Belle Oberbrunner Great Ideas for your Small Business: Take This Self-Help Quiz for Managers Self-help quizzes and do-it-yourself diagnostics are popular features in women’s magazines, but rarely appear in business books. Yet it’s worth taking a few minutes to think about how you are coping with the toughest job in America—running a small business. Being an entrepreneur … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Ask Your Employees to Evaluate You Good managers are trained to evaluate their employees carefully at least once a year. These formal, written evaluations are used for giving raises and promotions or documenting problems prior to termination. But great managers should be confident and open enough to reverse roles … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Move Your Business into a Main Street Revitalization Zone When paul curtain, owner of raymond’s Jewellers in downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota, needed a loan to remodel his store, he borrowed money, below prime rate, from a revolving fund set up especially for downtown merchants. “As a small retailer, … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Get Free Government Counseling After working in retail for twenty-two years, Barbara Galloway wanted to start her own business. One of her first stops was at the Jacksonville State University Small Business Development Center. Counselors there provided her with help in finding a good location, setting a budget, record … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Consider Joining the Family Business Joining the family business is no picnic. But with more people spurning the corporate world for entrepreneurship, taking over the family enterprise has become an attractive option for many. “I felt like there was a real need for me to get out of the … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Know the DOS and DON’TS of Buying a Franchise Franchising in the united states is a $1 trillion-a-year concept. Some 600,000 franchised small business owners provide jobs for more than 8 million American workers. There is virtually no product or service that can’t be bought through a franchised business. … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Know When to Reach Out for Help Every business hits a rocky patch once in a while; it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You have to reach out for help and work with whomever you can to solve your problems. If you don’t, you are jeopardizing your business, your … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Work Hard and Play Harder The most successful entrepreneurs i know work hard and play even harder. One friend, who built a $60 million company by working seven days a week for nine years, now frequently jets around the world to fabulous places for long weekends to meet her … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Create a Disaster-Recovery Plan Nobody likes to talk about the possibility of disaster, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a comprehensive disaster-recovery plan for your business. You may not be hit with a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake, but even a broken pipe or minor fire can temporarily wipe … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Listen to the Telephone Doctor Nancy friedman, known as the “telephone Doctor,” is one of my favorite customer service experts. She’s an energetic, intelligent woman who teaches people how to make the most of their most valuable business tool—the phone—via seminars, books, and tapes. Unfortunately, many people take their … Read more
