Just watched a very interesting and eye opening documentary called Food Inc. about the current state of the food industry and how a hand full of companies are controlling the entire food chain. Even though the movie shows the state of the food industry in the USA, I would assume a similar system exists in more of the developed nations.

I was amazed to know that one of the basic ingredient of 90% of the food in the super market shelf is “corn”. Yes, you heard me right. Corn is used as a basic currency in the food industry. It is even fed to cows (which are actually herbivores and eat grass) so that they gain more weight, quicker. The downside is that corn causes e-coli to grow in the cows stomach which then comes out via the excrement and spreads to other healthy cows and finally ends up in the ground beef that is used to make the hamburgers in the fast food chains.

In fact it is the low cost system of the fast food chains that encourages this kind of corn based food chain and is leading to a whole slew of problems including environmental damage on top of the human health cost.

I recommend you check out the Food Inc website and watch the movie if possible. The take away from the movie is to start thinking about what is in your food, buy locally produced food, stay away from fast food restaurants and eat healthy food and more…

This afternoon, after having played the Ariel board game (5+) with my young daughter, my older daughter and my wife, we were in the mood to play a board game and decided to check on the app store. We found Scrabble featured on the app store and since I had always been a fan of scrabble decided to give it a try even though it was priced at $10 / £6.

I found the Scabble app on the iPad really awesome. Some of the nice features are:

Feels just like playing on the real board and some.

With multiplayer mode, we could use our iPhones as tile rays – needed a simple Bluetooth set up.

The board rotates automatically after it recognizes that the are two players.

The whole game looks polished with great user interface and music.

I and Nikki loved it!

Ever since I bought my iPad, I have not been using it much except for some casual browsing and my daily dose of morning tech rss feeds via.

The main issue is that since iOS4 is not available on iPad yet, I would have to close and switch between numerous apps to get to the social media outlets that I frequent such as Facebook, Twitter, Techcrunch etc.

But with the new app Fliboard, all my favourite feeds are in place in a slick magazine style format!!

If you are on the iPad, I would seriously suggest getting this free app!!

So I have car insurance, home-owners insurance, health insurance and now I need to decide whether to add small business insurance on top of that. So I started to look into insurance options online. I found out that the term “small business” insurance is actually a catch all phrase to describe a dozen different insurance products. I realized that before I could even begin to decide whether I wanted to purchase insurance and what company I go with I first need to know what I might be getting and what these products cover.

General Liability

The most basic type of insurance is general liability or umbrella liability insurance which covers legal hassles due to claims of negligence. General Liability insurance helps protect against penalties that result from bodily injury or property damage, medical expenses, the cost of defending lawsuits, and settlement bonds or judgments required during an appeal procedure.


Product Liability

If your small business produces or sells a product the business becomes directly liable for its safety. The unfortunate reality is that every product is capable of personal injury or property damage. Additionally, every service rendered may be capable of personal injury or property damage. Businesses are considered liable for negligence, breach of an express or implied warranty, defective products, and defective warnings or instructions.



Home-Based Business Insurance

Homeowner’s insurance policies do not generally cover home-based business losses although at times this can be added to your existing policy. Home-based business insurance generally covers the business property, professional liability, personal and advertising injury, loss of business data, crime and theft, and disability.



Internet Business Insurance

Currently one of the biggest growth areas for small businesses is Web-based businesses. Insurance products have been created to cover the unique challenges of online businesses. These products cover liability for damage done by hackers and viruses, lawsuits resulting from meta tag abuse, banner advertising, or electronic copyright infringement.


Criminal Insurance

No matter how tight security is in your workplace, theft and malicious damage are always possibilities. While the dangers associated with hacking, vandalism, and general theft are obvious, employee embezzlement is more common than most business owners think. Criminal insurance and employee bonds can provide protection against losses in most criminal areas.



Business Interruption Insurance

If you are like most small business owners you could not survive financially without income from your business. Business Interruption insurance covers losses during natural disasters, fires, and other catastrophes that may cause the operation to shut down for a significant amount of time.


Malpractice Insurance

If your small business offers a professional service you may be required to obtain malpractice insurance. This insurance will cover the cost of payments as the result of bodily injury or property damage, medical expenses, the cost of defending lawsuits, investigations and settlements, and bonds or judgments required during an appeal procedure.

