Shred your business plan. Burn your organization charts. Throw away your mission statement. Embrace failure (yes, you will have failures). Trash your marketing strategy. Look inside your own business for financing…and more. Much more.

Hi, my name is Bob Foster, and the above is a sample of some of the business solutions and resources I have used over the years to start businesses, turn businesses around, make businesses grow…and help business owners achieve their dreams. The articles, papers, and books I am presenting on this site are a culmination of several decades of business experience—most of it controversial. My bio is here

Over 5 million full-time businesses disappear in the U.S. alone each year—most of them "small" businesses. I don't want you to be one of them, and that is why I created this website.

The reason that most of these businesses disappear is because they lack the two most important elements of business success…knowledge and resources.

The Internet, and many offline sources as well, can provide these two elements, but they are hidden amongst millions of websites and tons of printed matter. How do you find what you need for your particular business? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack---and it can get very discouraging.

That is why I created the "business solutions and resources" website. I am building this website to pull together in one location, all the basic business solutions and resources necessary to start a business. This way, any person from any place can see how to start a business, or make their new existing business more successful. That is why this website is primarily for new and aspiring entrepreneurs.

So, let's get started with…

This website is set up similar to a printed reference book, as follows:

1. Each major topic is presented in a section, as though it were a major section of a reference book. The Sections are listed below.
2. All of the subjects pertaining to each Section are presented as reports within each section. These reports are equivalent to "chapters" in a reference book.
3. There are various resources mentioned throughout the website, with links to most of them. These resources are also collected into one section called Resources in the "Table of Contents" and on the NavBar. Therefore, if you are just looking for a particular resource, you can go directly to the "Resources" Section.
4. Although this business solutions and resources website is set up in the format of a reference book, it can also be studied from page 1 of the first Section and read straight through. This is what I recommend for any brand new entrepreneur.

Go ahead and check out my About page, and then take a look at each of the section topics of business solutions and resources shown in the list below, and in more detail in the Table of Contents. Be sure to check back often, because new materials and features will be added frequently.

If you are thinking of starting a business, or have only recently started one, I suggest you start at the beginning of this information website with the first report of Section 1 - Entrepreneurship, titled What is an Entrepreneur? (You might be surprised). Then read all the Sections that follow.

Following is a list of the sections that make up this site. You can refer to the Table of Contents for a complete listing of all the reports included in each section:

Section 1. - Entrepreneurship. The term Entrepreneur has become a fad, to the point where we now have Social Entrepreneurs, Lifestyle Entrepreneurs, Political Entrepreneurs and on and on. This section discusses what a Business Entrepreneur really is, and how to know if that definition fits you.

Section 2. - Starting Up. Starting a small business has a myriad of considerations. This section covers many of them, and is directed at both beginning and serial entrepreneurs.

Section 3. - Planning. This section presents the various types of business planning and discusses when to use each type—if any at all.

Section 4. - Financing. This is an ongoing consideration for every entrepreneur, no matter how small or large your business is. It is an issue that needs to be addressed early and often…this section helps guide you in the process.

Section 5. - Accounting. I included this subject as a complete section, because it is extremely important, and one of the things most entrepreneurs ignore as long as possible—big mistake.

Section 6. - Buying a Business. This section provides the pros and cons of buying an already operating business, and how to approach the process of searching, approaching, and negotiating the buying of a business.

Section 7. - Crisis Management. Sometimes things do go very badly in a business and the owner is faced with a crisis--or so they think. This section helps business owners determine if they really have a crisis, and if so, how to handle it.

The report titles included in each section are all listed in the Table of Contents

10/11/11