Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
Credit and Financing “Insider” Tips for Husband and Wife Teams
Jan 4th
According to the SBA, 90% of our nations small businesses are family owned. Of course, “family owned” does not always mean it’s a husband & wife team but many of them are as referenced here. We all know that small business owners need capital today as bad or worse than ever. We’re not here to complain about the way small business lending statistics are deceiving but it has a lot to do with the recent changes made by the SBA.
The bottom line is that it’s hard enough if you’re a small business owner in need of capital (or might be in need of capital in the future) so if you’re a husband-wife team, a family-owned business, or a partnership of any kind then these are the 3 key tips you’ll need to plan for (or respond to) if you want to have the best possible chance of getting your funding.
#1 – Think about the loan you will need in 2-3 years NOW! This is advise that comes from the perspective of being able to borrow money more efficiently after you get the business going. There are many credit mistakes that I’ve seen husbands and wives and partners make over the years. Some of the mistakes are minor and others can be more costly and limit your borrowing capabilities as you grow your business. Borrowing money for your business is like anything else. You can do it the right way or you can do it the wrong way. You need to think about whether you want to “co-sign” for your mortgage(s), car loans, and credit cards.
You may both need to be part of the mortgage for qualification purposes but that is rarely necessary for car loans and credit cards. When there is only one PG (personal guarantor) on your credit cards then you get the best of both worlds. From a credit perspective, all your accounts are considered “trades” or “trade lines.” So your credit profile is really just a compilation of all the individual trade lines therein. If you could choose which trade lines you wanted on your credit report then imagine what that could do. If your spouses credit cards are old and have low balances then you’ll want to be an authorized user on those credit cards.
On the other hand, if the credit cards are less then 2 years old or have high balances in relation to their credit limits (high utilization) then you do not want to be an authorized user on those accounts because that trade line would hurt your credit.
#2 – If you or your spouse/partner have “less than perfect” credit then fix it NOW! I realize that a lot of people get frustrated with credit scores and how credit works. It’s actually not as confusing as you may think it is but instead of focusing on what may not make sense, let’s focus on how to work within the current banking system and how to have success with your loan requests given the current credit & lending terrain. If you or your partner don’t have the credit profile and score that will help you get approved for financing then it’s simple. Fix it.
There’s only 2 ways to improve your credit profile. You can either add some good stuff or remove the bad stuff. The problem is that most credit repair companies are…ahem…not good. Find a quality individual or company and hire them to improve your credit. The National Association of Responsible Credit Repair Advisors (NARCRA) is a good resource to find a credit professional. You can improve, repair, or fix your credit if it’s not good but it’s unlikely you can do it yourself.
Technically, there’s nothing a credit repair agency can do that you can’t do yourself…but you could also represent yourself in court instead of hiring a lawyer. Would you do that?
#3 – Strategically determine how you share the ownership % of your business! 50/50 Ownership or 80/20 – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen businesses who needed $50,000 – $200,000 to take their business to the next growth level but there’s one “minor” problem. One owner has good credit and the other owner has poor credit…so the bank said no to their loan request. When determining the ownership % of your business it’s a wise idea to keep in mind that most banks – for most loan requests – require that anyone with 20% or more ownership in the business be included in the credit and underwriting portion of the loan request.
In other words, their credit gets checked and if they have bad credit then you don’t get approved for your loan. If you have bad credit and your spouse has good credit then it would be wise to consider making your spouse the majority owner. You’ll probably want the spouse with the good credit to be the 85% or 90% owner since that puts you in the clear with most ownership requirements from most lenders. This all sounds easy if you’re starting a new business but what if you’re an established business and you’ve already established the ownership at 50/50?
Just make a change. It’s a simple addendum or revision to the articles. Just ask your business consultant, corporate formation consultant, or attorney and they can help you if you don’t know how to make this change yourself.
As a husband/wife team there are some great ways to properly separate and utilize your credit profiles so you can maximize your credit scores and position yourselves in the best possible way to get your financing. As always, consult with your business consultant, lawyer, and accountant but remember that they work for you. Most people resist ideas and strategies that they are unfamiliar with and there’s a good chance that if these advisors haven’t presented these concepts to you then they probably are unfamiliar with them.
Marriage Photo via Shutterstock
Credit and Financing “Insider” Tips for Husband and Wife Teams
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Travel Tips and Small Business Suggestions
Dec 25th
Small business traveling is just one of the many travails faced by the average small business person or entrepreneur. Here are some ways you can mitigate those difficulties and some other tips and news from around the small business Web.