Many corporate insurance providers will offer all of the above insurance options. It is essential to consider the unique circumstances of your business before purchasing any insurance product. You should also read the fine print of any insurance agreement. There are usually a list of restrictions or instances where your insurance will not cover your costs. Also be aware of the cost of being over insured. The last thing a struggling small business needs is to pay their hard earned profits to an insurance company will little chance of seeing a return on that investment.

New small business owners expect that they will need to pour time, energy, and financial resources into building their new business. Unfortunate, many do not focus the same amount of energy into building a solid business plan. The business plan should be the foundation of your business. Just as in building a house if the foundation is not rock solid your business may slowly fall apart. On the other hand, if you spend the time and mental energy needed that foundation will be strong enough to keep your business strong for many years to come.

At the same time a business plan needs to be a dynamic entity that is referenced frequently and changed as your business evolves. So what are the crucial aspects of a business plan? Each business is unique and as such all business plans will be distinctive; with emphasis on the aspects of the plan that will be essential for that business. Every business plan should have a similar outline with the following sections:

1. Executive Summary

This section should be your sales pitch. As such it will be a short, less than two pages, description of your company and get the reader interested in finding out more about your business.

2. Business Description & Vision

This segment has several components that give a much more detailed description of your business and your long-term goals. It should include a mission statement where the purpose of the business is outlines. It will contain a discussion about the company vision for growth along with the short and long term goals and objective. In addition, give the readers a brief history of the business and the names and titles of the owners or members of the company.

3. Definition of the Market

This portion of the business plan gets into the detail of why you believe your business will thrive in the current market place. You should describe the industry outlook for similar companies and the needs of the existing market. In this section layout your target market along with your expected clients or customer base.

4. Description of Products and Services

Previously in your business plan you have given a brief description of the products or service you plan to offer. In this segment give further detail about those products and services, and why you believe they should have a competitive edge in the current market. Use pictures or brochure if available.

5. Organization & Management

Now you get to show how your business is structured. Include in this section your management structure along with your legal structure. Give a brief description of the various positions within the company and how those positions will be filled.

6. Marketing and Sales Strategy

In this segment explain your sales strategy. Be specific to pricing, promotion, products and place. How will you accomplish your vision? How will you obtain and build upon a significant market share?

7. Financial Management

This section contains the essential information that investors and loan providers will want to examine before providing funding. Include:

Estimate of start-up costs
Projected balance sheet (1 year forward)
Projected income statement (1 year forward)
Projected cash flow statement (12 months forward)

So now you have a solid business plan, how do you use this plan to benefit your business? To be continued…..

Unfortunately, when looking for small business ideas online you find out that most are scams and the most of the real options are a lot of work for very little payout. After years of research I have found some home-based small business ideas that really work.

Selling your Skills

If you have skills as a computer programmer, web designer, article writer, bookkeeper, or personal assistant you can sell those skills to clients worldwide. Jobs are usually available on short term basis for a specific project. You may also find companies that want a longer term or permanent consultant. The most important factor in retaining these jobs is your personal portfolio and great references.

I would recommend using a website like Elance.com that hooks up companies that are looking for workers with those potential consultants. Once you have an established client base you may find that you are offered more work than you have time for and you can expand into a larger business with employees.

Another way of selling your skills is to provide a service at your home. This could be child care services, personal trainer small business, tutoring, and art or music classes. It is essential that you are an expert in the field that you are working in. No mom wants to send her child to piano lessons with a beginner pianist. It may take years of patience to build up a clientele but if you are good at what you do and can teach others this could be the perfect small business for you.

Selling your Products

Thousands of people are now making a good living by selling or reselling products online. These products can range from computers that are acquired at wholesale prices and sold for a discount to unique craft and culinary products. The biggest mistake business owners make is over estimating their profit margins.

Remember that consumers are always looking for a bargain and this is even truer when selling through the online market place. If you have a particular skill or craft it may be best to attempt to sell products that you can make yourself but only if you can sell those products at a large enough profit to make the work worthwhile.

If you are planning selling products that you purchase at wholesale make sure you know everything about that product and feel good about the quality of the item. The worse experience you can have is selling that brand-new computer to a customer and having it break within a week and then refunding your entire profit.

The best small business is the one that you are passionate about and have to innate skills to pull off. New small businesses require a significant amount of financial risk and should not be started lightly. By carefully matching your own skills and the needs of the market you can start a home-based small business that will flourish.

Do you love to exercise? Are you a physical education major or have experience in college athletics? Do you have a knack for communicating and working with people? Do you want to use your talents and skills to help others reach their own physical potential? Then starting a small business as a personal trainer might be the perfect after school job for you.

