What is Start-Up America Partnership?
A movement by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs – launched January 31, 2011, at the White House to help inspire and celebrate entrepreneurs, their firms and the people that join them. From the website, StartUp America Partnership is:
More about StartUp America Partnership > www.startupamericapartnership.org
Start your business with ION FreshStart’s Advanced Business Planning, designed for Mac users > www.ionfreshstart.com
All of the Advanced Business Planning documents are created in Pages, Numbers and Keynotes. The main business plan template uses Pages and the Table of Contents is pre-programmed to change if you change information in your document.
When you edit headings within your document, the Table of Contents will auto-update. When you add a new title to your document, remember to choose paragraph style: Headings and that title will automatically be added to the Table of Contents.
For more information, visit: http://ionfreshstart.com/troubleshooting.html
What a Venture Capitalist wants to see:
1. A Business Plan
2. Income Statement
3. Balance Sheet
4. Capitalization Table. Most start-ups are financed with 100% equity, the capitalization
table shows who owns how much of the company, and in which round each owner
has invested, thus outlining the equity ownership of the company.
5. Presentation. Sometimes a Venture Capitalist wants you to present your company
and your financial request in person.
More information regarding Business Planning, Venture Capitalist and Request for Funding can be found in our Advanced Business Planning at: www.ionfreshstart.com
We answers questions from our email inbox:
H: Do you offer any type of money back guarantee?
ION FreshStart: Yes. We offer a full 30 day Money Back Guarantee. If you are not satisfied with our Advanced Business Planning solution, email us within 30 calendar days of your purchase and we will issue a full refund.
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ION FreshStart’s Advanced Business Planning was created for Mac users who use iWork to build professional, sophisticated and successful business plans. Additional information can be found at: www.ionfreshstart.com
One of the first steps in your “market strategy” is to define the group of people who will most likely purchase the products or services your business offers.
Market Demographics: Who wants or needs your company’s product or service? Other businesses? Individuals? Groups? Families? And of those, what is the: gender, age range, race, geographic location, education level or income, of the ideal customer?
Market Trends & Growth Patterns: How do you envision YOUR product or service in this market? Describe the current trends and how you will be a player promoting the trend or starting a new one. Define how your company will understand and contribute to market growth.
Market Size and Potential: Detail the market in terms of size and what type of potential it possesses in the future. Is it trendy, with a small window of opportunity or short time period? Is it a small market that is advancing quickly with the demand for new players? Is it a stead-fast, seasoned market where new players have a difficult time getting in the door?
Taking the time to identify your target market will save time, money and energy in your marketing efforts. Finding the answers to the questions above will put you on the right path.
ION FreshStart’s Advanced Business Planning has solutions and answers to your marketing questions. For more information, visit: www.ionfreshstart.com
We are happy to celebrate Earth Day with You! Because our product is a digital download, there is no fuss with paper or plastic, no cardboard packaging, no wasteful shipping costs and no wasted time waiting around. Seems like the perfect opportunity to celebrate the digital download!
ION FreshStart is comprised of seasoned entrepreneurs that want to help other entrepreneurs succeed in business and in life. We have created Advanced Business Planning, which consists of templates, workbooks, financial modeling and presentations – all in one cute little download, so you can get to work right away. All neat and clean and waste-free.
Between Wednesday 20 April 2011 at 12 midnight PST and Friday 22 April 2011 at 12 midnight PST, we will donate 100% of all purchase proceeds to an Earth Day campaign. ION FreshStart Affiliates will still receive credit and full commissions for any purchases made from their accounts.
For more about Earth Day, A Billion Acts of Green and Other Earth Day Campaigns, visit http://act.earthday.org/
For more about ION FreshStart and our Advanced Business Planning kit for Mac, visit: http://www.ionfreshstart.com
Spurlock, Sponsorship, Possibilities
I realize that we over-dose on TED talks around here – and I know that makes us a little corny and embarrassingly trendy. But, with that being said, I must alert you to Morgan Spurlock’s new movie: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. The movie apparently delves into the under current of brand sponsorship and everything that comes with that, and has some ironic twists regarding how the movie itself was sponsored. In fun-Spurlock-fashion, this TED talk is also sponsored in a unique way.
