Starting a business can be expensive and complex depending on what kind of business you start. A strategic business plan helps you address questions like, what are my capital resources, how will my product or service reach the market place, or how will I manage my day-to-day operations. These are very important issues for any start-up, and must be addressed, however there are other “must knows” that are just as critical to new business success.

The first, which is the proper business form to choose could have a significant impact on your bottom line. This is because different business forms are taxed differently. The various forms of business structures include sole proprietor, LLC, Partnership, S-Corporation, or C-Corporation. Each with their own set of rules, as it relates to how you pay taxes. The next consideration, whether I should get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) has been a popular topic among start-ups. Generally, regardless of your business form, applying and obtaining an EIN is a must. This is because during the course of conducting business you will most likely make certain payments that require information return(s). The forms used to report these payments must include the payee’s identification number.

Another important consideration is deciding on your tax year. A tax year usually consists of twelve months. The IRS allows two kinds of tax years. The first is Calendar Year, which starts January 1 and ends December 31 of every year. The second is Fiscal Year. “A fiscal tax year is 12 consecutive months ending on the last day of any month except December. A 52-53-week tax year is a fiscal tax year that varies from 52 to 53 weeks but does not have to end on the last day of a month” (IRS pub 538). Though most start-ups choose the calendar year, it is good to understand the difference between the two. Once your business grows it may become prudent to switch to Fiscal Year due to many potential tax advantages they may avail themselves as a result.

The next three considerations include businesses owners knowing what type of federal and state tax they will be responsible to pay, which tax forms are you required to file, and how to properly account for employees, as it relates to taxes. The IRS requires different business forms to file different tax returns (Schedule C, 1120, 1102s, 1065) at different times during the filing period. In addition, depending on whether you have W-2 employees or independent contractor’s different type information return requirements will apply. You may also be faced with state and local sales tax payment and reporting requirements. It is also important because it has been argued to be one of the most troublesome areas for small business start-ups.

Finally, understanding the proper accounting method (cash vs. accrual), what business expenses are deductible, and which records to keep and for how long are the last three “must knows”. Depending on what accounting method you choose, you could be paying more in taxes than you should. Making this determination requires a good understanding of the accounting methods available and how those methods affect your specific situation. Understanding what expenses are deductible will assist you with proper record keeping, as well as help your tax professional maximize your credits and deductions. Remember, a tax pro generally is limited to information you provide. Tax professionals may understand the implications of certain deductions, but not know without your input that said deduction(s) apply.

It is common to bump into an entrepreneur hunting for a childcare business plan since this market segment is growing and is highly lucrative. Find one here that focuses on your business strategy and mentions unique points to score above the competition. Let the plan aim to provide “high quality childcare” to the families with young children. The potential clients can have very high expectations in their definition of ‘high quality childcare.’ So in your child care business plan elaborate that the facility will provide a nurturing environment that encourages the growth of self-esteem It will provide the child an opportunity for an all-round development.

For childcare centers to thrive the plan must position your service uniquely to fight the competition. Let “extra features” form the core of your business strategy. Offer weekend workshops for the family. This allows parents to interact with children and teachers at the center. These workshops can also publicize your program to potential clients. Keep a teacher on-call duty to cater to the children who will be collected at a later hour. Medical emergencies, meetings and traffic inevitably delay many clients like doctors or lawyers. They will willingly pay the additional fee and remain loyal. Once a month make Saturday nights available to provide child care to client families. These extra benefits will win over the enrolled families.

There is a wide and expanding market for this service as nuclear families become the rule and an increasing number of women go to work. Still, your childcare business plan should clearly describe the target market in order to build upon the initial enrollments. Focus on expecting families, infants below twelve months and single parent households.

Alternatively, the bulletin boards at public schools, local shops and businesses are the best tools of advertising. The traditional word-of-mouth publicity helps bring continued business. Your website will also attract business, especially the families that relocate to your area. The mission of your childcare business plan should be to establish the center, go for a rapid expansion and an aggressive program promotion. Your profit margins will rise with an increase in the licensed capacity.

First published in Exchange, the magazine of the Brigham Young University School of Business, the following twelve categories were developed to cover the root or cause of most ethical business dilemmas that one might encounter in their jobs. I have summarized them to keep them short and simple.

