Resource: Business Owner’s Toolkit from CCH

Melonie Murray, at the SmallBizMentor, reviewed part of CCH’s Business Owner’s Toolkit.

Their Getting Started section begins with the basics, such as asking if you’re actually cut out to operate a small business and helping you estimate your chances of succeeding with your dream. Other sections delve into financing and marketing, dealing with hired help and technological needs, and then leading into more personal matters such as building your own wealth (instead of just business assets) and protecting the assets on both sides of the line.

The last section, Getting Out of Your Business, deals with how to move away from your self-made company whether you want to retire or need to dump a bad business (or the debts incurred by one). CCH also offers savvy folks a Financial Planning Toolkit, which could go hand-in-hand with one’s business planning efforts.

Thanks, Melonie, for digging up a great resource.

While you are at CCH, don’t miss the Business Tools, including:

Model business documents. Sample letters, contracts, forms, and policies ready for you to customize — from a Sample Independent Contractor Agreement to a Job Application Form.
Financial spreadsheet templates. Help for managing your business finances — from balancing your checkbook to creating your own financial statements. Just plug in your numbers.
Checklists. Information you need at a glance, from whether you qualify for the home office write-off to the right things to do and say during an employee termination interview.
Official Government Forms. A selection of the forms and publications most commonly used by small business owners when filing taxes with the IRS or contracting with the federal government.

Another great resource is their advice column, Ask Alice. I found it well organized, and the articles are quite good. Don’t skip over it!

The Store includes several small business books, including Find & Keep Customers for Your Small Business.

You can also subscribe to their monthly email newsletter. I did. I’ll let you know what I think.

small biz rural entrepreneurship resources

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.