How To
Travel tips you’ll want to take with you. Here are 41 suggestions you won’t dare leave behind on your next business trip. Traveling constantly can be hard on anyone. Without the right preparation, it can be even worse. Some simple suggestions can help you make the best of your trip without letting it bring out the worst in you. Don’t Do It Yourself
Using online classes and events in your business. Whether marketing them as information products or services or using them as tools to gather prospects and disseminate information about your business, Stephanie Chandler has these suggestions for building classes and events that can transform your business. BusinessInfoGuide.com
Tips & Resources
Tips to transform your business blog. This post not only offers you 10 free ebooks to change the way you blog for your business, but also the beginnings of a whole new blueprint for business blogging that can help regional, brick and mortar or just about any business build a strong following and potential new customers. Ryan Hanley
It’s not about you. You’ve probably heard this before, whether it’s referring to social media marketing or to most of your other dealings with your customers. Here’s the thing. You need to communicate with them about their needs, get focused on solving their problems. The idea is for you to learn more about your customers, not to tell them more about you. Small Biz Survival
News & Contests
Best Buy to provide small business IT service. A report says the retailer will be acquiring Mindshift Technologies Inc., a company providing IT service for small business. The acquisition could mean a major boost in IT service directly aimed at the small business market. WSJ
No-no’s for Holiday gift giving. So, it’s the Holiday season again and one way to nurture the relationships you’ve built over the year is with Holiday gifts for clients, service providers and employees. But avoiding the wrong gift is important too. Share your tip on small business Holiday gift giving no-no’s and win $100 toward Holiday gifts in this contest from our sister site. Bizsugar Blog
Professional Development
Things to ignore in 2012. It may be what you don’t do that makes you a success. Or rather, it could be that much of what you do is just busy work, taking up your valuable time without improving your productivity. For small business owners, who wear many hats, the temptation can be even greater to overdo. Here’s a quick list of things you may want to forget about instead. Harvard Business Review
Tech Basics
YouTube Analytics transform video marketing. If you’re one of the many small business owners who use YouTube as a part of your marketing campaign, you won’t want to miss this. A new upgrade by the online video site makes tracking your video’s impact much simpler and lets you measure results. Basic Blog Tips
Hiring a cloud consultant. We’ve all heard, of course, about the importance of migrating your small business to the cloud and about the many benefits that cloud computing has to offer. But is there a benefit in gaining added advice when looking for the best cloud services and the best ways your business can make use of them? GetApp.com
Operations
Containing rising healthcare costs. It’s a problem all small business owners are aware of, but, let’s face it, healthcare costs aren’t going away anytime soon. So what can you do to control the healthcare costs in your business before they control you? Open Forum
Travel Tips and Small Business Suggestions
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Assorted tips, hope they help
Dec 14th
- No stranger or unknown company will ever contact you by mail or by phone with an actual method for making money easily or in your spare time. And if the person or company contacting you asserts that they are someone you know, double check before taking action.
- Don’t have back surgery. See a physiatrist first, then exhaust all other options before wondering if you should have back surgery.
- Borrow money to buy things that go up in value, but never to get something that decays over time.
- Placebos are underrated by almost everyone.
- It’s almost never necessary to use a semicolon.
- Seek out habits that help you overcome fear or inertia. Destroy those that do the opposite.
- Cognitive behavorial therapy is generally considered both the quickest and most effective form of addressing many common psychological problems.
- Backup your hard drive.
- Get a magnetic key hider, put a copy of your house key in it and hide it really well, unlabeled, two blocks from your house.
- A rice cooker will save you time and money and improve your diet, particularly if you come to like brown rice.
- Consider not eating wheat for an entire week. The results might surprise you.
- Taking your dog for a walk is usually better than whatever alternative use of your time you were considering.
Told you they were assorted.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
5 Tips For Managing Your Online Reputation
Nov 24th
If someone wanted to say something negative about your company online for the world to see, there is really no way you can stop them (short of a lawsuit). What you can do, though, is try to maintain and promote a positive online reputation through persistent monitoring and responding to negative comments.
Generally, when individuals leave negative comments and appear to be seeking a response, it is usually best to respond appropriately rather than try to remove the comments. Even when comment removal is ideal, it is not always possible. But you make those comments less prominent through the following tactics.
1. Monitor Your Brand Buzz.
Many business owners don’t think about online reputation management until they have an issue. The truth is that online reputation management is as much about being proactive as it is being reactive.
