It very much depends on your business, but if you\'re running a small storefront in a local area, then location can be incredibly important. What you need to consider when choosing a location is availability of your prospective clientele, their ability to access your establishment, the potential employee pool, and the number of competitors nearby. Be sure to be liberal in your definition of "competitor" when you\'re considering this. Just because you run a bakery doesn\'t mean the sports bar down the way won\'t be drawing people into large, filling meals and pouring lots of alcohol that could prevent them from taking advantage of your lovely Black & White cookies.

First, let us recommend that you consult an expert on this, as setting price levels can be a complicated process. However, just as a basic idea, prices are based on a few major considerations. The first thing you need to consider is your direct costs (actual material costs), labor, and overhead (facilities, utilities, taxes, insurance, security, and general operating costs). When you add all of these things up, you have the break-even cost. From that point, you have to determine what you\'d like your profit to be. Again, that is a very complicated decision, and we suggest talking to a financial adviser before settling on something.

Marketing is much more than just advertising and selling. It involves learning about the market you want to sell to, understanding what they can afford, and how best to approach them. There are four basic aspects to marketing: product (description of what you’re selling), price (how much it costs), promotion (how you inform people of what you’re selling), and place (the distribution channels you use to get the product to the market). Keeping those in mind, you have a very basic concept of what is actually involved in marketing.

The first thing you should do is consult an accountant or financial planner as they will be able to answer your questions in much more detail than we can here. That being said, at the very minimum, your records should show your tax returns, both federal and state, including income tax and Social Security, requests for credit from vendors or bank loans, and claims about the business in regards to selling it. However, we suggest that you keep much more detailed records than this that include credits and debits for the day, payroll, etc. A professional financial planner can help you determine what you need for your specific business.

Telecommunications can mean many things, but keep in mind that all small businesses share several common needs, specifically, the need to serve sales, purchases, financing, and operational functions. Your telecommunications option should be the one that best serves all of these functions. This covers things as simple as your long distance carrier to your internet provider and even fax machine. Only you can know what is most appropriate for your specific business in this regard, but think in terms of meeting the service needs listed above.

Wages are a tricky thing, but generally they’re set on the basis of position importance and skill requirements. What you should do is consult your accountant and trade association for the most current practices in your area, as well as cost ratios and profit margins. There is a federal minimum wage and several states have one, but for the most part once you have an idea of what the standard is, wage is something that you work out with your prospective employee.

If you\'re looking to import from Mexico, you want to contact the Trade Commission of Mexico in Los Angeles (350 S. Figueroa St, Suite 296, Los Angeles, California 90071, phone # (213) 628-1220). However, that\'s for general information. The US doesn\'t require a specific importer\'s license, but you will be asked for your "importer\'s number," which is either the IRS tax number of your business, or your social security number if you don\'t have a registered business. Otherwise, contact your local Customs office for more information on the paperwork you\'ll need. Also, read this document from the US Customs website: http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/trade/iius.ctt/iius.pdf

This is an excellent question because it applies to so many business owners that simply don’t know what business they’re in. I don’t mean to sound insulting, but take a moment to actually look at your business and ask yourself what you do. Are you a laptop salesman? Or are you a laptop repairman? It sounds to me more like you’re in the repair business than the retail business. So scale back your retail operation and focus instead on the repair work where you’re making the most profit. There’s nothing wrong with cutting off parts of your business that are unprofitable, and when you realize what business you’re really in, you’ll find it’s also much easier to do that work and give you a better sense of where you want to go in the future.

When you say “more customers,” that implies that you have some to begin with. If that\'s the case, then you have the seeds of new customers already. Start giving referral bonuses to your current customers if they bring new people to your business. Let them have 10% off of cleaning services if they get you five new customers, for example. You can compound this by going a little bit extra with your current customers by doing things like sending thank you notes on a major holiday or simply asking if there\'s anything you can do to improve your service. If your current customers see you as attentive and interested in their business, they\'ll be more likely to recommend you to your friends.

This largely depends on your specific situation. First of all, is this vehicle an integral part of your business (like a shipping business), or is it a way to make the running of your business more convenient (as in a company car for you or an employee)? Is having a new vehicle every two or three years with no major repair risks more important than long-term cost? Or are long term cost savings more important than lower monthly payments? Is having some ownership in your vehicle more important than low up-front costs and no down payment? Is it important to you to pay off your vehicle and be debt-free for a while, even if it means higher monthly payments for the first few years? It doesn\'t make a specific difference to your business in the sense that there are no provisions for buying or leasing that have a direct impact on it. However, the same considerations that you would take for a personal vehicle in regards to buying or leasing still apply in this case. Please contact your business CPA and ask them the same question, they do know much more about your business and would be a better source regarding your financial/business conditions.

WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU CHECK WITH YOUR OWN INDIVIDUAL TAX ADVISOR PLEASE Some tax related time frames, such as your tax return filing deadline or the due date to pay the IRS estimated tax payments, are clear-cut. But when it comes to tax records and how long to keep tax records, the answer is far from simple. Tax records such as receipts, canceled checks, and other documents that prove to the IRS an item of income or a tax deduction appearing on your tax return should be kept until the statute of limitations expires for that tax return. Usually this is three years from the date the tax return was due or tax return was filed with the IRS, or two years from the date the tax was paid to the IRS, whichever is later. This is the time period in which the IRS can question your tax return - typically three years after it is filed. There is no statute of limitations when a tax return is false or fraudulent or when no tax return is filed with the IRS. You should keep some tax records indefinitely, such as tax records relating to property, since you may need those tax records to prove to the IRS the amount of gain or loss if the property is sold. WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU CHECK WITH YOUR OWN INDIVIDUAL TAX ADVISOR PLEASE

There are specific laws dealing with how internet radio pays for the use of licensed music, originally outlined by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) passed in 1998. It established rules and guidelines for how much internet radio has to pay. However, at the time that amount was really restrictive. There has been an ongoing debate about it since then, and only as recently as September 2008 did the US Congress pass a law stating that the amount of royalties an internet radio broadcaster has to pay would be based on a percentage of revenue, and January 2009 when that was accepted as official by the US Copyright Royalty Board.

Our answer might seem a little incomplete, but we do not know what type of product you are trying to present to children or their age group. Children are among the most highly sought-after marketing demographics in the country. Part of this answer depends on what you mean by “children,” as marketing to teenagers is vastly different from marketing to kids under ten, for example, but there are some tips that remain the same for both. First, remember that in the end the parents control the purse strings. While they might not be directly exposed to your advertising a lot of the time, the way you present your product is going to affect how the kids present it to their parents, so make sure that what you\'re selling has a benefit that will appeal to the adults as well as the kids. Make sure also that you\'re placing your product where kids are most likely to have access to it. Mall stores are going to be much better than large chain superstores if only because kids are more likely to hang out at malls than their local Walmart or Target. If you have your own store, find ways to also make it a hangout for kids. If the kids are there, they\'ll be more likely to buy your product or at least be exposed to it. With children it\'s also extremely important to keep an eye on trends. Clever marketing finds way to take what is currently “in” and use it to draw the attention of the target audience, in your case, children. Older kids often like the same things as younger kids, but attempt to show that in an ironic way, like taking a popular cartoon character and making a t-shirt with a witty or mocking statement regarding said character. With kids it\'s even more important to think out of the box and craft a marketing approach and presence that will make owning your product, ultimately, fun.

WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU CHECK WITH YOUR OWN INDIVIDUAL TAX ADVISOR PLEASE That largely depends on what business you\'re in, but the trick with tax and record keeping programs is to take the time to figure out your needs. Do you collect sales tax at the register? Look for software such as Trustfile that supports e-filing for sales and use tax (required in certain states). Do you buy a lot of equipment that\'s deductible? Look for business-friendly features, such as a comprehensive Schedule C section for managing deductions (available in TurboTax Premier, but not the less expensive versions). Do you have a sole proprietorship and work at home? If so, you\'ll need help in navigating tricky subjects such as the home-office deduction, which TaxCut Premium and TurboTax Premier support. Do you have employees or run a corporation? In this case, look at higher-end products, such as TurboTax Business. Once you figure out what you need, do some research to compare the various products out there. Sites like www.toptenreviews.com are great for providing side-by-side comparisons of the features available to various programs. When you know what you need done, it\'ll be easy to whittle down the options to the one that best fits your needs. WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU CHECK WITH YOUR OWN INDIVIDUAL TAX ADVISOR PLEASE

Without knowing your business we will try our best to give you some options to work with. There are several ways to stay competitive when you find that there are more people in your market space than when you originally started. First, I would ask myself a question, what if I went beyond the 20 mile radius, is my competition more or less? Depending on your own answer please consider the following suggestions. Keep in mind that you have an advantage over them since you\'ve been there longest and therefore are established and have a customer base already. If you want to keep that customer base, though, you\'ll have to get creative with your marketing. Try offering deals and benefits for your regular customers that encourage them to stay. 10% off coupons and the like go a long way toward maintaining a customer base. Also, since you still need to bring in new customers, referral bonuses will turn your customer base into a marketing machine for you, encouraging the people who have stayed loyal to your business to bring in friends, even ones who have considered your competitors. Holding an event also tends to draw attention to your business rather than the other people who are doing the same thing, so don\'t be afraid to bring people in with raffles, small prizes, or similar things that are fun for your customers and get them to come to you. Most importantly, watch your competitors and see what they\'re doing. How did they get started? How did they draw the attention of people in your area to begin with? If it worked for them, it can work for you as well. Don\'t be afraid to think outside of the box with your marketing and your presence.

In most cases, it doesn\'t really matter. Most small businesses use the calendar year for simplicity. However, it can be useful to use a fiscal year if your business has a busy season at a particular time. For example, this adviser was previously in the toy business working at a toy manufacturer. We made the bulk of our sales to retailers in the last quarter of the calendar year for the holiday season. We got paid for these sales January through March. In this situation, we ended our fiscal year in March and started the new year April 1. That is an example of when a fiscal year makes sense. Tourist businesses may also benefit from a fiscal year. We would urge you to speak with your accountant regarding your particular new business.