Congratulations! You’ve had your business for almost a year (maybe more!) and the roller coaster ride has been exciting, challenging and rewarding. With all of the effort you put into working on and in your business, it’s important you maintain your company’s good standing status in the state (jurisdiction) of creation and/or the states where…
Not talking about your startup idea with people who can help you is worse than taking the risk of someone stealing it. Don’t believe it? Well, keep reading and find out why. Here’s what happens when you talk about your idea: People give you ideas on how to improve it You find out where people…
This seemed like a fun way to explain our business to potential new clients. Visually, using a metaphor that hopefully makes our value proposition clear and entices the viewer to pursue more information. Plus, it just seemed kind of fun! And no seals were harmed in the making of this ad, so it’s really win-win-win…
If you are looking at buying a business as a way of getting started in your own business, then you need to learn how to quickly and heartlessly tear the business apart so you know if it s worthy of any more of your time. Once you’ve done it a few times, and learned the…
There are right now literally millions of people telling themselves they are going to start their own business just as soon as the time is right. Many of them are fooling themselves, and they are never going to start a business. The excuses they tell themselves, however, sound like valid reasons to wait. Some of…
I sometimes get the question- can I write off all these old “blanks” that we bought to give away but never did? Usually the question comes while the business owner is pointing to a stack of old boxes filled with T-shirts that say “Have a Great Summer-2008” or chipped and broken coffee cups with the…
Myths have surrounded the SBA loan program for as long as it has been around. Now that they are back and many banks are actively funding them again, it’s time to revisit and hopefully put these to bed once and for all and to really understand what the SBA can and can’t do to help…
One of the most annoying things you will hear over and over when you tell people you are thinking about starting a restaurant is how often they fail. Everyone seems to be an expert on restaurant failures and everyone seems to “know” they are risky businesses to start. But is that true? No. There is…
This is a Guest Post by Michael G Pullman of FranchiseeConnect.com, 2 August 2015 In my work with franchisees and small business owners I’ve found the businesses that run the smoothest have completely eliminated paper forms from their payroll process. With a good online system for requesting leave and tracking staff details you can save…
This is one of the most frequently asked questions in starting a new business, and one that people often get wrong by underestimating the answer. That may not be a problem, if there is plenty of cash in reserve and sales pick up quickly, or it may be a devastating problem if there was very…