POST CATEGORY : Entrepreneurs

The Clean and Simple Cloud Computing Primer for Small Businesses

Nobody likes paying for things they don’t use. From finishing a restaurant meal when you’re already full, to calculating just the number of minutes you’ll need on your phone plan, we hate to hand over our money for nothing.

In a traditional office environment, business owners are forced to estimate how much server space they’ll need as they grow, investing in expensive hardware to store company data. That’s all changed in just a few years.

cloud computing for your small business

Once the sole domain of large-scale corporations, cloud computing is now infinitely accessible to even the smallest of businesses. Do you utilize web-based email services like Gmail?…

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Are You Ready to Be Your Own Boss?

behaviors that are essential to being an entrepreneur

If you have ever thought about starting your own business and being your own boss, you may want to consider if you have the personality traits and necessary skill set to become a successful entrepreneur. The following is a top-ten list of behaviors that can be essential to one seeking entrepreneurial success:

1. Seek Knowledge

Throughout life, we should never stop learning. Successful entrepreneurs will ask questions to gain understanding and then can put this into actionable plans. By asking questions, gaining knowledge and understanding, you can gain the wisdom to achieve great things.

2. Identify Opportunities

An entrepreneur must be able to identify an unmet need.…

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Tax Deductible Business Expenses That Many Small Businesses Miss

Tax Deductible Business Expenses

Far too many small businesses, particularly start-ups and sole traders, are paying tax on things they do not need to. Largely this comes from not understanding which business expenses are tax deductible. These business expenses are there for small businesses to exploit – so is there something your small business is missing?

Employee Costs

Many costs to you or your employees incurred by your business are tax deductible. Expenses include cell phone bills for business calls, union dues, relevant magazine or periodical subscriptions, staff uniforms or business attire and memberships to relevant societies amongst others. Even if you are not currently using any of these services it may be worth looking into them knowing you can use them a little bit cheaper.…

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The Benefits Of Building A Relationship With A Law Firm

Entrepreneurs and business leaders are faced with a variety of challenges on a daily basis. Some of the most difficult challenges business owners face are those that concern matters of law. Even the most experienced business leader may be at a loss when it comes to the ins and outs of legal documents, actions and proceedings.

Benefits Of Building A Relationship With A Law Firm

Instead of making risky guesses on legal matters, business leaders and entrepreneurs can place their trust in law firms. Businesses of all sizes can benefit from keeping a law firm on retainer. Having a firm on retainer essentially means that a business leader has an advocate on his or her side whenever needed.…

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Three Key Steps To Starting a Web-Based Business

keys tip to starting a web-based businessAs an online marketing specialist, I’ve seen too many online businesses go bust due to poor planning. Trust me, you don’t want to blindly dive into the world of online business.

If you don’t know what you’re doing from the get-go, it doesn’t take long to lose your investments. These three steps will help you on your way.

1. Research your market carefully.

Whether you plan to sell a product or service, you must be sure there’s opportunity to turn a profit in your specific online market. For example, my boss initially wanted to start an insurance brokerage “” until he realized that thousands of individual insurance companies were already vying for the same customers online.…

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5 Ways Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners Are Bootstrapping Their Companies

5 Ways Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners Are BootstrappingStarting a small business is hard. And in today’s economy, getting the most for your money often equates to the creative distribution of your financial resources.

That’s why so many entrepreneurs and small businesses are inventing ways to bootstrap their operations.   Luckily, there are a number of affordable tools and strategies that cost little but deliver big, which is ideal when your business is on a budget.

As a provider of business services and entrepreneur myself, here are five resources I’ve found that are currently working well for small businesses.

  • Inventive marketing – Generate interest in your business through creativity. For example, try promoting a contest like The Royal Society of Chemists.
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Top 7 Gmail Tips and Tricks

Top 7 Gmail Tips and Tricks

As a loyal Gmail user for many years, I have watched Google’s golden child evolve into an incredibly efficient and functional interface. Most of the savvy user “hacks” from the good old days have now been built right in to Gmail, but this old dog is certainly able to learn new tricks.

Here are the top 7 ways to improve your Gmail experience, from Labs and other add-ons to hidden features and hacks.

1. Remove ads with Gmelius

Gmail’s text banner advertising is fairly non-intrusive, but sometimes the ads displayed are so similar to the email you are reading or writing, it’s just plain creepy.…

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How Could Going Green Benefit Your Small Business?

The reasons to go green are often pitched as necessary changes for the continued existence of the world with growing populations and pollution. While not wrong, going green often comes with a stigma of raising costs of business, and in an unstable economy it can seem dangerous to go through any dramatic change in doing business.

How Going Green Could Benefit Your Small Business

Here are some examples of ways going green can save you money and be good for business, all while helping the environment.

Any PR is Good PR, but Positive PR is Better PR

While it may seem like a bad way to think about going green, the fact is that it can easily turn into a great marketing campaign.…

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5 Tips: Choosing the Right Team to Support Your Local Business

When we begin our journey as local business owners, we often go it alone for a bit and find that we wear a lot of the department hats ourselves. We’re the CEO, the accountant, the marketing team, the human resources team, and then some.

But at some point, we’re ready to hire a team of consultants, contractors, and/or employees to support our goals and vision. At this exciting and pivotal point in time, our business’ success largely hinges on whether or not we hire the right people to support us and our business.

Tips for Hiring Team to Support Your Local Business

It can be helpful to keep the following in mind when you’re recruiting a team to support your company:

Interviews Matter.…

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8 Factors That Determine Whether Your Company Would Benefit From a GSA Schedule

Regardless of your industry, if you do business or have thought about doing business with the government, there is a strong chance you have heard of the GSA Schedule Contract.   However, if you are like many companies, you may be uncertain whether your company is eligible to participate in the program and if you should invest the time needed to obtain a GSA Schedule Contract.

would your company benefit from GSA schedule

So, how can you tell if your company would benefit from holding a GSA Schedule?   Here are eight factors to take into consideration:

1. Does your company currently do business with the government?

If you have a D&B D-U-N-S Number, are registered on the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) website, and have already been contracting with the government, a GSA Schedule Contract is the next logical step.…

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