1. Taking Things That Don’t Belong To You

Everything from taking highlighters from the storage room, to sending personal mail through the mailroom, to downloading unauthorized games to play on your work computer fall into this category. A CFO of a major corporation took a cab from the airport to his home in the city. When he asked the cabbie for receipt, he was handed a full book of blank receipts. Apparently this dilemma of accurately reporting business expenses involves more than just one employee.

2. Saying Things That You Know Are Not True

When a car salesperson insists to a customer that a used car has not been in a previous accident, when it has, an ethical breach has occurred. When a clerk in a store assures a customer that a product has a money-back guarantee, when only trade-ins are allowed, another ethical violation occurred (and perhaps a violation of the law).

3. Giving Or Allowing False Impressions

There is an urban legend in which 2 CD’s were being sold on a TV infomercial that claimed that that all the hits of the 1980’s were on the CDs. The infomercial emphasized over and over again that all songs were performed by the original artists. When they received the CDs, upon closer inspection, they found that all songs had been covered by a band called The Original Artists. While technically true, the impression given by the infomercial was false.

4. Buying Influence or Engaging in Conflict of Interest

When a company awards a construction contract to an organization owned by the brother of the attorney general, or when a county committee who is charged with choosing a new road construction company is traveling around the state looking at roads at the expense of one of the bidders, a conflict of interest arises which might affect the results of that choice.

5. Hiding or Divulging Information

Failing to divulge information from the results of a study on the safety of a new product, or choosing to take your companies proprietary product information to a new job are examples that fall into this category.

6. Taking Unfair Advantage

Have you ever wondered why there seem to be so many product safety rules and procedures? It is primarily the result of laws passed by government institutions to protect the consumer from companies that previously took unfair advantage of them because of their lack of knowledge or through complex contractual obligations.

7. Committing Acts of Personal Decadence

Over time, it has become increasing clear that the acts of employees outside of work can have a negative effect on a businesses image. This is one of the primary reasons companies are minimizing social interactions or events, outside of the office, so that drug or alcohol related events can not be tracked back to the company.

8. Perpetuating Interpersonal Abuse

At the heart of this category of ethical misbehavior is the abuse of employees through sexual harassment, verbal lashing, or public humiliation by a company leader.

9. Permitting Organizational Abuse

When an organization chooses to operate in another country, it sometimes butts up against social culture in which child labor, demeaning work environments or excessive hours are required. It is at this point that the leaders of the company have a choice…whether to perpetuate that abuse or alleviate it.

10. Violating Rules

In some cases, people or organizations violate rules to expedite a process or decision. In many of these cases, the results would have been the same regardless, but by violating the rules or required procedures for that outcome, they can potentially scar the reputation of the organization they work for.

11. Condoning Unethical Actions

Suppose you are at work one day and you notice that a colleague of yours is using petty cash for personal purchases and fail to report it. Perhaps you know that a new product in development has safety issues, but you don’t speak out. In these examples, failing to do right creates a wrong.

12. Balancing Ethical Dilemmas

What about a situation that would be considered neither right, nor wrong? What should be done here? Should Google or Microsoft do business in China when human rights violations are committed daily? Sometimes an organization must balance the need to do business with any ethical dilemmas that might arise from doing business.

What is Business Central and why should we consider it?

Dynamics 365 Business Central is a mid-market ERP system from Microsoft that is the upgraded version of the venerable Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Business Central versions 13 and 14 actually ran in the NAV client software, because it was in fact the same product.

For those customers who have GP or Great Plains, they may recognize the name Dynamics NAV as a sister product of Dynamics GP. Once referred to as Navision, the NAV system is a good ERP system for small and medium business (SMB). Microsoft defines this as companies of up to 250 computers.

Microsoft often compared the two products as being sold into the same market. They considered them as mid-tier sister products. The reality is that sometimes GP was sold into businesses where the sophistication of the accounting needs exceeded what NAV could do. The reverse was true in supply chain and manufacturing.

Dynamics GP to Business Central? It depends on your business

Our experience is with Dynamics NAV or Dynamics 365 Business Central in manufacturing and supply chain. It is our belief that moving from Great Plains to Dynamics NAV/Business Central makes a lot of sense for these businesses.

