Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. But, when it comes to yellow page display ads, you better know who you're imitating and why! A yellow page ad is supposed to do one primary thing: get people to call your business. If it's a really good ad, it should get people to mentally discount competitor ads and favor yours. If a particular business wants to garner the lion's share of all prospects, then why imitate the format of all the other...more
According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, investment by institutional venture capitalists in startups grew from less than $3.0 billion at the beginning of the 1990's to over $106 billion in 2000. Although venture capital volume has retreated significantly since the economic "bubble" years of the late 1990's, the present volume of around $ 19 billion per year still represents a substantial rate of growth. Venture capitalists will fund more than 2,500...more
You can meet your goals for your business this year. Consider these resolutions as ten steps to your success in 2005.1. Develop a business plan or strategic plan. You won't get where you're going unless you know where you want to be and let your employees know as well. 2. Constantly Promote Your Business. You can't execute one marketing effort each year and expect your business to grow. Plan marketing efforts quarterly or even monthly and plan time for follow through and tracking of results. 3. Create action plans for each person in your organization. Make sure every employee knows how his or her job relates to the company's overall vision, and that each has individual objectives and goals with measurable standards and timetables. 4. Survey your employees. Sometimes the biggest employee dissatisfactions are the easiest things to fix. Know what changes your employees would like to make in their work lives and do your best to increase their quality of work life (and usually their productivity as well). 5. Survey your customers and suppliers. Maybe the way you are doing business is costing you relationships with suppliers and customers. Know what bugs them and make it easy...more
You have a head spinning with business ideas but you encounter difficulties in financing? Or you have recently started your great potential business but are not yet turning profit? A fundamental aspect for your business, financing is usually the most frequent obstacle in starting a business. You have the option of resorting to a business incubator...more
IntroductionOne of the easiest "things" that can happen in life is the ratcheting up of a large credit card debt. For whatever reason, making purchases with credit cards seems easier than spending cash to obtain a product or service.Maintaining high levels of credit card debt is not prudent. The interest rates associated with most credit cards is...more
Almost everything you have ever been told about the world's stock markets is probably wrong. Almost everything you have ever assumed about the world's stock markets is also probably wrong. You probably believe that share prices go up and down due to classic 'supply and demand' laws. You probably believe that over time, the world's stock markets will go up because of increased economic production, or inflationary pressures. You probably believe that your broker, though undoubtedly a parasite, makes his money reasonably fairly by charging you an honest declared spread between his bid and offer price. You might even be laboring under the delusion that 'fundamentals' or 'interest rates' drive price. Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. So where's the proof, I hear you cry. OK, here we go.Markets are composed of players of all sizes (including you and me!), the largest of whom are 'Market Makers'; firms who have an obligation to quote a price on particular securities whatever the overall market is doing. Brave of them, I hear you think - imagine having to buy Enron as it plummeted. Surely they ended up with most of that worthless stock in their own portfolios? Er, no. So where did it go then?...more
Any old policy and procedure format saves time by not having to start from scratch, right? Well, not necessarily. Using a weak starting point can hurt employee usability, introduce confusion and user-error, and may not assist in your compliance and...more
Writing a business plan is a daunting task. If you do not know that by now, you will discover that soon after you have read your first set of instructions for writing a plan. While each of these preparations will require much of your time and...more
OUTSOURCING: AN OVERVIEWBusinesses of all kinds can and do benefit from the tool of outsourcing every day. Businesses large and small have been outsourcing every day projects for many years. The businesses that use outsourcing as a tool to enhance...more
The idea of a business plan competition first started in the 1980's at the initiative of some MBA students from Texas and has increasingly gained popularity. Such events happen yearly and rejoice a great affluence of contestants, which highly...more
BizTech 2.0 is an entrepreneur education program offering business assistance to students over 13. The program teaches business, information technology and life skills to young people via the Internet. It reinforces math learning, reading and...more
OK, as a manager, your goal is to show a profit for your business unit, or meet certain expectations of your association membership, or achieve your non-profit's operating objective. In each case, you'll need public relations activity that creates...more