Few people can think of all aspects of starting a new business and know how to do each one. In Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works, Melinda Emerson outlines all the key things to do and provides support with questions to ask, activities and resources to help you. And she does it with an honest, straight-forward approach.

Emerson has been through the good and the bad of starting a business, and shares her experiences and mistakes. She covers everything. Having family support, quitting your job too soon, creating an online strategy, marketing and more. The month-by-month plan built around the six-phased Emerson Planning System works like a step-by-step list so you’re won’t get stuck wondering what you need to do next or if you’ve omitted a step. Every chapter ends with an action steps checklist for easy referencing.

Most start up businesses tend to be conscious about money. Emerson gives options and resources for saving money. For example, you have three choices for hiring an accountant: bookkeeper, accountant and certified public accountant (CPA). She explains the differences, lists questions to ask when hiring one and offers suggestions for which one to hire as each has different hourly rates. What about leasing office equipment? I wouldn’t have thought of that or know how to decide if it’s the best option. Emerson guides you through all that.

Even if you’ve already started your business, you can gain value in this brimming guide as you may have areas that need addressing or improvement. Though my business is a one-person business and doesn’t have the complexities of hiring people, I uncovered some useful tips and information to strengthen parts of my business or to fill an overlooked gap.

The only nitpick is the formatting. Some pages have inconsistent content formatting in terms of paragraphs, spacing and bold text. Numbered and bulleted lists also feel off and take away some readability. Italics — hard to read when there’s too much of it — appear a little too often.

Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months is a fast and easy read because of Emerson’s casual writing style that stays away from dull, corporate-like business talk. For those starting out, I suggest reading the entire book on the first go-round to grasp the whole picture. Then, reference it often as you work on specific activities.

No one can guarantee your business will succeed. However, Emerson’s solid and organized plan makes good business sense. Her guidance will put you on track to do it right and increase your chances for long-term success.

FTC disclosure: Author received copy from publisher, which had no influence on the review or the affiliate link.

Congratulations to Rich for winning a copy of No Limits.

One Halloween long ago...

Articles with valuable advice…

• Are you a freelancer writer or journalist entre-preneur? Great words for thought. I consider myself a small business that provides writing services. Writing isn’t all I do — I still have to do marketing, networking and all that fun stuff.
• How to Work ON Your Business, Not IN it: Step back… breathe… think…
• It Takes All Kinds: How does a really bad book keep selling?
• The World’s Greatest Marketer: How a woman’s powerful plight turns her into a strong marketer and what we can learn from her.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• @tweetsofold: Follow @tweetsofold for fascinating and funny headlines from old timey newspapers.
• Is It Normal?: We all have questions (not me, of course — heh) that make us wonder whether we’re normal… but we don’t have the courage to ask. Now you have a place to find out.
• 25 Inspirational Pumpkin Carvings: Death Star is most impressive — can’t believe pumpkin didn’t cave.
• Top Ten Mouthwatering Museums: Chocolate… Do not view on empty stomach unless you don’t mind raiding the nearest pantry or convenience store.

• The cost of writing fiction versus nonfiction
• Three things to consider when deciding how long your posts should be
• 100 useful web tools for writers
• Slate even has a reading list.
• Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs
• 100 Sites Entrepreneurs Should Visit
• 20+ free press distribution sites
• 16 great personal finance resources and blogs. If you know of good ones from a business POV, please comment. These are hard to find (not interested in stocks).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Cell phones and popcorn… what happens? Watch the video.
• Pipl: Search for folks by name and location. OK, maybe it’s not so fun when you think about big brother… but people will find other ways if it weren’t for this site.
• Budget Travel: Real deals sorted by region and other categories like “girlfriend getaways.” Just makes me want to go somewhere!

• Memory Improvement Tips
• Top 10 PR Tips for Small Businesses
• Write with Authority and Inspire Trust
• The best time to submit news
• 8 violent truths about freelancing part one and part two
  
• 178 ways to improve your internet writing tips
• 2008 Webby Award Winners
• 50 greatest entrepreneurs of all time: Every person I could think of is already on the list. Anyone missing?

And for fun ‘cuz you’re allowed:

• Twitter cartoon and other funny Geek and Poke cartoon [Link: Buzz Bishop]
• Twitter Club
• Internet Pinball Database: My hubby’s favorite: High Speed.
• 32 places to find free shipping. Gotta love it especially when Amazon may be forced to charge tax to Texans.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides excellent resources and support for small businesses as does SCORE, an organization made up of retired volunteers who advise small business owners.

This Escape from Cubicle Nation blog entry suggests that every entrepreneur needs the following four professionals:

* Lawyer
* Banker
* Accountant
* Insurance specialist

The entry also provides suggestions on where to find these four professionals. One thing I’ve learned from others as I don’t want to learn the hard way: Stay on top of your money even if you have an accountant. People have seen their trusted accountants steal from them because they didn’t watch the books. I’m not sure those with a spouse who has health benefits covering the family need an insurance specialist.

