Sunday, December 19, 2010

Business Basics, Starting A Business, Initial Steps, NursingEntrepreneurs.com

Steps To Start Any Business, in Any State (This example is for a nursing agency):

  • Develop a Business Plan.

    Small Business Administration:"What goes in a business plan? This is an excellent question. And, it is one that many new and potential small business owners should ask, but oftentimes don't ask. The body of the business plan can be divided into four distinct sections: 1) the description of the business, 2) the marketing plan, 3) the financial management plan and 4) the management plan. Addenda to the business plan should include the executive summary, supporting documents and financial projections."

    • What is your product or Service? (Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses (LPN/LVNs), Registered Nurses (RNs)) providing nursing care.

    • Who will you provide it to? (Homecare patients, Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Small Businesses, Large Corporations).

      • When deciding whether to service Hospitals or Nursing Homes, remember that:
        • Hospitals will use more Registered Nurses (more highly skilled and can take on more responsibilities).
        • Nursing Homes will used more Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses (it's much cheaper to use them for passing medications and doing treatments on a large scale-most RNs in Nursing Homes function as administrative or charge nurses).

    • What will you Charge?

    • Where will you operate from?

    • How will your fund your enterprise, cover Start-up Costs (Borrow Money, Use Existing Funds).

      Resource:
    How to Use Other People's Money for Your Business, By Matthew Lesko
  • Naming Your Business-Choose a name that will represent you and the services you intend to provide.

  • Optional: Choosing or Designing a logo: My personal feelings on this are, its appropriate for Nike or Visa, but for a small business just starting out it is expensive (a good logo can run you a few hundred to a few thousand dollars) and is not absolutely necessary. You can always create one later as you grow larger. Nursefriendly, Inc. does not have a logo, and doesn't foresee a need for one in the near future.

  • Decide What type of legal business organization you'd like. Costs of registering a sole proprietorship, partnership or incorporation ($50-$1,000). Typically you don't need an Attorney to Set up your business, though it will streamline the process and increase the cost.

    I'd compare setting up your business to doing your taxes.

    Most people can do their taxes themselves, fill out the tedious forms and pull their hair out. Or you can pay an accountant to do them who will be happy to send you a large bill for his services.

    When I first talked to my Attorney about Incorporating, he quoted me $995 to have his office take care of it for me.

    When I called the Department of Taxation & Revenue in New Jersey, they told me it would cost $125 in filing fees and $25 for the name search. . . . . . . so by filling out the forms myself, I saved close to $800.

    Should You Incorporate Your Registry Business? By Joseph Caracci, RN:"The short answer is yes! When starting a new nurse registry business, you are entering into a legal business environment that requires you to take steps to protect your personal assets, such as your home, your savings, and your retirement. With this in mind, you need to determine which legal form you are going to take for your new registry. Some of the common choices are a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a limited liability partnership (LLP), a limited liability company (LLC), and a corporation."
    http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/incorporate

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    It's mostly a matter of convenience, and whether you've got more time or money at this point.

    The basic types of business organizations you can consider are:

    • Sole Proprietorship (all income is reported under your social security number, and taxable as personable income). All liability in this case falls on your shoulders and creditors can go after your personal assets. A single award in a medical malpractice case (not to mention the legal bills) could devastate your business and financial assets. For a nursing agency, this is NOT recommended.

    • Partnership (same as Sole Proprietor, except there are two principal owners). Liability falls on both partners. Decision-making, Profits and Risk are shared between all partners.

    • Limited Liability Corporation. Allows for some protection of personal assets. Avoids Double Taxation inherent in a Corporation. Please note, with most small corporations, appropriate deductions can minimize your taxes and eliminate the Double Taxation Issue. For this reason, and also be cause Corporations are well defined by the IRS in terms of what deductions, benefits you can offer on a tax deductible basis, my recommendation is that you form a Full Corporation (C or S election is another issue).

      MyCorporation.com®, the Internet's leading provider of Incorporation, LLC Formation, and Trademark Search Services, has helped tens of thousands of companies across the U.S. get their start. Founded in 1998 by attorney husband and wife team Philip and Nellie Akalp, MyCorporation.com was one of the first companies to offer affordable, online Incorporation packages targeting small-to-mid sized businesses and entrepreneurs.