Get into the habit of searching Google and other search engines to check for any results that may be harmful to your reputation. At minimum, you should setup Google Alerts for your company name, brands and key employees. Google Alerts will notify you via email every time Google finds a new result for the desired search query. The goal is to make sure that the mentions are favorable, and if some are negative you have these alerts assisting you to contain any potential issues before they get blown out of proportion.
2. Build Positive Results in Search.
Most people trust Google enough to be confident about the results on the first page or two, without exploring further. According to a recent study, 89 percent of click-throughs on Google are from the first page. For the few individuals that look beyond the first few pages, at least the search results ahead of the negative results will seem more credible. This means that online reputation management requires knowledge in SEO to reflect a company in the most positive light. The decrease in views on a bad article when it goes from page one to two or from two to three is easily enough for a business to see a large increase in leads.
You can do this by examining what may be causing any negative content to rank highly, and promoting quality content to outrank the bad results. There are many different methods and practices for SEO, but it almost always involves getting links on other websites that direct to the site you are optimizing. The amount of links and the quality of the linking websites influences the rankings. This is where tools like Yahoo Site Explorer and OpenSiteExplorer.com come in handy. These tools can be used to help determine what sites are linking to the bad content and what factors are influencing their ranking.
There is a great deal to learn when it comes to SEO and a little can go a long way. If you plan on practicing SEO and do not have prior knowledge, you should read Google‘s SEO Starter Guide at the very least.
3. Learn About Social Media.
For most companies, social media knowledge is a necessity for good online reputation management. This involves keeping up on your own profiles such as a blog, owning a domain name that is your full name and using tools such as knowem.com to claim profiles for your name. Social profiles such as Facebook and Twitter can be used to build a fan base and encourage positive interactions. These profiles should be monitored, maintained and updated daily.
You can ask followers for feedback, share news, give coupons and hold contests through social media platforms. In time, you can have a loyal fan base that may even defend you when people leave negative comments. Which social profiles you choose to use depends on the company and what it has to offer. For example, Last.fm is a website for bands and musicians to share music and promote upcoming albums and concerts. Just make sure to read the terms of service for the social media websites you use.
4. Create Quality Content.
Sure, you hear the same advice everywhere. But guess what? It’s true. Quality content that will help you go far in keeping your presence pristine. And optimizing good quality content is far more likely to having a lasting effect than if you hurry to create content and promote any articles you come across. If you optimize content that has no potential to generate interest from viewers, you will likely only see the immediate results of your SEO, and there will be no long term results. Long-term results come when people find the article you have optimized, and then share it on social media sites, blogs, websites, forums or elsewhere online. This process will continue to naturally optimize search results, meaning that even after any intentional SEO efforts, the public is still optimizing with the natural occurrences in which search engines are intended to base their results. If it sparks enough interest, this can have a viral effect, which will spread links to a variety of places on the Web.
You can do all the SEO you want to make pages rank higher, but natural, unplanned occurrences, such as 100 people tweeting an article because they actually liked it, will have a much more powerful influence than anything you could do on your own in the same amount of time.
5. Maintain a Clean Reputation Offline.
If you practice good ethics, you will likely be rewarded. It may even lead to more positive content showing up online from third-party sources. However, if people have a reason to bash you, many of them will. Online reputation management is not going to work out very well if you are trying to appear as something you are not. If there is something you need to own up to, do not try to hide it away. When a company runs into a crisis it is their responsibility to determine when it is appropriate to confront it by apologizing to the public, responding to the crises, taking preventative action and moving on.
It is also advisable to have employees set their privacy settings on their personal social profiles so that only people they approve can see what they post. People often associate employees within a company directly with the image of that company. You don’t want to be the next company with a bad buzz in the media because your CEO posted something on Twitter that unexpectedly raised concern among the public.
For more about online reputation management, check out this article: How to Engage for Online Reputation Management.
View full post on Business Pundit
Tips For Building Your Online Business
Nov 19th
Whether your small business is completely online, has a simple online component or is just marketed via the Internet, building an online business model requires time and commitment. There are no quick fixes or short cuts and certainly no silver bullets. There are many tips and tools out there. Study what’s available, then test techniques to see what works for you.
