Starting and running a business is no easy feat. In order to make money, there's so many things to learn, so many things to consider, and so many things to know. 

To help our readers, we've compiled great tips and tactics from recently published books and magazines on various aspects of entrepreneurship: 

On Starting Your Home Business
On Choosing the Best Home Business
On Choosing a Niche
On Defining Your Business Model
On Defining Your Target Market
On Positioning Your Products/Services
On Defining Your Unique Selling Proposition
On Developing an Elevator Pitch
On Starting Slow
On Raising Capital for Your Business
On Getting Financing from Angel Investors
On Getting Financing from Venture Capitalists
On Understanding the Financials of Your Business
On Protecting Your Product/Idea
On Product Distribution
On Building Your Brand
On Getting Customers
On Customer Service
On Getting Publicity
On Using Tradeshows to Market the Business
On Networking
On Email Marketing
On Employee Management
On Retailing
On Ecommerce or Internet Retailing
On Search Engine Marketing
On Balancing Your Business with Family
On Becoming Successful

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On Starting Your Home Business

“There are eight proven steps to starting and succeeding with a cottage company you’ve selected. Here they are:

• Know your business.
• Know your customers
• Know the law
• Know your assets
• Add real value
• Keep good customers
• Manage money wisely
• Do it better”

- Dan Ramsey, “101 Best Home Businesses,” pp. 17-19

On Choosing the Best Home Business

“Here are 10 vital steps to finding and making your own business a success:

• List 5 things you do best
• List how others would benefit from what you do best
• Find out how to give people what they want
• Learn the value of your services to others
• Find out who else offers similar services
• Learn from the successes of others
• Learn from the failures of others
• Plan your own success
• Make low cost mistakes
• Enjoy what you do and how you do it”

- Dan Ramsey, “101 Best Home Businesses,” pp. 24-26

On Choosing a Niche

“Your position should be defensible. Don’t be so broad that you’ll invite competition you can’t compete with. At the same time, don’t be so narrow that even with 100% of the market, you still can’t make a living.”

- Seth Godin, “If You’re Clueless About Starting Your Own Business and Want to Know More,” p. 34

On Defining Your Business Model

“To do this you need to answer two questions:

• Who has the money in their pockets?
• How are you going to get it into your pocket?

More elegantly stated, the first question involves defining your customer and the pain that he feels. The second question centers around creating a sales mechanism to ensure that your revenues exceed your costs.”

- Guy Kawasaki, “The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything”, p. 14

"Howard Schultz (of Starbucks) didn't invent coffee and Ray Croc (of McDonalds) didn't invent hamburgers. It doesn't mean you have to invest the idea; it's just – how can you make it better?"

- Maxine Clark, Founder of Build-a-Bear Workshop as interviewed in Tamara Monosoff, "Secrets of Millionaire Moms" P, 56

On Defining Your Target Market

“Demographics – age, race, sex, income, location – don’t go very far in explaining and predicting human behavior. That’s why marketers increasingly use personas – named profiles that represent members of each key customer group, and describe their characters, personalities, tastes and quirks. It’s hard to target a message to a generic 35-year-old middle class working mother of two. It’s much easier to target a message to Jennifer, who has two children under four, works as a paralegal, and is always looking for quick but health dinners and ways to spend more time with her kids and less time on housework.”

- Elizabeth Gardner, “Personalizing a Site,” (Internet Retailer, November 2007, p. 33)

On Positioning Your Products/Services

“You don’t always need to position yourself as the best to beat out your competitors – but you do need some good numbers. You can stack the facts in your favor. McDonald’s built its success counting hamburgers sold.

List any measurements you have for your company’s deliverables, such as delivery itself. Do you measure the accuracy of shipments, or how quickly you get the orders out the door? Do you measure returns? You want to make this kind of definitive claim: We have a 98% customer retention rate. Or: 90 percent of all oil and gas companies use our machinery. Or: We install a million yards of electrical cable each month.

Now, ask yourself, What are you not measuring today in your company that could give you competitive positioning statements? Which one of your deliverables, if done right, casts a favorable shadow effect on everything else you do?"

- Jaynie L. Smith, “Creating Competitive Advantage: Think You Know Your Company’s Competitive Advantage” p. 136