  • For Profit Corporation (C or S election). Best option for tax and liability purposes. A corporation is a separate entity with it's own Tax ID (Employer Identification #). In a malpractice award, only the assets of the corporation can be touched. Employees, Directors and Shareholders can take advantage of ample "Tax Deductible" fringe benefits (health insurance, expenses, etc) to minimize the corporate tax liability. This option is documentation intensive.

    MyCorporation.com®, the Internet's leading provider of Incorporation, LLC Formation, and Trademark Search Services, has helped tens of thousands of companies across the U.S. get their start. Founded in 1998 by attorney husband and wife team Philip and Nellie Akalp, MyCorporation.com was one of the first companies to offer affordable, online Incorporation packages targeting small-to-mid sized businesses and entrepreneurs.

  • Decide on Office Space, if you do a home office, costs are minimal you just need a set space and two available phone lines for the agency phone/fax. The best option here, is to form a corporation, and have the corporation lease space in your home or apartment, we can share the lease agreement (rental contract) we use with you. As part of our lease agreement, we've made Nursefriendly, Inc. responsible for bills we used to pay out of pocket.

      One point I'd like to make here is that there are a several household monthly bills your business could potentially pay and write off as tax deductible. To carry our house we pay $2000-4000/mo in basic bills. It is preferable to have the business pay bills in pretax dollars.

    • When I make a thousand dollars, I have about $700 to spend after taxes.
    • When Nursefriendly, Inc. makes a thousand dollars, no taxes are taken out initially, it can spend a $1000.
    • Nursefriendly Inc. only pays taxes on net profit.
    • If it has a large number of deductible expenses, which it pays in "pretax" dollars, it reduces the amount of taxes it will have to pay to the IRS.

        For Example:

    • If Nursefriendly Inc. makes $100,000 in a year (reported to it's employer identification#), and has $50,000 in deductible expenses, it only pays taxes on $50,000 at the end of the fiscal year.

    • If Andrew Lopez, RN makes $100,000 in a year (reported to his social security #), he pays taxes on the full $100,000 as checks are cut (meaning he actually has $70,000 to spend) and then hopes for a large refund at the end of the year.

  • See An Accountant: What you'll want to do is make up a list of the bills you pay monthly and sit down with an accountant. Tell the accountant that you'd like to start a business and would like to know what bills the business might be able to pay and take a tax deduction for.

    This becomes important when deciding to run a business as a Sole Proprietorship, LLC or Corporation. There are "deductions" that the IRS will question/scrutinize more heavily in a "home office" than it will in a "corporate lease."

      Some that can be paid for and deducted by your business include:

    • Association Fees (We live in a townhouse)
    • Cellular Telephones (As an agency and Internet Business, we keep in constant contact).
    • Cleaning Service, we have a service come in once every two weeks to clean our bathrooms, dust, mop, vacuum, etc. (all the housework that would take us hours to do).
    • Computer Leases (The nursefriendly leases two of its computers for $200/mo)
    • Electric ($100-300/mo)
    • Gas ($50-150/mo)
    • Health Insurance Premiums, Co-payments (When we have switched employers, we've paid $500 to $1,000/mo to maintain COBRA). Nursefriendly, Inc. covers specific medical costs for it's employees through a Medical Reimbursement Program which is fully tax deductible to the corporation.
    • Internet Access (We pay $88/mo for Comcast Cable Internet including our basic cable TV service)
    • Long Distance Service (if separate)
    • Telephones. It's expected a business will have both a voice and a fax line. ($50/mo basic service).
    • Water/Sewer ($150 per quarter).

      Some bills that your business probably cannot deduct are:

    • Automotive Maintenance & Repairs
    • Car Insurance
    • Gasoline
    • Groceries
    • Life Insurance
    • Mortage Payments

  • Set up a budget for Office Equipment, A Computer, Fax, Copier, Computer Software, as you find you need them.

  • Decide on How To Process Your Payroll (Nursefriendly, Inc. pays $45 per pay (for its first employee) through ADP Payroll services), plus payroll taxes. I've used ADP for several years. With them I can manage my payroll with a single phone call each payroll. I tell them how much to pay each employee, they cut the checks, handle deductions, taxes, deposits & tax payments. Once a quarter, they send me reports to forward to my accountant for tax purposes. For detailed information, please contact:

    Jennifer DeProspo, District Manager
    856-437-3056
    jennifer_m_deprospo@adp.com

    Or your can do it yourself with a program such as Quickbooks Pro. $10.95/mo basic service.