Monetization
PPC ads or affiliate marketing? Which works better for your small business site? If your Website is your primary business, you will need to monetize your site with advertising, products or some other means to transform at least some of your visitors into customers. Unless you have a product of your own to sell or a direct sponsor, here are some other options you might consider. Scott Fox
Monetizing online content for beginners. You have content, a personality or brand. How do you transform this content into an online business? David Siteman Garland does a video consulting session with a local broadcast personality about how to monetize online content to create a business. The Rise To The Top
Online Strategy
How local search may be changing. If you haven’t yet heard of Apple’s Siri, a feature of the iPhone 4S, you may not be aware of how this new technology could transform Search Engine Optimization, especially on the local level. Need to know what to do to prime your online marketing? Here’s more. Entrepreneur
Breaking into ebook sales. If you have knowledge to share there may be no better way to build your online business than through the booming ebook market. In this guest post we learn more about how to create a knowledge product that becomes a thriving business overtime and how to boost that business with some simple techniques. MyWifeQuitHerJob.com
Tips & Trends
Models still vary for bringing small businesses online. Yelp Inc. and Angie’s List Inc. show that the models available for sharing information about small business online still vary widely. What has been your experience with making sure your business is visible and talked about on the Internet. WSJ
What sales 2.0 can do for you. What can the tools of sales 2.0 do for your small business? Well, if you or your sales team are already effective, the Web tools offered by Sales 2.0 will likely make you better. But be warned. These tools will not turn a bad sales team into a good one. Proven techniques must exist behind the technology. Partners in Excellence
Marketing Basics
SEO and social media marketing. This post and creative infographic show the transition occurring in the search engine optimization field as social media gains a stronger footing in how we market online. Are you using these two key approaches to create an irresistible online presence for your small business? WebSuccessTeam
Using Google Analytics tools. To succeed, it helps to have goals and that’s where these tools to manage your online presense come in. Google Analytics is a high quality and free tool to monitor your online business progress. But are you using its features to the greatest potential to benefit your small business? Small Business Bliss
Final Thoughts
Setting up a cost effective local AdSense campaign. Online marketing can be effective even for local business and such a campaign need not be expensive if set up correctly. Here we are walked through the procedure of setting up a cost effective local marketing campaign for a brick and mortar business. Heart Internet
Improving your small business Facebook presence. Your presence on the world’s largest social network should not be taken fo granted. Facebook’s traffic and membership are huge and so is the number of people who may be looking for businesses or partnerships there instead of on Google. If you want to figure out how to make your site shine, look no further. Quantum Marketer
Tips For Building Your Online Business
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
9 Tips for Finding the Right Mentor
Nov 10th
No man is an island, and every entrepreneur needs a support network. While it’s important to have a network of peers, friends and family, it’s equally important to have a mentor to act as a sounding board, hold you accountable and be the voice of reason. But finding the right mentor is about more than just finding someone you admire and asking them for advice.
So we asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs, this question:
“As a Gen Y entrepreneur, what do you look for when seeking out mentorship from business leaders?”
Here’s what they had to say:
1. Failure Plus Success
“I want advice from people who’ve done it a few times, and seen failure and success along the way. Failure gives an entrepreneur a lot of insight into the raw process of building a business. Alongside a breath of experience I look for specific domain knowledge–someone who’s got deep insight into distribution, fund-raising or product development, for instance. Specialized insight is valuable.” ~ Derek Shanahan, Foodtree
2. Experience in My Industry
“You should select your mentors based on their lifestyle. For instance, if you want to run a big technology company someday, then it’s wise to choose a tech executive. On the other hand, if you want to become a professional speaker, you should go after an experienced speaker who can offer you insights and advice.” ~ Dan Schawbel, Millennial Branding
3. Someone Who Aligns With My Values
“There are tons of successful people in the world; however, only a few will truly align with your values and world view. Make sure to find a mentor who can truly connect with your vision of the company and how you are looking to change the world. Also, look to see if their track record is similar to the one you envision for yourself.” ~ Brenton Gieser, JoynIn
4. More Than Just Advice, Relationships
“I look for a successful individual in a complementary business to my own–someone who has established relationships with a network of potential partnerships. By involving a mentor in the process of building my business, he or she will take pride in it and want to see it grow and prosper. With their existing relationships, the access is just an introduction away.” ~ Benjamin Leis, Sweat EquiTees
