The more people you tell, the better your chance of having a successful business. But there are things to do, and there are things not to do.

Don’t Plug Where You Aren’t Supposed to

When you’re online in a chat room, notice that no one is saying anything about their business. You may think, “what can a small plug here hurt?”, so you say something about your company.

This can be harmful because it is called spam – and on most sites, spam is illegal. It is important to note that if you even put a small plug in about your business on an unauthorized site, you are spamming and can be kicked off the website.

Do not do what some do and be tempted to have others posting for you. Getting your staff or hiring an outside source to present your business on sites that do not want it is also spamming.

Don’t Be Dishonest

If you get people to talk about your products that don’t really use them, that is being dishonest. You are lying to the people. When you see an advertisement for a certain product, you want to know the person really uses the product they are advertising. If it works for them, other people will try it.

Getting people – especially celebrities – to lie about a product they don’t use is wrong an unethical.

The best way to run a business is to be honest. Be honest about where you advertise. Before you place an ad or chat about your business in a chat room, be sure that it is welcome on that site, or don’t do it.

Be honest about who you have advertising for you. Make sure they are doing everything legal. In addition, be honest about who you get to say testimonials from. Make sure they really do use the products – or don’t use them in your advertising.

Do Tell the Truth

Honesty is always the best policy. If you lie, you will eventually be exposed.

Eventually, when everyone finds out that you have been lying, you will lose customers and most likely your business. By being honest, you will gain customers and you will be successful in your business adventures in the long run.

Do Put Yourself in Your Customer’s Shoes

Think about how you would like to be treated if you were a customer. Now let’s say you found out that the owner of a business you were dealing with was lying and wasn’t really doing what they said they were doing.

Let’s go further and say that the celebrity that is doing commercials for the company never used the company’s products. How would that make you feel?

The bottom line is that honesty is the best policy, as well as only offering information about your business where that information is welcome.

Make an “after hours” schedule – Getting serious about your new business means making certain time commitments in order to get it off the ground. Whether it’s getting up a couple hours early or working late in the evenings or working ten hours on weekends, put a regular work schedule down on paper and stick to it. Motivation tends to wane when other engagements take precedence over what should be considered “work time”. So, stay focused and treat your after hours schedule as you would a second job.

Create a business plan – One of the most important things you can do for yourself and your new business is to create a business plan. This will force you to get realistic about the funds needed as well as the monthly expenses and the weekly hours needed in order to get your business running. You might find that you don’t need as much start-cash as you originally thought or that you’ll need to keep your full-time job for at least another year in order to build up some investment money.

Consider enlisting help – You may find that bringing on a partner will help to get your business off the ground (and you out of the rat race) even faster. Of course, entering into a partnership isn’t for everyone, and the idea shouldn’t be taken lightly. However, bringing on a partner with the same goals and who brings complimentary skills to the business could be one of the best decisions you ever made.

Think about when you could leave your job – Give yourself a motivating goal to reach. What will it take in order for you to work for yourself full time? Fifty orders a month? Three hundred website visitors a day? $5,000 in sales per week? Giving yourself this concrete goal will help to boost your motivation and hopefully get you to that point even faster. Be sure to take into consideration things like cost of health and dental insurance – as well as anything else that your full-time company is currently taking care of.

While the thought of quitting your job to work for yourself may sound both exciting and terrifying, preparing a plan can help make the transition easier. With a carefully thought out work plan and clear goals, all the guessing is gone and you’ll have real figures to base your decisions on. For most people, starting a business in their spare time makes the most sense and takes some of the financial risk and worry out of the equation. There are plenty of business owners who still clock in at a regular job in order to keep their benefits, regular salary and to share in the comradery of the workplace. Once your business is off the ground and showing signs of success, you’ll have the option of choosing to keep your full-time job or to devote all your working hours to your new business.

Start a company blog – You can either add a blog page to your company website, or use a blog website like TypePad.com but, either way, blogging is easy and it can help to get your company noticed. Along with putting your company’s name in the search engines’ natural listings, blogging is one of the best ways to promote yourself as an expert in your industry. Popular blogs get noticed, have hundreds of subscribers and get links from other blogs or news sites. The publicity power of a good blog is nothing short of amazing.

