Business

How’s business?

As I have talked with small business owners across the country over the past few months, the abiding topic of discussion is the economy. “How’s business?” I ask. The answers I get depend upon many factors:  Some industries are not good across the country, like anything connected to real estate, for example. Some markets are having a tougher time than others, with almost no industries or sectors escaping the local economic blight. Las Ve Read all post…

Tags: Business, How’s Business

Monday, December 13th, 2010 Small Business No Comments

How To Start Up A Small Business In 5 Easy Steps

Starting up a small business can be one of the most pleasurable and lucrative things in life and if you’re not doing it right, it’s just provides a good opportunity to throw away your hard earned investment. Building a small business should be slow at first, turning into a more aggressive process as you get more experienced.

photo credit: Violette79

One big mistake that people make is to pay too much attention to passion. No one wants to have your passion about some product or service shoved down their throat. Instead, you need to learn to work hard and be prepared to spend 12 hour days totally immersed in getting your business off the ground. Here are five easy steps to help you do just that:

1. Beg

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Tags: Business, Small Business

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 Small Business No Comments

3 Keys To Growing Your Small Business

You’ve been in business for a while and want to increase your profits and grow the business. You’ve been stressing as to whether you should concentrate on lowering your cost or increasing your revenue. Perhaps you need to be looking at the business from a totally different vantage point. Here are three keys to growing and sustaining your business and they start with your customer.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

1. Understand Your Favorite Customer
It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is or how good you or your business is. If you don’t understand who your favorite customers are and what pain they’re suffering, you will not be able to make them satisfied. There are

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Tags: Business

Saturday, November 27th, 2010 Small Business No Comments

Ten Year-End Tips For Cleaning Up Your Small Business

The last two years have been extremely challenging and small business owners are looking forward to 2011 with a sense of excitement and optimism. All signs are pointing to an improving economy and consumer confidence is beginning to move in a positive direction. To assist you in preparing for a successful new year, we have put together the following list of ten tasks you should complete between now and the end of the year.

photo credit: C.A.P.

Management and Financial
• Pull out the old business plan and review where you are relative to the goals you set at the end of last year: (revenue, profit, number of customers, assets, owners’ equity, debt). To

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Tags: Business, Small Business

Friday, November 12th, 2010 Small Business No Comments

Starting A Bouncy Castle Business

Throughout the summer months it’s rare to get through a weekend without seeing kids jumping up and down on a bouncy castle somewhere. And every time I do, I think to myself what a great business idea it is.

So why is it such a good business idea? Well it’s relatively cheap to start and if you decide it’s not the business for you, then most of the equipment can be sold on, allowing you to recover a good portion of your initial investment – in other words the downside is limited. It’s also an easy business to start part-time around an existing job as most bookings will be for the weekends. Finally it’s a relatively easy service to sell.

So if you like kids and would like to spend your summer weekends working outdoors then starting a bouncy castle business could be the perfect part-time business idea for you.

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Tags: Bouncy Castle, Business

Thursday, October 21st, 2010 Small Business No Comments

Cross-Cultural Awareness Is A Must In Today’s Small Business.

It’s necessary in our culturally diverse neighborhoods.

The neighborhoods you transact your business in are increasingly ethnically and economically diverse. Nevertheless, cultural differences remain very real and can have a negative impact on the performance of your business.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

As an entrepreneur, if you have a narrow cultural perspective, you tend to miss opportunity, perform poorly and have weak customer relationships. In contrast, if you are culturally aware, you tend to be able to respond to and perform well under varied and unfamiliar cultural circumstances. You succeed in dealing with multiple perspectives, learn new processes and foster cross-cultural participation. <

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Tags: Business, Small Business

Thursday, September 30th, 2010 Small Business No Comments