Small Business Management: Starting a Small Business

Legal Guide for Starting & Running a Small Business clearly explains the practical and legal information you need to: raise start-up money; choose between a sole proprietorship, partnership or LLC; get licenses and permits; buy or sell a business or franchise; negotiate a favorable lease; insure your business; hire independent contractors safely; understand small business tax rules; pick and protect a good name; resolve legal disputes; adopt the best customer policies; enter into strong contracts; and cope with financial problems.

Here you'll find the forms you need to start and grow your business. Each document comes with thorough, plain-English, line-by-line instructions to help you: write contracts record minutes of meetings; hire employees and consultants; borrow or lend money; protect your trade secrets; buy a business; create noncompete agreements; lease commercial space; prepare corporate bylaws; buy real estate; and prepare LLCs.

Project management can help companies become more efficient and profitable. But as a seasoned project management consultant, educator, and writer, author Joseph Phillips teaches that the how of successful project management looks different for every business. Grounded in years of his real-world experience, Project Management for Small Business introduces readers to the core principles and techniques of project management adapted and simplified to be most effective for smaller enterprises. With repeatable practices for planning, executing, and controlling projects in an environment where one team member may be wearing multiple hats, this practical how-to helps you avoid the potentially devastating effects of wasted time and materials. Among many other useful skills, you'll learn how to define project requirements and scope; create a project schedule based on resource availability; estimate and budget for project costs, identify and minimize project risks; manage workflow; communicate effectively; and control project change. Classic project management models often prove too cumbersome for smaller businesses with limited staff resources, tight budgets, and next to no time to devote to learning a complex new system. Project Management for Small Business skips the complicated theory and goes straight to the heart of what it really takes to make a project--and your business--a success.