The Small Business Blog

MARCH 21, 2010

Top 5 Tips for Learning More About Your Customers by Stefan Töpfer on Mar 22, 2010 The top 5 tips weekly post is always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. Try to figure out exactly what it is that you want to know about your customer base. Ignore your spendings on CS & u’r toast.

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

Getting Fired Up! So, now it’s more important than ever to get your team fired up. If you want your staff to work harder then step it up a notch yourself. You might be surprised how much you can learn about your people and your business! It is the only means.” Here are a few ideas: 1.Set

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Small Business World News Round-up – 2009/11/10 by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 10, 2009 Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from around the world. Organizations are working to help them size up.

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Small Business World News Round-up – 2009/12/01 by Stefan Töpfer on Dec 01, 2009 Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from around the world. Plenty of Indianapolis-area companies are for sale.

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Small Business World News Round-up – 2009/11/03 by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 03, 2009 Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from around the world.

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Make or Break Moments

JANUARY 4, 2010

In a recent article in Advertising Age entitled Banks Turn Message Back to What Consumers Want , reporter Beth Snyder Bulik spotlights the fact that banks are listening the consumers and changing their message to one that includes the answer to ‘how can you help me manage my finances?&# Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Already in use by Apple and other major retailers, Beacons are being used for applications such as in-store customer service notifications, special upgrade offers and personalized marketing messages.    They also provide independent workers (and others) a way to upgrade their skill and/or learn new ones.  

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The Small Business Blog

APRIL 1, 2008

Small Business Start-Up Idea – T-Shirt Design by Stefan Töpfer on Apr 02, 2008 There is always a great demand for custom-made T-shirts, ranging from sports teams in need of new kit to event organisers wanting promotional shirts to give away. The estimated cost to start this business varies from £5000 up to around £15,000.

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 8, 2010

They all have to do their part by providing excellent customer service. Without exception, all of your staff need an in-depth knowledge of the product or service that you provide. Explaining it to potential customers should become second nature to them. Everyone in a small business is part of the selling team.

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 18, 2010

by Stefan Töpfer on May 19, 2010 While we all hope to make our customers 100% happy all of the time, and this must of course be what we strive for, there will be occasions where a customer is less than happy with the service you have provided. That and the pay check that I can’t afford to give up!

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 13, 2010

It is difficult to say but in small business we can learn a lot abut the importance of public relations through this story. WinWeb Pitch of the Week – Digistar Solutions » « Previous Entries This entry was posted on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 7:30 am and is filed under Customer Service , Development , How to.

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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. Make sure they know exactly how your products and services can help their business succeed. Keep following-up over a period of time. Listen carefully to what your B2B clients require.

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 15, 2007

If you have then you must keep up-dating your costing every few month, as they will change as the business grow and changes. Bad debts – look at your past performance, come up with an average monthly figure and mark your products and services up accordingly. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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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. this is where you base your starting point in putting it up together.

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The Small Business Blog

JULY 27, 2010

If you haven’t been immediately struck with inspiration, then coming up with a concept for your small business can be difficult and frustrating. However, there are some tried and tested methods you could use to come up with an idea that suits you. Firstly, you could try doing some research into current start-up trends.

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The Small Business Blog

JULY 13, 2010

A large amount of start-ups fail due to lack of research about the marketplace they are about to enter. It might take time, but you will learn a great deal about how to, and how not to, do things! The aim of this initiative is to help business start-ups to find their feet and make their own path in their business journey.

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 2, 2010

Many small businesses struggle to find finance, especially with the financial climate being as decidedly frosty as it is at present. If a start-up funds the development of their company through internal cash flow and are cautious with expenses, the company can grow with low-risk to all those involved.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 31, 2010

Learn about how your company structure affects pay. « Keeping Track and Keeping Up: Are You Focused? Bruce Said on February 6th, 2010 at 7:27 pm Many small busineeses in today’s economy it ends up where the owner either takes no or very little pay just to keep the business afloat. Some very good points here.

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Success

JULY 20, 2023

As the legend of Wall Drug’s beginning goes, the first customers had already stopped into the store before Ted returned from putting up those signs. Instead, recession planning should be done at the onset of your business—or you should catch up ASAP—so you can draw on a plan B and a group of key professionals when disaster strikes.

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

Offer signing-on bonuses as an incentive if you are desperate to secure the services of your best applicant. « Getting Fired Up! If you have additional tips, please share them in the comments section. SEO Tips That the Experts Don’t Always Tell You! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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Small Business CEO

JANUARY 25, 2010

Their accounting firm probably makes it easy, and can take a message or route the call to the desired accountant’s back up. * Make it easy for your customers, according their definition of easy. They will order more, and will continue to do business with you as they learn to rely on you as a data source.

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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

JANUARY 13, 2010

Brian Scudamore dropped out of high school in 1989 with $700 (£400) and a beat-up old pick-up truck to start his company 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Although he never finished high school, Scudamore loves nothing more than 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

JULY 20, 2010

People often say to me that their small business doesn’t have a website as it’s too complicated, takes up too much time or is too expensive. 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.

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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 Shrink for Entrepreneurs

APRIL 2, 2013

For a long time, I lapped up business advice from everyone who was smarter, more successful or better looking than me. The brain opens up and advice is poured in. As a newbie entrepreneur faces the learning curve of a new business, specific advice doesn’t matter much. Most entrepreneurs do the same. Until it isn’t.

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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

NOVEMBER 8, 2009

Not only that, you have someone that is learning the latest and greatest tech practices. A lot of sign up time and advertsing to wade through but worthwhile in the end. On the tech side, you can hire graduate level students that are looking for teaching experience. Thanks for the list! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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Service Untitled

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

We used to have every twice a year, once a year, whatever, HR would email all the leadership teams so all the managers from all the different departments and stuff, and say okay, it’s review time and everybody gets an email of the most up–to–date review form and all that stuff. We used to do that. So they have manageable team sizes.

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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

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 23, 2010

by Stefan Töpfer on Feb 24, 2010 Many Search Engine Optimization (SEO) consultants and companies have theories about the best SEO tactics, but they don’t always back them up with proven experiments. Nicholas Kemp Said on February 25th, 2010 at 2:59 pm Other SEO tactics include article writing, setting up a Google Knol and on-page factors.

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 3, 2010

Quit the day job and take the plunge, or build up steadily until you have the security you need to enter fully in to the world of the self-employed? That is why I will always say there is no iron-clad correct way for a business start-up to progress. SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro , start-up in business. These people are the 5-9ers.

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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! If you are new to facebook send it to me here and I’ll put it up – you still need to get your friends to vote for you. The WinWeb Facebook page can be found here , you really have got nothing to lose! Thanks for the comment.

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 20, 2008

What have I learned yesterday? So here are my favorite small business start-up ideas: Natalie Douglas is going to continue in a good family tradition and open a child care nursery , keeping it small and personal for parents and children. Quality, customer service and a niche market, what could possibly go wrong.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 13, 2008

This finding is not entirely surprising, since I believed for a long time, that getting too hung up about business plans can be a great waste of time, especially if you are not in a position to evaluate all variables that make up small business success. But saying that, we are still learning and growing.

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 2, 2009

This limited co-operation served us all well, something some of the new start-ups should not forget. But seriously, we should establish a standard of service, security and co-operation, for the sake of our customers and for our own sake. Do I think Sage has great products? Absolutely not! — ST. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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