and how to construct a website that would magically pull in cash from the internet. I thought then that it would be as simple as I had been lead to believe. Just click a few buttons and you will have a website, click a few more and you will have so many customers that you will wear out your shoe leather with all too frequent trips to the bank as you cash your affiliate cheques.

Just a quick note on that point. When signing up with affiliate networks, always be sure to have them pay directly to some form of online bank that you have, it saves time cashing cheques.

It is fine to accept US dollar cheques if you live in the UK as all banks will accept dollar payments, however they will charge you a fee.

Affiliate marketing is a great business once you get it right. You can shorten your learning curve and miss out most of the wasted time associated with a poor apprenticeship by following a few guidelines.

Earning money online by affiliate marketing requires three things. You need a product, you need a website and you need customers that are looking to buy what you have to sell.

It is also possible to do what is known as direct linking, in which case no website is needed, however by direct linking to the vendors website that you are promoting you lose the ability to capture the customers email address which means that you will be unable to offer similar products to that client at a later date. By setting up your own websites to capture leads, you are building the foundations to a solid, long term business.

Template websites are all that is required in order to promote most affiliate products and capture emails whilst being flexible enough to allow a newcomer to easily edit it as required.

Starting your online business by building a search engine optimised website is the right way to begin. You will avoid the cash sucking cost per click trap and attract free, organic customers to your site which is therefore 100% more profitable.

Choose profitable affiliate products by carrying out simple research and determining which ones to promote.

You will also need some website editing software, an FTP client and an auto responder package. All of these are fairly simple to use once you get the hang of it. Sign up to various CPA networks and a few article publishers also right away and your affiliate marketing business will begin on the right footing.

Ways to Finance Your Dream Business: Different Capital Mix to Start Your Business

If you have a business idea, or you think your true calling is to walk an entrepreneurial path, but you are more than broke to start your own business, the only way to make that dream come true is to loan a capital to finance your dream business. Yes, you may have different sources to ask for a business loan. But all are different. Some may not even allow you to loan.

Here, we list down some sources you may ask a loan from and their qualifications so you can trim down your prospect.

Equity Investment

Equity means ownership. Hence, those who have built their businesses are the ones only allowed in this form of loan. If you opt for equity investment, you should be ready to let part of your start up go. Because, once you sell 51 percent of your shares, you lose control of the company. This kind of loan is the same putting a ‘business for sale’ sign on your business.

However, if you’re the kind of owner who likes full command on your business, you may just take a loan from other companies in your business-if you happen to have one. Or loan from your friends, business partners, stockholders or other people you trust and create an agreement with them instead. That would be legal as long as you have mutual agreement with these people. Also, before you indulge in this kind of loan, be sure to know the law to protect yourself.

Personal Savings

Personal Savings is the most common form of equity investment. This means that the fund that you’ll likely get to start your business is through personal savings, inheritance, friends and family. This kind of investment is what most of the people resort to when starting their own business. And it is actually a good thing for investors and money lenders as it signifies that you’re highly committed to the business because you’re willing to risk your personal savings.

In the course of your business, it is advisable to keep your personal investment to at least 25% to increase an equity position and leverage. Remember, the more equity your business has, the more attractive your business is to banks that can loan you as much as three times your business’ equity.

Commercial Loans

This accounts for the second most used form of business owners to finance their companies. According to Business Week, small business loans are declined by 18 percent due to financial crisis. Although this doesn’t mean that your loan would be disapproved because commercial loans are case to case basis. And the only way for your loan to be approved is to abide to the 4 C’s of Lending. Here they are:

Cash Flow: It is the amount of money going around your business or your liquid assets. When applying for a loan, you need to strengthen your cash flow as this signals that you’re able to repay the cash you’re borrowing.

Collateral: It is the value of asset you’re willing to pledge as security for repayment of your loan. This is to assure the lender of your commitment to pay because if nay, the collateral will be forfeited in the event of a default.

