Should I include owners' salaries in my startup budget for loan application?

There can be. Debt is generally 'cheaper' than equity and also allows for flexibility in the event of default. Further, tying up equity precludes other investments.

I started my last company and grew it with $20,000 to $12 million in 10 years. And while I was in the early phases, I did put in on my resume.. So, I believe you should. If it is a registered business entity and you are working it, it is still what you are doing, regardless of revenue of the company. If you are performing the tasks in your position, it shows you have been attempting to launch as well as (hopefully) prevents any gaps in employment. It also shows a level of commitment to your venture. We specialize in assisting startups with business plans and structure, so fee free to contact me for additional questions.

I don't have any tools or articles off the top of my head, but I can share some tips on evaluating decisions like this. I think there are two key questions to answer when evaluating investment decisions like this. First, what is my outcome I hope to get? Secondly, are there any objective metrics I can use to evaluate whether I've achieved that outcome? The first question is to help bring clarity on why you are making the investment. For example, if you decided to invest $30,000 in marketing for your company, you could do that a lot different ways. In order to deploy those funds most effectively, you need to be clear on the outcome you are trying to get. Is that outcome more awareness of your brand? Or is it to generate new business in the near term? The first objective would lead to one type of marketing, perhaps targeting advertising. The second objective might lead you instead to a lead generation program, perhaps by hiring a third party lead gen firm. Once you've answered the first question, you can move on the second one regarding metrics. This question is important because it leads you to how you are going to measure and hold your organization accountable for the success of the investment. So if you are investing in a lead gen program, you need to quantify how many incremental qualified leads the program should generate which then lead to X number of new customers which leads to X amount of new business. Then you can decide if it's a good investment before you spend the money, and you have an objective measure of whether it's successful as it progresses. Keep in mind that not everything will have objective measures of success. For example, if you are investing in a branding awareness program, it's going to be much harder to measure that success objectively. However, you should still try to have some measure or idea of what success looks like at the end of that investment. In this example, perhaps the firm handling the campaign has some measures they can track based on their experience of whether the campaign was successful. I think answering these two questions before you spend any money within your organization is important, not just major investments. It's a little mental math you should go through in your head each time something new comes up. Why am I doing this (what outcome do I hope to achieve, what needle will this move) and how will I know if it's successful? Sometimes it just 30 seconds in your head, sometimes you get the management team together and talk it out. Hope this is helpful.

That question can only be answered by taking your goals to a marketing company. As a web marketer we try to understand not just what the prospect is looking to achieve (leads, branding, increased profits, etc.), but by what means they feel is the best way to achieve those goals (social media, content messaging, SEO, etc.) It also helps to know how aggressive they want to tackle it. Most companies understand that despite wanting it all, their budget limitations might prohibit an all-out web market assault. With these considerations we develop a proposal that we feel will produce a successful web marketing campaign, providing the best value within whatever limitations they set. In terms of raw numbers, a web marketing campaign itself can be as low as $1000 per month (not very aggressive, even for a small, niche site) up to $10,000 per month, which ultimately may not be aggressive enough for even a large site.

Let's first of all position who are the audiences for an Immigration Firm. If we classified immigration into: 1- Skilled immigration (Employees), and 2- Business Immigration (Investors) Skilled Immigration fees are affordable and due to the high competition the Professional Fees are competitive and payment plans are there to attract more clients. HINT: Despite that, Applicants have to conduct an overall check up about the credibility of their meant immigration consultants. On the other hand, Business Immigration which involves a bigger amounts of fees and investment are treated somehow different. As per the country of destination and the route of immigration which is almost limited between Property Investment, Financial Instruments Investment and Donation varieties of payments plans are offered to attract Investors. In other words, Legal Fees and Processing Fees are considered as a small portion of the Deal which doesn't shape a concern to Migrant Investors rather than the tool used for immigration and the success rate of that firm. HINT: When choosing an immigration program it is preferable not to pick Immigration firms relying only on RCBI programs (Residency & Citizenship by Investment) as the risk lies in the project continuity as per the demand which to some extent can delay the whole immigration files under that project.