In one sentence, describe what the following article is about: After you’ve created a list of goods or services you can offer, you need to narrow down your list and figure out if you can make money. In the end, an unprofitable business is not worth starting.  Think about how much you would charge for a certain service. For example, if you’re offering a dog walking service, think about how much money you need to make per dog so it is worth your time. Decide how much it would cost you to resell a product. For instance, if you are reselling vintage clothing, determine how much you will or can pay for a specific article of clothing and how much time and money it costs for you to sell it. Before starting your stay at home business, you should investigate any local, state, or federal laws or regulations that may be applicable to your business. Without being aware of laws and regulations, you could wind up being fined or have your business shut down.  Call the permit department of your local municipal government for information about laws and regulations that govern small businesses in your area. Be aware that some cities or municipalities have laws that govern what type of businesses you can run out of your own home. Make sure to pay municipal, state, and federal taxes if applicable. If you employ others, make sure to have them sign appropriate paperwork. For example, if you hire hourly workers as independent contractors, make them sign an independent contractor agreement. Consult a contract lawyer for more information. Most governmental authorities require many types of businesses to register and to get a business license. Without a business license, you could find yourself in violation of state statutes.  Call your state or province’s department of business regulation to find out if you need to apply for a license. For example, in Florida contact the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation at (850) 487-1395. Certain professionals, such as real estate agents or cosmetologists must be licensed. In addition, many states and provinces require certain professionals to enroll in continuing education courses. Depending on the type of business you start, you may need to purchase insurance to protect you from loss or lawsuit. Without insurance, your small business may open you up to monetary losses much larger than anything you may gain by working. Some insurances you may want to consider include:  Worker’s compensation insurance. This insurance will cover any employees if they are injured in the line of work and are unable to continue working. Liability insurance. Liability insurance may protect you if someone is hurt due to the fault of you or one of your employees. Property insurance. Property insurance will cover your property – and sometime other people’s property – if it is damaged during your work. Creating a budget for your business is perhaps the most important step you’ll need to take to make sure it is successful and profitable. Without a budget, you won’t be able to keep track of your expenses and project income.  Know how much money you spend on supplies weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Calculate your general overhead for a given period. For instance, tally up what you pay for a website, a store front, or to rent equipment. Ultimately, your sales must cover the cost of product and general overhead.
Summary: Estimate your potential costs and profits. Conform to laws and regulations. Get your business license. Purchase insurance. Set a budget.

Problem: Article: Making sure it uses the PointsPlus system! There are no two ways around it -- just getting a calculator is the simplest way. With the new formula, activity is assumed with your sex and certain numbers are weighted and there's a bunch of decimal places you really shouldn't have to worry about. Just to prove a point, the Total Energy Expenditure formula is:TEE = 387 - (7.31 x age) + (PA x ((10.9 x wgt) + (660.7 x Ht))...See? And that's just one formula of many. The process of counting food points is different with the new system, too. You need to get a calculator and punch in the amount of protein, carbs, fat and fiber (no calories!) in the food you're eating. Once you do this enough times, it'll become old hat. Weight Watchers has reference material for most restaurants and food items, but if you run into the odd product that isn't pre-listed, you can figure it out with a few button pushes.  This formula is a bit convoluted, too, if you want to do it yourself. Curious? It looks something like this:Points Plus = (Protein grams / 11) + (Carbohydrate grams / 9) + (Fat grams / 4) - (Fiber grams / 35) Here's another way of thinking about it: [(Protein grams x 16) + (Carbohydrate grams x 19) + (Fat grams x 45) + (Fiber grams x 5)]/175 Again, a calculator will be your best friend. There are a whole bunch of resources you can find online when it comes to calculating how many points you've earned for your workouts. Onemorepound.com has a good chart that can walk you through it. You'll need to know the intensity and duration of your workout and your weight.  30 minutes of a moderately intense workout for someone that weights 175 pounds is two points. If you wanted to eat that cheesecake, you'll need to work out for a spell, that's for sure. If it wasn't clear, activity points can be lobbed off your daily points usage. If you ate 27 points worth of food, but moderately exercised for 30 minutes, you're down to 25 (weight depending). Huzzah! On this new program, all fruits and many veggies (but not all) are zero points. AWESOME. That's the way it should be. Check your materials or with your weight watcher buddies to find out which ones are on this list. But remember, eating 19 bananas is not the way to go. They should be snacks, not meals! However, they're not zero when they're combined in recipes. Be sure to include their content when you're finding out the point value of dishes you're creating. On this new system, you get 49 points to throw around freely. P.F. Chang's, anyone? The reason the old system got revamped is because it had too much emphasis on calories. If you got confronted with a small bag of cookies and an apple (eat these or your family gets it!), they'd have similar point values. You had no reason to go for the apple over the cookies, even though it's obviously healthier.  That being said, both systems do lead to watching calories -- a basic tenant of losing weight. If the original system is easier for you, choose it. If it's easy, you'll stick with it! In general, most foods have higher point values with the new system (apart from fruits and veggies, which are often 0). However, you'll probably have a higher daily allowance, too.
Summary:
Use an online calculator to pinpoint your daily allowance. Calculate your food points, too. Find out how many activity points you have. Know the "zero" foods. Use your 49 weekly PointsPlus points whenever and however you'd like. Know the differences between the systems.