The Small Business Blog

JUNE 20, 2010

Try to learn a bit about the industry that your prospective business customer works in so you don’t look out of your depth. It may seem obvious, but periodically asking a customer about how you or your service/product can help make their work-flow easier builds relationships. Number 3 is also especially relevant.

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

That said, I’m a firm believer that a bit of ‘gut feeling’ on the right person goes a long way – I’ve hired many people over the years and sometimes the candidate who is ‘technically’ the best, doesn’t always fit in to the organisation – that’s just something you learn over time though.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 31, 2010

Learn about how your company structure affects pay. do cost cutting do credit control do customer service export find funding grow your business handle problems keep data safe lower overheads manage your time market and sell motivate your staff not to do it! Research the going rate for CEOs in your industry.

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Small Businesses Faces Sharp Rise in Cost of Health Care : As Congress nears votes on legislation that would overhaul the health care system, many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in insurance premiums they have seen in recent years. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Small Business Crunches Numbers : Small business has fought the health-care bill as too costly. No large retailer can be all things to all people, and there are always going to be segments of the population whose needs for particular products and/or services are going unmet. Organizations are working to help them size up.

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The Small Business Blog

JULY 13, 2010

It might take time, but you will learn a great deal about how to, and how not to, do things! Networking not only allows you to meet potential clients but you will also learn valuable lessons from people who are more experienced in the business world. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 14, 2010

Learn everything you can about your competition, their products and how they advertise. do cost cutting do credit control do customer service export find funding grow your business handle problems keep data safe lower overheads manage your time market and sell motivate your staff not to do it! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 16, 2010

If an area such as accounting is your weakness, rather than wasting time learning the skill it may be more cost-effective and time efficient to outsource the service. Work out if these weaknesses will truly impact your business, and if there are ways to improve in these areas. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

DECEMBER 20, 2009

If you are no longer personally growing and learning in your role it can cause your business to stagnate. do cost cutting do credit control do customer service export find funding grow your business handle problems keep data safe lower overheads manage your time market and sell motivate your staff not to do it!

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

You might be surprised how much you can learn about your people and your business! when I was managing people I learned fast that setting an example got the most response and number 4 helped keep people fired up. If you want them to be engaged, ensure that you’re engaged. Be accessible – today’s workers value face time.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 13, 2010

Although he never finished high school, Scudamore loves nothing more than learning. Within his business he has established what he calls a Mentor Board of Advisors, a group of people he turns to for advice and learning. Today they have 95 franchise partners across North America and are in 47 of North America’s top 50 cities.

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 20, 2010

When you begin employing staff you need to quickly learn how to not only manage them, but also how to help them achieve their best. Allow your staff time to come to you with ideas or questions; you’ll learn a lot about your business and might even discover an avenue you’d never thought of taking. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2009

Not only that, you have someone that is learning the latest and greatest tech practices. do cost cutting do credit control do customer service export find funding grow your business handle problems keep data safe lower overheads manage your time market and sell motivate your staff not to do it! Thanks for the list!

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The Small Business Blog

JULY 20, 2010

As I have mentioned previously , I am looking to help small businesses to hold conversations, engage with each other and learn from what is happening in the big business world. Small business owners need to consider ‘online’ an extension of their market place and learn to communicate well within that environment.

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 28, 2007

Small Business Failure – Reason: Management Control by Stefan Töpfer on Aug 28, 2007 The typical scenario is you work hard all week , have no live and at the end of it all little money to show for it. « If You Work All Day, You Have No Time To Make Any Money! Small Business Infrastructure For Business Start-Up.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 21, 2008

The fact that there are plenty of highly profitable companies, with for instance bad customer service, does not mean they are not loosing customers. With my focus on micro business, it is imperative to get customer service right since it is often the main differentiator to bigger and/or cheaper competition.

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The Small Business Blog

JULY 27, 2010

For example, if you learn about products that are doing well in other countries then you may be able to adapt them for sale here if no-one else is doing it. Although these sectors will be crowded, at least there is a guaranteed market there for you to fight for a share. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

APRIL 27, 2010

I look forward to reading your pitches, and learning more about your small businesses! do cost cutting do credit control do customer service export find funding grow your business handle problems keep data safe lower overheads manage your time market and sell motivate your staff not to do it! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Lessons from recession will help SMEs’ future roadmap courage and… : Learning lessons from recession important for future upswing SMEs should graduate from growth by default. Plenty of Indianapolis-area companies are for sale. … Addressing the need gap of SMEs’ needing small funding, R. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 15, 2007

Small Business Checklist: Business Costing by Stefan Töpfer on Aug 15, 2007 Do you know what your overheads and variable costs are in your business – have every worried about that? If you have then you must keep up-dating your costing every few month, as they will change as the business grow and changes. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 20, 2007 Many worries in a small business are centered about sales and the need to earn money in order to pay for over-heads like rent, wages and so on. Who would of thought it would be helpful to explain to a customer how you could help them. Benefits, Not Features is what sells! People buy from People.