Pros:

You set your own schedule, and your own fees. You can work this job into and around the busiest college schedule and change the hours you work every semester if needed.

Work out while you make a lucrative income. What job is better for a gym junkie than working out and getting paid to do it! One of the best ways to get people motivated to get in shape is to work out with them. Now you can do what you love and get paid for it.

Personal Trainers get paid between $20-150/hour. If you work for yourself you can set your own rate based on your clientele and the going rates in your area. Some personal trainers have relationships with local gyms or fitness center and pay a percentage of their income to the business that hosts them.

Cons:

If you are not already in shape this is definably not the business for you. On the other hand, if you have personally struggled with your weight or fitness level in the past and are now in excellent condition you can use your own experiences as a testimonial that your methods are effective.

It can be time consuming to build a clientele. Often personal trainers offer free first sessions as a way to entice customers to try out their services. While this is a great way to attract potential paying clients it also means you will spend many hours working for free. You will need to find your own ways to build and keep your clientele.

If you need a full time income this may not be the small business for you. Most personal trainers work between 10-25 hours a week. Make sure you have set your rates at a level that will allow you the income you need while being realistic about the amount of work you will have. Now there are always exceptions and if you provide an excellent service you may have many more clients than hours available in the day.

What do you need to get started?

Get certified: there are several nationally recognized personal trainer certification programs. Some require classes, while others just require passing a multiple choice exam. Investigate the different options for certification and acquire the knowledge you will need to pass the exam.

Get CPR and basic First Aid certification. Your local Red Cross will offer classes as well as other organizations
Find a place to work out. This could be a local gym or fitness center or just a spot in your basement. Some personal trainers work entirely outside during good weather.

Find your clientele: place adds in local papers, hang flyers at the gym or around a college campus.
Helping other people reach their health and fitness goals can be one of the most rewarding and challenging small business ideas out there. For the right person being a personal trainer will involve changing both your client’s lives along with your own.

If you love kids, starting a home-based preschool or daycare maybe one of the easiest and most rewarding small businesses. The majority of parents now work outside of the home creating a high demand for quality child care. Licensed child-care homes provide a safe and comfortable environment for children of all ages.

Many parents prefer to have their children in a home environment with 5-10 other children rather than a large child care center with hundreds of other children. These homes provide a unique and essential service to the families they serve. Often the children spend the majority of their waking hours in child care and the love and education they are provided will influence them for the rest of their lives!

Pros:

• You can be with your own children at the same time you earn money watching other children. Some child care homes will provide only a supplemental income while other can support a family.
• As a business owner you can chose both the children you take on and the times when you are available. Some child care homes offer 24/7 care at a premium, while others only offer after school programs for older children.
• You already have the experience you need to be a great child care provider by being a great mom!

Cons:

• Some states have very specific licensing requirements.
• In most states you will need to be the homeowner in order to conduct a business out of your home.
• You need to have enough space that can be set aside for child care, including an outdoor play area. I would recommend a separate space from your own living area; examples would be a basement, or a garage.
• Keeping both young children and their parents happy can be challenging! Know your own skills before beginning on this endeavor.

What do I need to do to get started?

• Make sure you are prepared emotionally for the stresses of having additional children under your care.
• Start with your state government website. Do a search for licensed child care homes within that site and you should get a list of state specific requirements.
• Check with your town chamber of commerce to verify that there is a need for additional child care services in your area. You can also get phone numbers of existing child care homes.
• Complete all the requirements for licensing including CPR and First Aid certification.
• Get insurance specifically for child care homes. Contact your current homeowner’s insurance provider or check with your state’s website to find the right insurance.
• Purchase toys and activities for your children. If you are not sure where to start, try a web search for “preschool curriculum” and you will find thousands of free activities ideas as well as complete curriculums for sale.
• Advertise through word-of-mouth and flyers.

Providing a family child care home can be one of the most rewarding and challenging career choices you can make. It is full of grave responsibilities and immense joy. Deciding to take the step to begin on this small business venture could indeed change your life.

Many people would question that equation, but Jeff Kanbar, owner of JETT Vodka, swears by it. This drink offers a fun and less filling option to the Red Bull and vodka cocktail that is a huge seller in night clubs all over the country. For Kanbar, finding a niche has been an easy choice that was naturally successful.

