All Articles Tagged "small business"
The Start-Up Company That Helps You Start Your Own Business
Most entrepreneurs start with an idea, or a love a particular industry. Having relied on their bosses to focus on the details of keeping their place of employment in order, many are at a loss when setting up their own companies. Bryan Janczko understands this scenario completely. As a small business owner who has started more than one enterprise and sold one for millions, his latest firm Wicked Start aims to transfer his wisdom to new entrepreneurs. Based on his own personal experience and that gained by answering many questions as a speaker on the small business lecture circuit, Janczko has formulated Wicked Start — a structured system to make starting a firm more manageable. The New York Times details how Wicked Start works:
The heart of Wicked Start is a series of customizable templates for each of 10 steps in starting up a business, running from producing a business plan to raising money to building the company’s infrastructure to marketing, and more. The site automatically tailors the templates to any of several industries, such as brick-and-mortar retail, e-commerce, consulting or food services, covering about 70 percent of start-ups, according to Mr. Janeczko, and users can further customize as needed. Each template lays out action items, including pinning down your business idea and creating PowerPoint presentations to hit up friends and relatives for financing. It goes on to help with taking on partners, setting up a marketing plan and signing a lease. The items prompt you to set deadlines and to create e-mail reminders to nudge you to stay on track. In a sense, it’s a project management tool that’s been thoroughly adapted to the project of getting a company off the ground.
Janczko stresses that Wicked Start does not have to be followed exactly to be helpful. While the program provides timelines and reminders in addition to forms, what sets it apart is its component of built-in inspiration. Wicked Start’s community features, how-to videos, and educational articles guide participants every step of the way with a human element that is missing from similar online tools.
Speaking of similar tools, The Times also recommends BizTree as an essential element for any start-up’s success. While a bit pricey at almost $250, BizTree grants access to over 1,500 downloadable documents that assist sole proprietors with forms for things like hiring employees and setting employee policies. Definitely a time and money saver for a small business.
The plethora of small business tools available online makes it easier than ever to get an idea off the ground and manage the process efficiently. Although capital, talent and drive are key, don’t underestimate the power of technology to fuel your new venture’s success.
Technology Investment Tricky for Small Business
(Wall Street Journal) — When Corrie Wilder got laid off from a large magazine publisher in 2008, she figured she could keep working in her field by launching a graphic-design business out of her home. There was just one problem: The hardware and software she was accustomed to using was no longer at her disposal, requiring her to buy similar technology of her own. ”It kept me up at night,” says Ms. Wilder, 40, of Seattle. “It was an investment I wasn’t prepared to make.” For people used to working in an office stocked with various tech tools and gadgets, starting up a solo enterprise may mean having to face a painful reality. From computers and high-speed Internet to off-the-shelf software and customized programs, technology is often a pricey prerequisite for getting a new business up and running. ”You don’t have to get the latest and greatest, but you don’t want to buy the cheapest products either,” says Ramon Ray, editor of tech website Smallbiztechnology.com.
Big Losses for Small Business
(Inc) — One in five small businesses are reporting that profits are plummeting by more than 25 percent compared to last year, says a new survey. Two thirds of small and medium-size businesses said the slump had affected business, with 37 percent saying business was “much worse” or “a little worse,” says the latest Office Depot Small Business Index, a monthlysurvey of 1,000 small and medium-size businesses. Over 40 percent experienced drops in profit, with 20 percent losing 10 percent or more and 21 percent seeing drops of more than a quarter.
4 Things You Should Know About Choosing a Logo
(Inc.) — For years, potential clients would come into Red Antler’s offices and—when asked about their business’s tone, personality, mission, etc.—they’d suffer meltdowns at the conference table, bickering about how to answer. Knowing the search for a design services provider meant a long and miserable trudge for any business owner, JB Osborne, founder of Brooklyn, New York-based design company Red Antler, decided to make at least one step of the process easier. When his company moved to its new, sun-drenched office, Osborne purchased a high wooden table and six red stools to replace the old conference table, trying to achieve a part-bar, part-mom’s kitchen atmosphere where clients would feel at ease. “Because we work mostly with start-ups, there can be a handful of people in that room who have never gone through a process like this before, so it can be challenging when people have different expectations about what they want to have coming out the other side,” Osborne says.
How to Make Your Business Bank-Friendly
(Businessweek) — Most small businesses turn to banks for credit to smooth out their cash flow, regardless of the economic environment. Securing lines of credit, however, remains a challenge for many companies. Although banks have raised their standards, small businesses need not throw in the towel. Here are three ways to make your company “bankable.”
Bookstore Holds on to Black Power in San Francisco
(KALW) — In San Francisco, Fillmore-based Marcus Books has been a hub for the neighborhood’s black community since it opened in 1959. Founders Julian and Raye Richardson believed it was the first African American bookstore in America. A lot has changed since it opened – these days, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the poetry of Langston Hughes share shelf space with books like Justify My Thug and Heartbreak of a Hustler’s Wife.
Why Small Should Be the Model for Everybody’s Business
(Inc.) — The generally-accepted dogma among entrepreneurs is “bigger is beautiful.” You’re nothing until you have some brand name investors on your board and 50 employees at your command. This “go big or go home” attitude leads to a lot of success stories but I wonder how many would-be entrepreneurs fail because they think the only business worth having is one that is chasing a billion-dollar opportunity. In this article, I’d like to propose an alternative approach. What if you got into business with the goal of building a $2 million company, instead of a $200 million company? What impact would a $2 million goal have on the way you think about building your business? Here are six reasons it’s sometimes better to stay small than to try to go big.
Don’t Miss Out on Small Biz Interest Checking
(New York Times) — Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the date the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform act became law, and it is also the day many of the law’s provisions take effect. Some of those measures are controversial, like new enforcement powers for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and new limits on the fees banks can charge merchants for debit card transactions. Others have almost entirely escaped noticed. Among the little-discussed changes: a Depression-era ban on paying interest on business checking accounts has finally been retired. And big banks are quickly — and for the most part quietly — adapting. Large companies with big deposits have long been able to get around the prohibition by using so-called sweep accounts, which invest deposits in money market accounts each night and then return the funds the next day.
Google Launches Credit Card
(Businessweek) — Google is offering a select number of smaller advertisers a new way to pay for online search ads: a credit card that can only be used to pay for AdWords, the Internet search giant’s keyword advertising program. Google is teaming up with World Financial Capital Bank to offer a “beta” version of a new AdWords Business MasterCard. The card is being offered to a randomly selected group of U.S.-based advertisers. The card will allow small and mid-sized businesses to spend on advertising when they need to, such as before a peak selling season, and pay for it when revenue comes in, a Google spokesman says.
Small Businesses Make Hacker Hit List
(Wall Street Journal) — Recent hacking attacks on Sony Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. grabbed headlines. What happened at City Newsstand Inc. last year did not. Unbeknownst to owner Joe Angelastri, cyber thieves planted a software program on the cash registers at his two Chicago-area magazine shops that sent customer credit-card numbers to Russia. MasterCard Inc. demanded an investigation, at Mr. Angelastri’s expense, and the whole ordeal left him out about $22,000. His experience highlights a growing threat to small businesses. Hackers are expanding their sites beyond multinationals to include any business that stores data in electronic form. Small companies, which are making the leap to computerized systems and digital records, have now become hackers’ main target. ”Who would want to break into us?” asked Mr. Angelastri, who says the breach cut his annual profit in half. “We’re not running a bank.”