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

I came across one company from Canada which took SEO optimisation into their own hands and learned through experience and extensive testing a few proven ways to boost Google’s rankings of your website. Encourage other sites to link to yours – this may be a well known strategy but it can’t be reinforced enough. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 19, 2007 WinWeb has just updated their OnlineOffice accounting module , to include cost centre functionality. This development was by popular demand, as a number of customers requested this functionality. WinWeb’s Free Online Accounting Software Now With Cost Centre Functionality. do cost cutting.

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The Small Business Blog

JUNE 29, 2010

The only issue that comes up is that just like with traditional hardware and software… there is always a learning curve and employee’s often run into tech problems that they either try to solve themselves… or ask their neighbor to help out with. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

OCTOBER 2, 2007

and Small Business by Stefan Töpfer on Oct 02, 2007 In the past twenty years the term “ work-life balance &# has come to symbolize the problem many face with increasing work pressures and the neglect of family, friends and their hobbies. Shama Hyder Said on October 3rd, 2007 at 6:02 pm This is absolutely great Stefan.

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 2, 2008

Now you can learn what went wrong and understand your business better, it will force you to rethink and face facts. You will be amazed what you can learn about the financial dynamic in your small business within one hour, that is often all it takes to get started. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 2, 2009

You learn to enjoy that and understand that they are doing that because they are hurting – after all we are destroying their business model, which made them all very much money. I think that when the reputation of our industry is at stake we need to work together. If Sage will do that remains to be seen? Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 30, 2010

Another tip I have is to learn to say ‘no’ Too many people especially in this economic downturn are too afraid to say no to tasks or turn down work if they are a freelancer. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site. You also need to ask for more resources if you are snowed under. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 2, 2010

Jp14 Said on March 5th, 2010 at 10:36 pm Another common thing is to keep learning. do cost cutting do credit control do customer service export find funding grow your business handle problems keep data safe lower overheads manage your time market and sell motivate your staff not to do it! Not an excuse not to succeed.

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 20, 2008

What have I learned yesterday? Quality, customer service and a niche market, what could possibly go wrong. do cost cutting do credit control do customer service export find funding grow your business handle problems keep data safe lower overheads manage your time market and sell motivate your staff not to do it!

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 13, 2008

But saying that, we are still learning and growing. I have learned a lot just from the info posted here! do cost cutting do credit control do customer service export find funding grow your business handle problems keep data safe lower overheads manage your time market and sell motivate your staff not to do it!

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The Small Business Blog

APRIL 16, 2008

If you consider the skills potential of parents, if each parent would only contribute one hour on average per week to their learned professions. The truth in my opinion is more the fact that we often block this remote working possibility from our minds, but why? This would be a staggering number of man hours per week.

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 3, 2010

Life is about never giving up so if you must fail, fail fast, learn from it and move on… Lars Hilse Said on August 7th, 2010 at 2:52 am Yes and no… Yes, because there are some old school business people out there who believe that 9-5 is mandatory for success. Beware though as the pursuit of money itself can also put you in chains!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 16, 2007

by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 16, 2007 Just got this question, I know there are others questions I have not yet answered, and I have already written my “ The Week Ender &# post for the week, what the hell, but I’m in the mood to have a go at “The System&# again. « The Week Ender: Finding that Home Business Idea!

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The Small Business Blog

APRIL 1, 2008

Although this is a competitive market, if you are talented and customer focused enough then you can become successful. Skills needed: You will need to be very good at graphic design and it will help if you know how to print T-shirts already, although you could learn. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 7, 2007

Apple – a customer support nightmare! by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 07, 2007 A few years ago I decided to change over to Apple computers from Windows based computers and up until now it seemed the right decision. UPDATE Nov 8, 2007 – 19.38 Personally I think Michael underestimated the numbers considerably.

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2007

New Small Business Startup Idea: Virtual Import/Export Assistant by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 13, 2007 You may speak more languages and have market segment knowledge about a certain product or service. Pete Stefan Töpfer Said on November 26th, 2007 at 8:49 am Hi Pete, I think you have done very well to plan your strategy as you have.

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