Business Tips Today

Tips for Developing Employees
Take the attitude that training is really employee development. That will help you think more strategically about what your employees need to learn.

Recognize that formal training programs are only part of the picture. Most real training occurs on the job.

Help employees develop problem-solving skills and the ability to think by giving them work that will stretch them.

Set an example. Your own pleasant attitude and good work habits will influence your workers.

Understand that when you give employees an opportunity to grow, their job satisfaction and your ability to retain them as employees both increase substantially.

Brought to you by SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business."

Business Tips For You Today

Five Tips for Improving Your Web Site


Visit the sites of other companies to find out what you like and dislike. Do some sites seem to “work” while others don’t?

Decide what objectives you want your site to meet. Do you want it to be fun, funny, educational, “cool,” or all of those things?

Consider your corporate culture and your company image. Your site should support both.

Design or re-design the site to meet your objectives. Unless you have a real expert on staff, hire a consulting firm to do the job.

Get feedback. Ask customers how your site can be made more useful to them, and keep making improvements.
from SCORE.com

Five Tips on How to Be More Efficient

1. Don’t start your office organizing by shopping for containers. Survey what files and books you need to store, measure them, then go to the store.

2. File, Act or Toss papers and emails instead of letting them pile high on your desk. You should be able to make a decision immediately as papers cross your desk.

3. Take advantage of electronic devices such as email, PDAs and database file management to categorize work.

4. Choose the calendar system that’s best for your organizational style, and stick with it. If it is computer-based, back up, back up, back up!

5. Manage your time ruthlessly. In a sense, it is what you are selling.

5 Tips on How To Advertise, Cheap!

Advertising is expensive, so know why you are advertising and what you want to accomplish. Evaluate your advertising carefully and measure its effectiveness. Develop appropriate sales promotion tools such as flyers, brochures and signs. Carefully review each item for its effectiveness and evaluate what these tools say about your business. Signage should be a major part of your marketing strategy. Signs are a vital part of small businesses and can be the most efficient, effective and consistent device for generating revenue. Every small business should be listed under the appropriate heading in the Yellow Pages, but not every business needs to buy expensive display ads. Be judicious. Get involved in your community. Join the chamber of commerce, business organizations, service clubs, and charities. Network yourself and keep your antennae up. by:SCORE

5 Tips on Effective Leadership

Communicate clearly and routinely. Lay out your company goals and principles in a mission statement and keep sharing your vision with your employees. Involve employees in setting objectives. Give them feedback on how they are progressing toward meeting those targets. Give your people authority, then hold them accountable. But don’t go after them personally when things go wrong. Find out first if the process is at fault. Be accountable yourself. Install an advisory board or executive team to help you make good strategic decisions and give you feedback on your own performance. Be trustworthy and extend trust to your employees. That will help you earn their loyalty and strengthen your company.

Five Tips to Brand Your Business Online

5 Tips to Brand Your Business Online

By Christine Banning, SCORE VP of Corporate Relations 1. Protect Your Name. As an entrepreneur, your name is vital to your brand & the identity of your business. Be sure to secure a domain name in your name. For example, www.myname with .com, .net and/or .biz. It's usually a good idea to register multiple domains in case someone types the wrong extension, that way you can be found. Network Solutions and GoDaddy are two choices to register a domain name. 2. Create a Founder Profile Page. Brand yourself on your Web site. Create a profile about you to build trust with potential clients. Make it easy for visitors to find info about you. Clients and prospects want to know who you are in terms of industry, experience and personality. Personalize your Web site and share info to build a relationship with visitors to your site. 3. Prepare for the Future. Millions of people use mobile devices to connect to their business, when they are out of the office. Make sure your Web site is accessible to these devices and will load quickly and easily. Even if your site is not yet formatted for .mobi, get the name. By registering a domain with a .mobi extension you secure the name for your company. 4. Protect Yourself from Spam. Search bots troll the Web looking for email addresses. This can lead to spam emails to your inbox. Protect your business email box. Use email addresses on your Web site like: contactus@domainname.com, media@mybusiness.com or moreinfo@mybusiness.com. 5. Considering joining LinkedIn or ZoomInfo. These popular, social networking sites give you a free way to post a biographical profile. Be aware: everything you post is public information. You give up some privacy when you post info. The sites can provide connections between people with similar interests. The sites add to search engine results for your name & your company name.

Five Tips for Managing Virtual Relationships

1. Make sure you’re up to speed. Good hardware, software and training are the tools you need to make virtual relationships work.

2. Structure your workday so information can be easily shared, discussed and exchanged.

3. Don’t let the technology get in the way. If email technology isn’t working, quickly default to the phone or a letter.

4. Remember, people do business with people─not machines. Always keep up with your networking contacts.

5. You’ll need another set of skills when you use nontraditional means to communicate: writing must be concise and thoughts must be closely linked. by : SCORE
   

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Starting a business? Tips for a successful launch

Sharon Epperson shares smart ideas for nurturing your new business

Starting your own business can be daunting, but if you have an idea of the obstacles you could face you’ll be well ahead of the game. Lots of folks think they have a great idea for a business — selling customized gift packages of your signature-recipe brownies, creating a fundraising consulting firm for nonprofits, or opening a health and wellness store catering to new moms. You think you’ve come up with a terrific enterprise, one that you’re really passionate about, but do you really know what it takes to launch this business?

CNBC’s personal finance correspondent Sharon Epperson, author of “The Big Payoff,” poses the questions you need to ask yourself — and some tips on how to find the answers.

What do you need to know before you start a business?
What you need to know is not always apparent until you start developing your business. You’ll likely make many mistakes and learn from them. But to make that learning experience less painful, follow these steps before you start your business.

Build your cash reserve
Unless you already have substantial savings or have recently received a windfall, you’ll probably need to start saving money for your business for a few years before you launch it. Plan to put any extra money that you get from a raise, bonus or stock options into a special fund for your business. The amount of money you’ll need will likely vary depending on the type of business and the location. Dawn Casale, owner of One Girl Cookies in Brooklyn, says her advice to budding entrepreneurs is always: “Save double what you think you’ll need because it goes so quickly.”

Know your credit score
Pay off as many bills as you can, save money, and get a copy of your credit report to understand what it says about you. “Know, protect and correct your credit score,” says Nell Merlino, president and CEO of Count Me In, which provides micro-loans for women entrepreneurs. (Count Me In and OPEN by American Express provide money, mentoring and marketing opportunities for entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses to a million dollars or more.)

Know your financial risk
How much money you can afford to lose? If you put $20,000 of your savings toward your business, are you prepared to lose it if the business isn’t successful? Will you still be able to cover your personal expenses and meet other financial goals? “You may be excited about your idea, but you need to be practical,” says Judith Rosenthal, a financial advisor with Ameriprise in New York. “The risk should be in line with your financial situation. If you lose $50,000 or more in savings, will you still be able to pay your mortgage and other household bills and also save for your retirement and kids’ college education?” Don’t lose sight of your other financial goals.

Don’t be afraid of debt, but use it wisely
You’ll likely use a combination of your own money, friends and family, credit cards, bank loans and other financing. Make sure you understand the terms of bank loans or other types of loans. Know that home equity lines of credit and credit cards have variable interest rates, which could increase substantially over time.

Open a separate account for your business
It’s important to always know how much cash you have, how much you’re spending and how much is coming in, Merlino says. The best way to do that is to separate your personal and business financially.

Finally, prepare to work hard
If you’re not geared up to work hard, don’t do it. If you treat it like a hobby, it will generate hobbylike revenue, says Susan Sobbott, president of OPEN from American Express, which provides access to working capital for small business owners and their companies.

How do you start a business?

1) Base a business on what you know
Create an idea for a business based on what interests you and what you know. If you are not passionate about the business, customers and prospects will sense it.

2) Target your market
Keep an eye out for unmet needs. If your community lacks a product or service that you have the ability and willingness to provide, you might be onto a kernel of a business idea. Talk to prospective customers, experts in the field and leverage every available resource. If possible, conduct online surveys, phone interviews and face-to-face discussions to sharpen your idea.

3) Be flexible
Once you have an idea, be prepared to modify it — flexibility is critical to being a small business owner. Ask any owner — a few unexpected experiences likely brought them to their destination.

4) Create a short business plan
“Your business plans should spell out who you plan to sell to, what they will pay for products and/or services, how your offering is unique, how you will reach customers and how you will turn a profit,” says Susan Sobbott, president of OPEN from American Express. Five pages is enough, she says, and the process of creating this document will help to polish your idea further and create a plan to get started. Network with members of the local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (www.nawbo.org) in your area or visit a Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Center (www.sba.gov) to help with research for your business plan.

from msnbc.msn.com