KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. This is particularly true if you run a small business. To have any chance of succeeding, it helps greatly to know the "ground rules" you must play by -- including having some understanding of the bewildering, sometimes overwhelming layers of federal and state business laws, taxes, and regulations you must cope with, not to mention accounting rules and cash flow projections and technological challenges -- all of which are in addition to the everyday chores of trying to run your business well enough to make a decent profit.

Since the mid-1980's, thousands of actual or prospective small business owners and business advisors in Idaho have relied on Starting and Operating a Business in Idaho as their reliable guidebook to the federal and state legal and tax "ground rules" for starting a business in Idaho or running an existing small business.

Formerly available in looseleaf and trade paperback print editions, and part of a 50-state and D.C. series that sold over 1 million copies in bookstores, this much-acclaimed book has now been fully updated, expanded, and re-released by author Michael D. Jenkins, in user-friendly electronic versions. As always, this new edition is written in non-legalese, plain English and includes numerous helpful examples to illustrate key points. It also includes many highlighted attention-grabbing "Planning Point" and "Caution!" alerts (many of which are customized to alert you to things that apply specifically to your business, in the customized Windows version).

WHAT DOES THIS BOOK PROVIDE THAT WILL HELP YOU, IF YOU ARE STARTING OR RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS? In addition to over 400 pages of fully updated, authoritative text, covering all major federal and Idaho tax, labor, and other business laws and regulations plus federal environmental laws that may apply to your small business (see a sample table of contents), this edition includes:

• Easy, helpful worksheets for:
  • projecting cash flow
  • developing your company's personnel policies
  • doing a marketing feasibility analysis for your product or service
• In the Windows version (only), key federal tax forms your new business may need to file, including IRS Forms SS-4, 8832, 2553, and 8594. You can fill these forms in on your computer and mail them to the IRS, to obtain a taxpayer I.D. number, elect how your business entity will be taxed, elect S corporation status, or report the purchase price allocation for a purchase of an existing business. Also included is a sales/use tax resale certificate form that is approved for use in 38 states and a federal Form I-9 (immigration form) that you must fill out each time you hire a new employee.
• A number of detailed checklists including:
  • A lengthy (4 to 6 pages) small business tax/legal requirements checklist, customized fully for your business by the Windows software, designed to alert you to your numerous tax and government regulatory responsibilities, to help keep you out of trouble! (View a sample checklist.)
  • Things to consider before signing a lease
  • A franchise evaluation checklist
  • Things to consider before signing up with a mult-level marketing company
  • Internal financial controls checklist
  • Ways to maximize your cash flow
• An extensive (nearly 100 pages) business plan outline, with detailed step-by-step instructions for creating a business plan -- one that will stand out from the many "canned" business plans that often go straight into the sophisticated venture capitalist's trash can. The outline includes a complete set of sample financial statements and explains what every line item on each of the financials means -- sort of a quick course in Accounting 101, from the bottom up.
• An entire chapter devoted to selecting the optimum location for your business, a chapter on sources and types of financing that may be available, plus contact information and (current!) web links to dozens of sources of small business information and assistance, nationally and in Idaho.

IS A MAC VERSION ALSO AVAILABLE? Yes, as a downloadable file. Starting and Operating a Business in Idaho is now available for both Windows and and Mac users, and can be used on any Windows (95 to XP) or Mac desktop or laptop computer.

• For Windows users, it is available with the free front-end Small Business Advisor software, which guides you through a short interview about your business and then instantly assembles a fully customized edition of the book, including a detailed Small Business Checklist, all customized to reflect the facts of your specific business. The fully customized book (or a "generic" version, not specific to any particular business, which you can also create with two mouse-clicks) is created on your computer as HTML (hypertext) pages or files, which the software then uses your web browser to display for you to read or print.
• For Mac users, we offer an e-book version of Starting and Operating a Business in Idaho as a .PDF (Portable Document Format) file, readable and printable with the free Adobe Reader software, which most people already have installed on their computers, or which can be freely downloaded from the Adobe Software website. PDF files are downloadable and readable on both Windows and Macintosh computers. No Mac software version of the Small Business Advisor software is available at this time and the Mac version is not available on CD-ROM. Thus, since the Mac version e-book is not customizable by the user, we offer it for the greatly reduced price of $17.95. (Also available to Windows users who can do without the customized book and customized Small Business tax/legal checklist.)

WHO IS THE AUTHOR, SOME GUY IN A CLOWN SUIT ON TV INFOMERCIALS WHO CLAIMS HE CAN MAKE YOU RICH OVERNIGHT? Not quite. The author of this series since its inception is Michael D. Jenkins, a graduate of Harvard Law School, who, in addition to being the author of this million-seller book series, has practiced as a tax attorney with one of San Francisco's largest law firms, as a CPA with a "Big 4" accounting firm in Los Angeles, and as a consultant with a major national economics and management consulting firm in Washington, D.C. He has spent his entire career, over 30 years, as a lawyer, CPA, business consultant, software developer/publisher, and best-selling business author providing helpful and understandable guidance to small businesses. His "Starting and Operating" books have been picked as the "best of the best" small business guides by both Forbes and Inc. magazines and have been used for much of the last 3 decades as authoritative references by SBA offices and S.C.O.R.E. counselors throughout the United States.

UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION? -- ALWAYS! The old, frequently out of date tax and legal information you will find in most print publications is not only useless, but can often be dangerous to rely on. That is why we now publish Starting and Operating a Business in Idaho only in electronic formats, with all information in this book series updated fully at least once each year. Thus, we don't have any stock of out-of-date printed books or dated 2-year-old CD-ROMs we are trying to sell after they've grown stale. (Even when you order from us on CD-ROM, we burn the CD with the latest version of the software and book edition only AFTER we receive your order, so you always get our latest update.)

Update information for this edition is as follows:

• Portions of the book dealing with Idaho laws and taxes were last fully revised and updated in: March, 2008.
• Federal and general types of information in the remainder of the book (Chapters 1 - 17) are revised all year round, with one or two chapters fully updated and revised each month. Thus, all federal and general information in each state edition has always been updated at least once during the last 12 months.
• All editions in this series are also updated almost immediately after any new federal tax law changes that occur between the scheduled complete revisions.

ORDERING (ONLINE OR BY MAIL): Starting and Operating a Business in Idaho is available as a single-state edition, or as part of a regional package including the editions for several neighboring states, or as part of our Professional Edition that includes all 50 states and the D.C. edition. Available as either downloadable or CD-ROM versions. (Mac version is available only by download.)

For ordering options and prices through SWREG.ORG, the oldest software e-commerce vendor on the Net (now part of the Digital River group of companies), click on the image below: