How can Small Businesses Get the Most out of Trade Shows

June 4, 2013

How small businesses can get the most out of trade shows
Event marketing is one of the areas that don’t get as much attention from small business owners as other types of marketing. Most business owners are comfortable spending money with advertising on traditional media such as newspaper, magazine, radio, TV or Internet. Advertising on these media does not take much time and effort and is deemed to be proven over number of years.

However, if you are not participating in exhibitions and events such as trade shows, home shows and such you may be missing out on one of the best avenues of putting your business name in front of potential customers who are already interested in your products.
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Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With:

Use Customized Software to Improve Productivity in Small Business

June 3, 2013

Use customized software to improve productivity in small business
Technology has done wonders for human kind in the last 20 years. Business community in particular has enjoyed tremendous gain in productivity with the help of computers and software.  The time savings offered by Smartphone that allow you can check the inventory with a click of the button and approve purchase order from anywhere could not even be imagined just few years ago.

Technology improvements have helped not just large corporations. They have also helped small businesses level the playing field by offering them solutions that were not available to them earlier without spending a fortune. Nowadays it is possible to establish a computer department with just few thousand dollars compared to tens of thousands of dollars you would have to spend several years ago.

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Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: ,

Can Better Packaging Improve Sales for Small Business?

June 3, 2013

Can better packaging improve sales for small business
Next time you go to the mall pay close attention to the bags people are carrying. You will find many sizes and styles. You will find some bags that are just so good that you don’t care what’s inside you will want to go to the store just to get the bag. Do you form an opinion about the content of the package or the business providing the bag based on its appearance?

Such is the power of packaging. Some businesses, especially luxury retailers, pay as much attention to the packing as they do to the products they sell. After all, customers form opinion about the business based on their first impression of the package.

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Filed Under: Marketing, Sales Tagged With: ,

Improve Small Business Profit with Corporate Social Responsibility

June 2, 2013

Improve profit with corporate social responsibility

Many small business owners once dismissed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a public relations stunt used by large corporations to look good in front of customers and governments. However, over last few years an increasing number of small businesses have started implementing CSR policies.

Why? The simple reason is because CSR can help to improve profits no matter what size of business you are running.

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Filed Under: Strategy Tagged With: , ,

A Better Way to Start Small Business – Consulting

June 1, 2013

A better way to start business - consulting
Ask anyone who works for a small business and he will tell you he wants to run his own business some day. Many of them have a great idea – or think they have one – and only if they ventured on their own they could become a successful business person. Some of them also think they can do better job of running the business they work for than their current owner.

While the thought of starting and owning your own business is certainly admirable anyone who has tried to do it will tell you that it is not as easy as it sounds. As Chief Everything Officer you will be working on many different fronts at the same time and under tremendous pressure. There is no guarantee that you will eventually succeed after spending so much time, money and effort. So, is there any hope for someone who has the passion to start his own business, but is not sure how to go about it? I think so. Let me explain how.

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Filed Under: Buyers, Strategy Tagged With: ,

Small Biz Owners – Do You Manage Performance or Just Monitor It?

May 30, 2013

Do you manage performance or just monitor it
“You cannot improve something that you don’t measure.” This is the mantra many leadership coaches have preached for number of years, and for the right reason. If you do not know how your business is performing you are practically driving the car without a dashboard. Anything can go wrong along the way and you wouldn’t come to know about it before it’s too late. That is why performance monitoring should be integral to running a business for any leader.

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Filed Under: Management Tagged With: ,

What Should You Consider in Choosing Location for Small Business

May 27, 2013

What should you consider in choosing location for small business
When it comes to starting small business location is everything. Where you locate your business can eventually decide whether the business will survive in the long run or will encounter headwinds forcing you to shut it down or relocate it. This is especially true of retail businesses that largely rely on customer foot traffic. I have seen number of promising business that had to close down because they chose the wrong location.

Large retail businesses have dedicated real estate departments whose job it is to scout locations for expansion. Now, small businesses cannot afford to have a department to focus on real estate, but that doesn’t diminish the attention you have to give in choosing a location for your business.

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Filed Under: Management Tagged With:

Best Approaches to Screen Resumes to Find Qualified Employees

May 27, 2013

Best approaches to screen resumes to find qualified employees
Any small business owner who has tried to find employees to fill open positions can tell you how difficult it is to find good employees. Despite all the talk about high unemployment and difficulty people are having to find jobs it is also true that there are number of vacancies small businesses have that are going unfilled because they cannot find qualified employees. This situation will only get worse as economy improves and more and more people start finding jobs.

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Filed Under: Employees Tagged With:

Why Training Employees is Essential for Small Businesses

May 26, 2013

Why is training essential for small business employees

Employee training is not something that most small business owners give much thought to. They think of employee training as something that large corporations need to ensure their employees are equipped with the company policies and procedures required to perform their jobs. Most new employees in small business go through on-the-job training, if at all. After all, who has time to spend on training employees when there are so many tasks waiting to be completed, right? Besides, as a small business you don’t want to spend extra money on employee training.

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Small Business Owners – Do you Know How Much Asset You Own?

May 25, 2013

How much asset do you own
Here is a simple question you should be able to answer quickly – how much asset do you own in your small business? No, you cannot look at your balance sheet statement to find out the value of total assets. I am talking about the inventory of everything you have in your business. I bet most small business owners do not really know what they own. And yet this is one of the places where they spend lot of money.

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Filed Under: Operations, Technology Tagged With: ,