Table of contents for How to succeed as a lifestyle entrepreneur : running a business without letting it run your life / Gary Schine.

Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog. Note: Electronic data is machine generated. May be incomplete or contain other coding.



  Preface: Why I Wrote This Book ix

1. A Different Sort of Entrepreneur 1
  The Traditional Entrepreneur 5
  The Lifestyle Entrepreneur 7

2. What Is a Business? (Basic Elements) 25
  Income 25
  Legal Structure 26
  Planning and Overall Management 26
  Financial Management 27
  Marketing 28
  It's a Great Idea, but Is It a Business? 29
  It's a Great Idea, but Will It Fit Your Lifestyle? 32

3. On Becoming a Lifestyle Entrepreneur 37
  Why Do You Want to Be a Lifestyle Entrepreneur? 37
  The Reality of Risk 39
  Failure Is a Possibility 40
  Learn to Be Analytical and Objective 41
  Prioritizing and Organizing 44
  Your Value and Your Hourly Rate 46
  Being the Best versus Being Perceived the Best 47
  What Is Better? 50
  Your New Colleagues 52

4. Great Idea, but Will It Fly? (Up-Front Research) 55
   Guerilla Research: The Direct Approach 58
   What Do You Want to Find Out? 60
   Barriers to Entry 64




   Researching Your Market Niche 66
   Researching via the Internet 70
   Evaluating Research Results 76
   Researching Your Competition 78
   Focus of Research 85

5. Marketing 89
   The Four Ps 90
   Marketplace Point of View 95
   What Should Be versus What Is 97
   Niche Marketing 100
   Test It First 105
   Uncovering the Money-Making Angle 106
   Considering Your Competition 108
   Using the Four Ps of Marketing to Compete 114

6. Financing Your Venture 117
   Estimating Your Revenue and Expenses 117
   Financing: What Are the Possibilities? 125
   Lending versus Investing 128
   Lending and the Lifestyle Business 132
   Equity Investing and the Lifestyle Business 134

7. Legal Structure 139
   Corporations 140
   S Corporations 144
   Sole Proprietorship 144
   Partnership 146
   Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) 147
   Professional Services Corporations 150
   Legal Structures and Health Insurance 151

8. The Business Plan 153
   Components of the Lifestyle Business Plan 154
   The Business Plan Constructor 156
   Sample Business Plan (from Business Plan Constructor) 176




9. Managing Money 189
   Getting Paid ASAP 190
   Paying Your Bills 194
   The Fixed-Overhead Trap 196
   Dealing with Taxes 199

10. Setting Priorities and Managing Time 209
   Managing Time 209
   Prioritizing Your Time 211
   Organizational Geniuses 212
   Real Work 213
   Flexibility in Time Management 214

11. The New Enablers of Lifestyle Business 217
   Technology 217
   The New Self-Employment Infrastructure 227

12. Special Issues of Home Business 229
   Separating Work Life from Home Life 230
   Tax Deductibility 231
   Outdated Laws 232
   Insurance Issues 232

13. Negotiating and Protecting Yourself 235
   Negotiating with Yourself 238
   Self-Protection 238
   The Art of Threatening Legal (or Other) Action 246
   Don't Be Afraid of Bigness 247
   Winning the Battle, Losing the War 248

14. Health Insurance 251




15. Common Mistakes, Myths, and Misconceptions
   of Lifestyle Entrepreneurs 257
   My Product Is So Good, Customers Will Beat a Path
      to My Door 258
   If I Advertise, I'll Certainly Get a Lot More Business 259
   It Takes a Year (or Some Other Specified Period) for a
      New Business to Start Making Money 260
   This Isn't a Real Business 260
   Pretending to Be a Big Business 261
   Charging by the Hour 262
   Charging Based on Cost 263
   Lower Price Means More Sales 263
   Big Business Has All the Advantages 264
   This Can't Be Tax Deductible-It's Fun 266
   Overbuying Technology 266

   Index 269