If you are interested in starting a business teaching people how to cook, you may want to check the International Association of Culinary Professionals http://www.iacp.com/ as they have a Cooking School subcommittee, which provides information and networking opportunities for starting a cooking school. They have a publications area, which may have information on how to start a cooking school. Contact them at: International Association of Culinary Professionals304 West Liberty Street – Suite 201Louisville, KY 40202 USATelephone US (502) 581-9786Fax US (502) 589-3602E-mail: iacp@hqtrs.com It is important to check with your local health department for the requirements of starting a cooking

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If you are planning to start a business importing items into the USA, I suggest you read the following US Bureau of Custom’s papers Importing into the United States: A Practical Guide for Commercial Importers — this is a 200-page document that tells you the eligible items you can import and the invoices required, among other things How Cargo Flows Securely into the US US Embassy (look at the last page as it has a good link of websites for additional info) Other websites worth checking are: CMTAC Trade Information Database http://latrade.cmtac.org/trade_info/index.cfm Dont’s of Importing http://www.gattiassociates.com/CM/Articles/Articles1277.asp Flowchart of the export

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When thinking of starting a home business, many are torn between starting their own business or buying into a home business opportunity. In my opinion, the benefit of business opportunity is that you are buying into a business that has already been setup and may have proved successful to others. It reduces the time and cost of starting a business from scratch, especially if the bizopp already provides the tools you need (e.g. a website template, marketing tips and manuals, etc.). The downside of bizopps is that it may be beneficial only to the owner of the program – not

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Business plan competitions have become an important venue for finding investors. Jenny Lefcourt, co-founder of WeddingChannel.com, found venture capital to support her business at a school business plan competition. Other competitions award cash prizes that the entrepreneur can use to jumpstart the business. If this is something you want to try, here are some of the business plan competitions: Oxford University Business Plan Competition (2006 competition has lapsed but you can try next year) http://www.science-enterprise.ox.ac.uk/html/busplan_timetable.asp USF International Business Plan Competitionhttp://www.usfca.edu/sobam/nvc/bpc/ Tech Valley Business Plan competitionhttp://www.techvalley.org/Pages/News%20_%20Events/Tech%20Valley%20News/1-24-2006.html IBK Capital Ivey Business Plan competitionhttp://www.iveybpc.com/ International Business Plan Competition for Poverty Reduction and Profithttp://www.nextbillion.net/event/2006/02/07/bid-challenge-2006-the-international-business-plan-competition-for-poverty-reduction-and-profit

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Bad times can be good times for certain types of businesses, particularly the credit collection business. With interest rates rising, cost of money becomes more expensive squeezing many businesses. As a result, they are unable to pay on their debt obligations or get delayed in their payments to their creditors, vendors and suppliers. It is one big ouch for the company waiting to be paid, but bonanza for credit collection businesses. So how can you start a credit collection business? The first thing is to have an understanding of the laws of credit and collection. Lawdog.com http://www.lawdog.com/state/laws.htm offers law information

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Link exchanges when it all started was a noble idea — I link to your site so my visitors can check out your site, and you link my site so your visitors can also check out my site. A tit-for-tat exchange. Until link exchange figured prominently in the search engines algorithms. Then the process of link exchange became muddled with trickeries. For those requiring link exchanges, some webmasters will show a page where the reciprocal link is found — but that page cannot be found anywhere on their website because it is well hidden away from visitors’ view. That page’s

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There are several ways to help you find out if the business is real or fake: 1. Get their business credit report. For US businesses, you can check their business credit report at Dun and Bradstreet , or a cheaper alternative is Experian Business 2. Check with Mapquest the accuracy of the address. It can be as simple as this, but one website that advertised with us looks incredibly professional but the address does not exist. They paid us with stolen credit card. 3. BBB member – note that BBB is a non profit organization, not government agency that requires

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I got my copy of Internet Retailer magazine’s 2005 Top 500 Guide http://www.internetretailer.com/top500/index.asp , and it contains a lot of very interesting information In 2005, the leading items over the Internet in terms of sales are: Mass merchant/department store = $18.267 billion in sales Computers/electronics = $17.667 B Office supplies = $10.323 B Apparel/accessories = $7.061 B Books/CDs/DVDs = $2.500 B Housewares/home furnishings = $2.416 B Specialty/non apparel = $2.325 B Food/drug = $1.872 B Health/beauty = $1.748 B Flowers/gifts = $1.203 B Sporting goods = $1.336 B Hardware/home improvement = $0.851B Toys/hobbies = $0.740 B Jewelry = $0.615 B

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I was answering a question on tips to starting and managing a restaurant business, and would like to share some of the great resources I’ve found: Restaurant Guide to Waste Reduction and Recycling Culinary Institute’s Food preparation tips IRS Restaurant Tax Tips (VERY IMPORTANT!) Retaurant Management Tips Restaurant’s Voice “First Impression Tips for Restaurant Owners” Restaurant Startup and Growth Magazine How to Create a Winning Restaurant Business Plan Noise Control Strategies for Startup Restaurateurs The Easiest Way to Cut Your Food Cost 10% Thirteen Ways to Prevent Theft Behind the Bar How to Conduct Effective Pre-Shift Meetings Maintaining a Positive

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I have received several emails from visitors asking how they can get a loan to start their business when they don’t have good credit. The reality is that if you don’t have a good credit, you may have a tough time getting a loan from financial institutions, even from SBA. SBA requires a number of factors to avail of their loans, and one of them is good credit history (see SBA Basic requirements). Your chances become even dimmer if you have no collateral or say that you are going to start a home-based business. Many banks and financial institutions see

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I’m always on the lookout on how to improve returns on our PPC investment (not that we’re a big spender). Here are some techniques I’ve found useful: 1. Check the ad copy and landing pages on your ads (or if you have 100s of ads, at least the top 20) – is the ad copy specific to the search phrase? Is the landing page enticing, and does it have any call to action (buy now, subscribe or whatever your call to action is). 2. Analyze your results. Put in an excel spreadsheet your raw PPC advertising sales data, and cost

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