Is Your Business Planning Done?If you haven't done your annual business planning yet, Quick-Start Business Planning will show you how to put together the basics of a business plan that will invigorate your business...
Magic Johnson Has Magic Touch In BizUSA TODAY: Almost nobody would question Earvin Johnson’s skill on the basketball court. But in his second career as an entrepreneur, there were doubters from the start. Johnson, best known by his nickname “Magic,” remains one of the best players to ever don the gold and purple Los Angeles Lakers uniform. Executives he pitched on a business [...]
Even Business Owner?s Need A Toolkit Once In A WhileWhen something is broken and it needs fixed, what do you do? You have 2 choices, call someone in to fix it or do the work on your own. Ironically, it’s not that much different in business. You could either call someone in to help answer your questions and do the work, [...]
Cool Tool Of The Week: SR&ED Self-Assessment ToolSR&ED is something that small businesses often overlook, assuming that SR&ED is only for big businesses or that the work they're doing doesn't qualify. Well SR&ED tax incentives are available to...
Launching A Biz While UnemployedThe Wall Street Journal: Being unemployed gives me a large chunk of discretionary time, but only a finite amount of which I can dedicate to a job search. The law of diminishing returns kicks in and itâs better to focus efforts elsewhere for the sake of productivity, not to mention sanity. Iâve always wanted to run my [...]
Small Business Managers Turn Into ?Mouse Potatoes?InformationWeek: Spending too much business time on the computer when you’re not at work? You’re not alone. Small-business owners and managers, already tethered to their computers for long periods, are turning into “mouse potatoes,” increasingly eating and working while on their computers and while online, according to a survey released Tuesday by office supply retailer Staples. After analyzing [...]
Obamabilia Craze Is Boon To RetailersSan Francisco Chronicle: Can President-elect Barack Obama save the economy? Well, it’s true that he has assembled a crackerjack team of economic advisers, but that’s only one way Obama can help America get back on track. American entrepreneurs and salespeople of all stripes have recognized the opportunity in Obama’s win - namely, that anything associated with the [...]
T-Shirt Monster Allows You To Give Your Clothing PersonalityClothing displays personality. Personalized clothing makes it that much more fun. T-Shirt Monster has been offering a fun way for people to create custom t-shirts, without the need for graphic design. Although they are based in Canada, they welcome orders from other countries. For creative individuals interested in selling their designs, they can [...]
Readers? Brag Basketphoto credit: Gaetan Lee Business Opportunities Weblog readers are a smart and entrepreneurial bunch. Everyday I get emails telling me all about their new projects. Once a week, I’m going to feature some of them in a post and let other’s comment on their own new ventures. If you have something to brag about, [...]
Shipwrecked Treasure Allegedly Found Via Google MapsSlashgear: Treasure hunter Nathan Smith testifies that he used Google maps to find buried treasure in South Texas. Smith also monitored the treasures location with updated satellite images to ensure that no one was poking around long enough to gain legal rights to his findings. The 39-year-old musician from Los Angeles located a 19h century boat, which [...]
Niche Biz: GPS-Enhanced CowsFortune Small Business: Building and maintaining fences for cattle is a time-consuming and costly endeavor. That’s why a GPS bovine headset may come in handy. This past year, Dean Anderson and Daniela Rus have designed and tested Ear-a-Round headsets on the USDA’s 193,000-acre ranch near Las Cruces, N.M. Each Ear-a-Round is equipped with a GPS receiver, an [...]
Turn Your Home Office Green, To $ave GreenCBS: In this economy, businesses are trying to cut costs any way they can. Turns out, one big way to save is by going green. Not only can the more than 27 million small business owners in the United States play a huge role in conserving our natural resources, but their green actions can help their [...]
Teaching Is Good MarketingTeaching is a great way to promote your business. In 10 Low-Cost Ways to Promote Your Business I talk about giving seminars or presentations related to your business to get...
Think Like An Entrepreneur In All Areas Of LifeAmerican-Statesman: Is becoming an entrepreneur on your list of New Year’s resolutions? “Life Entrepreneurs,” a new book by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek, argues that the concept isn’t limited to your career â it’s about creating the complete life that you want. The book takes readers through a process of getting in touch with their core identity, [...]
Free Business Courses: Sign Up NowDo your goals include becoming more successful, more organized or productive? Then you might want to sign up for one or more of the four free business courses I offer...
Bad News For Workers Is Good News For LinkedinUSA TODAY: Where everyone else sees economic gloom and doom, Reid Hoffman sees opportunity. As the freshly minted CEO of LinkedIn (and its founder), he is shepherding a moneymaking tech company in battered Silicon Valley. And he anticipates more growth next year. That is no small achievement. The social-networking site, which lets business professionals create online profiles to [...]
Music Marketers Target Female ShoppersBillboard: With CD sales dropping fast, the music business is exploring nontraditional ways to expose consumers to recording artists. Among the new sales and marketing vehicles are Tara Leigh Music Party and musicShop. Both launched in November to target female music buyers. Tara Leigh is part of House Party, an Irvington, New York, company that stages Tupperware [...]
