6. Is business opportunity working within confines of federal, state and local laws? Depending upon where a member lives, these laws can vary widely!

The real statistics on failures of small businesses, many of which now are business opportunities and franchises, are well documented by United States Small Business Administration: www.sbaonline.sba.gov/. Business statistics provided by United States Department of Labor, report that in 1994, number of businesses that failed that year were divided into following categories:

* Bankruptcies (a 15.4% increase from 1993).

* Failures (a 17% increase from 1993).

* Terminations (.3% increase from 1993).

The Small Business Administration attributes these failures and evolving higher percentages to fact that there are now MORE small businesses in United States overall, with a 49% increase in numbers since 1982.

The Small Business Administration also states specifically that statistically, only one in seven can be considered a true "failure", leaving unpaid obligations in their wakes. Others simply sell or shut their doors for a variety of other reasons.

Since most business opportunities, at least initially, open with less than 100 employees (many are simply owner, as sole owner and executor of all business "chores"), then most Biz Ops are indeed "small businesses" and as such all pertinent failure statistics can be applied to them. What is really surprising and rather "staggering" is fact that most business failures are not due to outside forces, but those that business owner has complete control over! These issues included lack of marketing know-how, lack of record keeping, lack of management competence, lack of financial management, and other business basics such as controlling employees and inability to seek outside assistance and advice!

The wise business owner, whether or not involved in a business opportunity, will seek to learn and implement proper procedures, and investigate proper methods of operation throughout life of a business.

If this is done, a Biz Op owner, or any small business owner, has less of a chance of becoming "latest failure statistic"!

© Vishal P. Rao. All rights reserved.

It took me weeks to find, and then remember where they are hidden in Documents and Settings. I never did find email settings, so have not saved those.

Bottom line: what should you back up, and how often?

Whatever media you use, you must have at least 2 current backups of everything, and preferably 3. If you use CD or DVD, have you ever noticed how some discs suddenly become unreadable, and for no apparent reason. It happens oh too frequently.. I lose up to 15% this way. CDs have an expected shelf life of maybe 2 years. Some will surely last longer, too many die prematurely.

Does that mean you should not use CDs or DVDs to back up? Of course you should. It is cheapest backup system I know about. But you MUST have more than one copy. I prefer 3. The proof of this comes when you save your business by being able to start over because your backups are up to date.

Imagine if you lose all your programs and have to buy them over again.

Imagine if you lose all your emails that have your registration codes for programs you bought online. And what about all sales and purchase data in your emails. What about your contact list, your email lists, etc.

Imagine losing all your accounting data that you must have for year-end tax reporting!

Enough said. Programs already backed up on 2 or 3 copies only need to be updated by adding new programs you buy, and upgrades that come out.

Data should be backed up based on frequency of your transactions. It could be daily, or every 2 or 3 days if your business is in early growth stage..

Without backups…your business may be dead in water! Don't get careless. You may say I will save a disc or two by backing up less often. Why? One CD-rom disc costs a buck. Big deal when it means life or death for your business.

Why take chances. Can anyone predict when you will have a problem, a computer crash, a new virus? Of course not. Don't live dangerously, this is not a thrill ride, it is your life.

Fred Farah copyright 2004

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