Those with no children may want to investigate insurance because it could be cheaper for the spouse to not add you to the insurance plan as adding a spouse can up the numbers for some health plans.

Freelancers and small businesses, what professionals do you use and how?

It’s no surprise the Donald has found his way into a computer game. The Apprentice: Los Angeles might not be what you expect. The game combines four Diner Dash style games taking place in different locations and a boardroom memory style game. Those not familiar with the TV show can learn more about The Apprentice on its official NBC site.

If you’ve played the original The Apprentice, don’t expect this one to resemble that flat attempt to take advantage of the TV show’s popularity. A look at screen shots from the two games easily shows the new version contains better graphics, and perhaps better games.

The success of Diner games depend on the game’s design and storyline. The Apprentice: Los Angeles has a strong storyline. Players run a sushi bar, boutique and beach rental. The fourth, a hotel, comes later in the game as the final task.

You play five levels of one task (a task in this case would be working in one of the stores) and then move on to the next. When you don’t score high enough to beat your rival team, you go to the boardroom. Each level contains a monetary goal, but even if you miss it in one level — you can make it up in the next.

A visit to the boardroom means playing a memory style card game. Race against two other players you take to the boardroom with you by finding matching pairs. Make high point matches and take away other players’ points until you reach a specific number of points.

The game play is another story. The customers in the stores drove me crazy and not in a good way. They were more impatient than customers in other games of a similar style. It didn’t take long for them to go from happy to throwing a tantrum like a child.

The levels grew too hard too fast and my hands cramped when I tried to move quickly. A little chaining (clicking ahead multiple tasks) is possible, but you don’t receive bonuses. Even with chaining, I wasn’t fast enough for these spoiled-rotten customers. Some Diner games characters don’t move fast and smoothly, but that’s not an issue with The Apprentice: Los Angeles.

One of the game’s strengths is its beautiful and crisp graphics. Thanks to the first rate graphics, you can’t miss what goes on behind the scenes like a chef trying to catch a fish in the window at the Sushi Bar for a few laughs. You also meet customers who obviously represent certain stereotypes.

The game also includes the Donald, Don Jr., Ivanka and 12 Apprentice players from the past six seasons. When Mr. Trump fires someone, we get the usual “great experience” and “I did a good job and shouldn’t have been fired” taxi talk. Trump mostly says, “You better work hard and reach your goal” or “Your team failed!”

Unlike other Diner games, the game avoids monotony by having three regular Dash games and a card memory game. Those who like Diner games will like this one whether or not you like The Apprentice since it doesn’t play a big role.

Download the game from your favorite site:

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games

In Burger Rush, Chef Heidi believes in high quality cuisine and wants to take burgers to another level beyond fast food. Since none of the fast food restaurants want her fancy burgers, she starts her own restaurant.

Unlike the other restaurant or run a business games, this one also includes match three for something different. Heidi doesn’t simply take orders, upgrade her menu, give treats to customers to make them happier and pick up cash. She matches ingredients until she has enough for a recipe — for every customer’s order.

The ingredients board also serves up surprises like tokens for buying upgrades, milkshakes for treating a customer and microwaves to quickly add ingredients for a recipe.

For variety, the game progresses through five restaurants. As Heidi’s business grows, so do the goal and expert amounts for the level. She also has a diversity of clientele from the grandmother and the professional to the astronaut and the annoying street mime.

Some may be disappointed because Burger Rush only has one kind of play: story. It doesn’t have an arcade version as many of these style games do. The one thing that irritated me was the slow selection of items. I couldn’t click ahead as the game remembered none of the steps. Sometimes I had to click several times before the game recognized my action.

Those quiet mimes aren’t so quiet — it doesn’t take long before they start showing signs of anger by beating themselves on the head. That’s how I felt at times during the game when a customer’s “happiness” was low or I didn’t have enough ingredients on the board to make a match for a needed item. The game offers the right amount of challenge.

In upgrades, you can buy more sweet treats to raise the customer happiness levels, add flavor and speed to the French fry fryer and soda machine, gain more lives, and add more recipes. I liked the fact that the game sold out of sweet treats so I couldn’t buy a ton of them. It would make the game too easy.

The game could use more variety of ingredients. Most sandwiches were either hamburger or chicken with the standard toppings of lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, and cheese. Every recipe used specific toppings. When the chicken appeared on the game, I hadn’t bought the recipe for a chicken sandwich. So the challenge was working around the chicken and trying to earn enough tokens to buy the chicken recipe.

I only bought 7 of the 12 recipes. The more recipes you have, the more expensive your sandwiches and the higher your sales to help you move to the next level. But I think adding fish, salad, and other items would improve the game’s play.

The Burger Rush interface is crisp as lettuce and the game will give players a rush. Those who enjoy match three and action games will like the unusual combination of the two styles.

Download the game from your favorite site

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games