Start Your Own Business

Steps to Get Your Business Started

1. Naming Your Company- Your company name is the first impression you will make on potential clients or customers.
2. Writing a Business Plan- A strong business plan shows potential investors you're serious.
3. Financing Your Business- Securing start-up capital is essential.
4. Choosing a Location- The right location is key to your success. Consider accessibility, size, and budget.
5. Establishing Your Business- Acquire the appropriate licenses to operate your business and choose the business entity type that best meets your needs.
6. CorpAmerica Can Help- We have experts standing by to help make your business ownership dreams a reality.
7. Next Steps- Success is never final. Arm yourself with knowledge.

Use Our FREE Franchise Directory to Find Opportunities that Fit You Best
Starting your own business is easier than you think. RetiredBrains.com provides a complete franchise directory. By answering a few easy questions below, you can:

• Get FREE information on a wide variety of established franchises across the country.
• Find opportunities covering every level of investment.
• Receive real-time results matching your criteria to available franchises in your area.
• Get started now.

There are many books to help you start your own business. Check your local bookstore or go to Amazon.com and enter “Start your own business” in the search box.

You may also be interested in finding more information on purchasing a franchise. It is important to thoroughly check out any organization selling franchises prior to investing.

Talk to others who have purchased. Talk with franchisees that you have identified as opposed to those whose contact information is given to you by the franchisor.

Make sure to have your accountant check expenses and revenue. Always have extra moneys available over and above fees and start up costs in case you run into unexpected problems.

Type the name of the franchise into Google search to see more information and set a Google Alert with the name of the franchise. This alert will notify you of any article that is in print or on the Net involving the franchise.

Do your research.

There are many areas that will provide information of value. As an example About.com under Restauranting there is an article on purchasing a restaurant franchise or starting your own by Lorri Mealey entitled

Buy a Franchise or Start Your Own Restaurant?

Deciding which the right strategy is for you

There are a number of pros and cons with franchising a restaurant. Considering these will help you decide if it fits with your goals.

Pros

1. If you get the right franchise in the right place, it can be a lucrative opportunity.

2. You don't have to come up with your own brand name and establish yourself from scratch. In most cases, you're relying on the franchise name to have a certain amount of awareness and a quality product that people know and want in your area.

3. There is help and training available to get you up and running. Most franchises will train you to make their product and teach you how to run one of their units.

4. There is marketing support already in place. You will have to pay for it, but with the big name franchises, there is advertising and promotional support.

Cons

1. The franchise determines how much freedom you have, if any, with the menu and design of the restaurant.

2. The best franchises and franchise locations, especially McDonalds, are often very expensive and hard to obtain.

3. You will owe franchise fees for everything from paying for TV advertising to paying part of your sales to the home office.

4. Franchises have a lot of rules that you must follow to avoid getting fined or even losing your franchise rights.

There are hundreds of such valuable tips available on the Internet covering every conceivable type of franchise or business start-up.

Remember it’s great being your own boss but in many cases the hours are long and there is always risk. Your job prior to starting your own business is to minimize the risk in any way you can.

Examples of some of the franchises that cater to older Americans are listed below.

RetiredBrains provides this list to show some of the many kinds of franchise available and makes no guarantee that the companies on this list are legitimate enterprises. Check with your attorney before investing in these or any franchise opportunity.

Seniors Helping Seniors
Seniors Helping Seniors match seniors who want to provide services, such as chores around the house or companionship, with seniors who are looking for

Senior Helpers
Senior Helpers provides in home, personal, and companion care for seniors in need. Services include caring companionship and conversation; bathing.

Sarah Adult Day Services
SarahCare Adult Day Services offers day care to seniors an upscale country club like setting at a reasonable cost as an alternative to residential car

Work HelpingHands Services
@WORK HelpingHands Services is an in-home assistance service. @Work concentrates on four main areas of service, including daily living assistance.

Moving Solutions Franchise
Moving Solutions helps people relocate, particularly mature adults, individuals in the midst of health crises, and people of any age who have disabilities.

Aristocare
AristoCare is a comprehensive home health agency. AristoCare provides professional staff to clients in the comfort of their own home.

Champion Home Health Care
Champion Home Healthcare provides in-home assistance to elders and others. Champion provides customers with home health aides, companions and live-ins.

