November 2008

Online Resources Part 5

General Business Startup Resources

Small Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource
By the Internal Revenue Service
www.irs.gov/businesses/small/

Small Business Planner
Information and resources for any stage of the business lifecycle.
www.sba.gov/starting_business/

Service Corps of Retired Executives
SCORE, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping small business owners.
www.score.org

Business Owner’s Toolkit
Small Business Guide: Information and tools to help you start, run and grow a successful small business.
www.toolkit.cch.com

Small Business Toolkits
From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Center
www.uschamber.com/sb/toolkits.htm?n=f

My Own Business
A nonprofit organization helping people succeed in business. They offer a free course on how to start your own business as well as articles, tips and resource links.
www.myownbusiness.org

Evaluating Your Business Potential

ABMP: Massage Therapy Fact Sheet (2007)
Massage profession metrics from Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals.
www.massagetherapy.com/media/metricsgrowth.php

AMTA: Massage Therapy Industry Fact Sheet (2005)
A compilation of data gathered from U.S. government statistics, surveys of consumers and massage therapists and recent clinical studies on the efficacy of massage, from the American Massage Therapy Association
www.amtamassage.org/news/MTIndustryFactSheet.html

Occupational Outlook Handbook: Massage Therapists
From the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
www.bls.gov/oco/ocos295.htm

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Adults: United States 2002
Article from Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
http://nccam.nih.gov/news/report.pdf  

Older Americans Not Discussing Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use with Doctors (includes statistics of CAM use)
AARP press release dated 1-18-07 www.aarp.org/research/press-center/presscurrentnews/medicine_use.html

Quick statistics on the percentage of adults aged '

Sales Tax

Sales Tax Rates
State sales tax table
www.salestaxinstitute.com/sales_tax_rates.jsp

Credit Card Merchant Accounts

PayPal
PayPal merchant credit card services. Enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online.
www.PayPal.com

ChargeAmerica
ChargeAmerica merchant credit card services. Convenient, low-cost alternative to traditional merchant account services.
www.chargeamerica.com

CellCharge
CellCharge provides small businesses an easy to use method of accepting credit cards. The nationwide system lets you use a cell phone or touch tone phone to authorize approvals from customers credit card account.
www.cellcharge.com

MerchantSeek
Online database of providers who issue merchant accounts.
www.merchantseek.com

Cardservice International
Cardservice International, Inc. provides flexible and secure products and services that enable merchants across the nation to accept nearly all types of electronic payments.
www.cardservice.com

Business Plans

Business Plan Samples
Sample business plans and other useful resources from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
http://www.bplans.com/samples/sba.cfm

Sample massage therapy business plan
Use this sample for reference in writing your own plan, or actually open it in Business Plan Pro software and edit it to match your business.
www.bplans.com/sample_business_plans/Medical_and_Health_Care_Business_Plans/Physical_Therapy_Massage_Business_Plan/Company_Summary.cfm

Fee Structures

Setting Massage Rates
Article by Larry Swanson
http://www.larryswanson.com/massage/setting-massage-rates.htm

Home Office Computing
Article: The essential way to set your fees: a step-by-step guide to calculating what you must charge - marketing your services, by Daniel P. Dern http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1563/is_n10_v9/ai_11407005