Say something profound today.

August 2007
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Aug 24, ’07 8:51 AM

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If you can't think of something to say, don't worry - how about this: Based on structural considerations, our physical distribution strategy broaden our horizons tpwards our platform robustness - or this -In the final analysis, performance-based positioning energizes 24/7 architectures.These examples and 40 million more are generated on the MBA Writer web-site by Mike Shor (Humor), he writes:Automatically generate sentences ready for inclusion into your business memos without all of the thinking!!Here you go b*** s*** at the press of a button, you can use it in your memos, emails (or not) it will impress the readers - as long as they don't come back and ask you what that means.

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Small Business Failure – Reason: Fixed Cost

Aug 23, ’07 9:37 PM

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Even if you have staff - outsourced of employed - doing your bookkeeping and organize the payments for you, you need to make the decisions of when your suppliers get paid, so you can control your cash-flow.There are many more questions you could ask yourself, here I just wanted to get you going. If you have any more issues or are uncomfortable with any of your costs and answers to the above questions, then you should get some professional advice.Running out of money is the reason most small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal businesses fail, not controlling your fixed costs is one of the main reasons for this.

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Exporting & Globelization for Small Business

Aug 23, ’07 11:09 AM

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We learned that our customers just used our OnlineOffice and made arrangements for the "Live" services themselves - and this has been the way ever since we withdrew GlobalOffice to focus on our "core" business to provide a Small Business Infrastructure -SBI.Small Biz Labs have a post today about Laurel Delaneey's Global Small Business Blog and one of her recent posts, some of the data is quite interesting: Only about 4% of US companies are exporters and the US has the lowest level of exports as a % of GNP of the G7 countries - roughly 10%. The highest is Germany at almost 45% and the 2nd lowest is Japan at a bit over 15%SME's (defined as less than 500 employees) accounted for 29% of US export value in 2005.While the number of exporting businesses in the US grew rapidly in 90's, it has stayed relatively flat since 2000.

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Small Business Checklist: Home Office & Home Business

Aug 23, ’07 10:01 AM

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As part of a bootstrapping exercise or a business start-up phase, working from home is a great way to work, so I thought of some points to consider when setting up your office or small business at home: Cost - you will save a lot of money and be very eco-friendly when you decide not to rent an office, this saving can be used in other areas of your business, like marketing, better web-site or better IT.Family - I suspect that many of you work from home because of your family, it allows you to be around when your kids come home from school or look after relatives, while still earning a living.Commuting - again a very eco-friendly approach and saves money and time.... I use social network communities to linkedIn to build out my professional network, utilizing our online office, skype and other tools to communicate worldwide.More and more of my friends work from home so we have nice "pub-lunches" locally, no traveling, less stress and a much better work/life balance - how is your work/life balance?For more of my checklists see the Small Business Checklists category and as always please add to my list with your comments, tell us what works for you.

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Teamwork for Small Business Is Way To Success

Aug 22, ’07 7:43 AM

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A team is defined as a group of people who co-operate in such a manner that it achieves more than the sum total of the individuals achieve each, they are united around a common goal and are accountable to the team for their actions.Examples of teams are: Work TeamsSales TeamsCustomer Service TeamsVirtual TeamsI would suggest that small business owners need to form teams around their small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal businesses, too.... The benefits especially for small business and even more business start-up, can not be over emphasized - teams perform functions so important for small business success: achieve better work results than individuals,are ultimately more scalable and flexible than larger organisations,offer a wider range of services and products than individuals,offer the opportunity of "brain-storming",motivate each other,develop more skills and confidenceshow more commitment to each other.Whatever you do, employ new staff, hire a consultant, work with an accountant, think my-team, think my-community and think my-network - because you are building your Small Business Team.

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Accounting and Accountants for Business Start-Ups and Small Business

Aug 21, ’07 2:04 PM

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Do you want to:Do you just want to collect your receipts and other documents and than hand it over to someone else?Are you happy to fill in a simple online forms and have the double entry done by an bookkeeper or accountant?Or do you want to do the accounting yourself and have the accountant prepare your tax-returns for you?Each of these options is OK, as long as you do not relinquish all your responsibility to the other party when you outsource.... then their are products on the market that can help you, one of them is our AccountsOffice- Lite Edition ( currently still called CashBook), for a full tri-ledger accounting system you can use our AccountsOffice Standard Edition, both of the single user versions are free BTW.For small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal business, the only way to go is online - I'm sure you think I would say that - but consider this.

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Competitive Edge for Small Business

Aug 21, ’07 9:49 AM

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So if you need reassurance that it's good to be a small start-up business - here are some of my thoughts - and I'm sure you could add to these:Low overheads - especially if you use bootstrapping techniques your value proposition to your customers is unbeatable for big business, who have to factor in a much higher cost infrastructure.People - contracting a big company is not easy, one person will make the deal with you as the client and other will come and do the work. With small business you often talk to the person who also does the work - you can see how he or she works before you spend any money.Flexibility and mobility - small business is not hampered by infrastructure and paper pushing, short decision processes combined with more mobility is key to keep customers happy.Talk to the boss - with a small business you can always talk to the boss - try to talk to the Chairman of BT!

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Small Business Checklists: Size Matters

Aug 21, ’07 8:30 AM

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Here are some pointers to help you to look bigger, more professional and efficient: Business address - "19, Rose Gardens" may not be the best small business address, a PO Box number is not really the way to instill confidence either - use a business address service, which will forward all mail to you.Phone answering - have your phone answered, no matter what, use a virtual assistant or an answering service.... If you work with on virtual assistant they have usually a network of expertise around them, that creates a one stop shop for professional skills for you.Be proactive - use Key Account Management Techniques to deal with your customer, remember the 80/20 rule.Branding - even if you outsource insist on your own branding, it builds your brand and is less confusing for your customers.Share technology and facilities - see if you can find other businesses that let you share equipment, storage, office and anything else you can think of.Think big - the way you talk about your business, products and services will tell others a lot about you and your business.

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Marketing for Small Business and Business Start-Up

Aug 21, ’07 7:39 AM

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Starting, owning and growing a small business calls for many skills sets to be used by the owner, financial planning, people management, having a vision and development of a strategy, operational skills, technical, sales and marketing skills.... A fundamental marketing concept is Customer Value Proposition (CVP) - to succeed with your small business your must: Offer the right product or serviceTo your targeted clients and customersAt the right priceCreating the perception of valueIn a profitable mannerConsider these points when developing your marketing plan - a CVP should be part of your strategic plan and be inline with your efficiency efforts for your small business.If you have more than one customer/client segments your small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal business, is active in than you need to have more than one CVP, but most of the time small business will focus on one customer group and develop into a niche:the newspaper shop - to provide newspapers and a small selection of consumer goods in a local (convenient) community with convenient opening hours and a good customer service (friendly) which can demand a slightly higher priceorthe online business - to provide a complete range of products within a market segment, which is available to purchase 24 hrs a day, every day at the lowest possible price with fast delivery using user-friendly online shopping technologyCreate your own CVP - Customer Value Proposition for your own small business - again it will help you to focus on what is important (core) and what can be outsourced (non-core).

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Blog Action Day About Our Environment

Aug 20, ’07 2:22 PM

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I just registered my blog to join in on the Blog Action Day for our Environment - if you have a blog - please do the same.WinWeb will publish it's ClimateByte™ Technology Guidelines - in connection with our software release 3.4 - early next month and we are pleased to be associated with this BLOG ACTION DAY FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT On October 15th, 2007when everyone should post something about green/environmental issues on their blog.Please join us and be part of the solution.... One day.

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