Brightstar Healthcare Franchising
BrightStar Healthcare seeks to provide families and their loved ones the highest level of accessible home care, dignity, and personal attention.

Synergy Homecare
Synergy HomeCare is a non-medical home care service that works with anyone in any age range and with any home care need.

Eldirect In-Home Senior Care
ELDirect In-Home Senior Care offers short-term, long-term, light, or 24/7 care at home, hospital

Grandma's Loving Hands Senior Home Care
Grandma's Loving Hands Home Care Services is a home care business for the elderly. Grandma's Loving Care offers services to people with dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc.

Accessible Home Health Care
Accessible Home Health Care provides health care professionals such as HHA's, CNA's, Companions, RN's, LPN's, and Therapist as Live-ins, hourly, or as needed.

Always Best Care Senior Services
Always Best Care works with case managers, social workers, discharge planners, doctors, and families to assist seniors.

CareMinders Home Care
CareMinders Home Care is dedicated to providing safe, caring services.

Home Instead Senior Care
CAREGivers provide companionship and care for seniors who need either a few hours or 24 hours of service.

Home Helpers
Home Helpers provides a helping hand to people who wish to live independently. Home Helpers can supplement the care and assistance provided by family

Comfort Keepers
Comfort Keepers provides in-home care for seniors and others who need assistance in the home. Comfort Keepers provides: companionship, meal preparation..

Direct Link
Direct Link/Home Helpers provides non-medical care and companionship to senior citizens. The company allows active seniors to maintain their independence

Interim Homestyle Services
Interim HealthCare is a home care and medical staffing company that provides health care personnel at all skill levels in all settings. Services

Massage Envy Limited
Massage Envy provides many different types of therapeutic massage including Swedish, deep tissue, sports, reflexology, trigger point, and cranial

Rodeway Inns
Rodeway Inn is an economy motel chain that caters to the senior travel market. Guest amenities include free local calls, a free weekday newspaper.

Homewatch CareGivers
Homewatch CareGivers offers companion care and on-call 24/7 services. Homewatch provides physical, emotional, and social support

Epcon Communities is a builder and manager of single-story, residential condominium communities for maturing adults

Griswold Special Care
Griswold Special Care is a non-medical home care company that refers caregivers who provide in-home care services including personal care, homemaking.

Right At Home
Right at Home is an in home care and assistance agency that provides trained, insured, and bonded caregivers for a variety of professional home health

ComForcare Senior Services
ComForcare Senior Services is a provider of private duty non-medical home care. Caregivers provide personal care for those individuals seeking assistance.

Kidzart
At KidzArt, child development is fostered by teaching children how to draw, and by teaching children about fine and contemporary art.

Touching Hearts
Touching Hearts brings help and companionship to seniors and persons with disabilities by visiting and caring in their home or at our facilities.

American Ramp Systems
American Ramp Systems provides affordable, easily accessible ramps for wheelchairs, scooters and power chairs.

Kidstage
KidStage is an after-school drama program that provides acting classes, theater activities, and performance opportunities for kids of all ages

You’ve probably had a desk/area at home where you have paid bills and handled personal business and will need to expand this area when you retire anyway. If you decide to have a home office, you will have to have a conversation with your spouse as you no doubt will be taking up additional space. I started with a home office myself, but as I expanded the space I quickly ran into difficulties with my wife and ended up renting a desk at the office of friends not far away.

If you have the space, it would be better if you could set up a separate room for your home office. This room should have a regular desk, a computer station, and all the things that are necessary for a home office. If you don’t have enough space to devote a separate room, you could arrange a corner of the room where your business is conducted.

Setting Up

This will take a little time to make sure you have the appropriate working space in which to conduct your business. It could take weeks for you to do the entire setup with all the materials and equipment you will need. Places like Staples and Office Depot should have just about everything you will need. Local print shops like Insta-Print, Kinko’s, and UPS Stores will also become important places to visit.

Your Desk and Chair

Perhaps the most important single item to find is a comfortable desk chair. You will be spending a fair amount of time in this chair, so don’t skimp. Older backs and necks give all kinds of problems, and the “right” chair will minimize them. Whatever you do, don’t use a handy chair that you have lying around your place. I know a number of people who have done this and regretted it later.

