Is your Formal Education Done?

The way people get their formal education is changing all the time. There is an international conversation about whether or not traditional higher education models are worth it, for just about anyone. They’re expensive, and recent years have proven that they often do not pay off, especially monetarily. Others critique traditional learning models for not being relevant to the tasks at hand, when people graduate and enter their real careers.  Add that fact to the burden of student debts, making higher education a further reach by most.

Businessman taking higher education

In response to the challenges, programs like online mba programs california and elite universities like Harvard Business School have been striving to stay on the cutting edge of useful education models for many generations.…

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5 Reasons Why You Should Buy a Home in Surabaya

Surabaya is home to world renowned mayor Tri Rismaharini who has consistently made improvements to the urban landscape in the last five years and is one of the biggest and most bustling cities in Indonesia, and it’s also one of the hottest places to live right now. Not only is there lots of opportunity for families and working professionals alike, but it’s also getting even better with each passing year. Although Surabaya isn’t known for being picturesque and has a reputation for being very fast-paced, true locals know that the city is much more than that. Here are five reasons why you should be looking at real estate in Surabaya right now.…

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5 Ways To Make Some Cash for Your Next Big Idea

The thing about having a big idea, is that often to make it happen, you have to have money. And unless you’re already independently wealthy, it’s logically improbable just to have enough extra cash floating around that you can throw it at a new project, and still maintain your current lifestyle.

Funding a business idea

Thus, many next big ideas won’t ever get started. However, there is hope! If you break your idea into sizable chunks and figure out how to get the cash flow going using these five potential avenues, at least you’ll give your concept a fighting chance to be born into the world.…

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Create an Effective Shipping System For Your Small Business with These 5 Tips

One of the most important elements of owning a small business is shipping. Customers appreciate it when you ship items promptly and package them well, but poor shipping can also have a huge negative impact on your reputation and sales.

Shipping package delivery

Even if you have an incredibly wonderful product, your customers can still feel cheated or taken advantage of if something goes wrong during their item’s journey from you to them. Slow shipping speeds, damage to the product, and mixed-up orders can leave them feeling unsatisfied.

But keeping everything streamlined and organized can be challenging for a small business owner. Minimizing hassle and costs is important, so here are some tips for you to follow when shipping for your small business.…

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How to Choose your Exhibition Stands

Exhibitions and trade shows have immense marketing value for businesses regardless of size, from startups to global corporations. But in order to make the most of your space at conventions, on the road or in pop up locations, you need to choose the right exhibition stand.

Expo stands at BIT Milano 2015

Exhibition stands are available in three varieties, modular, custom and portable. From reusability to interactive features, there are various factors that come into play when picking the best stand for your needs.

Modular stands are reusable solutions for multiple exhibitions

Modular exhibition stands are ‘built for reconstruction, they give increased flexibility and ease of transport’.…

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Is the Ultimate Goal of a Business to Maximize Profits?

Economic theory assumes our decisions are often based on the anticipated results. If we’re able to maximize an outcome, we choose the maximizing option.

Maximum

As consumers, we maximize utility, making purchasing decisions based on the greatest value for the lowest cost. The same is true for productivity, searching for the greatest possible output for the least amount of input. And as small business owners, we try to maximize profit where revenue at least equals costs.

In other words, we’re simple “maximizers.” But are we really?

The reason we make one choice over the next is rarely that simple, which then begs the question of whether small business owners really maximize profits — or if this should even be the ultimate goal.…

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4 Tips for Maintaining Growth as a Startup

The very earliest days of starting up a new business will inevitably be challenging for the founders involved at the sharp end, regardless of the goals being set or the markets being targeted. But once a measure of growth and success has been achieved, there are new challenges to overcome and a new array of pitfalls to avoid.

Startup cofounders

Here’s a look at a few ways in which a fledgling company might aim to maintain growth and develop consistently into a business with a sustainable future.

1. Avoid making too many promises

Having ambitions to grow is essential as a startup but it can be just as important for a new company’s founders not to promise more than they are capable of delivering.…

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The Fine Art of Farming Out Functions

In their earliest days of operation, most entrepreneurs take great pride in performing all their company’s tasks in-house, sometimes even personally doing everything. It’s a phase that provides important lessons for the owners and employees, but in time a successful business owner will reach a point where it’s no longer practical to do everything alone.

Car loaded with watermelons

This doesn’t necessarily apply to the physical process of producing a good; you can maintain a high level of efficiency and still take on the entire assembly process yourself.

In-house vs. outsourcing

Shipping is a different story. Owner delivery can work up to a certain volume, but when you can no longer put the day’s output in your SUV and drop off deliveries on the way home, you have a decision to make.…

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How to Save on Office Space for your Small Business

If you are a small business owner, it is imperative to find ways to be cost-efficient. Cutting down on square footage is certainly one way to do that, and when you do not have a huge amount of office space to operate in, learning to use each and every inch efficiently is a huge part of the challenge of saving those pennies.

Office space idea

Thankfully, this challenge does not have to also be a burden. By following a few simple guidelines about how to keep your office space as tidy and minimalistic as possible, and by keeping up with the maintenance of materials that are only around when you need it, it is a satisfying endeavor to really get the most of your small working area and thrive as a cost-cutting entrepreneur.…

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50 Shades of Green: The Difference Between Seeming and Being Sustainable

Green is the new black, and sustainability has been “in” for well over a decade. In fact, companies that don’t strive to support the green movement might as well close up and turn out the lights. In today’s ardently ecological climate, it makes smart business sense to build a brand on the basic tenants of sustainability, but too many businesses are giving the movement a bad name with less than adequate standards.

Bike to work

Even if you reduce, reuse, and recycle, your business likely contributes to a number of dangerous practices that are doing untold damage to the Earth and its people, and if your tree-hugging customers discover your washed-out shades of green, you might as well flip your “open” sign to “closed.”…

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