Generate press releases – The best way to get the press and media interested in your company or its products and services is to write and send out press releases. The mistake that many writers make is that they make their press release sound more like a self-serving advertisement and less like an interesting story. Think carefully about each of your press releases – you’ll need a story angle that will intrigue readers, rather than bore them about your new line fabrics. Of course, your press release can mention the fabrics but that certainly shouldn’t be the highlight of the press release. If you’re not confident in your writing abilities, then hire a professional press release writer from a freelance website like Guru or E-lance . Give them as much information as you can and then let your writer come up with a newsworthy press release.

Focus on your target market – Now that you have your press release, it’s time to distribute it. It can be overwhelming to think about the hundreds of thousands of newspapers, magazines, blogs, tv stations, etc., so don’t. Focus on the media outlets that interest your target market. For instance, if your company manufacturers an electronic knitting system, then focus on magazines, blogs, tv stations, etc. that cater to that market. Send out or email your press releases directly to each of the outlets on your list. Include pictures and/or a link to a product demonstration video as well. In addition, you should also submit your press release to an online press release distribution company like PRWeb or PRnewswire – this will help you to reach those hundreds of thousands of media outlets that are all across the country.

As you can see, flacking really isn’t all that hard. It just takes some time to keep the publicity going on a regular basis. And, the best part is that a successful PR campaign can soon take a snowball effect as more and more media outlets and blogs pick up on the story.

While it may seem like it’s too cold to worry about things warming up right now, spring is closer than you think. If you don’t get moving now, you’re going to be behind when the winter clearances should be giving way to spring arrivals.

Out With the Old

Winter may not be over quite yet, but that doesn’t mean you need to keep the shelves stocked with too much remaining fall and winter merchandise. It’s time to start the markdowns.

You should be making tempting offers that shoppers can’t resist to get rid of those older items. The more that goes out the door, the more money you have in hand to stock the shelves come spring and summer.

In With the New

This is a time when you should be carefully sorting out what you need to keep your shelves full for the upcoming season. You also don’t want to have so much that you lose money on the back end of the year.

As you are working on clearance pricing for your winter line, look at the amount of items you have left to move and do some thinking:

> How far off were your sales estimates for the season?

> How well did you predict which items your customers would like?

> Were your price points good enough to make customers buy?

If you have a lot of markdowns, you should do some re-evaluation. While you could repeat the process, that is going to cut into your bottom line and could cause money hardships down the road.

Instead, it’s time to figure out what went wrong and make it right. Calculate your product turnover ratio to determine how quickly your moving inventory, and make changes to meet your customers’ demands more effectively.

A (Wo)Man With a Plan

While you may think a buying plan will start with a list of what you should be buying, the reality is it should start with a list of what your customers are likely to purchase. You can buy all sorts of things to put on your shelves, but the important items are the ones your customers are going to want.

You should start with looking at what you have sold in the past. If you kept your point-of-sale information organized, you should be easily able to look month by month to see how many of various types of items were sold over the past year. This is a good way to gauge what types of sales you can expect in those same months this year.

Take these numbers and then factor in any upcoming fashion trends for the season that may cause a boost in one particular area, as well as any promotions you are considering holding over the course of the season.

Inventory Matters

When it comes to deciding what to put in inventory, you will, of course, need to have more than you are planning to sell. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have a bunch of empty shelves. You need to factor in the amount of merchandise you need to set displays and fill in gaps from once an item sells out until new inventory is delivered.

You should always have inventory for 1-3 months of sales. After all, you never know when you are going to have a spike in sales and a delivery slowdown that collide. When you go over the sales numbers from the past year, you should get a good idea of how many of each item you’ll need for 1-3 months down the road, as well as display stock.

This kind of research can let you set up your delivery schedule months in advance. If you do this right, just as you are just getting to the point where you think it’s a good time to restock, the next shipment should be arriving.

Look ahead to sales. Before the season starts you should have a good idea of how long and strong your selling will run before you need to start seasonal markdowns.

Once spring arrives, you can’t just coast along. As the season unfolds, don’t put all that planning paperwork away. You should monitor real time sales versus your predicted sales, and see how close you came. You can use this information to better tweak your business in the seasons and years to come.

Less than a month ago, after showing the weakest sales period in the company’s history, Starbucks announced that it will close 100 stores. This was shocking news considering in the 1990s the company was opening a new shop every workday – and the rapid growth continued well into the 2000s.

