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: Do Something about Your Stress Level The entrepreneurial lifestyle is STRESSFUL. And, just as you manage your time, you need to learn how to manage stress. It’s important to your personal health, and to the health of your business, to maintain high energy and high spirits. Dr. Mark Goulston, … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Meet Clients in Public Places The greatest thing about working at home is that by keeping your expenses low, you can spend more money on high-tech, high-productivity office equipment, travel, and entertainment. But of course there are some drawbacks to this arrangement. Most home offices lack an appropriate space … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Create an Informal Advisory Board the largest companies in the world have all sorts of advisory boards, but entrepreneurs are often reluctant to ask outsiders for help. An advisory board made up of industry leaders, deep thinkers, cutting-edge colleagues, and experts can steer you and your company through the … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Solicit a Quick “Yes” or “No” through the years, i’ve learned that a quick and honest “no” is as important as a “yes” in many, many business situations. While we all love to sign on a new client or make a huge sale, too much time is wasted in … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Always Deal with Decision Makers the entrepreneur’s challenge is always to operate at the highest level possible; present proposals to the top decision maker, not the gatekeeper; elicit a prompt response; and move on quickly if the answer is “no.” Even when our company was based in the den … Read more
Great Small Business Ideas to Start: Empowerment When employees at all levels of a company are empowered to make the decisions they feel are necessary, individual job satisfaction, corporate efficiency, and productivity soar. The idea Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor, argues that companies can improve performance by allowing employees to make decisions without … Read more
Great Small Business Ideas to Start: Redefine your audience Finding new audiences for your product can allow you to broaden your sales potential and escape crowded markets. The idea Do you think you know who the best people are to target with your marketing? Think again. Reconsidering who may be interested in your products opens … Read more
