Question
I recently bought a dump truck to haul rock and sand. How do I figure out how much to charge for this? I have been told to charge customers by the ton per mile. How do you figure that, or is there a better way to charge them?
Answer
We don’t know this because we don’t run [...]

Question
How can I find a sincere partner who believes in my art and will help me start a business selling it on products or selling original art and prints. I have no way to finance my business and need help with that too.
Answer
You need, what is called in the private sector financing world, an Angel. [...]

Question
What are ways a small business can attract talented personnel?
Answer
The issue of attracting personnel to a small business is a challenge. However, the only answer is to take what may be perceived as a weakness and turn it into a strength. Therefore the answer you seek lies in the proper selection of the right [...]

Question
I am in the process of writing a business plan and I need to find a management team with experience in Internet start-ups. I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction? Where would I begin to search for my management team?
Answer
An interesting article on the subject is found at this site
Ask [...]

Question
If I have to get into business afresh, assuming I don’t have any idea what business, market, etc., what could I possibly do, to get a feel of it and understand the aspect of business.
Answer
At this point your best option would be looking into different franchising opportunities. They usually offer in-depth training and have existing [...]

Question
I am a start-up company (not yet in operation) that intends to offer both products and services to the retail community and textile apparel manufacturing companies domestically and internationally. I have extensive contacts in the industry (at many levels) and over 16 years experience of working in the field and at senior management levels. I [...]

Question
I have been turned down by my bank (working with the SBA), for a loan of $45,000 to purchase an existing restaurant in Key West.
I am a woman, own my own home, have good credit but virtually no collateral. I do not have cash on hand to contribute but could potentially get a separate loan [...]

Question
I recently started a computer consulting business with my partner. We did all the paperwork with the state and have already established all our telephone and banking needs. We’ve launched a Web page for advertisement and printed our business cards and have been giving them out to our friends.
The problem is since we are fairly [...]

Question
Is it good to apply for help from more then one funding source (i.e. SBA loan, business grant and Angel Investor money) all at the same time???
Would this appoach give more chance for funding success, taken for granted that the business plan itself is high quality?
Answer
Give no second thought to three very important factors:

Get [...]

Question
How/where do I find specific information on my competitors (profit, etc.) to include in my business plan without asking them outright?
Answer
The most logical place to go is a source book containing ratio performance for all types of business enterprises. Robert Morris Associates is perhaps the most well known source for this data. Only publicly held [...]