So what happened? Where did Starbucks go wrong?

Quite simply, Starbucks went from having a home-away-from-home feel to more of a corporate giant, selling music and Wi-Fi and putting the company’s bottom line in front of their customers. In addition, they stopped making their espressos by hand, switching to robot-like machines that make drinks with an assembly line-like feel.

Remember back when having a Starbucks in your town was something of an elite status? Now what town, rest stop, airport, Target, and Barnes & Nobel doesn’t have one? In fact, what two-block radius of any urban or suburban area isn’t armed with their own personal Starbucks? Comedian Lewis Black put it best when he said the end of the universe as we know it was in Houston, Texas, where there is indeed a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks .

In a race to please stockholders and board members, Starbucks grew too fast. They put profits and efficiency first and lost sight of what their customers once found so darn endearing about them. Back in the day, every Starbucks store was run with the feel of an independent, local coffee shop. They sometimes had local musicians playing or weekly game nights. They had neighborhood postings on their corkboard and silly chalk drawings on their “Today’s Special” menu board. There were lots of big comfy chairs with magazines and newspapers scattered about and lots of chit chatting going on – even the baristas were fun and talkative with customers, and many even knew them by name.

Now take a walk into one of your many local Starbucks and you just won’t have that same sort of fun-loving, fuzzy-warm feeling. All those big comfy chairs? Well, you might see just one or two remaining – they needed the room for sales racks to sell CDs, iTunes gift cards and ground coffee. What about the neighborhood activities? It’s hard to cater to a neighborhood with three other Starbucks locations within walking distance of each other. With so many Starbucks to choose from, customers tended not to have a “favorite” store anymore, they just popped in whichever one was nearest when they needed a caffeine boost. As corporate pushed for efficiency, baristas had less time to chat and get to know their could-have-been-loyal customers, or even make drinks with the same quality Starbucks had become known for back in the day.

What happened to the customers?

You can bet that other coffee shop entrepreneurs learned from Starbucks’ early days and started running their own local shops like funky little coffeehouses, putting their customers and their coffee at the forefront. These local shops started to win the war against Starbucks, offering fresh roasted beans, handmade espresso drinks, and most of all an inviting and cozy atmosphere that surrounded customers with warmth and enjoyment. Just like it felt when you walked into the very first Starbucks in your town.

What growing small businesses can learn from Starbucks

If your business is doing wonderfully and you have plans to branch out and grow, it’s easy to try to streamline the processes that made your company so popular in the first place. Before you make any changes to the original framework of your company, think carefully about each. If you still believe that making a certain modification is the best thing to do, then test it first and see how the customers respond. It’s much easier to find out after a month that customers dislike the new change, then after investing thousands in making it permanent. Change can definitely be good, but change can also ruin what was once a very good thing.

But what makes a business plan good? Well, it’s not measured by the number of pages or creative graphics used. A good business plan is informative, factual and detailed – able to accurately forecast sales, growth, and expenses. A good business plan should leave readers – whether a banker, venture capitalist, private investor, or company manager – fully satisfied with the information they just read. In other words, not needing additional information, financial statements or growth charts. Every question should be answered; and every potential hurdle should be addressed.

The elements of a good business plan

Easy to Understand – You and your business colleagues may be familiar with industry terms and technological jargon, but don’t expect potential investors to be. A good business plan should be written so that someone who is completely unfamiliar with your product or service can easily read and understand your business plan. If you find you are having a hard time putting your information into a more simplified language, you may want to seek the help of a technical writer with experience in your industry.

Thoroughly Researched – Nothing makes a business plan fizzle faster than estimations on sales, costs and growth based solely on a “gut feel”. It cannot be stressed enough that every aspect of a business plan should be built from actual data. Even if your business is still in the “idea stage”, you can base sales off of your competition and costs by calling suppliers and service providers. Yes, this entails time and effort – but no one said a good business plan was quick and easy to create.

Detailed information – Readers of your business plan want specific, detailed information. What is your cash flow each month? Who are your direct competitors? What are your monthly sales? How much do you plan to spend on advertising each month? Who is responsible for expanding the sales force? This is not the time to be lazy – remember, a good business plan leaves no question unanswered.

