By Martin Zwilling, contributor Many budding entrepreneurs struggle mightily with that first step – out of their comfort zone and into the unknown. They keep asking people like me whether the time is right, and the truth is that there’s never an ideal time to start your own business. It’s like starting a personal relationship, if …
Read MoreHow Do Entrepreneurs Stay Positive? 0
How Do Entrepreneurs Stay Positive? BY BRAD CRESCENZO| November 11, 2011| It’s no secret that starting a business from scratch is no easy task. Entrepreneurs often experience stress far beyond the pressures of a typical 9-to-5-type job. But by learning to work positively, you can redefine your personal reality, as well as your business. In …
Read MoreSBA tells young people to ditch the job search and start a business 0
By Olga Khazan More than 16 percent of people under the age of 24 are unemployed, and the U.S. Small Business Administration has a message for those among them who are sick of sending out resumes: Stop looking for a job and start your own business. This week SBA Deputy Administrator Marie Johns is traveling the country with …
Read MoreWhy You Shouldn’t Care About Small Business Pessimism 0
Sure, Congress is ineffective, the Fed can’t help you, and optimism is still weak. But there are plenty of reasons to feel good about being a small business owner. By Eric Markowitz | @EricMarkowitz | Nov 8, 2011 At first glance, today’s small business optimism index released by the National Federation of Independent Businesses might make you a …
Read More5 Rules of Small Business Advertising 0
(MoneyWatch) Many small businesses can’t afford an ad agency, or prefer to do advertising and other creative work in-house. It makes agency people jump down my throat, but for many reasons (and after two decades of experience doing it both ways), I happen to think that “D.I.Y.” is right for most startups and many established …
Read MoreHow to Hire the Best Small Business Employees 0
(MoneyWatch) The smaller the business, the more hiring the right people matters. When employee #100 turns out to be a disaster the impact on the business is relatively small and usually confined to a small group of employees. When employee #4 is a disaster, everything suffers. Attitude is everything. you can teach skills but it’s incredibly …
Read MoreIs Your Customer Service Sabotaging Sales? 0
(MoneyWatch) It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that when the cost to acquire customers (CAC) exceeds thelifetime value of the customer (LTV) the business model is doomed to fail. However, the simple arithmetic (LTV-CAC) can get pretty complicated if you throw in the wildcard of customer retention. Have you ever received one of those offers from a …
Read MoreHow Not to Vex Your Best Customers 0
By: Harold Sirkin Some corporations seem to go out of their way to antagonize customers—even their best ones. To avoid raising prices, a number of consumer-products makers have chosen to reduce quantity: A half-gallon carton of ice cream a few years ago became a quart-and-a-half carton, facial tissues were reduced in size so they now …
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