Commitment: This is the amount of money that you’re committing to your business. However, this is not as important as the other two aforementioned as your loan can still be approved without disclosing your share.

Character: This covers your personal credit score and history with the financial institution as a whole. This is the very thing that you need to look at if you’re planning to loan. All your debts no matter how small it is should be cleared and you should maintain a good credit rating to increase your chances significantly.

Indeed, there are different institutions to which you can apply for a loan. It all depends on how creative you are on designing your capital mix to get started with your dream business.

Invest $100 Dollars and Grow Enough Seed Capital to Start Your Own Business

Do you have ideas for a business you want to start but do not have the seed capital it takes to get your business idea off the ground? Are you tired of being turned down for small business loans because of your credit or financial status? There is a way you can grow enough seed capital to start your own business and even build a substantial income. If a sixteen-year-old can do it with his lawnmower in one month, then so can you!

One summer day I observed my neighbor’s teenage son as he went door to door with his lawnmower offering to cut grass in our neighborhood. I asked him how many lawns he had cut that week and he said four and needed two more to make $120 dollars. I admired the young man’s determination and ambition and I asked him if he was saving for anything in particular. He told me he wanted to buy a car that cost $1200 dollars that he hoped to have saved by the end of summer.

My neighbor’s son didn’t realize that what he was doing was similar to the concept of compounding money. If he repeated cutting the lawns of the neighbors that paid him weekly and added one more lawn per day each week, his money would grow exponentially. His $120 dollars from the first week of cutting one lawn a day would double the second week to $240 dollars; by adding one more a day the third week to $360 dollars and by the fourth week he would make $480 dollars for his week’s labor. His earnings for four weeks would have totaled $1200 dollars. If he thought he could make enough to buy his car by adding one lawn a day, six days a week, for four weeks, I’m sure he would have done it without any problem. Otherwise, it would take him the entire summer at $120 dollars a week to make his $1200 dollars to buy his car.

This is how compounding your money works. The goal is to take the initial investment and increase it by 30% or higher. Using this example, the first $120 dollars never left the young man’s pocket; his investment object (which was his physical labor) increased his investment ten times by adding to his weekly earnings. He would have earned ten times his initial goal of $120 dollars a week in just four weeks, a 1,000% return!

Imagine if this was your $120 dollars that you started with as your initial investment. The difference being, instead of doing a laborious type work for your money to grow, you used the internet to find investment objects with intrinsic value that you could purchase. You would have enough of a profit margin built-in to locate buyers to purchase your investment object that would give you a Return On Investment (ROI) of 30% or higher. The key to this method of compounding money is to repeat this process by reinvesting your profits back into purchasing objects of greater market value and reselling for a higher ROI.

The great thing about compounding is you can start with whatever amount of money you have to work with. You can start with $100 dollars and build enough seed capital to start two or three businesses. Use the internet to search for investment opportunities that you can invest in and build on. If a sixteen-year-old can do it with his lawnmower, you have a much greater advantage; you don’t need a lawnmower as your tool, you just need the knowledge and then the skill. Knowledge can be acquired, and the skill will come through experience. So gather together your initial start-up capital and get started!

Private Label Manufacturing – Make Your Own – Start a High Profit Business

Private label manufacturing of cleaning products, toiletries and cosmetics is a growing and highly profitable industry.

Many businesses – from hair and beauty salons to cleaning companies, supermarkets and many more – are beginning to realize the value in promoting their own business name and logo, and gaining customer loyalty for their own products, in preference to providing free advertising for multi national conglomerates.

Private label manufacturing gives any business the opportunity to have its own range of products, with its own brand name and label, for which customers must return exclusively to them to re-purchase.

With the correct formulations, these products can be as good as, if not better, than the leading brands. Private label manufacturing allows you to choose the quality of your ingredients and know exactly what is in the products you are using and selling to your customers.

