Jul. 20 – First, a little confession. While this story pretends to be about things becoming free, that’s only in the sense of free samples; buy one, get one free; bare bones for free in hopes of selling the deluxe version; free but with advertising. You know the drill. But now free is the new black — chic, essential, even sexy. ...

Starting a new project means different things to different people. Some people take on new projects with a sense of adventure, while others may take on new projects with a serious sense of apprehension. Me? I tend to fall into the latter group. For me, new projects have always meant dredging up old fears and having to expel them time and ...

Many small business owners and operators do not spend much time planning for their business success. The biggest reason, in my opinion, is that they are not aware how easy it can be. Most owners, when they hear the words Strategic Planning or Tactical Planning, get a glazed-eyed look on their faces. Actually, these can be rather simple tasks to manage ...

Do Your Market Research Just because you build it or sell it doesn't necessarily mean anyone will buy it. The first essential step is to research your potential market. Who needs what you are offering? Is there space for your product or service in the market or is the market saturated? Is the market national? Is it a niche? Can you ...

All business owners want to be successful. This article outlines seven aspects of a company that require effective management. You can always find ways to create a "well-oiled machine." Improvements typically translate into returns on your investment. 1. Marketing - Product, price, and positioning. Timing is everything. Snickers, Tootsie Pops, Mars bars, and Three Musketeers were all created during the Great ...

2009 will probably be your toughest year in business. This sounds like a negative way to start but it is very positive. Stay with me on this one and you’ll find ways you can take your business, and your personal life, to some new levels you’ve wanted for a long time. We are in a different world today than even a ...

Do What You Love Starting a business is a blood, sweat and tears endeavor that will consume the majority of your time. If you do not pursue what you love you will not be happy and your business will most likely fail. The key questions to ask when coming up with an idea are: What am I passionate about? - Love ...

After a long, lazy summer, September is the time when kids get back to the business of learning. As much as they complain, most of them are excited to begin new classes. It’s also a good time for adults to start new projects and endeavors. With four months left in the year, you still have time to accomplish one or more ...

American Express recently asked fifty of the top business bloggers to give their best advice to small business owners. Topics ranged from taking advantage of your size to outthink and outmaneuver the ‘big boys’ to staying motivated in the face of today’s economic challenges. One piece of advice that really caught my eye was from Jim Collins who said “Best beats ...

If you started a three-month sabbatical today, what would your business look like when you returned? Small business owners may shudder at the thought. But entrepreneurs whose young companies are graduating from the startup stage need to move from running the show to building an organization that can sustain itself, experts say. "CEOs in growing companies have to think about creating ...

When expanding your business, you should explore all the strategic alternatives available to you. Select the one that makes the most sense and then prepare a plan on how to implement that strategy. There are at least a dozen common strategies and a variety of strategic combinations or special situations to choose from. We present some of those alternatives below. Expansion ...

Find your focus: Fine-tune your business with our ideas for simplifying and streamlining your operations. It's your typical day at the office. Like every other day, it started at 7:00 a.m. When you sat down with that first cup of coffee, you were hoping to get to work on some meaty stuff-strategic planning, ideas for that big project, a thorough review ...

Over the past few weeks, I've been really chewing on the following six rules I created that I believe will really help you boost your business. There's a lot more technology rules and guidelines you need to keep in mind, but these six rules are one's really dear to my heart. 1.Spend money on your technology as an investment - not ...

Whether you're looking for raw materials for manufacturing or finished products to resell, this guide will help you find and forge great relationships with suppliers. Suppliers are essential to almost every business. Without raw materials to make what you sell or manufacturers to provide what you resell, you will have a tough time growing. There are also many supplies and services ...

Almost everybody is familiar with the video game Whack-A-Mole or some variation of it. For those few that are not, it is a game where you have a large hammer, like a old fashioned carnival strongman, and you run around a playing field trying to hit "moles" that pop their heads up from holes in the ground within a specific amount ...

Running a company during a recession can pose major challenges to their owners. But it also offers them an opportunity to revamp their businesses and find new avenues for success. Here are six strategies for small-business owners who are struggling to survive in a weak economy: *Exercise your bargaining power* Recessions can take a toll on a company’s cash flow. If ...

It hurts to learn. Yet, learning keeps us mentally agile well into our golden years, and it's the hallmark of successful entrepreneurs. Keeping up with what you don't know has the amazing ability to transform what you do know into the next million buck idea. Constant learning is the grease we need to stay competitive. Many people slow their learning down ...

When Jack Welch was chairman of General Electric, he would regularly ask the top managers in the company's 14 major businesses a series of questions about the global competition. These questions are worth sharing. What are your global market dynamics today, and where will they be over the next several years? What actions have your competitors taken in the last three ...

Great food, customer service and ambiance are some of the important ingredients that make a restaurant successful. However, many restaurants stop there and don't use technology to implement active marketing to current and prospective customers as much as they should. Ron Wilkinson of the Restaurant Marketing Group says that good food at a restaurant alone will not build the sales for ...

Business is all about planning intelligent strategies an how to implement them. However, many business owners wrongly believe that strategic planning is only for the big players in the market. If you have a small business and aspire to be like the big players someday, you need to focus on strategic planning today. What is strategic planning? Strategic planning involves setting ...