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: 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
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Create a “Roundtable”Editorial for a Trade Publication Veteran public relations counsel harriett Ruderman dreamed up this great idea for her clients: “You get companies together in a group to discuss a key issue in a specific industry,” she explained. Then you submit the story to a trade publication. Ruderman, … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Join a Business Owners’ Support Group – There’s Strength in Numbers Entrepreneurs have a very tough time admitting they need help. But the smartest entrepreneurs I know aren’t too proud to seek outside counsel and objective perspective. There are many groups set up to function as self-help or peer … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Work the Phones or Walk the Floor Elaine petrocelli, co-owner of book Passage in Corte Madera, California, was named bookseller of the year in 1997 by Publishers Weekly. She’s done many things to deserve the honor, including battling nearby chain stores head-on and continually emphasizing customer service. Book Passage … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Never Work with Anyone Who Gives You a Headache or a Stomachache If i had a motto, this would be it. Life is too short to work with people who make you miserable. This isn’t emotional hogwash. You can’t do your best work when you hate the person managing … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Make Your Meetings More Productive In this high-tech era, it’s a bit surprising to learn that face-to-face meetings are still the most popular form of business communication. In fact, 44 percent of executives surveyed by Office Team, an office staffing service, said they preferred to meet with people in … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Think Ergonomically I’m usually the last one to urge any entrepreneur to spend money on office trappings. In my previous life as a white-collar crime reporter, I quickly learned the glitzier the office, the worse the criminal who worked there. But with repetitive-motion injuries costing U.S. business owners an … Read more