5. A Track Record of Proven Success
“I look for great business leaders with a track record of proven success. I also consider their story, where they started, what they started with and what they have become. I like to connect with mentors who share a similar story to my own because those are the mentors who have truly been in my shoes. Of course, mentors with good connections are nice as well.” ~ Lucas Sommer, Audimated
6. Someone Who Recognizes That My Path Is Different
“When I decided to go out on my own, obviously my mentors were some of the first people I turned to with the news. If you’re lucky enough to have awesome mentors, they’ll know that the path they took is going to be different from yours but can still offer advice that can help you. If your mentors start trying to dissuade you or mold you into a younger version of themselves, find new ones.” ~ Sydney Owen, 3Ring Media
7. A Straight Shooter
“As a Gen Y entrepreneur, I look for business leaders who are straightforward to mentor me. I value the unedited, honest and sometimes brutal experiences and truths that they have to share. I don’t want them to sugarcoat their advice because their wisdom will undoubtedly make me a better businessperson.” ~ Lauren Maillian Bias, Luxury Market Branding
8. A Two-Way Street
“I look for someone who can not only bring value to me with their advice and connections, but also someone to whom I can bring value. The best mentorships are two-way streets. If you are just trying to learn from someone, they are a teacher, not a mentor. It should be a give-and-take relationship.” ~ Nathan Lustig, Entrustet
9. Someone Who Gets Where I’m Going
“It helps if we’re simpatico, if they ‘get me’ and understand where I want to go with my business. I also look at how they run their business. If they look like they’re happy and having fun, that translates into someone I’d love to learn from.” ~ Nathalie Lussier, Nathalie Lussier Media
9 Tips for Finding the Right Mentor
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Is Your Business Ready for the Holidays? 4 Invaluable Cash Flow Management Tips
Oct 27th
While shopping for Halloween candy today, I saw Christmas products peeking out from the top of the shelf at my local pharmacy. It seems like stores start selling holiday products earlier and earlier every year. But even if you’re not an early bird when it comes to merchandise, you still need to be strategizing about your holiday sales plan right now and thinking about not so exciting metrics metrics such as accounts receivable days outstanding.It wouldn’t hurt to make sure your your cash flow management skills are properly utilized.
Accounts Receivable Days Outstanding Chart – Sageworks data of privately held companies
Accounts Receivable Days Outstanding
Many small business owners are caught unaware and lose out on potential sales, due to insufficient staff, running out of cash register tape (causing a long wait for harried shoppers) or even running out of product. Here are some tips to keep you on your toes long before you get sick of holiday music.
1. Prepare Your Inventory
Take a look at last year’s holiday sales to gauge what you need to stock up on. It can be a risk to double or triple your inventory, but it’s better than running out of an item and trying to order more during the biggest shopping season of the year. Double check inventory quantity now, while you still have a little time for last minute orders.
2. Get Your Sales Floor Tactical
This includes everything from hiring plenty of sales people and having them trained to withstand the madhouse that happens beginning on Black Friday (the shopping day following U.S. Thanksgiving) and continues until the new year, to stocking up on receipt tape (and training staff on how to replace it). Know how many people you’ll have on registers, helping guests or dealing with returns. Spend some time trying to think of everything that could happen to cause problems and write them down, so you can plan to avoid them. Sometimes all it takes is some advance thought and planning to avoid a mini-crisis or mass confusion.
3. Reap in the Sales… But Put Some Aside
While you’re making more money during this season than any other, you’ll also have more payment processing fees, says Mary Ellen Biery of SageWorks:
“Avoid a big cash flow shock after the holidays by thinking ahead, and planning for a bigger bill in January.”
Don’t be surprised when you’ve got more to pay, including salaries, utilities and fees. January could be a rude awakening, so be prepared.
4. Expect to Be Paid Later
Unless you operate a “cash” business, you probably will have outstanding invoices and receivables. Don’t expect to get your accounts receivables paid as quickly as in the past. On average, privately-held businesses are seeing invoices paid about nine days later in 2011 than in 2010, as the above chart from Sageworks shows. For retailers, it’s taking about four days longer. Doesn’t sound like much, but when you’ve got extra expenses, it can hurt! Plan for this and manage your cash flow carefully.
This is not the time to take your eye off the cash flow management ball. Check your cash flow forecast now. Pay your business expenses in a timely manner, but always wait as long as your payment terms allow, if cash is tight for you. If you have a line of credit or credit cards, consider using them to regulate your outbound cash flow in the fourth quarter so that you don’t find your business in a cash flow crisis at a time when the day-to-day business most needs your attention.
It will soon be too late to make these decisions and take action calmly and rationally, so don’t wait another day. Get started now.
