09/28/2012
Just like writers, photographers, and other creative artists have learned, protecting content is one of the primary struggles that webmasters face on a daily basis. It takes time and talent to develop quality content, and there are few things more frustrating than to discover that your content has been poached by another website.

There are a number of actions that webmasters can take to proactively protect their work from being used without authorization by people on the web who are simply looking to cut corners. Take the following steps to proactively guard your content...

How to Protect Web Content

09/27/2012
Purse Strings Network provides support, tools and resources that women consultants and small business owners need to tackle the challenges of starting, growing and managing a business.  You have two avenues to take advantage of the benefits of this unique network.

09/26/2012
The world is becoming increasingly data driven, and it is important that small businesses do not get left behind. Small businesses have data. Those that work online have a lot of it, but often don't know how to retrieve it.

complete article

09/25/2012
Here are a few questions any small business owner needs to answer at the start:

Who are your competitors?
How will you fund your business?
How will you market your business?
How much should I charge?
What about taxes?
Do I need insurance?

complete article

09/24/2012
What are the top 10 countries for small businesses

#10 Chile
#9 Portugal
#8 France
#7 South Korea
#6 United Kingdom
#5 Ireland
#4 USA
#3 Canada
#2 Australia
#1 New Zealand

Find out why!

09/19/2012
One of the most interesting debates in the past decade is around the definition of an entrepreneur.

Some experts take a very narrow position by saying an entrepreneur is only someone whose business idea can scale to national reach, like the founders of Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. Others cast a much wider net to include anyone who takes a business risk.

Here is my very broad definition: An entrepreneur attempts to create a new product, service or solution while accepting responsibility for the results.

Notice this definition does not refer to profit or equity or even business. But it does infer what I consider the following critical elements of entrepreneurship, including a relationship with the abiding twins of any entrepreneurial endeavor - success and failure.

complete article

09/18/2012
The news for small businesses - not particularly surprising and not particularly good - in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest study of employer-sponsored health insurance is that the trend lines are unchanged. Costs continue to go up, and the number of companies offering insurance does not.

While across all employers, premiums for family coverage grew at the modest rate of 4 percent over the last year, small businesses faced an increase double that - the biggest annual increase in family plans since 2004. For individual coverage, small-company premiums increased 5 percent, which was also more than the increase in the broader market.

complete article

09/13/2012
Do you need business cards? Have a look at the business cards at the business card store.

09/12/2012
Michael Reagan launched a We Did Build It website, profiling small businesses of America.

09/11/2012

September 11, 2001

09/10/2012
Inuit says 53 percent of companies reinvented their business to survive since 2010. The pivot is a buzz word in Silicon Valley, but may be one of the smartest moves an entrepreneur can make.

A good business owner can not be afraid of change. Markets change, consumer attitudes change, technologies change, and so companies must also change. The majority of changes small businesses make today come in the form of overhauling the product or service. Next in line are changes to infrastructure within the company or changes to the staff.

complete article

09/08/2012
Clad in a pink nightgown, seven-year-old Jessica scans the cereal boxes lined up on top of the refrigerator. Her eyes light up as she reaches the brown box at the end. She leaps in the air and flaps her arms wildly.

That is what I want! she yells, I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!

Bring Your Product to Life with Personality

09/03/2012
The heart of Americas economy has always been small business. More than half of all U.S. private sector employees work for a small business, and over thirteen times more patents are created by small businesses than large firms. Yet as the ongoing global financial crisis continues to hamstring markets, small business owners are working harder than ever before just to maintain their bottom line.

To give us a perspective on the plight of small business owners and whats weighing heavily on their minds, I sought out the president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business, Dan Danner. NFIB – which was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit to overturn Obamacare – has for nearly seventy years been the voice of Americas small business.

Complete Interview

09/06/2012
Republicans have made the growing national debt and sluggish economic recovery the central themes of their gathering this week in Tampa. But small businesses have spent their fair share of time in the convention’s spotlight, too, as party leaders try to sell their ticket to voters on Main Street.

On Wednesday, Paul Ryan capped off an evening littered with small business references by sharing an emotional story about his mother, Betty Douglas. He explained that, following his fathers death, his mother returned to school and eventually launched her own interior decorating company in Wisconsin.

Small Business a Common Theme at RNC

09/05/2012
Small businesses struck by a hurricane often lose at least a couple days of business, and possibly several weeks depending on the strength of the storm. Planning before a hurricane – or any natural disaster or unexpected emergency – is key to business survival.

Every business should develop and test a plan for possible emergencies. The guides should address critical issues including payroll, restoring technology and communicating with employees, customers and other key stakeholders.

Here are some immediate tips for disaster preparedness

09/04/2012
Any company that has customers or manufacturing facilities outside the United States, and whose competition routinely manufactures and sells abroad, should have foreign patent protection.

But those are not the only business reasons to obtain foreign patent protection. A company may also want to protect a supply chain that requires the crossing of multiple foreign borders to ship products.

Foreign Patents