Amish Flock From Farms To Small BizsThe New York Times: The Amish, the religious sect that has determinedly kept the modern world at bay, have been leaving a quiet life of farming for jobs in small businesses â all the while trying to balance their own values with the culture of the marketplace. âTheir whole intent is to not be caught up in [...]
Teaching Is Good MarketingTeaching is a great way to promote your business. In 10 Low-Cost Ways to Promote Your Business I talk about giving seminars or presentations related to your business to get...
Outsourcing Entrepreneur Admits Giant Accounting FraudSmartCompany: Indiaâs business sector is reeling after revelations that the boss of outsourcing giant Satyam Computer Services has falsified the companyâs accounts and inflated its profit for several years. Satyamâs chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted the fraud in a four-page letter to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company employs more than 50,000 people across 66 offices worldwide, including [...]
Is Your Business Planning Done?If you haven't done your annual business planning yet, Quick-Start Business Planning will show you how to put together the basics of a business plan that will invigorate your business...
Marketing Department Helps Jump Start New BusinessesStarting a new business is hard but with the right information that business can get started off on the right foot. DM-Creative.com is dedicated to helping businesses get that help. Through pages of free information their website shares ideas on how other businesses may get started. For those that need a little [...]
Cool Tool Of The Week: SR&ED Self-Assessment ToolSR&ED is something that small businesses often overlook, assuming that SR&ED is only for big businesses or that the work they're doing doesn't qualify. Well SR&ED tax incentives are available to...
Can Twitter Be Useful For Biz?David Wallace At Search Engine Guide: If you have yet to hear about Twitter, I might ask you if you have been living in a cave and for how long. The micro-blogging platform that few knew about a year ago has now gone mainstream with over 6 million users - a number that is growing daily. Even [...]
Free Business Courses: Sign Up NowDo your goals include becoming more successful, more organized or productive? Then you might want to sign up for one or more of the four free business courses I offer...
Join The Conversation In The ForumHere's what people are talking about in the Small Business Canada Forum right now. Why not pop in and see what other people have said about these topics and add...
GripBoard Brings Surf Something NewSan Clemente Times: Itâs said that some of the best ideas are born of despair. For Thorpe âSharkyâ Reeder, that expression is all too true, and the Capistrano Beach inventor-artist-fisherman hopes one day that the resulting idea will one day pay off in financial success. Reeder is the inventor of the GripBoard, a wave riding device that [...]
Super Bowl Means BizThe Tampa Tribune: Faye Dowdell looks for any edge she can find in today’s gloomy economy. Dowdell spent the morning at the Tampa Port Authority office for the first installment of the NFL’s Super Bowl XLIII Playbook for Small Business Workshop Series. The free workshops are designed to help local small and minority businesses. The NFL’s business workshops [...]
Top Canadian Tax Software ProgramsIncome tax preparation software can make the chore of preparing and filing your income tax easier. It's almost impossible to go wrong or to leave something out when you're using...
Join The Conversation In The ForumHere's what people are talking about in the Small Business Canada Forum right now. Why not pop in and see what other people have said about these topics and add...
If A 13 Year-Old Can Launch A Startup You Have No ExcuseTechCrunch: My nameâs Scott. Iâm 13 and have launched a web startup.â So began an email exchange over last weekend which culminated with me chatting to Scottâs mum today to verify, that, indeed, he was actually 13 and really had launched a blogging site for people in Scotland. ScotBlog.net is essentially a social network for people in [...]
Who Owns Your Great Idea?The New York Times: Peter Zummo, a senior double-majoring in design and mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is used to explaining the products he thinks up for his studio-class assignments. But last spring, he found himself answering questions of a different kind in a conference room at Rensselaerâs office of technology commercialization, which tracks and [...]
Company Scores With Fan FestsStar Tribune: Managing sports fan festivals is proving to be an entrepreneurial slam dunk for Joe Gallagher and his St. Paul-based FILO Productions. In February, FILO Productions (FILO is an acronym for first in, last out) will help produce the National Basketball Association’s All-Star Jam Session for the seventh consecutive year. The interactive, 500,000-square-foot fan fest is the [...]
Ignorant And Inexperienced: Good!photo credit: debaird⢠The founder of Crate and Barrel said that it was ignorance and inexperience that got his first store started. “We didnât know anything about retail,” Segal recalled. “I had grown up in the restaurant business, so I knew about service but not about retail. We didnât know a market from a markdown. We didnât know [...]
Fitness Gadget Tracks Every CalorieFortune Small Business: After falling in love with the Nintendo Wii’s physically demanding sports games, serial entrepreneur James Park, 32, started to ponder other ways to combine video games and fitness. The result: a $99 lipstick-size gadget that clips on to your clothes and uses a motion sensor to track everything from steps taken to sleep [...]
Top Canadian Tax Software ProgramsIncome tax preparation software can make the chore of preparing and filing your income tax easier. It's almost impossible to go wrong or to leave something out when you're using...
Five Things Every Small Biz Owner Should DoOpen Forum: Five things that every small business owner should do in 2009. Donât consider it a New Yearâs resolution because thereâs a whole psychology behind such things. Just do it. 1. Act like a prospective customer and call your company to see how the phone system and receptionist treat you. 2. See if your website has a [...]
