Introduction

If you want more income in your life and are willing to try a self-employed route, you’ve come to the right place. Micro-Entrepreneurship For Dummies is the perfect place to explore the idea of creating your own home-based business and create a viable source of income.

I have taught literally thousands of people about how to get into either a part-time or full-time business (since 1987), and the unstable economic environment during the past few years has been the worst I have seen. However, these times also tell me that everyone needs to take greater personal responsibility and control over their personal prosperity. The best ways to do so is to start a business (no matter how small or “micro”) in your spare time.

Whether you have dreams of building a large successful business (every big business started as a micro-entrepreneurial enterprise), you’re unemployed and want to start your own small business, or you just need some supplemental income on the side, micro-entrepreneurship is your best bet. This book can arm you with ideas, strategies, and lots of resources to help you kick-start your venture!

About This Book

Micro-Entrepreneurship For Dummies has been an honor for me to write. I’m grateful that I can share my thoughts, information, and experience of more than 30 years with such a large and devoted group of readers.

The timing of this book couldn’t be better. I warned my readers in my book Stock Investing For Dummies, 2nd Edition (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) that the economy is very unstable and difficult. Prosperity is something that is managed regularly as a two-pronged approach:

You build wealth in passive ways. In passive wealth-building, you make your money work for you in passive ways (such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and so on).

You build wealth in active ways. In active wealth-building, you turn your spare time into business pursuits so that you can make wealth with your time, talent, and efforts. In today’s economy, a business is a financial necessity that belongs in your money-making arsenal.

In this book, I show you that you have what it takes to create a business that can provide you with income that either supplements your income or can provide you with full-time income.

For years in my business and financial seminars, when I introduce myself, I call myself a "raving capitalist" (I even have a website called ravingcapitalist.com). I say that because I came from a communist country (the former Yugoslavia) — and that's how you become a raving capitalist! But I take it a step farther. I think that everyone has a capitalist inside, and you should take that spirit and build wealth by serving others. The whole point is making money by providing goods and services that others want or need — a win-win situation.

This book is all about creating win-win situations for you — you serve others and you prosper as a micro-entrepreneur!

Conventions Used in This Book

To make navigating through this book easier, I’ve established the following conventions:

Boldface text points out keywords or the main parts of bulleted items.

Italics highlight new terms that are defined.

Monofont is used for web addresses. URLs also appear as hyperlinks to the respective websites in the ebook versions of Micro-Entrepreneurship For Dummies.

When this book was printed, some Web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that I haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So when using one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending the line break doesn’t exist.

What You’re Not to Read

Sidebars (gray boxes of text) in this book give you a more in-depth look at a certain topic. Although they further illuminate a particular point, these sidebars aren’t crucial to your understanding of the rest of the book. Feel free to read them or skip them. Of course, I’d love for you to read them all, but my feelings won’t be hurt if you decide to skip over them.

Foolish Assumptions

I figure you’ve picked up this book for one or more of the following reasons:

You want to add financial security to your current situation either full-time or part-time.

You want to take control over your financial situation.

You’re unemployed and you want to explore the possibilities of self-employment.

You need a great gift! When Uncle Mo expressed an interest in becoming a micro-entrepreneur, you thought that this book was the perfect gift!

How This Book Is Organized

The information is laid out in a straightforward format. The sections are in order of what you will deal with as a micro-entrepreneur running a business (no matter how big or small).

Part I: Getting Started with Micro-Entrepreneurship

Understanding the essentials of starting a business (no matter how small) is important. I hope you take some time to re-assess yourself and consider a business. Here you find out the best path toward being a micro-entrepreneur and what type of business is suitable for you. Businesses are as varied as the people that run them, and you’ll have an easier time succeeding when you choose a business that mirrors your interest and ability.

Chapter 2 goes into how to do a business plan so that you know the step-by-step approach to launching your business. Chapter 3 covers the most important part of the business — you and how you tick. Chapter 4 talks about your presence on the Internet and how to create it (such as with a website or blog). Chapter 5 is about finding opportunities in the marketplace.

Part II: Finding Great Micro-Entrepreneurship Ideas

When you’re ready to take the plunge into your own business, you’re better off doing something that is well-suited to who you are and what you are best at.

The great success is when the right business matches the right micro-entrepreneur. In this part, I discuss this “soup-to-nuts” approach, and you explore the possibilities. It covers everything from creating products and services to auctions, writing, self-publishing, affiliate marketing, and advertising. The great strength in this part (actually in the entire book) is the wealth of sites and resources that help you accomplish a successful business.

Part III: Marketing and Selling Your Micro-Business

Part III is about marketing, pure and simple. This phase stymies most business folks. Having products and services is fine, but you need customers if you’re going to make a profit. Marketing is all about finding people who are willing and able to pay you for your products and services.

Given that, the chapters in this part provide assistance, ranging from how to find your best customers (market research) to all the steps in the marketing process, including selling and persuasion. This part also covers the various ways to market, ranging from publicity and guest blogging to ezine and blog marketing.

Part IV: Considering Taxes and Legal Issues

This part is not only about growing your enterprise but it’s also about keeping more of the fruits of your labor. This part includes chapters on how to get help with managing and running your business through outsourcing, how to take your business from the micro to the macro level (including franchising), and how to keep more of the fruits of your labor by finding tax benefits and minimizing the impact of taxes.

Part V: The Part of Tens

I wrap up the book with a hallmark of For Dummies books — the Part of Tens. These chapters give you a mini crash course in how to avoid the pitfalls of being in business (see Chapter 22) and ten ways to make money in a business (check out Chapter 23).

Icons Used in This Book

Like every For Dummies book, I have included small icons in the margins to direct you to important paragraphs of text. Here are the icons that I use:

When you see this icon, I’m reminding you about some information that you should always keep stashed in your memory, whether you’re new to the world of micro-entrepreneurship or an old pro.

This icon flags a particular bit of advice that just may give you an edge over other entrepreneurs.

Pay special attention to this icon because the advice can prevent headaches, heartaches, and . . . uh . . . business aches.

Where to Go from Here

You may not need to read every chapter to make you more confident as a micro-entrepreneur, so feel free to jump around to suit your personal needs. Because every chapter is designed to be as self-contained as possible, you can cherry-pick what you really want to read. For instance, scan the table of contents or the index, find a topic that interests you, and flip to that chapter.

However if you’re like me, you may want to start at Chapter 1 and check out every chapter because you never know when you may come across a new tip or resource that can make a profitable difference in your business. I want you to be successful so that I can brag about you in the second edition!