Starting as small business can be difficult and time consuming. Here are a few tips to help the process go smoother:

Save up as much money as possible before starting.
It is too often that people go into a business without any form of savings and only borrow money from banks, friends, and the small business association. No business needs to start out in debt. Many think that they can just simply start a business and begin making money, but it usually takes months or years to actually profit from a business. The last thing that you want to do is take out a home equity line of credit to fund your business because that is the best way to lose your house if things were to go south for your business.

Start on a shoestring.
Start small. You shouldn’t just rent a building or office space to work at and begin hiring employees. If you look at the first tip and have already made that mistake, then don’t make this one. You can only have employees once you have enough work to keep them business. Some people who start their businesses small start in their homes. Many even take losses on what they pay themselves to get the business off the ground.

Protect your personal assets.
You have to be able to protect whats yours when it come to your business. When you start your own business, you become liable for all the debts that your business incurs, including loans, money owed to suppliers, taxes, etc. The problem is, if you aren’t careful and don’t protect yourself, a creditor may be able to come after you and your personal assets.
The best way to protect yourself, especially if you plan on running up big debts, is to form a corporation or a limited liability company. It isn’t much more difficult than forming any kind of sole proprietorship and protects your personal assets.

Make a business plan, no matter how short.
You need to be able to have a long term business plan, you really need to know where the business is going and how it plans to get there, at least how it does it in your mind. You can obviously tinker around with your business idea every now and again, especially when the environment changes or you begin making or losing money, but the core business plan should be there…in writing…from the start.

Get and keep a competitive edge.
I think that if you have a great product, then with a bit of marketing and money behind it, people will buy it. However, if your product or service isn’t competitive, it will be very hard to play “catch-up” with the players already in the field. I call this a “chase” strategy in marketing and it doesn’t often end too well. You really need to have that competitive edge against those who are entering the market or are already in the market if you want to succeed.

Vicodin and Percocet are high on the list of drugs the Food and Drug Administration want to see banned in the United States.

These two very popular painkillers are recommended for banning because of their acetaminophen content and its effects on the liver. High doses of acetaminophen (also found in over the counter pain killers like Tylenol and Excedrin) have been known to cause liver damage and liver damage from acetaminophen kills more than 400 people in the United States each year.

Both Vicodin and Percocet mix acetaminophen with a narcotic to help in pain relief. If the ban goes through the FDA, then other pain killers which mix the two will also likely be banned. Popular pain killers in that category include Darvocet (which has a fairly large group of people upset with the drug) and Lortab.

The recommendation also included limiting the “maximum” dosage for acetaminophen to 650 milligrams, way down from the current 1,000 milligrams on the extra strength Tylenol bottle.

It is likely a surprise to those who currently take the drugs for pain relief. Honestly, after reading some comments on the story across the internet it doesn’t make a lot of sense why the FDA wouldn’t just limit the amount of acetaminophen in the drug rather than doing away with something that is commonly prescribed to patients all the time.

There are some people out there who have stomach issues who can’t take aspirin or NSAIDS because of the chances that they may cause ulcers. They are told if they have pain of any kind to take Tylenol. So, what happens to those people if they end up in the hospital and prescribed pain medicine?

This is something the FDA really needs to look at before accepting the recommendation and banning the drugs.

In no articles I came across did it say what the FDA recommended for a “safe” dose of acetaminophen in these drugs.

In an apparent attempt to compete with sit-down style restaurants that sell hamburgers around the $9-$10 range McDonald’s will be introducing a new line of hamburgers.

The hamburgers McDonald’s will be made of Angus beef and be priced around $4 each and the launch is said to be on Thursday. The burgers will be 1/3 pound of Angus beef. They will come in three “flavors” a deluxe burger with pickles and tomatoes, a mushroom burger with mushrooms, and a bacon cheese burger. As of right now, they are a limited sell, only said to be sold at U.S. locations for the next few months.

The burgers have been in the “testing” phase for a few years and have been held back from a nationwide release only because McDonald’s sees them as expensive compared to other menu offerings. The ironic part of that statement is that they rolled out the “premium” chicken sandwiches which are definitely around the $4 mark and sell very well in all parts of the country.

Another “best seller” at McDonald’s are the McCafe drinks, which are supposed to compete with Starbucks offerings. They are coffee drinks that range from $1.50 to $3. I know that I was able to get an iced vanilla latte with skim milk and sugar free vanilla syrup for around $2 about a week ago, and while I still prefer Starbucks, without a Starbucks close to me it wasn’t a bad alternative. Who would imagine that there wouldn’t be a stand-alone Starbucks in a college town?

Anyway, McDonald’s will surely roll out a huge advertising campaign with the release of the new burger. In my opinion, its ads are very convincing because I am not a fan of McDonald’s food and I actually rarely go, but I did try one of the coffee drinks after a barrage of commercials told me I wanted it (haha) and the Big Mac commercials end up always making me want a Big Mac (even though I haven’t had one in years, I’m not a fan of McDonald’s hamburgers at all).