The distribution and manufacturing capabilities of Dynamics Business Central are (in our opinion) just a bit better than Great Plains. This is especially true once the addon products for BC are factored in. Companies in this space that choose to migrate from Dynamics GP to Business Central are going to be pretty happy with their decision. The system capabilities are better suited to their needs.

If you are running Dynamics GP in a more financially complex environment things get more complicated. The core functionality in accounting is much stronger if you need the multi-layered approval processes that are out of the box in Great Plains. If you have plant level controllers who are supervised by division level controllers and maybe this rolls up to a corporate team – GP supports that.

The ability to post to subledgers and leave final General Ledger posting to review and approval is not at all available in NAV/Business Central.

The fact is, we have never seen this as a desirable feature of GP. That is probably because our expertise is so limited in the pure financial space.

3 Reasons Dynamics 365 Business Central is the Upgrade Path for GP

For those companies that are in the right space, we would say that the migration from GP to Business Central is extremely logical and probably the right way to go.

1. Business Central is ultra modern and is being heavily invested in by Microsoft. Dynamics GP will be supported, but even the investments in it often are to make migration to BC easier.
2. There is no chance that Microsoft will invest in making GP a cloud ready solution, and no plans to create the same AppSource (Microsoft ERP addon store) capabilities in GP. GP addon vendors are flocking to Business Central. Unfortunately, GP is a dead end technology if it won’t move to the cloud.
3. Microsoft and partners are making a real effort to cut costs and make the migration easy. In addition, this might be a great chance to revisit those problem areas in your business that the GP system isn’t handling.

If you are in manufacturing or distribution, unless you approve of my complex accounting needs description, you are a great candidate for Business Central.

Maybe we need Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations?

If you do need the complex accounting approval and controls that I discuss above, then you probably need to look at the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations product. This product is a lot more sophisticated and advanced than Business Central. It comes with a price tag that matches, but generally those very complex needs are going to be met with F&O and not Business Central.

Conclusion

There is a lot more we can say about this process, including discussing the costs of this upgrade; some of the automated tools that Microsoft is developing to help; and the opportunity for business process re-engineering that this can create.

We will leave that for another time.

In general, it is absolutely worth looking at the upgrade to Business Central from GP.

OK, keep reading because we’ll share 13 simple strategies that

should be the first step you take after setting up your business page!

1. Videos are King. Post a video: This is the era of ed-u-tain-ment; your audience prefers to be ed-u-tained versus educated. Facebook users watch 1.8 billion videos per day, you may as well be one of them!

2. Contact with your Fans. Find out their likes and dislikes, what will fly and what’s a flop. Staying connected to your target audience. Staying plugged-in is another FREE way to perform market research. Research and polling are Great ways to ascertain exactly your visitor’s desires.

3. Add an effective CTA: (call-to-Action button) If your CTA is to book an appointment then you’ll want to write a post encouraging your target market to book their appointment now. Another advantage of correctly optimizing your CTA in this example, your clients can book their appointment by clicking your CTA. By clicking on the book now button this takes them directly to the Facebook Editorial calendar. This is a tremendous opportunity that saves massive time and increases conversion rates.

4. We love stores so include them on your page. Page Stories let you share pictures and short videos that bring your audience behind the scenes, giving them an intimate look into your business. Talk about your new Story in your post.

5. Let your visitors know what others think of you. Post testimonials and reviews: According to recent research consumers trust reviews just as much as personal recommendations. Ask Amazon!

6. News sells. Announce news: You can post business announcements via Facebook Messenger. You can post events, sales, or community affairs on your Page to reach your customers at scale for FREE!

7. Questions are the answer. One easy way to keep your visitors engaged is by asking questions. People don’t care about how much you know; they care about how much you know about them.

8. Inspiration is always a healthy choice. Post inspirational and motivational quotes. If they are unique and highly engaging, they will be shared throughout other social media platforms.

9. Share related news: When you share the news that is relatable and of interest to your target market, it gives them a warm and cozy feeling. They feel that you don’t just care about promoting your products or services BUT YOU HAVE A GENUINE INTEREST IN THEM.

10. Crowd-source feedback: Ask your page followers for feedback and use it to improve your business. This is a great way to create transparency and openness with your audience and build brand trust.

