Great Ideas for your Small Business: Take Some Advice from the Mail-Order Queen (LILLIAN VERNON) The first thing i thought when I met Lillian Vernon was, “Wow, I hope I have as much energy and look as great as she does when I’m older!” This petite powerhouse of the mail-order industry started her business on … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Reinvent Yourself (WALLY AMOS) On march 10, 1975, at 7181 sunset boulevard in Hollywood, Wally Amos, showbiz talent manager, became Famous Amos, the Cookie Man. Using his Aunt Della’s chocolate chip cookie recipe, Amos sold deluxe cookies for the unheard of price of $3 a pound. Celebrities and locals … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Learn about a Culture before Doing Business Sometimes an international business deal that makes perfect sense falls apart for no apparent reason. The numbers look good, but personalities clash, or someone says something that sends the deal spinning out of control. The problem may be caused by a breach … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Explore Opportunities in Russia If you want to understand the challenges of doing business in Russia, consider this: Although new ATM machines adorn major boulevards in Moscow, most people are reluctant to use them. Fear of being robbed is one reason, but that’s not all. Until 1997 it was … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Find the Right Communications Technology for Your Business When it came time to consider the best kinds of communications technology for my business, I turned to an expert I can trust: my sister Amy Berger, founder of Berger Technology Research in Reseda, California. Communicating with your customers is the … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Five Great Things to Buy Before you can be truly high-tech, your business needs to have the right equipment and be set up properly. Here are the five things your office probably doesn’t have but should, according to business equipment expert Mie-Yun Lee: 1. Computer backup system. It’s easy … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Hire a Personal Information Officer The information superhighway leads to information overload for many busy entrepreneurs. With so much to do, it’s difficult to find the time to keep up with all the websites, books, magazines, and professional journals we know we should be reading. One solution with multiple … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Get Organized – Right Now Every successful entrepreneur tries to be well-organized in order to maximize every minute of the day. If you believe getting organized is just for the compulsively neat, add up the time you spend every day hunting around for misplaced files or documents. You’ll be … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Deal Carefully with Issues of Workplace Violence What would you do if your sales manager walked into work one morning with a black eye? What do you say when your secretary shows up with a split lip and puffy, swollen eyes? Do you ask what happened? Do you pretend … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Offer Employees the Right Incentives If you think glitzy trips to atlantic city or Las Vegas are great sales motivators for your employees, think again. When offered the choice between a trip or money, 44 percent of the employees polled preferred the financial reward, while 39 percent said they … Read more
