Month: February 2011

Instant Messaging If you’re like most Small Business owners or operators “of a certain age”, your view of Instant Messaging, if you have one, may be similar to one of the following statements: Instant Messaging is for kids I have an email account – what do I need messaging for? It’s too complicated I don’t…
Read more

Planning We find ourselves ending at the start: the Plan. While many are aware of the need for a well-crafted business plan, few businesses of any size actually have completed one. There are several valid reasons: a thorough business plan is a complex document, requiring much more than expertise in tradecraft and knowledge of the…
Read more

Closed Mind It takes a lot of hard work, focus and persistence to launch a Small Business. Starting with an idea, and (perhaps) some skills, a plan is prepared, financing secured, details dealt with… and a business is born. The problem is, in the time required to travel from concept to reality, too often Small…
Read more

Cash flow It’s odd: the purpose of starting, running or working for a Small Business is making money. Yet managing money is almost universally the one thing most neglected, ignored or feared by Small Business owners, operators or employees . Quite often, you’ll hear some variation of the phrase “I’m not really in it for the money”…
Read more

[responsivevoice_button voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Listen to Post”] Location You may be familiar with the age-old expression that the three keys to success in Real Estate are “Location, location and location“. Clearly building family housing in the middle of an industrial zone is not likely to attract buyers. Similarly, Your Small Business must be located, well……
Read more

Versatility Though many Small Businesses are one-person operations, in today’s economy, none can afford to be “one-trick ponies“. Even if you can’t diversify your staff (especially if you work alone), you’d do well to diversify your skills. Every solopreneur has a specialty, but don’t focus exclusively on the thing you do best. What happens if…
Read more

Employees Many Small Businesses are “solopreneurs“, so this post won’t apply to them… now. Hopefully, many of these one-person enterprises will expand, and gain staff members or working partners. But there are those Small Business which have employees: managing them well can determine the difference between success and failure. Your employees are the face of…
Read more

Clients Every Small Business owner, operator or employee should be aware that it costs much more to acquire a new client than retain existing ones.  But old or new, client management is essential to your Small Business economic health. A key reason Small Businesses fail is that they fail to appreciate the distinction between clients…
Read more

Marketing A handful of business cards and a no-frills website are no longer a sufficient Small Business marketing strategy. The word “marketing” typically brings to mind expensive media campaigns, billboards and the services of highly-paid advertising firms. Clearly many Small Businesses have neither the time nor the resources (money, personnel, expertise) to take this approach…
Read more

Competition Are you the best at what you do? Among the best? Anywhere close to the best? Wherever you rank in comparison to your competition, are your existing or potential customers or clients aware of how you compare? As importantly, how accurate an assessment do you have of where you rank amongst your competitors? Remember: our…
Read more