11. Share Holiday Greetings. Especially share those unfamiliar holidays, this gives it a fun-fact. And it induces engagement.

12.Create an Event: An event can be anything you make it. Create a stir and promote it.

13. If you post a piece of content that gets plenty of comments and shares; you should consider boosting that post! You never know when you may hit the nail squarely on the head or upload that perfect video that gets many shares; your visitors will let you know.

Keeping in mind recent research found that 78% of American consumers say they discover products on Facebook. Facebook is considered one of the top advertising channels online. 51% of the total US advertising dollars are spent on digital ads.

Another note, Facebook has over 2 million-month users, 65 million small business pages and 4 million advertisers on its platform. This makes it’s the biggest social media network in the world.

Lastly, Facebook is ever-changing. It’s a good idea to keep up-to-date and current with their rules, algorithm changes and marketing tactics.

Check out PYTalkBiz.com for more Facebook marketing tips and tactics. We stay current because we practice what we teach.

A home daycare can be a rewarding career. You can be a positive influence in the life of young children, and parents in your community can be assured that their children are in good, caring, capable hands when they are not with them.

If you have a genuine and deep love for children – and loads of patience, kindness, and understanding – a home daycare business might be perfect for you.

Here are some of the many benefits of this type of business:

Increasing Demand. The demand for childcare is projected to increase as mothers and fathers continue to work outside the home.

Emotionally rewarding. The early years are such a pivotal time in the life of a child. As a daycare provider, you can have a huge influence on the life of all the children in your care.

Stay at home with your own kids. This type of career, more than many others, offers the possibility for you to enjoy time at home with your own children while you care for others.

Starting a Home Daycare Business

While it has many benefits, a home day care is not likely to create huge financial gains. So, going into this business, it’s important that you understand why you are starting this business. And, of course, the love of children must be paramount.

Any parent or caregiver will affirm that being surrounded by children all day can be incredibly demanding. You’ll want to make sure you have a solid business plan before you embark on this type of career, and that starts with lots of research.

Here are some of the questions you’ll need to consider:

Will your community support a home daycare? In other words, does your area need another daycare?

Will you be able to charge enough in your area to make this a profitable venture (or at least to stay afloat financially). What is the “going rate” per child in your area for daycare?

What are parents in your community looking for in a daycare center? Interview parents in your neighborhood and find out what features they wish they had. What kinds of unique features could you provide as a caregiver?

What kind of changes will you need to make to your home and yard to make this work? What kind of effect will this business have on your everyday family life?

What are the regulations of your state and local government? You’ll need the requirements for caregiver/child ratios, interior and exterior space per child, nutrition, and licensing.

What kind of financial outlay would be required? As with any business, you’ll need to start with a sound business plan that specifically addresses income and expenses.

What is your childcare philosophy? How will you handle discipline issues? You’ll need to have a solid, written policy and procedures manual before you open for business.

What hours will you be open? What will you do when children are picked up late?

Which meals will you serve? What kind of snacks will you serve – and when?

What will your daily routine be? What kind of preschool curriculum will you offer? Start thinking now about possible units of study, field trips, and special guests.

Are you CPR certified? Regardless of whether it is a state requirement, you’ll want to make sure to have CPR certification and first aid knowledge so that you are equipped to handle anything that may occur in the course of your day with the children.

What kind of insurance will you need? Inquire about liability insurance, as well as changes to your homeowner’s insurance (for accidents that may occur on your property.)

How will you market your business? Generally, this business doesn’t require a lot of marketing. That’s due in part to the large demand for quality childcare. And, for home daycares, your neighbors and acquaintances are likely to be your prime prospects so word of mouth is often sufficient. Still, it’s a good idea to create a professional brochure detailing your daycare philosophy, curriculum, schedule, and fees.

What other ways could you structure your business? Before you begin a home daycare business, think about all the other possibilities in the childcare industry. For example, in my town there is a very successful babysitting service where caregivers travel to homes or vacationer’s hotel rooms. Last time I checked, the service was charging upwards of $20 per hour with a 3-hour minimum. Or consider a drop-in daycare that you could provide during hours where childcare is more difficult to find (evenings and weekends, for example). If you find a very specific niche and fill it, you can generally charge more per hour.