      Please note: If I pay a nurse $1000, their take home pay is round $666 (married), the government takes $334 out in taxes.

    The government also takes a matching $334 from Nursefriendly, Inc. as their employer.

    Total cost of paying an employee $1000 is $1334 to the business. Plus payroll costs. This is a cost you'll need to factor in when deciding how much to charge your facilities.

    You can have your nurses work as independent contractors to simplify this. That makes them responsible for paying their own taxes. Some nurses may not be comfortable with this as they can end up with a very large tax bill (as can you) at the end of the year.

    • Click Here to return to our starting an agency page.

    Nursingentrepreneurs.com is a networking and resource directory for Nurse-Owned businesses and nurses looking for an alternative to working at the bedside.

    If you explore the site a bit, you'll find profiles of hundreds of nurse entrepreneurs around the country. We encourage you to browse around, find a business category you are interested in, then contact the nurse directly. We're available for questions as well. This website is Owned-Operated by Andrew Lopez, RN a Medical/Surgical/Telemetry nurse.

    Has your Nurse-owned business been written up in the news? Do you send out a newsletter or regular press releases? We'd like to hear about it!

    Our Newest article is from an Arizona Nurse Entrepreneur:

    Should You Incorporate Your Registry Business? By Joseph Caracci, RN:"The short answer is yes! When starting a new nurse registry business, you are entering into a legal business environment that requires you to take steps to protect your personal assets, such as your home, your savings, and your retirement. With this in mind, you need to determine which legal form you are going to take for your new registry. Some of the common choices are a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a limited liability partnership (LLP), a limited liability company (LLC), and a corporation."
    http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com/incorporate

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    The #1 question, we've been receiving lately is about Starting A Nursing Agency, resource sites & manuals

    Please choose from the following:

    Interesting Reading For Nurse Entrepreneurs, Actual or Soon To Be:

    Nurse Entrepreneurs: Tales of Nurses in Business:"This book is vey inspiring! Learn how 50 different nurses brought their vision to reality! Learn some great tips on starting your own business. Nurses don't have to just work at the bedside. Read this book and you will be thinking of how you can make your dream a reality!"

    Own Your Own Corporation: Why the Rich Own Their Own Companies and Everyone Else Works for Them:"Rich Dad's-"Own your Own Corporation" is a must read for anyone comtemplating a new business-or someone who already owns their own business. Garrett's direct yet simplistic explanations of the different business entities,the proper and best suited entity for your business-is followed by real-life scenarios which helps drive home the importance of corporate ownership in today's business world. Use Garrett's legal expertise to establish a successful, legally responsible and fiscally protected business...And understand the why's and how's of that ownership."

    21 Success Secrets, Success Secret #4- "Do What You Love to Do." Get your FREE CD and find out the other 20 secrets of self-made millionaires.:"Order your FREE CD ($4.95 S&H) from Brian Tracy's acclaimed 21 Success Secrets series. Start with 21 Success Secrets of $elf-Made Millionaires - full of techniques practiced by all men and women who go from rags to riches in one generation. Brian Tracy is a noted success expert. He's trained over 2 million people in 23 countries how to achieve their financial goals faster than ever before."

  • Business To Business:
    • Subscribe to our newsletters to learn how to make any site sell! Please enter your e-mail address into the box and click on the "Subscribe" button.

    • Click Here To Start accepting credit cards online! Surefire Premium Processing ($100,000 and over)

    • Make Your Knowledge Sell!:""Make Your Knowledge Sell!" makes it possible for Y-O-U to develop and sell your infoproduct! My co-author Monique Harris started out pretty much like you. She didn't use rocket science to achieve her tremendous e-publishing success."

    • Make Your Net Auction Sell:"As a business, Net auctions are truly a whole new kind of opportunity. To sell at auction just a few years ago, you had to be a Sotheby's, a business liquidator, a car dealer… or some other kind of "traditional" business. Or pay them to do the job."

