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Mind Your Own
Business
(how to start one)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
According to
Dick Ladson
Saturday, September 4, 2010
•
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Oooops
According to
Dick Ladson
Saturday, September 4, 2010
What is a “business”?
✤
A business (also known as a company, enterprise, and
firm) is a legally recognized organization designed to
provide goods or services, or both, to consumers,
businesses and governmental entities
✤
A virtual person
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Ladson’s Credentials
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BS, Engineering Mathematics, Wayne State University, 1959
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U.S. Army at the Pentagon (PFC, scientific assistant to 4 PhD Colonels)
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M.I.T. industry liaison for Unisys, 1970-1971
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MS, Engineering Science, Temple University, 1972
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MBA, Temple University, 1977
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Teaching experience:
- St. Joseph’s University, MBA Program
- LaSalle University, MBA Program
- Penn State University, Graduate Business School
- Penn State University, Graduate Engineering School
- Penn State University, Unix/C Program
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Ladson’s Liabilities
✤
Slide-rule fashion accessory inhibited my college social life
(you Drexel guys will understand that)
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Distractions from technology
- Worked my way thru school (Kroger, Chrysler coat hooks)
- Four sport athlete (wrestling, X-country, track, swimming)
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Usually the dumbest guy in the room (except when John shows up)
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Always the luckiest guy in the room
- “It is better to be lucky than good”
- “The harder I work, the luckier I get”
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I’ve “got a life” (golf, grandkids, wife, lifeguard job, hammock tester)
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“Old-timers” disease
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Ladson’s Empire
✤
Started Norristown Data Processing in 1986
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Started White Horse Landscape in 1990
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Started Dekalb Computer Services (computer repair)
- Best of Philly (2002)
✤
Started Dekalb Group, Inc in 2002
- three divisions (NDP, DCS, WHL)
✤
Started Veteran Computer Consultants, LLC in 2010
- seeking government contracts (not subcontracts)
- sale of computer goods via government purchase card
- SDVOB (Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business)
(targeted for 3% of government contracts)
- preferred vendor for Veteran’s Administration (Wissahickon)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Business 101
•
Everything from A to B
•
(YOU fill-in C ... Z)
•
Let’s interact today, because I don’t know
many of the answers
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Mind Your Own
Business
Why start a business?
Reasons to not start a business
How to start a business?
How to run a business?
Now what?
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Why Start a
Business?
Obtain income
Be your own boss
Establish a business persona
Limit your liability
Go on an ego trip
Everyone is doing it
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Why not to start a
business
You have an idiot for a boss
It is hard work, with a lot of administration
Most businesses fail
You become a business person, not yourself
The buck stops here
Saturday, September 4, 2010
How to start a business (#1)
• Get a SSN (for tax purposes)
• Pick a name (DBA- Doing Business As...)
- you are now in business
•
Joe Blow, Plumbing
• Next question?
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Oh, You want to get fancy?
• To avoid personal liability
• To appear professional
• To establish credibility
• To allow multiple owners
• To accommodate growth
Saturday, September 4, 2010
How to start a business (#2)
• Get a DUNs number
• Get an EIN
• Pick a structure (proprietor, LLC, Corp)
• Register with the Commonwealth
• Get a bank account
• Set up your accounting books (revenue, expenses
Saturday, September 4, 2010
(continued)
• Write a Business Plan
• Get liability insurance
• Get a CPA
• Get a lawyer
• Get psychiatrist
Saturday, September 4, 2010
How to start a business (#3)
(with Uncle Sam as a client)
✤
Register with CCR
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Get CAGE code
✤
Evaluate your social disadvantage
- Small, Minority, Woman, HUB zone, SDVOB
- Get certified
✤
Review www.fbo.gov every day (look for set-asides)
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Attend small business outreach sessions
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Get to know your OSDBU (Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization)
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Focus on sub-contracts, not contracts
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Prepare to accept government purchase card (get lucky)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Paperwork
✤
Starting a Business is like taking a crap, you are not done
until you do the paperwork
✤
Business Plan
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Capabilities Statement
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Personal Resumes
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Forms are Fun
• PA Enterprise Registration
- Docketing Statement (DSCB: 15-134A)
- Certificate of Organization Domestic LLC
• Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification (W-9)
• Application for Bank Account
• PA Sales Tax (to charge tax on sales) (immediate delinquency)
• PA Sales Tax Exemption Certificate (to buy for resale)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
More Forms Are More Fun
• Armed Forces Report of Transfer or Discharge (DD-214)
• ACH Vendor/Miscellaneous Payment Enrollment Form (SF-3881)
• Certification as a Minority, Woman, or Veteran Enterprise
• VETBIZ Vendor Information Pages Verification Program (VA-0877)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Other Minor Issues
Getting financing
Getting employees (or renting them)
Legal issues
Liability insurance
Handling Growth (or lack of it)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
How to Run a Business
1. Do your marketing
2. Do your marketing again
3. Do your marketing some more
4. Repeat steps 1 - 3
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Marketing
✤
Modesty has no place in marketing
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PR is a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it
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Tell them how GOOD it is going to be (sales vs science)
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Network to find new friends
(TPNG, Technology Professionals Networking Group)
✤
Then, EXPLOIT your friends
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Blatant Self-aggrandizement
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DCS-Best of Philly (nominate yourself)
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DCS-Front page of Times Herald (just ask)
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VCC-Featured Business (September 2010) (ask again)
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VCC-Tracy Davidson, NBC, Channel 10 (suggest a story)
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Philly Business Journal (build on Times Herald story)
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This elite group (volunteer)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Get Help
Saturday, September 4, 2010
•
SBA (Small Business Administration)
- King of Prussia
•
SBDC (Small Business Development Center)
- Wharton is good
- Kutztown is good
- Temple is bad
•
PTAC (Procurement Technical Assistance Center)
•
Outreach Seminars by Government Agencies
About VCC
Exploits SDVOB status
Accepts government purchase cards
IT orientation (computer sales, repair, training)
We will sell ANYTHING!
We LOVE Apple
Middleware is our fall-back niche (webMethods)
Saturday, September 4, 2010