If this all seems overwhelming, you can invest in a business kit with the essentials: forms, policies and procedures, examples of business plans, as well as forms that you are certain to need but that might not immediately come to mind.

There’s nothing like owning your own business. Enjoy the process of researching and creating your own!

Do you need investors? Looking for a loan? Do you want to apply for a grant? Or has the time just come to do a self-analysis of your business? Are you expanding your business? Looking for new markets? Seeking the next level in your business? These are all times that you need a business plan? What are the nuts and bolds of a business plan?

All business plans have more or less the same sections some even have the same content.

However, when they arrive at the investor’s or lender’s table some remain where they are and others pass to the “I’ll read them later” pile or worse still the trash can! So how do you make your business plan readable and memorable for all the best reasons.

Let’s look at what really is at the heart of a business plan. A business plan is a methodology that defines and integrates the activities that are necessary for a business idea to become a company and provides expectations that prove it will be profitable. In other words, it is the hook to get an investor and tell them that your idea is innovative and will be very profitable. Note those two important words: innovative and profitable. No investor will be interested in a company that is not going to be profitable enough to give them their investment back plus a very healthy profit. Now the what could be an interesting word – innovative. For a company to be successful it must have something that is different to all the other companies working in the same market. After all if your company is going to be the same as all the others, they are hardly going to move over and let you take their customers. No, your company needs to have something different that will attract these customers away from what they buy all the time. So innovative in some way, be it products, business model or service.

Lets add another word that your need to prove within your business plan – viable. Your investor or lender wants to see that you company is going to be viable. If you do a Google search about the “Internet Bubble” of circa 1995 you will see that thousands of investors invested and lent to new fangled internet companies that promised to make them millions of dollars in easy profits. Memories are long and now investors look to see that new companies are going to be viable for the for seeable future so that they continue to receive an income stream and have a good chance of getting their loan or investment back.

Your business plan should be a communication tool selling an original idea that serves to attract and convince people that you have the ability to implement the plan by establishing and managing the company.

At the beginning we highlighted other reasons for business planning. In addition to raising funds, your business plan is also the best tool for you to assess the viability of your business.

So that is the NUTS of a business plan, lets look at the BOLTS that hold it together:

Professional: Internally it should be well structured with an index, page numbers, headings and bulleted paragraphs that explain complex matter. Plenty of graphics break up the boredom of too many words. Externally it should be expertly bound and have a colorful and attractive cover page. It stands to reason that full company details and contact information should also be on the front cover.

Tempting. Written in a way that encourages the reader to assess the possibilities of entering the business. Take care of the writing style, be concise but not brief and certainly not so wordy that tiredness beckons. Keep to the point, zwoding extraneous information that does not support your business planning or business model. Avoid jargon and if you must use initials ensure that the first example is spelt out completely with the initials in brackets afterwards.

Dynamic. You have to be creative, but with some restraint. It is best if you tell a story but not one that is found in the fiction section of a library. If the business you propose does not invite big flourishes, save them. It can be counterproductive to distract the reader. Creativity is important as long as you highlight something about the business and is there to keep the attention of the reader. Creativity must only be used to paint a picture of how the business will operate in the future.

Accurate. Clarity is fundamental, but so is accuracy and truthfulness about the current state of your company and its future aims. A little bit of license is offered by the reader but they do expect you to be truthful about your figures, customer numbers and state of the production of your goods.

Ordered. Guide your reader through your business plan and put supporting documentation within the appendix of the report. Although the key information should be in the main sections of the report, in the appendices you can include secondary data, market study results, resumes of professionals and any letters from recommendation or favorable report.

The last big BOLT that will hold your business plan together is CARE. Your business plan is not just something you have to rush through in order to get your funding. It is the description of what your business looks like now and what you want it to look like in the future. Most business plans start at about 20 pages long for a small business setting out in the world to a maximum of 50 pages for a business seeking major funding. Whatever the size of your business plan, and please practice writing complex ideas succinctly, it should be written with care – after all a good business plan is a roadmap to company success!

When you are the owner of a small business, there are times when the scale of bigger companies can overwhelm you. At these times, you may wonder what you have that will make potential customers pick your brand over another. This particular factor is a business differentiator, and it helps consumers in the market identify you and set you apart from other brands.

