POST CATEGORY : Entrepreneurs

Reduce The Risk Of Employee Fraud

reduce the risk of employee fraudIn any business – small or large, good or bad economy – internal theft or employee fraud can occur.   Actually, in my experience, I have seen more employee fraud occurring in small to medium-sized businesses because there is a greater level of trust, a less formal process at times, greater familiarity with each person in the company, and a greater breadth of duties for each employee.

While the percentage of employees committing fraud may be low, I have seen some small businesses devastated and almost have to close their doors because of one or more employees who stole from them.

Types of Employee Fraud

There are a few types of employee fraud that are prevalent in small businesses.  …

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4 Ways to Beat Entrepreneurial Fatigue

Every person on the planet is prone to experience fatigue. As an entrepreneur, you are no exception. Some might say that running your own business would make you your own boss and that it would give you more freedom to do what you want, when you want to do it.

entrepreneurial fatigue tips

This of course is a myth. Running your own business does not mean that you have lesser things to do or a shorter to-do list than you had when you were employed. When you think about it, entrepreneurs get stressed out from the moment they start planning the business until the time that they are exiting it.…

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How Group Buying Can Help Your Business

Group buying or collective buying is fast gaining popularity among business owners. The idea originally hailed from China where it is known as Tuangou. Online group buying was first introduced through an e-commerce start-up, Mercata, ten years ago and they had dubbed this business plan as “We Commerce”. For those business owners who are still trying to grasp the concept of this phenomenon, let me break it down for you.

Let’s say you are a subscriber to a discount website or a daily deals site as it is more popularly known nowadays. You would see various offers on product discounts on the site and if you are interested, you would just need to enter your payment details and wait until the minimum number of people is reached.…

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Mobile Technology Is Changing The Way We Do Business

Technology has certainly changed the way we do things, the way we run our business. We are all constantly on-the-go and instead of doing just one thing at a time, we can now do everything (well, almost everything) at the touch of a button.

mobile technology changing how we do business

In a recent  Business Journals study, it is found that small businesses are increasingly relying more on technology, especially the internet, as a critical business tool. Business owners can be addicted to running the business, if you think about it.

According to the same study, 55% of SMB owners are online to be connected to their businesses.…

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Perfect Your Small Business Skills With Open Courseware

Perfect Your Small Business Skills With Open Courseware

While yes it is true that one doesn’t need a Masters of Business Administration degree in order to run and manage a successful small business, the leadership and business skills one learns pursuing an MBA can in fact help one launch their business to even further heights. Unfortunately not everyone has the time or the money to return to school in order to learn a new set of managerial and business skills. But thanks to open courseware, it might just be possible.

Open courseware is a term used to refer to free online classes offered by various prestigious institutions such as Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.…

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Working On Your Business, Not At It

work on your small businessSo corporate life isn’t cutting it and you decide to become an entrepreneur. You translate your idea into a business plan, raise a little capital and start executing your plan. You quickly learn that growth takes longer than anticipated and costs are more than budgeted. So to keep your net profits as high as possible, you take on more and more responsibility for the day-to-day execution of the plan.

But soon funny things start to happen. Your persistence starts to pay off. The phone rings more regularly. Referrals start coming in, sometimes from sources you don’t even recognize! And now you have a new problem.…

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How “Small” Is Your Small Business?

According to a recent SBA press release, there is a proposal to revise the definition of small businesses. This redefinition of how “small” a business is, is in accordance with the Small Business Act. The establishment of size standards has two considerations.

how small is your small business

The first one is that it should have variance depending on industries to account for the differences between them and the second is that the policies set forth by the Small Business Administration should be for further help to small business concerns by encouraging them and reinforcing competitiveness. Small business concerns are defined by the Small Business Act as one that “is independently owned and operated which is not dominant in its field of operation”.…

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6 Tips For Making Sure Your Small Business Succeeds

tips for small business success

Starting a new business is an exhilarating experience. It’s like going out on a first date. Your toes get all tingly, you try to dream of every mishap that could happen and you try your hardest to make it work. And like dating, it’s possible that it could have disastrous results.

In fact, according to the SBA, “two-thirds of new employer establishments survive at least two years, and 44 percent survive at least four years.” For a newbie in the business industry, it might cause you to rethink and falter but in reality, awareness and a definite action plan may just be the key for your venture to succeed.…

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25 Million Small Businesses May Have Zero Employees, But They Contribute to Our Economy

In a recent interview on Barbara Weltman’s “Build Your Business” Radio Show, Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends shared some interesting statistics about small businesses.

She mentioned that roughly 79% of US companies have no employees. Yet, these same businesses, over 25 million, provide full or part time employment for their owners.   So, why does “everyone insist that these types of small businesses don’t contribute to jobs?”   Campbell says that they should be counted. After all, that’s 25 million people NOT in the unemployment line.

25 million small businesses have zero employees

She adds that jobs aren’t everything-when measuring the impact of the smallest, small businesses.   Regardless of what you think of their impact, single employee companies contribute to our economy as they buy products and purchase services.  …

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Take Your Banker Out to Lunch

Starting a small business means having as many allies as possible and few allies are as important to new business owners as the banker.

build a relationship with your banker

It always pays to be on the good side of the person who has a say over whether or not your emerging business will be extended the loan it needs to get through the initial stages. Well as you might already know, it’s important to be on the good side to anybody that influences your business in any type of way.

Here’s a tip: Take your banker out to lunch and build a relationship with them.

For years, entrepreneurs and company associates have taken clients to lunch as a way to either establish a potential relationship or strengthen a rapport that had already existed.…

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