Beyond the obvious “get me thinking about how sponsorships negatively or positively influence a project” – this video also inspired me to think about all of the opportunities that exist for funding a project. Sponsorships, corporate funding, partnerships, grants – there are so many possibilities.
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ION FreshStart’s Advanced Business Planning was designed to assist entrepreneurs and business owners with business planning. We also help with Bank Loan Applications and presentations for Venture Capitalists. Learn more at: http://www.ionfreshstart.com
Understanding Business Plan Financials: Gross Profit
Gross Profit Formula
Gross Profit = Revenue – Cost of Sales
Gross Profit Margin
The amount of contribution to the business enterprise, after paying for direct-fixed and direct variable unit costs, required to cover overheads (fixed commitments) and provide a buffer for unknown items.
So, what are direct-fixed costs? and direct variable costs?
Direct-fixed costs are business expenses that are not dependent on the goods or services produced by the business. Fixed salaries, office lease, equipment rental, etc. are direct-fixed costs. Direct variable costs are expenses that change in proportion to the activity of a business. For example, raw materials may cost less if purchased in volume, which may be the case if you have high volume orders. Your electricity bill may be higher if you work longer hours.
Gross Margin Percentage Formula
Gross Margin Percentage = (Revenue – Cost of Sales) / Revenue
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ION FreshStart’s Advanced Business Planning provides a Financial Glossary that explains common terms and definitions of your business financials. The planning kit also has (11) eleven financial workbooks, fully integrated with one another, allowing you to enter basic data and all of your financial statements (cash flow statement, balance sheet, profit and loss, annual sales forecast, etc.) are populated. Calculations and formulas are pre-programmed.
To learn more about ION FreshStart’s Advanced Business Planning, visit the website: www.ionfreshstart.com
Companies We Love: E-junkie
When we launched ION FreshStart in the summer of 2009, we used a shopping cart solution that required upgrading anytime we exceeded a certain amount of orders in one month, and they took a tiered percentage of the total revenues per month. If we did not upgrade in time, people could not place orders. And some months the fees seemed outrageous in comparison to our profits. Needless to say, after month two, we were eagerly searching for another solution. At first, we did not think we’d find anything – but, thankfully, we found E-junkie.
Why we love E-junkie:
Easy: It is easy for us to use and easy for our customers to use.
Flat Fee: We are charged one, low fee each month – regardless of the website’s volume. We know exactly what to expect.
Management: Managing our digital goods, paying our affiliates, creating codes for downloads – everything is easily managed in one centralized system.
Multiple Payment Choices: e-junkie integrates with PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, ClickBank, 2CheckOut
Customer Service: Customer service is timely, friendly and solution-ready. Can’t ask for more than that.
The Benefits keep going. Check it out.
We are very pleased with E-junkie – we think they make our life easier. We highly recommend E-junkie to a company selling digital or tangible goods online. Research several providers and compare pricing, services and customer service – then make a sound decision. Test out the one you think is the best fit, and if they are not what you need, move to the next one. It is worth the time and effort. An effective and efficient shopping cart solution plays a major part in your company’s success.
For more about E-junkie, visit: www.e-junkie.com
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ION FreshStart uses E-junkie to distribute a digital download product: Advanced Business Planning. This download is a series of business planning templates and workbooks created in iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). Mac users can download this business planning kit and take advantage of using applications that they already have on their comupters. For more about ION FreshStart, visit www.ionfreshstart.com.
Are you a business owner, a sole proprietor, looking to complete the daunting task of preparing your taxes? Here is a little guidance, with links to the 2010 IRS tax forms. Links are to proper IRS Forms that you can download.
This Year: 2011
Preparing for Tax Year: 2010
Use Schedule C to prepare a Profit and Loss for the business.
Use Schedule A to itemize any deductions.
Use Schedule SE to calculate your self-employment taxes.
Then complete Form 1040 as your main tax return document.
Hey, we are not accountants and this does not constitute as legal or accounting advice. But we have been sole proprietors and this is how we did it!
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ION FreshStart helps small business owners and sole proprietors with business planning solutions. Our Advanced Business Planning kit was made exclusively for Mac users. For more information, check out our website: www.ionfreshstart.com