Differentiating your company from the rest is an integral part in developing a brand, and it’s become even more difficult in recent years since it’s not merely enough to be just better than others; you need to be different. You may not have realized it yet, but being a small business is a differentiator on its own, you need to leverage it and market it enough. Here’s how you can identify your small business’ differentiators.

Analyze Your Competition

Finding your differentiators starts by learning what makes your competitors different. You need to maintain a neutral position and evaluate your competitor to know what their strengths and weaknesses are. What do they offer? What do they do better than you? How do they treat their customers?

Once you answer these questions, you discover their weak and strong points, as well as your own. At this point, you can decide whether you want to change the direction of your business to make it better than your competitors or market an aspect of your brand that’s already there.

Be Familiar with the Customer Experience

A benefit of being a small business owner is personally having experienced the life of an average consumer. By knowing the shortcomings of a large-scale company customer experience, you know what to develop in your own company. However, when working on differentiators, it’s time to start by scratch so you should map the various aspects of being a customer. What do they value? What dissuades them from buying?

You need to work on ways to build a consumer’s awareness of a need that your company can fulfill. It’s only after a consumer realizes that they need something that they will look towards brands that can provide them with a solution. You need to assess how your target demographic makes buying decisions, and whether your brand aligns with that thought process or not.

The wrong approach is to focus solely on your product because that’s not what customers emphasize on when buying a product. The best way is to address different aspects of the customer experience and develop all of them.

Know Your Strengths

The first and foremost strength of being a small business is giving customers the attention they need. Since you’re not managing branches everywhere, you can afford to look after a minimal customer base.

Other than that, each business has its strengths when compared to other brands. It could be your amazing marketing, your customer loyalty programs, or your approach to customer service. Also, a small business operates on values, so they understand the needs and requirements of the average person.

Get Involved in the Community

The community you operate in should be your focus when expanding your reach. By making an impact on your community, your brand automatically earns a reputation among the other brands in the area. The people in your district will be in favor of supporting your brand since it will have a positive influence on their community.

The Importance of Having Differentiators

It’s true that ever brand needs differentiators that give them a competitive edge for business rivals, but your brand needs it more as a small business. That’s because large companies can already offer better prices due to cheaper manufacturing practices and access to raw materials at lower costs.

Hence, having a fixed market differentiator will help consumers pick your brand despite the difference between what you and larger brands can offer. However, having a differentiator isn’t only necessary for setting your brand apart from the rest. By knowing what you can do better than other companies can, you’ll have a clear view of what you should focus on when planning a marketing campaign.

A well-planned and targeted marketing effort will help you retain customers and increase your rates of promotion among people outside your community. Without a strong differentiator, you won’t be able to compete with others head-on.

At the same time, you need to uphold the values of honesty and transparency by refraining from overloading your brand profile. By attesting to being better than competitors at ‘everything,’ you risk losing precious customers. That’s why; you need to test all of your differentiators to see if they’re true, provable and relevant.

Only market things about your brands that you believe to be true, and to gain the audience’s trust, you have to prove it; whether through ‘look inside our workshop’ schemes or quality tests. Lastly, your differentiators need to be relevant. Customers won’t consider an aspect of your brand that they don’t care about or if it doesn’t benefit them. To conclude, you need to reflect upon your band’s personality and find something about your small business that differentiates it from the rest.

Insufficient funding is one of the top reasons why 80% of businesses fail within the first year and a half. As a business owner, not only do you have to cover all operating expenses, but the time and effort needed to succeed means you will almost certainly have to bid farewell to your day job and regular pay checks. Unless you’ve saved up enough to pay for everything for at least 18 months, you will probably have to find other sources of funding.

However, here we encounter another problem. A recent survey cited by the Credit Union Times showed that only about one-fifth of small business owners – incidentally about the same rate of successful businesses – rely on a small business loan. The survey showed that 62% were fearful of taking on a loan and almost one-fourth of respondents think they would not be approved for one. A Harvard Business School working paper by Karen Mills (Administrator of the US Small Business Administration until 2013) showed even more discouraging statistics. Banks continue to apply measures that restrict small business lending since the financial crisis hit, since such loans are generally always riskier than those to large businesses. Loans amounting to $1 million or less – the domain of small businesses – have gone down 21% since 2008. These loans made up half of all bank loans in 1995, but only 30% in 2012.

