Florida College of Business and Entrepreneurship, (FCBE) Inc.
8300 NW 53rd Street, Suite 350 Doral, Florida 33166 Telephone: 305-742-2215 Fax: 305-246-3557
E-mail:registrar@floridacollegeofbusiness.org * Website:http://floridacollegeofbusiness.org
June 18th 2007
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lloyd Pilgrim Spooner Professor of Business Telephone: 305-742-2215 Fax: 305-246-3557
Lspoon51@bellsouth.net
Softcover, 268 pages, $26.95 ISBN: 978-0-9623519-3-8
Start Creating Wealth From Entrepreneurship The book focuses on starting and operating a small business in particular, South Florida: Miami-Dade; Broward; West Palm Beach; and, Monroe counties. It provides census bureau statistics by county on the total number of employer and non-employer businesses. Employer businesses are firms that reported they had paid Employees, for a given year, and Non-employer businesses are single individuals running firms without paid employees. Employer businesses were tabulated from County Business Patterns (CBP) for 2002, 2003, and 2004, and were combined with Non-employer data for corresponding years, tabulated from North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for 1997, 2002, and, 2004 by eighteen industry sectors to get total businesses by county and industry. Tabulations were also done for Nonemployer businesses gross revenue generated for 1997, 2002, and 2004 years. The Book offers trends and outlook, and recommends to start-up entrepreneurs an eleven-step approach to launching a small business, from a business idea, in the regional economy, based on the U.S. Census Bureau NAICS industry sectors. Step one advises that a start-up entrepreneurs should first investigate the local requirements of the county and the municipality where you plan to operate the business, to ascertain the legal and Local Business Tax requirements. As
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you investigate local requirements, State and Federal requirements should be considered, as well. State sales tax registration and collection, which are within the purview of the Florida Department of Revenue, and a Federal EIN number, are the foremost requirements to operate a business in Florida. Step two proves that entrepreneurs need to appraise the Local, State and Federal business incentives, which are available in every municipality in America, in order to determine which incentives they could use to propel their businesses in the regional economy. Start-up entrepreneurs often overlook this step and become more immersed in getting grants, for example, without first taking a closer look at incentives that are available for their benefit. Some of the incentive programs covered for Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties, include: enterprise zones; economic; job creation; job training; public facilities; industrial development revenue bonds; business loan programs; and, block grant programs which are grants from Federal Sources. State and Federal incentives include: the requirements for State and Federal granting of Patents, Trademarks, and Copyright and how they differ. These incentives are there to protect a new invention, original produced music and other artistic works, copyright of any article or book produced by an entrepreneur. On the State level, forming a business entity is better over a sole proprietorship, mainly because of the limited liability advantage and benefits from a host of federal tax deductions. Federal tax incentives include: deductions for bad debts and employee business expenses and several other tax deductions; business use of your home; entertainment; and many more. The third step reflects specific financing resources that are available from all three levels of governments: Local; State; and, Federal. On the local level Miami-Dade County offers small business grants and loans through MetroMiami Action Plan Trust (MMAP), Urban Revitalization Taskforce, Office of Community and Economic Development, and though the County Commission - Moss Entrepreneurship Program, as an example. Broward, West Palm Beach and Monroe Counties have similar and other programs, but may have different application and approval requirements. The State of Florida offers the Loan Programs and Enterprise Zone Incentives. Federal Financing Resources include various Loans and Grants from various agencies such as the Small Business Administration (SBA) that many start-up entrepreneurs are unfamiliar with. Over thirty separate Federal business tax deductions are offered. Opportunities Abound in the South Florida Economy
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Start-up entrepreneurs basically have three choices to consider before starting a business: buy an existing one; invest in a franchise; or, Entrepreneurship: Start a business from an idea. According to Andrea Kay in her February 17, 2006 article in Gannett News Service, titled “Entrepreneurship: It’s not only about the money”, if you like to take charge, don't mind working hard and stick with something when things get in the way, not to mention decisive, able to live with uncertainty and excited about new products and services, you just might be the entrepreneurial type. More than 23 million people have decided that they are, according to a study by the University of Michigan (UM) and Florida International University (FIU), an increase of 30 percent in the number of entrepreneurs in 2005. This represents an increase of 9 million people from the late 1990s, says Paul Reynolds, director of the Entrepreneurship Research Institute in an article in "Assembly Magazine." Forty-four percent of these creators of new businesses are 18 to 34 years old, 47 percent are 35-54 and 9 percent are 55 and older. So how did they decide what business to get into? The Book offers a strategy for start-ups to use when choosing a business idea. Your business idea should be based on a product or service you care about. Choose a business idea that you will feel good about throwing yourself into, proud to tell people about and that you think is worth taking a risk for. Begin by thinking about issues, products and services that matters to you most. The other key ingredient is picking a product or service that fulfills a need, Kay stressed. Selecting a Business Idea You can review and select a business idea after looking over the NAICS list of businesses that are operating at the National, State, Regional, and Local levels by NAICS industry classification tables in the Book. You can use a business opportunity ideas recognition chart designed to help you choose a business idea through some simple steps from the NAICS list based on your review and assessment of which industry has ideas that are right for you in step six.
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Is your business idea Feasible? There is a feasibility study checklist in step seven for the entrepreneur, owner, manager or CEO of a small business enterprise to complete. The questions concentrate on areas and issues that you must consider seriously by determining if your idea represents a real business opportunity and if you can really know what you are getting into. You can use it to evaluate a completely new venture or an apparent opportunity for a business in step eight. You can then test your business knowledge by taking a quiz in step nine. Passing the test allows you to go on to creating a business from one of the many ideas chosen by going on to framing a personal mission statement and finally begin to write your business plan from the outline provided in step eleven. Since overcoming many obstacles in life, Lloyd Pilgrim Spooner started down the entrepreneurship trail since at the age of 10, when his mother was his mentor. Since then he has taught entrepreneurship to thousands of small businesses from New York at the World Trade Center, and City University of New York-BMCC, to Atlanta and the Caribbean to South Florida at Miami Dade College (MDC) and Florida College of Business and Entrepreneurship (FCBE) Inc. in more recent years. Known for his common sense approach to small business management, Pilgrim Spooner also ran his own export/import business in Jamaica for seven years. Lumping all his experiences together, Pilgrim Spooner, after obtaining a Masters Degree from University of Florida in Urban and Regional Planning (1977), has finally published Start Creating Wealth From Entrepreneurship ($26.95), Florida College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Doral, Florida.
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