Is Your Business Ready for the Holidays? 4 Invaluable Cash Flow Management Tips
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
After Divorce Dating Tips
Oct 19th
More Than Fifty Percent Of All Marriages End In Divorce, And All Those Divorcees Have Proven They Want To Be Married. This Guide Is Far Superior To The Usual “pick Up Artist” Guides, With Practical Real World Examples Of How To Get Back Into Dating.
After Divorce Dating Tips
IWantCollectibles.com – Antiques Collectibles and eBay® Selling Tips
Oct 17th
IWantCollectibles provides tips and advice for anyone with an Antiques, Collectibles or eBay® business! Learn about buying and selling antiques and collectibles, eBay® Consignment, and general eBay® buying and selling tips.
IWantCollectibles.com – Antiques Collectibles and eBay® Selling Tips
SMB and Entrepreneur News and Tips
Oct 15th
SMB and entrepreneur news and tips help inform the leaders of the future. The small business and entrepreneurship of tomorrow will create new jobs and new opportunities. Information is the key to building that future as effectively as possible.
Management
Companies are hiring-just not hiring you. With unemployment levels as high as they are, it is paradoxical that employers can not find employees to fill vacancies. This was known to be the case in many high tech job openings, but it is now being reported across almost all levels of employment. The main concern of companies is that applicants simply do not have the basic skills needed for the opening. It appears that our educational system and our training programs are not providing the skills required. msnbc.com
How to attract talent to a small company. How do you attract talent to a small business? Most likely you can’t pay the high salary and offer the benefits that the large successful companies do. What you can do is to try to show the perspective employee the advantages of working for a small business and emphasize the success and potential of your business. You also should attempt to structure the job requirements and the pay and benefits package to try to meet his particular situation. Wall Street Journal
A 4-step approach to solving workplace conflict. Resolving conflict in the workplace can be very time-consuming for the owner of a small business. When you only have a small number of employees, this type of interruption can be very costly in terms of time management and productivity. This article presents a structured model for dealing with these situations in a hopefully efficient manner. The model emphasizes face to face meetings with disruptive employees and using outlined steps in resolving the conflict. msnbc.com
Human Resources
Starting a Teach for America for Entrepreneurs. It has been difficult for small business owners or entrepreneurs to attract the brightest or the best of college graduates. Now we are beginning to see the start of organizations that are working toward attracting college graduates. One such organization is Venture for America which is based on the very successful Teach for America. You’re the Boss
Can retraining give the unemployed a second chance? The jury appears to still be out on the retraining of the unemployed. Among other factors that affect the outcome is that it has become somewhat of a political football. This article cites some examples of where retraining seems to have worked. One of the biggest hindrances is that some people have been unemployed so long that even with retraining the type of work available is totally unfamiliar to them. In addition many of the jobs that they are familiar with no longer exist, at least in this country. In theory retraining is a worthwhile undertaking but it still requires a lot of refining to make it really successful. msnbc.com
Why your company (probably) can’t innovate. Stephen Shapiro challenges some of the conventional wisdom that many small businesses use in attempting to foster new ideas. One of the main areas he disagrees with is the hiring of people that “fit” into the organization. By doing this you will not generate new ideas, but rather you need someone who rubs people the wrong way to insure you get divergent points of view. CNN Money
Leadership
10 things only bad managers say. What type of boss do you work for? Does he frequently complement you on your work, or is he the type that finds fault and criticizes everything you do and every idea you have? The ten characteristics of a bad boss may be a good indication of whether you’ve entered the bad manager zone. msnbc.com
Small businesses: Building community through hiring. One of the advantages of owning your own small business is that in addition to being profitable and generating wealth, you have the opportunity to pursue social good. Many small business owners use their business to help improve their community or to give people a second chance. One such endeavor is to become involved in a group such as TRIO. These programs have some risks involved but the rewards to the community can be so satisfying. The Christian Science Monitor
Legal & Liability
The S Corp Versus The LLC. The S Corporation and the LLC (Limited Liability Company) are the two most common ways of setting up a small business. The two types have several key similarities. There are also quite a number of differences. Which type of entity you choose depends on the needs of your particular small business. Small Business Trends
Small business insurance: More than general liability. To many small business owners, insurance is general liability insurance. While this is very good coverage to have, there are a number of other types of insurance that need to be considered to protect your business. The small business owner must evaluate which types of insurance are needed for his particular situation. Small Business Trends
SMB and Entrepreneur News and Tips
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