So what can you do to have a better chance at securing a loan?

As the saying goes, “The devil is in the details.” Given the stricter requirements of banks, you will need to come up with a very convincing plan that shows your business will truly make a profit. Each number presented has to be supported by hard evidence or at least some realistic projections backed by in-depth research. There must also be a clear plan as to where the money will go and how it will influence your business’s success.

Aside from this, your entire personal finances will also be scrutinized, so make sure your taxes, mortgages, credit cards, assets and liabilities, and even your credentials are all spotless and in order.

The bottom line is, if you believe in your business idea and do the necessary due diligence in coming up with a sound budget and business plan, there should be no reason to be denied a small business loan. Otherwise, you may want to reconsider quitting your day job.

Many of our loyal readers out there are already aware that Dave and I relish celebrating conscious and proactive entrepreneurs who are working to make a difference in the world while providing their services. Today I am thrilled to highlight a local Kootenay-based business with this wonderful discussion below.

We first met Narae Kang, owner of Kimchi Kitchen, when we spotted a post on social media where she was offering a fantastic opportunity for other local businesses – a free (10×6) vinyl decal displayed on their mobile kitchen unit. A little something for their customers to browse while waiting for their meal.

Coming from a marketer’s angle – I saw their selfless, non-promotional post as a great way to reach out to the community. Dave and I, for instance had heard of the truck but had not been customers yet – once we purchased a meal there however, we are definitely customers now. So are dozens of others who saw the post, they were so impressed that they responded saying they were coming down to purchase from the truck soon and calling out to others to support such a selfless business. So while Kimchi Kitchen’s intent wasn’t coming from a marketing angle at all… the result was that they gained popularity, attained increased exposure to a highly targeted market and they created a very strong networking system with dozens of other local businesses, including ourselves.

When Dave dropped off our ad decals, he also ordered the Sweet Chilli Chicken (see the image), which was delicious and so generous of a helping that Dave and I were fed for 3 separate meals – each! As you can see in the images, this dish came with these large, yellow pickled vegetables that had Dave and I guessing what they were. I was thinking perhaps Kholrabi or chestnut, using a tumeric based pickling brine. Dave guessed correctly – it was “… a Korean pickled Daikon (radish)”, Narae explained. “I use gardenia powder to make it yellow”.

I asked Narae to tell us a little about herself and this is what she had to say: “I was born in South Korea, moved to Canada after getting married to this amazing man in Calgary. It was our goal to move to Kootenay Region (BC, Canada) ever since we got married. Thanks to my husband’s carpentry skill and my enthusiasm for Korean food, we opened Kimchi Kitchen in May 2019.”

As an eco-conscious customer, I noticed the compostable take-out packaging right away and I became curious as to its composition. Narae explained that the entire food truck and street food industry is changing: “The clamshell containers are made out of sugarcane. Yes, they are expensive. But what’s amazing is, I am not the only one who uses these types of containers. Most of the food trucks that I know of also choose environment friendly packaging”.

As it turns out, there is a very practical reason for choosing these options. “Initially, my main goal was to go to the festivals and events in the Kootenay Region – like the Kaslo Jazz Festival or Starbelly Jam. Most festivals have zero waste policy, and I admire their efforts to save our environment. I wanted to join their movement. Although all those major events are cancelled due to COVID – I use wood forks and chopsticks instead of plastic ones.”

The couple’s dedication to the environment is admirable. “I have fully electric car; traded it with my truck last year. I am 1000% satisfied with my choice, and encourage people to go electric. It has tons of benefits. I also have 16 hens and a rooster. They take care of our kitchen scraps and give me gorgeous, healthy eggs in return. The rest goes to my compost bin. The chicken manure is given to neighbours who have a garden and they share some vegetables with me.”