Jeff Kanbar began working in the vodka field while still a young adult. His uncle, Maurice Kanbar, was the founder of wildly successful SKYY Vodka. While the business was in its infancy, Jeff helped with sales and marketing, a lifestyle he enjoyed immensely because it allowed him to ‘work late’ in clubs and bars around New York, where he lived. After four years, Jeff was ready to branch out on his own.

However, the vodka market had changed immensely over the few years since SKYY Vodka was founded. Jeff knew that the market was already flooded with high quality vodkas, making it difficult for a new product to get its big break. The challenge was to create a product that offered a special feature.

Jeff noticed that the Red Bull and vodka cocktail was popular. However, many people complained about the calories and sugar that the cocktail included. The taste was also a problem, because this combination didn’t blend well with other drinks. If a person wanting that blend of energy and alcohol could get it without the limitations and with fewer carbs, they would be likely to buy it.

Creating the concept—a vodka with energy-creating ingredients such as caffeine, ginseng, and guarana—was easy. However, product development offered a new challenge. The energy ingredients were all either bitter or had a dark color. Jeff went through a long development and testing process before finding the right combination with the right taste and color.

Another challenge was marketing. Like many small business owners, Kanbar had a very small marketing budget in an industry where multi-million dollar campaigns are the norm. He had a professional, compelling brand and logo design created and began marketing his energy vodka through more economical options, adopting a grass roots approach that involved getting the word out through free or low cost methods.

This combined with a unique product has proven to be a recipe for success. JETT is sold with great success throughout Southern California and plans to expand once this key market has bought in completely.

Jeff is the first to warn against rapid expansion. Like his uncle before him, his strategy has been to identify a customer base and market aggressively to them. All growth is being held off until the demand is there. This keeps the company from being spread too thin and allows the owner to enjoy the process.

What can we all learn from JETT Vodka? First, that differentiating your brand should occur in the very earliest planning stages. Second, that a brand and a logo design are the two greatest investments you can make in your future success. Last, grass roots marketing may be cheaper, but it is nonetheless one of the most effective and most authentic ways to build demand for your product.

Few people think of gardening as a business. Farming, maybe… but gardening? In fact, one gardener has managed to turn his love of gardening into a success small business by differentiating his company from the many competitors in his area.

Asafuni Yamashita is what many would call a celebrity gardener. His greenhouses supply the world’s most renowned chefs, with unique vegetables shipped all over the United States and even to France. His vegetables are renowned for their flavor and unique features.

Like many small business owners, Yamashita’s path to small business success was long and filled with detours. Japanese-born and French-educated, he returned to Tokyo to begin an import-export business, but found that it didn’t tickle his green thumb. He returned to France and began selling bonsai trees. These were popular in Paris at the time, leading to a lucrative business not just selling the plants, but renting them to other businesses. A restaurant chef who rented Yamashita’s trees suggested that he begin growing Japanese vegetables, which were not widely available in the area.

With just $500 worth of seeds, Yamashita began selling to twelve area restaurants. However, he was not happy to stop there. The small business owner wondered what a world class chef could do with the intensely flavored produce. A big break arrived when a friend offered to introduce him to well know n gourmet chef Christian Le Squer, head of a Michelin three star restaurant in Paris. Yamashita came to the meeting prepared, with a basket of his unique vegetables. Le Squer gave him the account on the spot.

Word of mouth soon spread about this new choice in vegetables. After just a few years, the gardener turned small business owner had seven accounts and grossed $150,000 a year, which is astounding for a single gardener with just an acre of greenhouses. Although Yamashita is ambivalent about expanding further, he definitely has the option with a long waiting list of fashionable gourmet restaurants.

Small and sweet is such a huge part of the brand that Yamashita may be wise to keep his operations at his current level. Yamashita currently is involved in every step of the growing process and has no employees, except for occasional help from his wife. He visits Japan annually to choose the next crop’s seeds. Right now, his most in demand product is a blueberry sized micro-tomato, which pulls in an astounding forty dollars per pound.

Yamashita is also solely responsible for the nongardening aspects of his business. He delivers orders himself and advises chefs on traditional methods for preparing the produce. This small business owner with no restaurant experience often finds himself in the odd position of advising some of the world’s best known chefs.

This is a great example of profit differentiation. Yamashita’s produce is different from anything else on the market, and he is the first one to point that out. No one will pay forty dollars a pound for just any vegetable, so his success in the gourmet market proves how different his produce really is.