Most people shop for merchant accounts the same way they shop for everything -- by price. But when you must trust the processing of your valuable orders to an online gateway, there are more factors to consider.

When I first started online years ago, we found a merchant account that seemed to meet our needs. When they asked us what our monthly estimate of business would be, I suggested $1500, thinking that would never happen.

But one day, just before we were leaving for vacation, I had a vision. I saw one of my mentors, saying, "You need another merchant account."

My mentor had just given us the cell phone number of a new vendor he was now recommending.

So I when I called, the rep said, "Hey Rhea! I've been waiting for you to call!"

I thought this guy couldn't be telling the truth. Then he mentioned a few of my friends that he was setting up accounts for.

So I told him I wanted to set up a new merchant account with his company quickly. Because of the referral from my mentor, he to...

I was perplexed the first time I realized that highly educated me was completely illiterate when it came to money matters. I was just turning 40 (yeah, I know -- a bit slow) when me and my husband had to face the fact that our financial situation was not going to allow a high school education for our beloved teenage daughter. Never mind her 3 siblings!

Although we had a fairly good living, we were perpetually in debt. With endless years of paying off our mortgage laying before us, and numerous other debts taking their toll on our monthly budget, our financial future did not look very promising.

Numbers don't lie. We had to admit that we had been hopelessly ignorant in managing our income. For the first time we questioned those honored diplomas we had received in college. Was this the successful and prosperous life they had so ardently promised years ago?

Looking around us we discovered that we were not the only ones. Most of our likewise highly educated friends were in the same boat...

Here is a small list of Do's and Dont's when setting up your small business. This is by no means a comprehensive list and you'll want to be adding to this list as you learn more however this is a great place to start.
"Do's & Don't-s" - just a few each.

DO set up your business properly. That is legally with all the right licenses, taxes and fees.

DO set up the correct business structure for your business to obtain proper business tax advantages and lower personal liability.

DO be professional in your business and make sure your "no" means "no" and your "yes" means "yes." 

DON'T operate without liability insurance. Cold hard fact one out of every four businesses get sued. Protect your proverbial assets.

DON'T forget dogs bite. Think about it...Say you have a dog walking business...The dogs may bite you and they may bite strangers when you walk them. Who is ultimately at fault here? Make sure that is in your contractual agreement.

DON'T hire friends to cover for you unless they are ...

Where do you start when setting up a small business? What is the order or process you should go through? Should you write a business plan or is there something else you can do? Ed R shares his take on these questions and gives some tips to help you out.
You can usually start at the end and work your way backwards - writing down every step in reverse until you get to today. Sounds sort of like a the "Monty Python School of Business."

Let's take a hot dog stand --> I want to sell hot dogs at the fair. I am going to need a stand. Do I buy, rent, build one? I will need a health inspection of that stand - that has to happen after I buy, rent or build. I will need a food vendors license - I can buy that just about anytime. etc. etc. Until you end up with what you just thought up of doing - I want to sell hot dogs at the fair. You just reversed engineered your whole business plan.

At any given time in that process you may stop and access the costs to insure you will remain profitable. The bu...

A young adult (or anyone) should not go to college to find themselves. They should go to college because they know what they want to do and they know they need a college degree to complete that or enhance that objective. A college degree will not necessarily hurt you but if you do not know what you want to do - they are not necessarily going to help you either.
It won't be like you take one calculus class and discover that you love math. You might find that you are good at math but do you want to utilize that knowledge as your life long means of providing an income? Maybe you are good at math but love carpentry. A college educated journeyman carpenter will not be any better or worse than any other journeyman carpenter. The college educated one will be just four to five years older and most likely $50,000 to $70,000 indebt from college expenses.

Keep in mind also that the normal first two years of nearly every undergraduate college now is a repeat of high school anyway. So I encourage a...