As my mother used to say, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince." The way you find the right attorney for you is to interview them. Get recommendations... (more)

Non-U.S. residents can certainly open a business in the United States. Unless they're eager to be held personally liable for the acts of the company, their options are to form an LLC or a C... (more)

It can be, as long as the people running it know what they are doing. What is their track record? What are their credentials? Can you do better on your own by hiring a business coach or mentor to... (more)

It all depends on what the rules and regulations are in your municipality. In general, yes, you can run something like this from your home and yes, there would be certain permits you will need to... (more)

Start small--and know you can get great prices right now on machinery and many raw materials. Get the business side of things right first, and then you can start to expand. Know that the economy... (more)

According to Integra Information Systems industry profiles, general line grocery merchant wholesalers make a gross margin of 13.11 percent on average--so they have a markup of 15 percent. Those are... (more)

You can hold a fundraiser for the business -- but you must be absolutely transparent about the purpose of the fundraiser. You will also need to let people know that their "donations" are... (more)

Do you have contacts in the industry? Have you sold other products to restaurants before? If not, it will be tough to go in cold without an introduction from a trusted source. Sending direct mail,... (more)

Manufacturing organizations are the best places to look. Join or participate in some good manufacturing associations, and look for referrals from people in those groups. In the meantime,... (more)

You're facing a-million-to-one odds. Apple has no incentive to talk to you because once it does, even if it was already working on the same thing, you can allege that Apple took it from you. And... (more)

Have you gone back to the groups or individuals who have actually expressed an interest in your product? It sounds as if you have the legal protection you need, and if you are protected from a... (more)

In short, no. You can learn to be a good entrepreneur from books, tapes and CDs. But as long as you are in school, you can learn the fundamentals of business building from all of those courses you... (more)

First, the global view: you're rowing upstream. You are facing several real problems. First, the real value in business isn't the idea but rather the building of the company to create, market, sell... (more)

My first question would be, is there really a market for your product? It may be useful to you, but is there a use or a benefit for others? To test this, you could create a prototype or a small... (more)

If you have replaced at least half of your old salary in the new position, you can make the jump knowing you can replace the rest with new business. As far as benefits go, you should look into... (more)

To determine if there is a market, you need to see if the companies you are thinking of targeting would actually be willing to pay for your type of service. What is the benefit, in terms of dollars... (more)

First off, I would go and get a job in a restaurant to learn more about the business, preferably in a franchised restaurant environment. The reason for this is that the odds of you getting... (more)

Isn't there an obvious clue in this question? You say those who graduated from college say it's absolutely essential, and those who dropped out or didn't go say a college diploma doesn't mean much... (more)

Nothing, really. The economy goes up or down no matter who is in office. What makes a difference is what you do, and a big part of that is determining to succeed no matter who is running the... (more)

What you do has to match your strategy, and that's a matter of your strengths and weaknesses, resources and long-term goals--mixed, of course, with the reality of what your customers will want and... (more)