10/30/2015
As a small business owner getting ready to build your first website or redesign your existing one, you might wonder what you should be considering in terms of making your web design search engine friendly.

There are lots of things to take into account, but here are the five key things that you should know about SEO friendly web design and how it can benefit your visitors, too!

1. It Needs to be Responsive
For small businesses, especially local ones, having great rankings in mobile search is incredibly important. Why? For starters, 50% of consumers who perform a local search on mobile devices visit a store within a day of their search. What’s even more exciting is that 78% of mobile searches for local business lead to offline purchases.

complete article

10/28/2015
Owning a cell phone has come to be regarded as a necessity in modern society, and with the great advances that have been made in smart phone technology, most of us rely on our phones to help us in an array of situations. While most smart phone owners are acquainted with the helpfulness of features such as navigation apps and mobile broadband, many people have yet to discover the array of uses they may put their phones to in the event of a true emergency.

10 Things Your Phone Can Do in Emergency Situations

10/26/2015
One of the most intimidating things entrepreneurs face is the fact that some of their competitors are massive multi-billion dollar corporations. Everyone knows the story of David and Goliath; occasionally the underdog wins.  But in the real world, the giant wins a lot (if not most) of the time.

This was a reality I faced when I started GMM Nonstick Coatings in 2007, a manufacturer of nonstick coatings for cookware, bakeware and appliances. We were a true startup: no employees, clients or products.  

complete article

10/23/2015
Your personal brand is how you appear to the world. Therefore, it serves to reason that a strong brand is preferable to one that is unpolished and uninteresting.

Once people know who you are and begin to identify you with a specific area of understanding or expertise, you will be well on your way to becoming the go-to person in your niche or industry.

complete article

10/21/2015
Meet Fred Warmbier, entrepreneur. Warmbier owns a small business, Finishing Technology, located near Cincinnati, Ohio. The company finishes and anodizes metal parts –and is growing rapidly.

complete article

10/19/2015
In fact, a prominent study from the financial services company U.S. Bank found that as many as 82 percent of startups and small businesses fail due to poor cash-flow management. So, even if you are a brilliant entrepreneur in every other way, you must stay squarely focused on managing your company’s cash flow to avoid putting your business in imminent danger.

Here are five of the most common cash-flow problems:

complete article

10/16/2015
There are many books available on the market to read about starting a business and how to structure a business startup.

I have many favorites, but my advice to friends and students is one that I came across all the way back in October 1987. My business desires started and I read almost every book that was available in my local Memphis, Tennessee, library at the time. The book has been revised and reprinted many, many times and continues to be a good read to this day.

complete article

10/14/2015
Put a hundred small business owners in a room and you are likely to hear a hundred different stories of how they became successful. You will find people as different as night and day. People from all walks of life and with varying strengths and skills. But look closer and you’ll begin to see commonalities. While their stories will differ, there are also common talents among those who are successful. Take a look and see if you recognize yourself.

complete article

10/12/2015
It is pretty incredible how often you hear managers complaining about their best employees leaving, and they really do have something to complain about—few things are as costly and disruptive as good people walking out the door.

Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun, while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers.

complete article

10/09/2015
We all reach critical points in our lives where our mental toughness is tested. It might be because of a toxic friend or colleague, a dead-end job, or a struggling relationship.

Whatever the challenge, you have to be strong, see things through a new lens, and take decisive action if you want to move through it successfully.

It sounds easy. We all want good friends, good jobs, and good relationships.

complete article

10/07/2015
As entrepreneurs, we are told we should expect to fail at our first, second, or third idea before becoming successful, and that is often true. Coming up with an idea and then profiting from it within the first year is very rare. But after speaking with Caleb Garrett and Alex Moreno of Hawkers Co., a two-year-old D2C eyewear brand poised to hit $60 million this year, I'm beginning to believe they have somehow cracked the code that so many product-focused, bootstrapped startups have been looking for.

complete article

10/05/2015
Attempting to be creative when it will not come to you naturally can be an excercise in futility. Traditional means of conjuring those creative impulses, like taking a walk in the park, can often spur creativity, but getting a better idea of what a business needs can be an even more effective way to divine logo inspiration. When working with a business, it is important to gain a sense of what the business is about and what role the logo will play in the clients business and marketing plans. To make this process simpler, we have compiled 7 questions to consider asking a client before commencing logo design:

7 Questions to Ask Before Designing a Logo

10/02/2015
Being a savvy spender is crucial for small business owners. These entrepreneurs have to watch every dollar to manage cash flow, make payroll, and generally stay in business. But being cash conscious shouldn't mean spending as little as possible on everything.

complete article

10/01/2015
More than eight in 10 U.S. small-business owners say they would still become a small-business owner if they had it to do over again. This sentiment has changed little over the past 11 years, which suggests that the difficulties many small businesses experienced during the Great Recession did not cause owners to regret their decision to start a business.

complete article

09/30/2015
Up to a point, it behooves small business owners to be resourceful and handle the lion's share of the work. But before it's too late and their companies lose out on its market timing, entrepreneurs need to hire in order to grow, even if that means taking on more costs.

complete article