You don’t need to hire a private manufacturer in order to produce your own range of products. You can easily and safely do it yourself. In fact, you can even manufacture products for other companies.

Private label manufacturing is also extremely profitable. If you have an existing business and use cleaning products, toiletries, skin or hair care products on a regular basis, you have the potential to save a substantial sum.

If you’re looking to start a business, or increase your existing income, cosmetic and chemical manufacturing has little competition for such a huge market.

The profit margins in private label manufacturing are something most outsiders find amazing – a bottle of shampoo which sells for $10 or more can cost as little as 50 cents to make from raw ingredients.

Private label manufacturing is also surprisingly easy – if you can follow simple directions, you can easily mix together the ingredients required to make everything from window cleaner and laundry detergent, to deodorant and air freshener, self-tanning spray, acne treatments, mineral make-up, etc. You can use exactly the same raw ingredients as the major cosmetic and chemical manufacturers.

Private label manufacturing is a highly profitable service to offer for fundraising and promotional activities for sports clubs, schools, service organizations, and similar groups.

Private label manufacturing does not require an expensive laboratory and equipment – it can easily be done from home or workshop.

The formulations are not common knowledge – which means it is an extremely difficult business for others to copy. This also explains why the major manufacturing companies are some of the wealthiest corporations in the world.

Private label manufacturing is a unique and prestigious business offering unlimited opportunities to expand further in many directions.

Why Not Start Your Own Photography Business?

If you want to start your own photography business, it is a good idea to check what competitors you have in your area or the competition in your style or subject of photography. Have you ever noticed that people’s photography skills shine when they take photo’s of things they really love and are interested in? A clever way to go about building for yourself a photography business is to start by taking photographs of things you really love, and create your own niche market and perspective in that area, that way you will stand out in the crowd.

All good artists, whatever format they use, project through their art, things that interest them, things that have impacted on them in some way, and they aim to share that same feeling with others viewing their work. It is the differences in art styles, the attention to different details that makes one artist appeal to you more than others. It is these differences that created fame for the artists Monet and Picasso, who painted as they themselves viewed the world, and not as someone else views it.

The most interesting photographs are those that reveal to the onlooker something that they have not seen, felt or heard of before. People are interested in learning how others see the world and that can be achieved through photography. An experienced and talented photographer is able to communicate the feelings that certain landscapes, architecture and events conjure up inside of them through their photos. Many famous photographers have gained popularity from photographs they originally thought wouldn’t be that interesting to other people, and have ended up with a photography business from enjoying their hobby rather than from something they had planned. It is both the unusual and the common, that makes an interesting subject for photography, and it is up to the artist to place a particular perspective, or make a statement on that subject through their work.

Many great artists, who are or have been famous, were not born famous; they achieved their position through hard work, by following their inspiration, through perseverance and expressing their passion. People who want to break into the photography business must believe in themselves and their work, they have to think of themselves as an artist, and although they might not be as well known as other artists it does not mean that their work or their talent is of any less worth, it simply means that they are not well known yet.

There are many helpful websites that give tips on photography, and how to start your own photography business. There are even websites that give you ideas on how to sell your photos on different products to people or businesses around the world. If you want to start your own photography business, it is a good idea to begin by researching online on how other people just like you managed to create their business, what they have learnt from their mistakes, and their tips and advice for beginners. Placing your photography on a website will also give you a much greater advantage in being recognised either as an artist or as a business compared to other options that are available.

Passion is contagious, if you are passionate about certain people, music, animals, or foods in life, capture this with your camera, try and express your feelings through your photos, doing this is bound to stir up an interest in and draw people to your work. Maintaining your passion for photography must be sustained throughout your business endeavours because passion is visible, and your work will reflect your attitude. It is wise to seek the help from business coaches, or by following set business plans when you are starting out in a photography business, as this will enable you to concentrate on maintaining your passion and artistic flair for photography throughout the initial challenges