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

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

If the supplier knows you are ready to buy for the right price they will cut you a deal. Promise to buy from one supplier for better payment terms, like 60 or 90 days. Thank you very much for your comment – if you try any of my tips and learn something new come back and tell us about it! – ST.

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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. Keep following-up over a period of time. If only more people would learn the value in such information. Listen carefully to what your B2B clients require. Number 3 is also especially relevant.

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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! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

JUNE 29, 2010

The money that leaves a small business is often taken up with overheads that are necessary for the day to day running of the business. Shop around : Make sure you are getting the best deals from all you suppliers- right down to your electricity, broadband and gas bills. lower overheads. Tools like Basecamp, WebEx, Skype, etc.

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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

AUGUST 8, 2010

Learn from the experience and then move on to your next potential customer. Plan your sales targets in advance and track progress throughout the year. This helps you to continuously evaluate your sales performance. Don’t obsess over missed sales opportunities. Give incentives to staff for making sales. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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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. Nobody really learns anything real about business, only about life… VB, Stefan Issa Crea Said on May 15th, 2010 at 3:33 am Is this the same thing as personal branding? Nice sharing. I love the analogy.

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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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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

« Getting Fired Up! Offer signing-on bonuses as an incentive if you are desperate to secure the services of your best applicant. 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!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2007

You use your language and local knowledge skills and open up a new market for this small business. NOTE: If you have any problems with setting something like this up, give our 24/7 live support a “ click “, they can help you. Or you could help the foreign business to import into your country.

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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

JUNE 6, 2010

Learn how to use publishing software and create eye-catching promotional material. Top 5 Tips for Using Technology in Marketing by Stefan Töpfer on Jun 07, 2010 The top 5 tips weekly post is always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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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

AUGUST 28, 2007

This is often a sure sign of loss of management control in a small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal businesses. Small Business Infrastructure For Business Start-Up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0

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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. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 14, 2010

Learn everything you can about your competition, their products and how they advertise. Make sure you have a consistent message across every advertising medium that you use. Talk to the newspapers / radio or TV stations that you plan to advertise with, they can often advise you. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! 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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The Small Business Blog

MAY 18, 2010

That and the pay check that I can’t afford to give up! If you want to build a business it’s important to learn how to let things go. Sometimes you wish they really would take their business somewhere else because it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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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. They could show a almost uninterrupted work history, stay in touch with their profession and would therefor find it much easier to get back into full-time employment after the kids have grown up.

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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. Have you developed a resistance to adopting new ideas or taking risks? It is possible that you may have been at the helm for too long. Try to surround yourself with people who will challenge your thinking about business matters.

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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

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

MARCH 23, 2010

« Top 5 Tips for Learning More About Your Customers Budget 2010 – The Saviour for Small Businesses? keep it up. As a customer I always appreciate a smile, a thank you and personal service. So why shouldn’t I strive to give my customers the same? The answer is that I do. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

OnlineOffice is aimed at the small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants client. What a great team.keep up the great work. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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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

NOVEMBER 16, 2007

I should remind you that when I talk about small business, I mean 1 to 5 people businesses, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professionals, contractors, freelancers, self-employed, sole-traders and virtual assistants. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

5 Comments » | Trackback | Share This 5 Responses to “ Are You A Competent Communicator? &# Alex Conforti Said on February 10th, 2010 at 3:19 pm Knowing your communication style, as you mention, is a great help for learning how you communicate. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site. 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. I knew starting up company is not a peace of cafe but did not realize I would have needed so much money. this is where you base your starting point in putting it up together. I guess you are right.

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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. « US Small Business News round-up – 2009/02/02 Winter Chaos But For Small Businesses Online It’s Business As Usual. Do I think Sage has great products? Absolutely not! — ST. But don’t tell him I said that.

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 2, 2010

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. Simple ideas on how to bootstrap your small business start up are: - Work from home. Jp14 Said on March 5th, 2010 at 10:36 pm Another common thing is to keep learning.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 21, 2008

Ann White Said on January 31st, 2008 at 2:58 am Following a proven path, and learning by doing is a better way than trying to figure out how to reinvent the wheel. I reckon that an over commitment to fixed costs (property and plant) and poor use of cash (inventory stocking etc) are as much to blame as weak marketing. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

We tend to get so caught up in the features, that translating that into how a product/service contributes personally to myself is overlooked. Its can be a bit hard for some people to understand this concept A Coffey Said on January 13th, 2009 at 10:37 pm Great post. Thanks for the reminder. -AC Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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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. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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