Can anyone give me some small business advice? -

I am 27 and I have a passion for baking. My sister is quite a cook as well. I have been thinking a lot (meaning for the past couple of years)about how much I would enjoy owning a bakery. There aren t that many bakeries in the town I live in (Norman,OK). Which is why I would really like to run one. A bakery that can have an edge as well as cater to the sweets lovers, and the vegans, and organic folks. I don t have professional experience and I have heard sometimes banks do look at that when considering a small business loan. Can anyone out there maybe help me with some tools and references so I can really take a serious look at this possibility? I would appreciate it.

I would stay clear of an SBA loan. The rates are very high, you would be better off self funding. I would suggest trying it out of your home before incurring the overhead of a bakery. I knew someone who baked custom cakes out of their home for birthday parties and other special events. I would start by doing something like that. Then once you have a loyal following and some revenues to show for it, you will be in a stronger position to get a bank loan (at reasonable rates). Good luck...

I recommend that you review this flowchart for small business loans - it gives information about what you need at each step.

If you can startup with your own money, it is the best way to go. However, if you need to ask for a loan, then you need to write an excellent and thorough business plan to present to a bank. Since you will be a new business, you will need to include a lot of research in yoru business plan. A business plan of 10 pages will NOT cut it. Expect it to be 30 pages + if it is done right. Since it will take you a while to write it, I highly suggest going to a library and checking out some of the books they have there on business plans. Experience is not necessary, but a plus, however if you do your homework right, it will pay off.

What does a business management major earn annually? -

What do they earn when they first start off and what do they earn after starting off and have around 5-10 years experience? I am thinking about majoring in this field and need to decide fairly soon.

Depends on many things, including the following:1. What part of the country you are in.2. What type of entry level job are you willing to take to earn experience.3. If you graduated with honors AND have great intern/co-op experience.Reality is that MOST degrees, Business Management included, do NOT have an actual path to a job. Business Management degrees are worth somewhere between Liberal Arts and Accounting, sometimes.NO company hires a brand new grad in Business Management and puts them into a management position. You will start at the bottom, just like everyone else.

Can an employer make you go to a new location just because you married a fellow employee? -

we both work at mcdonalds and have just recently gotten married. we are both good workers and we work well with eacthother. now all of a sudden our employer wants one of us to transfer to a new location. she says that we will see eachother too much and that wont be good for our marriage. thats not true because i am also a full time student and we rarely have the same shifts anyway. the only time we see eachother is at night. our personal lives do not effect our work, no one even knew we were even together. we have worked together at other jobs before and we have always got along great, we have never had a complaint. our current employer even says we have done nothing wrong. the other location is alot farther away from our apartment, we have to walk everywhere and walking nearly 23 blocks at 2am is not safe at all, plus winter is coming. i found it odd that my employer and i had just worked out my availability on the weekends to where we could both agree and then an hour later she calls me back telling me about the new location change. can she do this? we were not married at the time of employment and we got married about a week ago. my employer has known about this for two weeks and now out of the blue its an issue.

Doesn t McDonald s have a thing where you can write to the corporation if you don t like something going on in your store? Perhaps try that. I worked at McDonald s while I was in college, too. And we had a lot of couples and people related to each other who worked their. The only thing I can say is check the papers you signed when you started there and ask to see their policy handbook. If it s not written somewhere I don t think they can just make you move. Tell your employer that the new location is just too far away.

You will want to read your employment agreement, but typically that is common practice.