The Small Business Blog

MAY 25, 2012

OK, let me start to paint you a picture of office life at Mother’s Garden, the English/Catalan micro business based in a little office in our old farmhouse in The Priorat, Catalunya, north east Spain. It will be self evident why we need to evolve.

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 25, 2012

There are a hundred little things that have to be done when you’re starting a business. You need to file for an assumed business name or set up an LLC, you need to map out your business plan, you need to do some market research, and you need to spend time on product development.

Credit Card 149

Credit Card Filing UPS 149

The Small Business Blog

MAY 25, 2012

OK, let me start to paint you a picture of office life at Mother’s Garden, the English/Catalan micro business based in a little office in our old farmhouse in The Priorat, Catalunya, north east Spain. It will be self evident why we need to evolve.

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149

The Small Business Blog

MAY 24, 2012

My father, who worked for himself all his life, either alone or running his small business, said to anyone thinking of going for it (me included) that it would take ten years to get established. I couldn’t see that at the time but I now fully understand what he was getting at.

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109

The Small Business Blog

MAY 24, 2012

Have you ever wondered how much of the Mobile Working craze is simply hype? Or could it be that the climate of work is genuinely shifting to a more fluid, on-the-go style to reflect the technology that we use in our personal lives?

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 23, 2012

With a finger solidly pointed at big banks to explain the 2008 market crash, many sought to avoid the traditional banking institutions and use credit unions instead. This migration created new questions about just what a credit union is and how it differs from traditional banks. Traditional Banks vs. Credit Unions: What’s the Difference?

2008 153

2008 153

The Small Business Blog

MAY 23, 2012

Need some software? Well, what you do is go online and sign up for online software or order a boxed software product to help you manage your business. But does it really ‘help’ you manage your business, or does it just put you in a software ‘straight-jacket’?

Management 156

Management UPS 156

The Small Business Blog

MAY 23, 2012

“Motivate your teams.” “Engage your employees.” Senior leaders make these directives clear to managers. But why are organizations continuing to focus on employee motivation and engagement during a time when so many talented people are desperately looking for a job?

Management 150

Management 150

The Small Business Blog

MAY 22, 2012

No use complaining Keep up won’t you? There’s no room for weenies in the global micro enterprise community. My hapless and hopeless UK agent, Tony Robinson OBE, sent me a press clipping of what Serena Williams said after winning the Madrid Open last week.

UPS 156

UPS 156

The Small Business Blog

MAY 21, 2012

No selling required There is a better way of winning new customers than pushing you and your B2B offer at them. Customers love it because they’re buying rather than being sold to. You’ll like it because it feels better than selling and you’ll get more long term business from it.

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Social Media 173

The Small Business Blog

MAY 21, 2012

Many businesses are not aware of the potential to release cash against their sales ledger. For every sale made, you have to invoice your customers for goods sold or services provided. Factoring.uk.net explains how resourceful your sales ledger could be in these economically demanding times.

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 21, 2012

Top 5 Tips posts from the SME Blog are always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. 1. Make sure that your email Inbox is totally clear of anything urgent and that you have replied to everything important.

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Email 183

The Small Business Blog

MAY 16, 2012

My father, who worked for himself all his life, either alone or running his small business, said to anyone thinking of going for it (me included) that it would take ten years to get established. I couldn’t see that at the time but I now fully understand what he was getting at.

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 14, 2012

Top 5 Tips posts from the SME Blog are always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. 1. Using a credit card is actually a sensible thing for a business to do, provided they are going to be paying it off in full each month.

Credit Card 167

Credit Card 167

The Small Business Blog

MAY 11, 2012

A colleague of mine, Barclay Thompson of Clear Business Development, shared the following link (from Nigel Botterill called Networking – The Surest Way to Stay Poor?) with me the other day.

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Networking UPS 157

The Small Business Blog

MAY 10, 2012

The online space is very competitive and businesses can sometimes struggle to be seen. Your business probably can’t afford to buy any physical land, so why not grab yourself some virtual land and start taking over the map one grid at a time? That’s exactly what the people at Landjacker are allowing businesses to do.

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AT&T 160

The Small Business Blog

MAY 9, 2012

I told you last week that “back in 1998-9 our instinct was to radically change the course of our lives”, promising to tell you this week just how, where and why. That was a tad ambitious for one small blog, but here are the bones.

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 8, 2012

Keep up won’t you – most websites that promote ‘how to successfully start and run your own business’ are sponsored by big companies and government bodies and written by people that are in jobs and have never started their own business. The advice is so yesterday.

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UPS Promotion 162

The Small Business Blog

MAY 7, 2012

There is a better way of building your business than taking on a senior employee. Unfortunately, this better way is risky and certainly is not possible for all types of micro-business. My preferred options/alternatives to taking on a senior employee are: Option 1. using independent contractors/freelancers/other micro-businesses Option 2.

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 7, 2012

Top 5 Tips posts from the SME Blog are always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. 1. The London Olympics are expected to cause travel chaos for small businesses and the general public this Summer.

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2012 Travel 156

The Small Business Blog

MAY 5, 2012

I love reading Seth Godin’s Blog – you should click over to it, it’s worth it – he has a way to extrude the essence out of all kinds of stuff and topics. But sometimes he gets it spectacularly wrong, at least in my opinion.

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Assertiveness 155

The Small Business Blog

MAY 4, 2012

At 5 feet 3 inches, or 1.60 metres if you work in metric, I should be used to feeling small so why then over the last 20 plus years of running my own businesses have I often felt like an inhabitant of Lilliput Land that has just seen Gulliver walk around the corner?

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 1, 2012

Have you tried to find yourself lately? Now, that’s not meant to be soul-searching philosophical question. What I mean by the question is, have you considered what your customers are really looking for recently? How would they describe what they are looking for?

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 30, 2012

I was told in an email today, by a dear friend – using her words, ‘you are most definitely unemployable’! Thinking about it, she is right.

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Email 153

The Small Business Blog

MAY 2, 2012

This is the ongoing tale of one tiny business – Mother’s Garden – and our journey, the lessons and never-ending learning, the pain and the glee.

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UPS Learning 149

The Small Business Blog

MAY 26, 2012

Can’t argue with that, can you?

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