There are conflicting stories out there right now about where the world economies are going – with the latest news saying that ‘World Trade Drops the Most since 1945!‘.

So in the light of scary news like this what do you do if you are considering going into business?

If you look around there are many business doing well, thank you very much, in the present recession – for example Dominos Pizzas, see their sales soar!

So the answer is that there is no good or bad time to set up in business, but there is a good or a bad or perhaps not so good business to set up. So select your business carefully and go about it in the right way. There is no time like right now to set up that business dream of yours and go for it.

My very first business I set up was in the middle of the 1990 recession and I survived – so I am sure you can too.

If you are considering the pros and cons of work against running your own business this article is directed at you.

Having a job gives you the guarantee that you receive your salary at the end of each month and in most cases you can leave the job when you walk away each evening and unless you are in management or have a job that requires working at weekends, you should have your weekends free too.

However, if you own a business then it is not always certain there will be profits there to pay your salary or dividend and it is very hard to close the door each evening without taking the business home with you.

The rewards of having a business far out weigh those of a job and not least because you own an asset, whereas if you stop working at your job your income ceases. If you decide to stop working at your business your income will continue and you will have the asset to sell too.

Here is a video about entrepreneurship I wanted to share with you – for that added inspiration.

Host Evan Carmichael discusses how Walt Disney got started, what factors led to his success, and what you can learn from him to help you grow your company.

I hope you enjoyed watching this video and that it has given you some extra inspiration to start that business you have always dreamed of.

In one of my businesses we have just set up a new employee bonus to the management team and this has been well received.

The title of this post was to emphasise a ‘Bias’ towards a bonus rather than fixed salary to your staffs - I would recommend this as a recession beating tool.

I was not sure how the team would take it, but they were over the moon and thank us for being so generous, which is interesting because by giving them a bonus (which was a percent of gross profit) they were focused on growing the business, which would benefit me anyway.

The psychology of giving a bonus instead of a salary rise is an interesting one and should be embraced by more business owners, especially in the present economic climate. Employees might still be looking for a pay rise despite problems and things being tough, so instead of giving them a fixed pay rise which would represent yet more fixed cost to your business, give them a reward that benefits them when the business benefits.

Of course this was only announced today, so I cannot report on how well this will go and to what extent it will affect my business going forward, but if the reaction I received today is anything to go by then I expect positive results.

If your business is struggling and you cannot afford to pay your staff higher salaries, then by replacing salary hikes with a bonus scheme the employees will not be paid unless things improve. So by definition you will be paying the extra salary out of extra profits. I recommend a ‘No-Cap’ bonus, which means that it is open ended so no matter how much they increase the profits the staff get paid a percent of every part of the increase.

I have decided to write this article about the keys to selling a business, as I get really frustrated with vendors of businesses and with brokers that do not seem to know what they are doing!

Today, for example, I emailed a broker regarding the purchase of a business that they were advertising - ‘Offers invited for a quick sale’, which turned out not to be the case – so business sales brokers need to get their act together.

Secondly, business owners and business sales agents need to get to grips with what vendor finance is, as not many are aware of this, including brokers and to know about it and to accept it as a part of the sale price is crucial to ‘Get your Business Sold. The above same broker did not fully understand the term vendor finance either.

Another way to describe vendor finance might be ‘buy out’ or ‘earn out’, which all amount to the same thing – the vendor of the business is effectively lending to the buyer in order to get the business sold.

Of course the terms of such lending or ‘earn out’ must be agreed to by both parties and can include the charging of interest and it can also be aligned to the business achieving certain results. To protect yourself as the vendor, the earn out or ‘Loan’ should be secured against the business, so that should the buyer not pay up, then you get the business back. You might think that this is a problem, but so long as the new owner has not completely ruined your business in the interim, and so long as you got some money up front, you now have the business to sell again.

I would always suggest that buyers of businesses look at the one third rule: one third own capital; one third bank finance, and; one third vendor finance.

The important thing to remember is that you are ‘Selling your Business’ and for a reason and if it sits on the market for months or even years (which of course does point to an over valuation), you are not achieving your goal. By allowing a staggered payment structure to your business sale you are more likely to make a sale, as you open it up to a larger audience that might not have all the capital or borrowing powers.

The business sales market is always in the buyers favour the majority of the time any way, as the are always thousands of businesses for sale and only a few buyers in comparison, so why not make it easier for the few that there are. Treat a potential buyer with respect and as if they are like gold dust – make the buying process easy for them and make sure you have all the information, like accounts etc. to hand when it is asked for.

When you come to sell your business – ask your broker if he understands vendor finance or staggered payments, if he looks at you blankly or advices against this then I suggest you get yourself another broker.

If you have a question on this subject please register at our business forum and let sus know ‘Business vendors’ and ‘Business Buyers’.

So far 2010 is looking good – we have UK inflation up to 3.5%, which would imply that people are buying at the stores etc. House prices are rising again, up by 2.9% in 2009, which gives people the feel good factor so it it looks like a good time to buy a business or perhaps to set up fram scratch.

Although things are looking like they are picking up, there are the doom mongers that are predicting a problem year and Europe is having it’s problems, not least Greece, Spain and Germany.

We are seeing reports of some excellent business growth and profits – only today Barclays have reported record profits of £11.6 Billion, which is up by 92%. Kraft too have recorded triple the profits in their last quarter, so the good news is filtering through.

The next problem that will be facing people is when the Bank of England and their foreign counter parts start putting up interest rates. These have been lowered and kept low so that world economies can recover, but the Govenor of the Bank of England will have to time any increases carefully to avoid the double dip effect, which some of the scare mongers are predicting.

A few good feel good factor news results:

Barclays profit up to $11.6 Billion

House prices up 2.9% in 2009

Dominos pizza sales soar

Kraft profits triple in last quarter

Japans growth exceeds expectations

Indian factory out fastest pace for 10 years

US sales growth beat expectations

Double profits at PepsiCo

Profits up at Mittal as demand increases

UK manufacturing see strong growth

Politicians are being urged to back a “Robin Hood tax” on banks to raise billions of pounds to fight poverty, protect public services and fight climate change – is this right?

Bill Nighy video backing Robin Hood tax on banks

Vote on our business forum on whether you agree or disagree with this tax being introduced.

Click here to vote

Robin Hood Tax Website

If you have a business you will know how important it is to get press releases out there on the Internet.

A press release is an article witter about your business that will provide information to potential customers as well as existing customers to help them decide on whether to buy from you.

Getting a press release out there will also help in getting links back to your own website be it for traffic purposes or for Google page rank reasons – either or both are good.

In-business has a business forum on which has a press release section for businesses on the internet to post articles about their own business for FREE.

So if you want to post your own business press release click this link.