    • Make Your Price Sell:"Know Your Perfect Price™ in 50 Minutes "Why is the Perfect Price™ so important?" That depends on whether you are considering a new product concept, launching a new product, or managing existing ones... Considering a new product concept? Not sure if it will fly? Imagine if you could know how much people would pay. You'd know if this new idea was worth pursuing... or not (think of the dollars and time saved)."

    • Make Your Site Sell:"Starting a major new business on the Net? Want to improve upon results from an existing Web presence? Or merely looking to build a solid second income stream? Whatever your e-commerce goals, we'll OVERdeliver, no matter how lofty your expectations are. As you will soon see, SiteSell.com products are globally acclaimed by major authorities as best of breed. Yet they are priced so that you can afford them... easily."

    • Make Your Words Sell:"What Do YOU Sell? Want to Sell More? Selling software on the Net? Infoproducts? A service? Million dollar cables for suspension bridges? If you want to sell more... Use the right words. Because words sell, not graphics. If you have any doubts, try this simple experiment."

    • Site Build It :"Site Build It! is the complete, all-in-one traffic-building system. It builds income by giving you all the software, tools and techniques that you need to build targeted traffic... all tied together into a terrific, time-saving, step-by-step process."

      • Please select from the following, see also Doing Business Resources:

      Make Money From Any Type of Website! Webmasters will want to check out our Paid Link Affiliate Programs Directory

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      If your website is not listed here, we encourage you to submit it: Add Your Website/URL.

      See also:

      Nursing Topics, A to Z:

      Nursing Degrees, LPN-RN, RN-BSN, RN-MSN, Online/Offline College, University and more!:"Higher income. Career mobility. Now, no matter where you live or what your schedule, you can earn your Associate or Bachelor Degree to take your professional life to the next level — without putting the rest of your life on hold!"

      If you do any Browsing or Windowshopping online, please visit our online Mall:
      http://www.nursefriendly.com/shopping/

      Gifts For Nurses:
      http://www.nursefriendly.com/gifts/

      4nursinguniforms.com:"Choose from Top Nursing Uniform Companies. All sizes, styles and popular name brands available. Large selection of accessories as well: Accessories Blood Pressure Cuffs, Sphygnomanometers Nursing Tote Bags, Carry-Ons, Medical Bags Clinical, Medical Supplies, Nurses Discount Outlet: Angels, Books, Clothing , Equipment, Figurines, Holidays, Home Decor, Jewelry, Nurses, Office Decor, Scrubs, Shoes, T-Shirts Footwear, Shoes, Sandals, Discount, Bargains Gifts For Nurses (Nurses Week) Hosiery, Socks, Stockings Hats, Jackets, Jumpers Jewelry, Earrings, Necklaces, Watches Luxury Spas, Facials, Manicures, Pedicures Perfumes, Fragrances, Phermones Shoes, Boots, Sandals, Footwear, High Heels, Slippers Stethescopes, Nurse Kits, Replacement Parts Swimwear (Tan-Through) Women's Lingerie "
      4nursinguniforms.com

      Nurses' Station:"The idea for the Nurses' Station Catalog was conceived in 1989. After searching the marketplace in response to customer inquiries, it became obvious that there were no catalogs of this type serving the nursing profession. To be sure, there were several catalogs offering nurse's uniforms and a smattering of professional items. But there weren't any catalogs at the time offering a range of gifts, clothing, professional items, name badges, shoes and scrubs for nurses. It took two years of hard work to gather samples and put a together a catalog of the most unique and high-quality items for nurses."
      Nurses Station P.O. Box 388 Centerbrook, CT 06409-03881
      http://www.nursefriendly.com/station/

      Choose Nursing Uniforms, Shoes, Scrubs, Accessories By Brand:

    • via nursefriendly.com

    --

    Any questions, please drop me a line.

    Sincerely,

    Andrew Lopez, RN
    Nursefriendly, Inc. A New Jersey Corporation.
    38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
    http://www.nursefriendly.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137
    856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618

    150,000 + Nurse-Reviewed & Approved Nursing Links

    http://www.4nursing.com
    http://www.howtostartanursingagency.com
    http://www.jocularity.com
    http://www.nursinghumor.com
    http://www.nursefriendly.com
    http://www.nursingentrepreneurs.com
    http://www.nursingexperts.com

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