The different uses of a business plan

There are many different types of business plans; some are shown to people outside of the company, while others are used internally to strengthen the company. Here are some examples of what a business plan could be used for:

* Obtain start-up cash for a business idea
* Secure funding for business expansion
* Determine the feasibility of a business idea
* Layout goals and specific objectives for the upcoming year
* Creation of a marketing strategy and budget

In the end, a good business plan is one that helps you to achieve your objective – whether that’s to secure financing, define company goals, or create a marketing or expansion strategy. There’s no doubt that the time you take to make your business plan a good one is time well spent!

Take the example of Anna and her party supplies rental company. She had a customer come in and ask if she rented the “Super Soaker Water Playground”. She didn’t, but she wanted to help that customer so she decided to purchase one – even though it was very expensive. By the time the playground arrived, the interested customer had already found another one for rent at a different store. Anna advertised that she had this new party rental, but she only had one rental in six months. Eventually, Anna ended up selling it for only 65% of what she paid. What Anna didn’t realize is that there was a growing need for inflatable pool rentals. If she had taken the time to step back, assess the situation and do the research, she would have found that her money would have been much better spent buying an inflatable pool instead.

How to make sure you’re focusing on the right needs of your customers

Take notes – Starting today, keep a detailed log about every business-related question a customer or potential customer asks you (or your employees) – whether in person, a phone call or an email. Make sure that everyone in the company uses the same spreadsheet to add information too. You might be surprised to see how many people are looking for the same exact thing. For new purchases or any major change, focus your attention as your customers as a whole, rather than each as an individual.

Pay Attention – Many of your customers may have unmet needs with your business, but don’t take the effort to let you know. However, they may leave clues. Let’s say you own a small sandwich shop, and once you started paying attention you realized that 45% of your lunch crowd ordered a sandwich, chips and a drink and 30% ordered a sandwich, salad and a drink. So, you decided to add both as combo lunch specials and, guess what? The lines moved quicker and sales per day rose 15%. Your customers loved the ordering convenience and the fast-moving lines and you enjoyed the extra profits!

Ask questions – If you have been considering changing something drastic about your business (adding or removing a product line, changing store hours, etc.), you may want to ask your customers for their opinions first. If you find that the majority of your customers think heated seats in the lounge area is unnecessary, then you just saved yourself several thousand dollars!

Once you start to open your eyes to the big picture of your business, you’ll be amazed at how unimportant all those little details are. For when you work to meet the needs of your customers as a whole, 90% of those small details vanish!

While there are many different types of business plans, there are two main categories:

* External business plans are shown to banks, venture capitalists, potential merger companies, etc. in order to seek loans, investments, a merger or an acquisition.

* Internal business plans are for the use of planning or expanding the company and are typically shown to business owners and managers. Because internal plans are shown only to company insiders, there’s no need for a detailed company description or background financial information.

The Most Common Types of Business Plans

Start-up Plan (External) – This is the most basic of business plans because it is merely providing an outline of the new business. It should begin with an executive summary and include a detailed description of the business idea, competition, owner(s)’ business experience and background, market, marketing strategy, etc. The financial section should cover projected sales and expenses as well as a profit and loss statement, balance sheet, monthly projections for the first year and a cash flow statement.

Investment Plan (External) – The purpose of this plan is to obtain an investment or loan from a bank, venture capitalist or private investor. This plan differs from a start-up plan because it is used when the company is already operational. Instead of forecasts and predictions (as seen with a start-up plan) an investment plan relies heavily on actual financial and sales information, such as an income statement, balance sheet, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, etc.

Growth / Expansion Business Plan (External or Internal) – Depending on the purpose this plan is used for, this can either be for internal or external use. Both, however, should include a comprehensive strategy detailing the expansion along with a monthly forecast of sales and expenses.

Strategic Business Plan (Internal) – This plan is more of an outline that focuses on the company’s long-term goals and the steps necessary to achieve them.

Marketing Plan (Internal) – Requiring extensive research on target markets, market trends, and competition, a marketing plan is essential for growing companies in need of a marketing outline and budget. It should include a detailed analysis of the company’s targeted consumers as well as complementary marketing, advertising and PR strategies. This type of plan may or may not include results from focus groups and consumer surveys. Read more on developing a marketing plan .