This couple had many reasons for choosing the hard life of being an entrepreneur. “Two main reasons” she explains, “One was the child I support. When I just moved here I couldn’t find a full time job. Everything available at the time was seasonal, minimum wage or the work was too far. I support a child in Honduras through World Vision. Maria – a girl’s name I wanted to give if I ever had a daughter. I tried but I couldn’t support her anymore without an income in the winter. That’s when I decided to open a food truck. The first year, my goal was to support her year around. The second year, my goal is to send her chickens as a Christmas gift (and I am working on it). Second reason is the movie ‘The Chef’ – based on the true story of a ‘Kogi’ food truck in California. Roy Choi is now a famous Korean-American chef, who became my role model.”

Being an entrepreneur in such times (when events are limited and constrained budgets keep customers at home) Kimchi Kitchen has learned to adapt, finding alternative ways to overcoming a variety of challenges. “The first year I opened, surprisingly people had quite a good knowledge about Korean food. Living in a town where it has very little Korean population, that was something to think about. Why don’t we have a good Korean restaurant here? I introduced those classic dishes that people are well aware of – Korean chicken, Bibimbap, Bulgogi, Kimchi, etc, which was a hit. Since I introduced those foods in town however, other pubs and restaurants started a similar menu with the same name. So I had to come up with something else. To stand out I introduced trendy Korean street food – like the vegetarian dumplings with gochujang sauce. Leaving one signature item: the Sweet Chilli Chicken… Constantly changing up the menu catches people’s attention; the special changes every week. Like the Galbi burger from last year – People keep hounding me to make that again… My original goal was to go to the festivals and events mainly. Since these events are not happening right now, I parked my food trailer at one location and open to serve either lunch or dinner Wednesday – Sunday. As I have to travel 2h (round trip) from my home to Creston, I can’t serve both lunch and dinner while looking after a bunch of animals in my house.”

Kimchi Kitchen mainly uses social media for sharing the truck’s schedule, expected location for particular dates and any special menu changes. Since over 90% of their customers are locals they find that word-of-mouth has been their best promotional tool yet. According to Narae, “I move around along the Kootenay area – find me through Facebook or Instagram – @kimchikitchenbc… People ask me to come to certain places”, she goes on to say. “Last year we have been to Kuskonook Harbour, Crawford Bay, Creston and Boswell along the lake. Some restaurant owners didn’t welcome us. Some were very kind. Regardless, at all of these places we had great fun… But it is also very tiring to move around frequently. Now I am staying in one spot as long as possible. Before their grand opening this year, Wildnorth Brewery wanted us to be there for the celebrations. As of July 1st, we will be parked there”.

Time management is always a challenge for the self-employed and I asked Narae to share some tips they have learned along the way. “We’ve learned to simplify the process; use similar ingredients, but differentiate just a few key ingredients for menu items. You learn to prioritize what has to be done first… You face a hundred different situations everyday. It can be that the generator fails or something to do with customer service… or you get injured from hot oil. Hot weather is one of the biggest challenges, as well as cooking under pressure when there are 10 people watching me to make their food quick. There are too many to mention here… But I can definitely tell you that racism isn’t part of challenge. As an Asian woman, never once have I faced racism running my business. Rather, people have my back and tell me all the kind words in the world. They worry about me when they don’t even have to. The great support I get in Creston and the Kootenay area is something I really want to shout out! And you know, that made me want to pay-it-forward in gratitude for the great support I have received. That is why I put up the post on social media re: the free advertising decal on my food truck.”

Networking is a huge part of running a business and so I asked Narae her opinion on this. “When people come for my food I try to make conversation to get to know them better, especially for regular customers. I ask their name and remember it.” She responded. “Remembering small details of their needs (some like more pickle, some want more spiciness, etc). Getting to know other business owners is also a big plus. I’ve had lots of inquiries from curious customers. Some asked if I want to sell my business, some asked questions about running a food truck. Many people are interested in opening a food truck of their own. I try my best to give them valuable advice with the understanding that we are all trying to survive, supporting our family and paying bills. I will always continue to offer good food and support other local businesses.”

You can’t miss this bright yellow food truck – with an every-changing menu that will never feel redundant or boring. Customers will also notice that the staff is not only friendly but they really get the food out quickly too. Even though you won’t have to wait long for your meal, do take the time to browse the many decals soon to decorate the exterior of this bright yellow vehicle – celebrating other local entrepreneurs. For more info visit their Facebook page @: https://www.facebook.com/kimchikitchenbc