Great Ideas for your Small Business: Hire Seniors as Employees One of the best salespeople i ever dealt with was a tiny woman in her late seventies. A few weeks before we moved into our beautiful, pre-war apartment, my husband, Joe, and I wandered into a suburban Westchester County lighting store, long shopping list in … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Work with People You Like John chuang, founder of boston-based Acquent, matches candidates with Mac and Windows expertise with companies that need temporary support. He has some contrarian advice for entrepre- neurs growing their businesses. “You’ve heard that two things you never want to do with friends is lend … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Look Far and Wide for the Best Person Finding the right person to help run your small business may mean hiring an out-of-towner and paying to relocate that person. Relocation involves a myriad of financial and emotional issues for both you and your employee. It’s a complex and expensive … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Recruit Good Employees A small business can’t afford to make poor hiring choices. Yet small business owners too often hire the first person who drifts through the door, even for key jobs. Casting the widest net possible before hiring is one approach, but it often pays to bring in … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Know What Not to Ask Job Applicants When 100 small business owners were asked if they had ever asked a job applicant any of the following questions during an interview, all of them said “yes.” Have you ever filed a workers’ compensation claim? Do you have any physical problems … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Write Clear Job Descriptions In the interest of clarity and good communication, it’s a great idea to outline specific job responsibilities for everyone on your staff. This helps avoid confusion and boosts productivity. It also helps cross-train workers to cover for each other. Be sure to update your job … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Cast a Wide Net to Attract Good Employees One of the greatest challenges for small business owners is to recruit, train, and retain good workers. It’s very tough for a small company, especially in the bootstrapping start-up phase, to compete with bigger companies when it comes to offering competitive … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Develop a High-Tech Solution to a Problem Concerns regarding infant abduction from hospitals have created a hot market for infant security systems. Several small high-tech equipment manufacturers are competing to sell high-tech systems to nervous hospital administrators. While there are no exact figures on the market for infant security … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Turn Your Passion into Profits Geoffrey berliner is a tinkerer. he began tinkering with old watches, pens, and lighters when he was at Harvard Divinity School in the late 1980s. “I like to bring things back to life,” he explained. As a student in Cambridge, he frequented a pipe … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Set Up a Cart in a Mall Veteran silversmith kent mCcustion used to travel to about fifty craft shows a year, often driving hundreds of miles to shows around Illinois. In 1997 he cut back to six or seven shows because of the Colorado Silversmith’s kiosk he opened in … Read more