Annual Plan (Internal) – Usually created in a company’s financial third quarter, it outlines the financial growth and sales goals that a company hopes to achieve over the next year. This type of plan tends to have specific deadline dates, tasks and responsibilities.

Once you realize that a business plan can be tailored to your business’ needs and not the other way around, creating one is a lot less intimidating. Business plans can be an invaluable tool, both for company insiders and outsider investors. While they may take some time to create, the information they present is well worth the effort.

When deciding to give a company a business loan, most banks (big and small) will refer to what is commonly called the "Six Cs".

1. Capacity – For established businesses, banks will want to determine its ability to make regular payments on the loan. This will be one of the most important deciding factors for a bank to determine the size of the loan. You will need a good cash-flow statement as well as tax returns from the past two years. For businesses less than two years old, getting a business loan for more than $10,000 (without the owner as a personal co-signer) may be tough.

2. Credit – For businesses less than two years old, most lenders will want to look at the owner’s personal credit score. Banks want at least a score of 620 – anything lower may result in higher interest rates and unfavorable loan terms.

3. Capital – Before you submit your loan application to the bank, it would be wise to talk to a loan agent first to see what size loan your business will qualify for. For established businesses, a realistic loan amount will be 15-20% of your gross sales. For newer businesses or start-ups, that will depend upon your personal finances.

4. Collateral – For business loans, collateral will be large assets that the business owns – like an office building, warehouse, land, etc. For start-ups or companies operating for less than two years, banks may want to take a look at your personal assets if you are co-signing the loan. Do you own a home or land? Do you have a sizeable savings account, 401k or retirement savings?

5. Character – What is your business background and your experience in the industry? Put together a list of your credentials; the more experience you have and the better your reputation, the more comfortable a bank will be with your ability to make your business grow.

6. Conditions – If you are asking a bank to lend you money, they will want to know why. They want to make sure that the purpose is legitimate and makes sense to further your business along. If you’re trying to get a loan for an established business, it would be a good idea for you to update your business plan , as the bank may want to see that.

Knowing what the bank is expecting from your business will help you to be better prepared when asking for a business loan. Be sure all your paperwork is easy to read and understand, and be truthful in your sales and income. You can be sure a bank will check your numbers against tax returns and bank account balances – if the numbers don’t add up, you may have a hard time convincing the bank that you are indeed trustable.

A business plan can also help convince banks, businesses or individuals to invest in your idea or to give you a loan. So, it’s important that your business plan is professional, truthful and detailed. You need to show your potential investors that you are serious about your business idea and that you have put time, effort and research into making sure the business will work – even if it has shortcomings or existing competition.

While every business plan is different and will include different information, facts and figures, there are certain things that every entrepreneur should NOT do.

1. DON’T put your business plan together hastily – Creating a business plan is no time to be lazy or to take the easy way out. A business plan is not something that should be done in a day, or even in a week. You should be doing research, crunching numbers, getting information about competitors and even conducting surveys if need be.

2. DON’T fluff the numbers – Business plans are not just created for investors, they’re for the entrepreneurs themselves. If you’re playing with the projected profit or sales numbers, then you should be worried about whether or not the idea is a viable one. It’s better to scrap an idea that doesn’t have merit, then to fudge the numbers and cross your fingers that the idea will work.

3. DON’T ignore weaknesses in your idea – Be truthful about potential problems, but also be proactive in providing a potential solution to each problem.

4. DON’T be overly optimistic when estimating future sales or costs – If anything, you should be overly conservative. That way, you’ll know whether or not your business idea will be able to handle unforeseen costs or price increases. Also, projecting sales too high or costs too low might signal a red flag to investors that perhaps your entire business plan is unrealistic and based on hopes, not facts.

5. DON’T exaggerate your abilities – Instead of selling yourself as a "jack of all trades" who can do everything from marketing to accounting to web development, focus on the talents you really excel at. For the tasks that you are unable to do well, address how you will get those done – outsource, hire employee(s), taking on a business partner , etc.

Avoiding these business plan pitfalls is easy as long you are detailed and honest when outlining your business idea and discussing its shortcomings. Avoiding potential problems all together can prove to be very worrisome to potential investors, as they might wonder why you haven’t noticed some obvious obstacles. And, perhaps, assume your whole business plan wasn’t well thought out.