One of the defining moments for an entrepreneur is when they decide to quit their job and start working for themselves. This is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. If you leave too early, your business could fail because you ran out of money. And if you leave too late, you will […]
Running a Business While Working a Full-Time Job
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Most small businesses are started by individuals who work a regular job while launching their startup. Running a side business is a time-honored tradition. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs go about this tradition the wrong way. This often creates problems at the office – jeopardizing the steady salary that your job brings. This short article covers some of […]
Self-Financing Your Business. It’s up to You
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Finding a way to finance their business is one of the biggest challenges for an entrepreneur. Obviously, without money, you won’t be able to execute your business plan and start your company. The media is full of stories of entrepreneurs getting funded through venture capital, angel financing, or other external sources. The popularity of these stories […]
What’s Missing? Realistic Sales Forecasts
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Every so often I attend meetings where entrepreneurs get to pitch their ideas to investors. I love going to these meetings because they are a lot of fun, and they give me an opportunity to get together with entrepreneurs who are enthusiastic about their companies. Plus, listening to other folks pitch their companies is always an […]
Should You Sell to Clients on Credit Terms?
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One of the nice things about retail sales is that you usually get paid immediately after making the sale. The customer pays in cash or with a credit card and the transaction concludes. Unfortunately, most commercial transactions are different. Corporate clients often demand credit terms – the option to pay an invoice in net 30- […]
Task Clustering – Get More Out of Your Day
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Most people go through their day jumping from task to task, doing many things but often accomplishing little. My last post described a simple technique to double your productivity. In this post, I am going to discuss a simple technique that you can use to get more out of your day. It’s called “task clustering.” Basically, […]
How to Double Your Productivity
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Here is a simple time-management/process-improvement trick that can produce amazing results. At the start of every day, create a list of every task that you have to do. Be sure to include strategic and critical items in your list, but also add the regular stuff. Then ask yourself, “If I could do only two things […]
Home-Based Businesses – Broken Down by Industry
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Some weeks ago I was researching data on home-based businesses and came by a publication from the SBA that had some interesting information. It showed the percentage of home-based businesses in a number of industries. This was pretty interesting because most people imagine home business owners to be self-employed individuals who work in a handful of service industries […]
How to Beat Walmart if You Own a Small Business
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Some time ago, rural business entrepreneur Becky McCray from the Small Business Survival blog posted an article about a reader who lamented that wholesalers charged high prices to small-town retailers. She wondered if anyone knew strategies to get wholesalers to lower their prices. It didn’t take long for the conversation to turn into the common subject of how small businesses, rural or not, […]
Close More Sales. Be Sure to Scratch an Itch
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Most salespeople go about the business of selling and handling prospects in the wrong way. And it’s costing them – and their prospects – time and money. It’s a bold statement to make, but I think I can prove it to you. Just look at the salespeople around you and watch them make these two mistakes time and […]