As far as the desk is concerned, you may be able to use the one that you already have. If not, you can either purchase a used one from the many used office furniture stores or a new one from an office supply store.

The lists that follow may seem obvious, but I’ve included them more or less as checklists.
Top of the desk
Telephone
Inbox/outbox
Carrier for pens, pencils, hi-liters Post-it Note pads
Scotch tape dispenser
Blotter or desk pad
Calculator Stapler
Desk lamp (unless you use another source of light) Date book/calendar (some people use a calendar as a desk pad)
Rolodex
Alphabetized box for business cards you will collect/ receive
Top middle drawer
Current correspondence, checkbook, stamps, credit card receipts, things pending, bank statements
Top side drawer #1
A tray to hold paper clips, rubber bands, staple remover, Wite-Out®, measuring tape, erasers, scissors
Top side drawer #2
Extra batteries of all types you may need, extra printer ink cartridge, some small tools like a screwdriver (regular and Phillips head), box cutter, pliers, etc.
Drawer #3
Letterhead, envelopes, extra paper for your printer, business cards, a few miscellaneous birthday cards, get-well cards, etc., for emergencies
Drawer #4
Brochures, mail you have received of all kinds that you need not answer but wish to keep for reference

Telephone

It is important to get a second line. More problems develop working out of your home if you use your home phone for business. Arrange for a separate bill from your home phone, and make sure to include voice mail. Some phones also include fax capabilities if your copy machine does not. Incoming faxes can come via CallWave® 1-888-892-0021, which supplies you with a special fax number. All faxes come to your computer and can be printed on your printer. CallWave® can’t be used for outgoing faxes. Check their Web site at http://www.callwave.com/landing/mobileVisualVoicemail.aspx?r=NONE

Computer Workstation

You can, of course, use your PC or Mac, either a desktop or laptop model. If you find you need more than one computer, you can go online to research where you can get the best price for an additional unit or to the local computer or office supply store.

To go along with your computer you will need a copier/ printer/scanner. New inkjet units are very inexpensive and can accomplish all of these tasks. The cost varies, but depending on what you want and where you make the purchase, it should run $68 to $250. I got mine at Costco for $68, and it works like a dream. Your computer station/area should have a place where you can store important books including telephone books, directories, an atlas, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and so on.

You should also have a box to keep discs (both blank and including information and back-up).

Shredder

Unfortunately with the large amount of identify theft you will need a shredder. They are inexpensive and can be purchased at almost any office supply store. Not only should you shred documents with personal information, but you should also shred all preapproved credit card solicitations.

File Cabinet

Whatever size file cabinet you purchase will probably fill up before you know it.

If the area in which you have your home office is small, you will probably have to make do with a small two-drawer. If you have the room, get a larger one as this will become the repository for all kinds of materials. Each year you will have to clean out the file cabinet, or you will be purchasing new ones regularly.

I would urge you to take the time to set up an organizing system for your files. You can purchase many different kinds of organizers at the local office supply store. Do so and it will save you a great deal of frustration later on.

Areas to organize:

• Revenue: gains and losses

• Expenses: other business deductions Insurance policies Insurance claims Medical/Medicare Purchases Contributions Tax forms and records Wills and legal documents

Cards, Letterhead, Stationery

The cost for these materials is surprisingly little at your local print shop.

One tip is to order a small number of all three. Of course, the more you order, the less expensive each item is; however, you may change your mind a month or two after starting your home office business and will want to make these changes on your cards and other marketing materials. I have changed my cards several times in the past few years and still have a quantity of the old ones that I just can’t get myself to throw away.

Checklist of Miscellaneous Things to Have on Hand

Resource Guide | Continue Your Education | Resume Writing Help | Debt Consolidation | Background Check | Career Consultation | Discounts for Seniors | Estate Planning | Start Your Own Business | Memory Loss & Alzheimer’s | Identity Theft | Senior Travel | Live Better and Longer | Arthritis Pain | Prescription Drug Information | Funding Your Retirement | Reverse Mortgages | Checking your Pension | Products for Seniors | Social Security Benefits | Insurance Services | Where Do Retirees Live? | Volunteer Information | Toll Free Numbers