Resources to Help You Get Started
Question: I want to open a shoe store. Can you recommend some good books on how to open a small business in California?
Answer: There is no area I get more questions on than how to open a new business, and books are an excellent place to start.
Books: There is a bounty of excellent advice available for would-be small-business owners, and heeding it can help you avoid many early mistakes.
Start by browsing your local bookstore and picking up a couple of general small-business books.
They will educate you about business in general and may give you background information that will help answer questions such as what kind of business you should establish and where. You will also find answers to questions about financing and business insurance.
Some titles to consider:
* “The Small Business Owner’s Manual” by Los Angeles-based consultant Joe Kennedy, published by Career Press.
* “Small Business Start-Up Kit for California” by Peri Pakroo and Barbara Kate, published by Nolo.
* “Start Your Own Business” by Rieva Lesonsky, published by Entrepreneur Press.
The “For Dummies” series also has several small-business titles.
From there, David Walker, a business consultant with Ventis Group of Ventura, recommended the Internet.
Internet: This is an excellent spot for general advice, tips regarding your industry and details about your potential competitors.
Look for specific, up-to-the-minute information from organizations such as the U.S. Small Business Administration, Walker said. Go to www.sba.gov and click on “Starting Your Business.”
On the California Chamber of Commerce website (www.calchamber.com), select “Business Resources” and click “FAQs” for answers to 143 start-up business questions.
Useful local websites include those of the Valley Economic Development Center (www.vedc.org) and the city of L.A. (www.ci.la.ca.us/CDD/bus_lacent.html).
Experts: Books and the Internet are not enough. To be successful, you’ll need in-person advice. Thankfully, there is one-onone help available, often free.
Among useful organizations are Score, www.score.org, and the SBA’s Small Business Development Centers, www.sba.gov/sbdc.
Many community colleges and universities offer one-on-one counseling and entrepreneurial training courses.
“They help you think through the small-business basics in a classroom environment,” said small-business consultant Paul O’Reilly of Los Angeles-based O’Reilly & Associates.
It’s also smart to join your local chamber of commerce, Walker said. Talking to other entrepreneurs can help you hone marketing techniques, find partners and collaborators and get referrals to savvy professionals.
Finally, know your competition.
At this stage, boots-on-the-ground research is crucial. “Visit a large number of successful shoe stores to get a sense of their product lines, their displays, their prices and anything else that appears to contribute to their success,” Walker said.
If you can, O’Reilly said, take a job in a shoe store that’s similar to what you envision owning. Seeing how it operates and where it buys its products will be invaluable.
For retail-specific advice, retail consultant Robert Kramer has written “Revolutionary Retailing,” published by Authorhouse. It covers topics including how to estimate start-up costs, how to project earnings and losses, how to join a retailer buying club for group purchases and how to establish a budget.
Good luck!
Got a question about running or starting a small enterprise? E-mail it to karen.e.klein@ latimes.com or mail it to In Box, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.
