The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide
The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide
The best step-by-step guide to starting a business available!
Many people dream of running a business of their own — but often don’t know how to start. Sound familiar? This book can help.
User-friendly and loaded with tips, The Small Business Start-Up Kit shows you how to launch a business quickly, easily and with confidence. It explains in plain English how to:
The Small Business Start-Up Kit also includes all the forms and instructions you need both as tear-outs and on CD-ROM.
The 6th edition has been thoroughly updated to include the latest legal information affecting small business. Additionally, it includes 1) an updated chapter on financial management, which includes information on how to use technology to manage bookkeeping and other business aspects, 2) an updated e-business chapter which covers how to use social media to promote the business and, 3) updated material on the latest search engine optimization strategies to drive traffic to the business website.
Rating: 
(out of 13 reviews)
List Price: $ 29.99
Price: $ 19.25
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Review by Dave for The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide
Rating:
As much as I like this book it is not exactly “everything you need to start a small business.” On the other hand it is a well written and comprehensive guide that really does use plain English to explain a lot of obtuse steps and pitfalls. You will almost certainly need more professional help than you can get from this book, but this book does a pretty good job of guiding you to the help you need and avoiding the help you don’t. That can translate into a lot of saved attorney’s fees right off the bat. One less billed hour from your attorney will pay for this book. In that sense if you are starting a new business this book is pretty much free.
The author is a law-school grad and business consultant who specializes in working with startups. She has written and edited other books for Nolo. All this comes out both the clarity of the writing and the command of the subject matter she clearly has. The book does a good job of covering all of the basics, and starts wisely with the most important topic: picking the right legal structure (which can save you a lot of pain later in the process). She moves on from there and touches on everything from taxes to marketing. Along the way you will find areas where you need to dig deeper, either with professional help or by getting additional guides (which Nolo of course, is happy to sell you). Nolo has been in this business for 40 odd years and stands out as one of the best in these business of “business self-help” books. One I would suggest as a companion to this is their excellent “How to Write a Business Plan” guide. This book has a section on business plans, but if you are going to be pitching your business to potential investors you’re going to need more. If you are just writing a plan to clarify your business model to yourself (a good idea) this book alone is enough.
The included software, while handy for things like some basic legal forms, is no replacement for professional software or legal help. It is nice to see what kinds of forms you are going to need and that can focus you on exactly what you need to get out of an attorney. It’s amazing how much money you can save when you already know exactly what you want.
All in all a priceless aid to starting up a new business.
Review by Sidarta Tanu for The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide
Rating:
Nolo’s The Small Business Start-Up Kit – A Step-by Step Legal Guide is a complete guide for Small Business (and Business in general). This book is filled with useful “tips”, “cautions” and “examples” that makes it fun to read and easy to understand. This book doesn’t tell you what business to open, or what product and services to offer, but it pretty much cover everything else that you need to know about operating a small business. It also covers all the important forms and documents (tax forms, contract templates, EIN application, partnership agreement, buy-sell agreement entity classification etc). Many more relevant forms and document templates are in the CD-ROM (CD-ROM included). Some basic business financial planning are also covered such as cash flow projection, profit/loss forecast, break-even analysis, etc. I would recommend this book for current small business owners (who want to manage their business better) and for people who are thinking to open a small business.
Here’s the content of this book:
1. Choosing legal structure (SoleProp,Partership, LLP, LLC, S Corp, C Corp)
2. How to pick a good business name (including choosing web domain name, and understanding Trademark Law and registration)
3. Pick the right location and complying with zoning laws
4. How to create an effective business plan (describing your business, making financial projection and analysis, raising money, etc)
5. How to price, bid and bill projects
6. How to comply with federal, state and local business start-up requirement
7. Managing risk (Insurance, warranties, risk management strategies, lawsuit)
8. Paying tax (income tax for different legal structures, sales tax, city and county tax)
9. Special condition and restrictions for home based business
10. How to enter into contracts and agreements
11. Keeping the books (Accounting basic and accounting methods)
12. How to market/advertise your business
13. Promoting your business online (e-business)
14. How to deal with changing ownership
15. How to build your business and hire workers
16. How to get and deal with professional help (lawyers, accountant and legal research)
17. Small business resources and state by state contact information
18. Tear out forms (tax forms etc)
19. CD-ROM with more forms and document templates
20. A useful Index
All the best for your Small Business ventures!
Sidarta Tanu
Review by K. Duvall for The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide
Rating:
This covers all legal aspects of getting a business started. Quite overwhelming and scary sometimes. But it brings to light all issues that need consideration before opening a business.
I have passed this on to my brother in law, he is in the process of opening a business right now. I think it will help him have a profitable journey to running his own place.
This book does not remove the need for real legal council if needed. But does help get your thoughts and actions going in the right direction.
This provides a good reality check for folks toying with their own business idea.
Review by Ardeal for The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide
Rating:
I was faced with the dilemma of choosing between 2 NOLO books on the same topic: Business Start-ups. The other choice besides the one listed above is the one that dedicates vast resources to the actual legal documents: Legal Forms for Starting & Running a Small Business. At first glance the second choice has 130 more pages than the one above, yet when it comes to explaining processes, this one is a far better choice if you’re just starting or planning to start your business. It is straight to the point, and explains the processes in place. Once you have a good business plan and start working on your actual small business, the legal documents offered in the second NOLO book can come in handy.
Review by cynthia_colorado for The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide
Rating:
Buy this book, preferably even before you start your business. Some of the advice is for the very beginning of a business, and some is for later. The books is written in an easy and concise style; no intimidating legalese.
I expected this book would cover only the legal aspects of small businesses, but there is much more. For example: selecting a location and how to choose a business name.
There are hundreds of books out there that give advice on business and career success. Many of them contain a large percentage of fluff and repetition, compared to useful advice. This book stands far above the rest; it is packed with useful information.
Anyone who is starting a small business, or already has an established small business should read this book. There are many things that can surprise an entrepreneur, no matter how intelligent.