Any one here had first hand experience running a business?

[RCBH928]

I have business management bachelors degree myself, but I was looking to learn from other's real life experiences, its not like I have no clue.

One thing I specifically want to know is how to setup a POS system and how to keep track of stock in a product based business. I mean is there off-the shelf products , or do I have to order customised software?

I live in a place where people would steal if they could and you have to keep very close eye on the employees, its very important to know how much is in stock and how much you sold.

[Luke]

That all depends on the volume you plan on selling. Again, a very vague question.
You can easily buy POS software, but if you plan on selling a product in large volumes, you are better off outsourcing your pick and pull. Most companies that provide said service will set you up with a CMS and a ftp site that is excel compatible.


Have you spoken with a lawyer concerning copyrights and necessary permits? Remember that each region has different tax laws that change yearly so you'll need to know how much tax to charge for each purchase if you do not plan on having a brick and mortar store.

[cward24]

The first thing that you really want to do is have a very solid business plan. If you are selling goods or providing a service you are going to need one of these if you are going to hope to get financing. If you are in the Unites States I would recommend talking to SCORE. SCORE is a non for profit orginization. They provide buisness advice and serve as counselors advisors and mentors to aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners.

That would be the first place that I would ask the question if the business would be viable. Also do you have enough resources to keep it viable. They are there to help you answer these questions. Good Luck.

[Hobie-wan]

If you do check out any off the shelf POS software, see if it has a free 15-30 day trial so you can see if it fits your needs and you like it. If you buy a scanner to speed up checkout for physical goods, expect a quality one to cost more than you expect, but it will be worth it.

[Frag Mortuus]

My wife runs a somewhat successful photography business and I run a small PC repair business on the side.

These are both service based business which are probably the lowest overhead you can have. Other than equipment, you don't really need to invest much more. She does all of her photography on site, so she doesn't have the burden of paying for and keeping up a studio (even though she may branch out to studio shoots in the future). She pays traveling expenses (except for long travels over 50 miles, then the customer pays a fee), she pays for her equipment and props, and technically her PC for editing photos and internet (which we purchased anyway). Since she doesn't sell a physical product, aside from a few prints here and there, she can sell her services for what ever price she feels like and doesn't have to worry about taking a loss on anything. So, when business is slow she will offer an hour session with a disc of all edited photos and full print release for $50, which would normally be $125. This typically gets her a lot of interest and will usually return subsequent sessions after the initial discounted session. So, she wins with a small sale in the beginning and a full price sale later.

With my PC repair business I have pretty much zero overhead. If a customer comes to me with a broken PC I will troubleshoot, determine the problem and go back to the customer with an estimate for repair. If the repair needs a new part, I will get a quote for the part, mark it up 10-15% then charge $50 an hour for the work. If it is just a virus removal I typically just charge for an hour. I will also do home network and small office network installation and PC setup and upgrade consulting for business looking to upgrade their PC infrastructure.

These are examples of how a service based business can be very inexpensive to operate versus a product based one. Granted photography is technically a product based business, the way my wife runs it most customers prefer to print their pictures themselves. So, she is not responsible for that expense.

I will second the fact that you should keep track of every expense you incur. My wife keeps a mileage log. Before she leaves for a job she writes down the mileage on her car and when she comes home she writes down her ending number. Since you get a credit for every mile you drive for your business it makes taxes smaller at the end of the year. Also, when she buys new equipment for the business she gets a receipt and saves it to put towards taxes, then every year she gets to claim depreciation of her equipment. So, this year she bought a $1500 camera, this year she will get some sort of credit towards taxes for the initial cost, then next year she will get a credit based on how much her camera has depreciated that year. Same thing with her lenses, props, etc.

I don't know how much that helps. But, thought I would share.

[RCBH928]

Every bit of information helps. I am looking at the SCORE website .

I live in a no-tax country so I do not have to worry about that. I am not familiar with the idea of tax credit. I do watch in the movies that Americans collect a complete year of receipts and calculate their taxes but I am not sure what they are doing, I thought thy pay their taxes out of their monthly income.

@Hobie-wan

I am taking your advice into consideration. I am looking up POS through digital devices like tablets and smartphones.

@Luke

I understand that CMS is like a website template such as WordPress and Drupal , but I didn't get what it has to do with POS, FTP, or Excel . Do you mean to setup and online shopping website where the CMS will be hosted on a server and the CMS will automatically log sales into Excel spreadsheets ?

[cward24]

Tax credits are used to reduce the amount of taxes that you have to pay to the government. So if you make an income you have to pay taxes on that income. These are done in abatements and rebates. Abatements are straight forward it is taken off the top. Rebates on the other hand you pay the full taxes and you get a check back on some of the taxes you paid from the government. The end result is still the same either way.

Taxes are a complicated thing and but if you pay less in them that is more profit you should recieve. But on the filp side if you are paying less then someone else will be paying more. I dont want this to turn into a taxation issue. Being in a tax free country helps a lot and you should not have to worry about these pesky things such as taxes.

The business plan will help you the most at where you are in the process. Good Luck.

[Luke]

@Luke

I understand that CMS is like a website template such as WordPress and Drupal , but I didn't get what it has to do with POS, FTP, or Excel . Do you mean to setup and online shopping website where the CMS will be hosted on a server and the CMS will automatically log sales into Excel spreadsheets ?

Your CMS should be more complicated than WordPress. You content management system should track every sale and manage inventory. The CMS should send this data to you over a file transport protocol site that is easy to copy and paste into excel. This makes making your P&L statements a breeze.