Small Business

Solar-power plants booming in Gila Bend

It’s lunchtime in Gila Bend, but the 30 or so people lined up at Little Italy for pizza and subs aren’t the typical summer visitors passing through town on their way to San Diego or the beaches of Mexico. And with outside temps nearing 110 degrees, they aren’t the snowbirds that flock to the desert town 75 miles west of downtown Phoenix every winter to enjoy the warm weather.

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Tags: Bend, Gila Bend

Thursday, August 25th, 2011 Small Business No Comments

Q&A: Noel Cottrell, one of the brains behind the e-Trade baby

Cottrell, a burly South African who moved to Atlanta nine months ago from New York, assured a visitor that they were awards rather than intimidation devices.

As executive creative director at Grey Group in New York City, Cottrell was one of the creative forces behind the award-winning E-Trade talking baby ads.

Now working as chief creative officer at Fitzgerald + Co. in Atlanta, Cottrell says he wants to help bring a winning streak to the smaller agency, which works with Navy Federal Credit Union, Pergo flooring, Quikrete and other brands.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution caught up with Cottrell on a recent afternoon.

Q: You’ve been assembling your team over the past few months. How did you find these folks?

A: Interestingly, through the power of Facebook. M

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Tags: Cottrell, Noel Cottrell

Thursday, August 25th, 2011 Small Business No Comments

Benefit Declines Makes Self-Employment More Attractive

Its no surprise that companies continue to cut workplace benefits. According to a U.S. News article: “Employers have significantly cut many of the benefits they offer to workers over the past five years.”

The article goes on to list 21 workplace benefits that are going away, with reductions in retirement and health care benefits leading the way.

Most people looking at becoming self-employed or starting a small business go through a risk/reward analysis of their choices. This process is based on their views of the advantages and disadvantages of traditional employment versus self-employment.

Weve found that corporate benefits tend to be overvalued in this analysis.

People think employerbenefitreplacement costs are higher than they are, or that certain benefits cant be replaced when they can.

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Tags: Benefit, Benefit Declines

Friday, July 29th, 2011 Small Business No Comments

Blasingame speaks to Optimum Business customers in NJ

A couple of weeks ago, I delivered a keynote address to a number of small business owners in Park Ridge, NJ, in association with CableVision’s Optimum Business and Bloomberg Television.  The audience was very engaged with my message, resulting in a lot of great questions.  I was happy to learn that my new friend, Janet Guda, with Network Solutions, took some pretty darn good notes and posted them on the NetSol blog.  Below is the opening paragraph and a link to the rest. Thanks for the luv, Janet.

On Tuesday July 12th existing Cablevision’s Optimum Business Benefits customers as well as prospective OBB members were treated to a wonderful breakfast, an opportunity to network, and a stimulating keynote presentation by Jim Blasingame from Bloomberg TV.   Author o

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Tags: Business, Optimum Business

Thursday, July 28th, 2011 Small Business No Comments

5 Ways To Use A WinWeb vCard

A WinWeb vCard is completely versatile to your business needs, and brings a unique opportunity to your business enabling you to bring your business to your customers. Here are some great ways that you can use your WinWeb vCard:

    1. List your contact details, online: There are many benefits to having your contact details online. If your business doesn’t have a website then a vCard is a great place to direct people to in order to give them your phone number, email and social media details.
    2. Advertise your services: WinWeb’s vCard “About Us” section gives you the ability to really sell your website to your potential customers. Here you can tell people not only what the can buy from you, but why they should be buying from you!
    3. Promote

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Tags: Vcard, Winweb Vcard

Thursday, July 28th, 2011 Small Business No Comments

4 Step Process For Growing Your Small Business

When the challenges of growing your business are simply too much for you to handle and you have weak spots that could hurt your chances to succeed, then this 4 step process is exactly what you need.

1. Evaluate your current business conditions and gain clarity about where you want the business to be in three to five years.

2. Analyze your customer base to find your best customers and develop a marketing message for them.

3. Understand and monitor your business revenue, cost of sales and expenses by analyzing profit and loss reports.

4. Determine your personal strengths and weakness as the manager of your business.

Tags: Business, Step Process

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 Small Business No Comments