The Business on a Shoestring series helps small business owners grow their business imaginatively, effectively and without spending a fortune. Aimed at entrepreneurs with plenty of vision and commitment but not a lot of cash, each book is packed with ideas that really work, real-life examples, step-by-step advice and sources of further information. Having an online presence is essential for most businesses these days. Don't think that a small budget means that you can't compete with larger organisations: if your site is well laid out and your content compelling, you can! This revised edition shows the way, covering topics such as: Choosing the right domain name; Smartening up a basic website; Driving traffic to your website; Analysing web traffic; Affiliate marketing; Search engine listings/optimisation; Taking advantage of free (and safe!) software and training; Relationship networking; Tapping into new or growing trends: Web alerts, RSS, Voice over Internet Protocols, instant messaging, espotting 'a great little package' The Bookseller

Fully updated the Good Small Business Guide 2013 is packed with essential advice for small business owners or budding entrepreneurs. Containing 140 easy to read articles, and an extensive information directory, this comprehensive guide offers help on all aspects of starting and growing a small business.

Fully updated for this 7th annual edition, the Good Small Business Guide 2013 is packed with essential advice for small business owners or budding entrepreneurs. Offering help on all aspects of starting, running and growing a small business, including: planning, setting up or acquiring a business, getting to grips with figures, marketing, selling online, and managing yourself and others. Containing over 140 easy-to-read articles and an extensive information directory this fully updated guide offers help on all aspects of starting and growing a small business. Features a foreword from the National Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses.

Teaching Goes High-Tech Online education is experiencing a huge growth spurt. The number of students taking online classes increased 24 percent in the past year-and this growth is only expected to continue. Don't let this lucrative opportunity pass you by. Take your teaching global by offering courses online. Learn everything you need to know to set up a successful online education business: Find financing, write a business plan, choose a business structure and learn other business basics Develop exciting courses in the four most popular areas-IT, health care, education and business-as well as niche markets Promote your business and attract students through online newsletters, search engine optimization and other innovative techniques Design a user-friendly website and provide high-quality tech support Train instructors in this new education medium, or teach courses yourself And more! Real-life stories from successful entrepreneurs show you exactly what you need to do to set up and run a profitable business. Now's the perfect time to get started with an online education business-and with this book, you're well on your way to success. The First Three Years In addition to industry specific information, you’ll also tap into Entrepreneur’s more than 30 years of small business expertise via the 2nd section of the guide - Start Your Own Business. SYOB offers critical startup essentials and a current, comprehensive view of what it takes to survive the crucial first three years, giving your exactly what you need to survive and succeed. Plus, you’ll get advice and insight from experts and practicing entrepreneurs, all offering common-sense approaches and solutions to a wide range of challenges. • Pin point your target market • Uncover creative financing for startup and growth • Use online resources to streamline your business plan • Learn the secrets of successful marketing • Discover digital and social media tools and how to use them • Take advantage of hundreds of resources • Receive vital forms, worksheets and checklists From startup to retirement, millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners have trusted Entrepreneur to point them in the right direction. We’ll teach you the secrets of the winners, and give you exactly what you need to lay the groundwork for success. BONUS: Entrepreneur’s Startup Resource Kit! Every small business is unique. Therefore, it’s essential to have tools that are customizable depending on your business’s needs. That’s why with Entrepreneur is also offering you access to our Startup Resource Kit. Get instant access to thousands of business letters, sales letters, sample documents and more – all at your fingertips! You’ll find the following: The Small Business Legal Toolkit When your business dreams go from idea to reality, you’re suddenly faced with laws and regulations governing nearly every move you make. Learn how to stay in compliance and protect your business from legal action. In this essential toolkit, you’ll get answers to the “how do I get started?” questions every business owner faces along with a thorough understanding of the legal and tax requirements of your business. Sample Business Letters 1000+ customizable business letters covering each type of written business communication you’re likely to encounter as you communicate with customers, suppliers, employees, and others. Plus a complete guide to business communication that covers every question you may have about developing your own business communication style. Sample Sales Letters The experts at Entrepreneur have compliled more than 1000 of the most effective sales letters covering introductions, prospecting, setting up appointments, cover letters, proposal letters, the all-important follow-up letter and letters covering all aspects of sales operations to help you make the sale, generate new customers and huge profits.

Teaching Goes High-Tech Online education is experiencing a huge growth spurt. This book shows what you need to know to set up a successful online education business: find financing, write a business plan, choose a business structure and learn other business basics; develop exciting courses in popular areas - IT, health care, and education.

A Complete Guide to Starting and Growing Your Own Business On A Shoestring Budget The Cheat Sheet for Business. For the millions who start a new business every year on the barest of resources, Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible is like hiring a high-level consultant to deal with the bewildering maze of issues from finance to marketing to technology that all entrepreneurs face. Every business is nothing but a series of decisions which can make or break the business. You could say that, if there's a science of business, it's the science of making good decisions. And every bootstrap entrepreneur faces the daunting task of making ALL the business decisions, any one of which could either doom the enterprise or catapult it to stratospheric success. That meas that every entrepreneur has to quickly get up to speed on every issue their business faces. Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible is the most exhaustive set of practical resources collected to empower entrepreneurs to make the right decisions on a limited budget, from business concept to product development to Web marketing. We call a "consultant in a book," there to give considered and experienced answers to the infinite questions that come up. Shoestring Venture-The Start-up Bible All entrepreneurs - even the smallest operating on the tightest of budgets - have the opportunity to build powerful start-up organizations without ever really having to walk out the front door. Using global communications and data networks, even bootstrap entrepreneurs can staff an entire organization with every human resource and skill they need at rock-bottom prices. In short, anyone can run a virtual organization using only a desktop or laptop computer. Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible gives bootstrap entrepreneurs all the resources they need to build truly effective startups using the magic of outsourcing and offshoring. This is the century for small business . . . You have the tools to build a powerful start-up organization, from financing to product development to marketing, without ever really having to walk out your front door. Using global communications and data networks, you can staff an entire organization with every human resource and skill you need at rock-bottom prices. You are, in short, running a virtual organization using only a desktop or laptop computer. It's the magic of outsourcing. It means that you can be a pretty formidable player in the business world. Why? Because it permits you to focus your energies on what brings real value to your business-what you do best. That's what this book is all about. Shoestring Venture gives you the tools you need to start your new venture or take your current business several levels higher by exploiting the resources our interconnected world offers you. Chapters: Startup, Finance, Taxes, & Banking, Hardware and Software, Bringing Your Products to Market, Outsourcing Your Back Office, Information Technology, Web and Ecommerce, and Promoting Your Product: Marketing & Sales

Outsourcing is the movement of workload to another source which can provide assistance in that particular area for an agreed price either as a onetime service or as an ongoing complementing service. In doing so, the principal company can effectively save time, get staff to be more committed and speedier work results. The essence of outsourcing is simply engaging the services of an individual or organization outside your full time staff to handle certain aspects of your business plan. These aspects may be public relations, marketing, clerical and administrative functions, or IT management. In fact, with today's virtual environment, there is really no part of the business that could not be outsourced effectively. Of course, the big question is whether or not there are any benefits to outsourcing, especially for persons who are building their business on the Internet. There are several good reasons to outsource certain functions. Often times, an Internet business is set up with a shoestring budget and one person doing all the work. As the business grows, it is easy to get caught up in dealing with general office functions, such as answering emails, handling correspondence and maintaining client lists. By outsourcing your clerical support needs, you can spend more time focusing on the expansion of your business, not the day-to-day details of running it. Second, promoting your online presence is a full time job all by itself. You can hardly manage that and still be involved in making the big decisions that impact the overall operations of your company. Using outside agents to promote your presence and to stimulate sales makes it possible for you to do what owners need to do, which is grow the companies' roster of goods and services. Last, outsourcing allows you not to get bogged down with employee taxes, withholding and providing a benefit package.