Archive for July 2005
S Corps Beware! A Lottery You Do Not Want to Win
The Entrepreneurial Mind: Those who own S-corporations (the most common legal form of privately owned businesses) be warned. Inc.com reports that “Internal Revenue Service officials announced on Monday that the organization will examine 5,000 randomly selected S corporation returns from the tax years 2003 and 2004 as part of a new study to determine the [...]
Starting a Business: Advice from the Trenches
One year ago: Starting a Business: Advice from the Trenches.
An Alternative to Airport Taxi and Long Term Parking
Dan Sherman: Here’s a new one for you. Provide an alternative to long term airport parking and/or taxi rides to and from the airport. I’m sure there are plenty of places in your town that are a $50+ one way taxi ride to the airport (from people’s houses… etc.) That’s $100+ that is spent on [...]
Forbes.com Best of the Web Small Business
Once again I didn’t make Forbes’ list of best small business blogs. I’m not bitter though, because all of the sites on their list are excellent and definitely deserved to be there. Congratulations. They include: Small Business Trends Entrepreneurial Mind Small Business Brief
Generalists Succeed as Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs must be generalists, according to Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Edward Lazear. He has been studying data from a 1997 survey of about 5,000 Stanford MBA alumni regarding their careers. Dr. Edward Lazear had this to say about entrepreneurs: This view of entrepreneurship is at odds with the intuition of those who believe [...]
Today is Thursday, the day of the week I publicly thank my paid advertisers. Thank you: Clean Force International FranChoice Franchise Solutions The Entrepreneur’s Source WSI Sticky123 Franchise & Business Opportunities Show (If you’re interested in advertising or sponsoring the site, please contact Tim at advertising@business-opportunities.biz or call me at 209-765-1656.)
One year ago today: Should You Say “Me” Or “We?”
→ cleanforceintl.com I strongly recommend Clean Force International‘s mobile tile and grout cleaning business opportunity. This is truly the first business opportunity that I’ve seen that offers an effective & profitable method for cleaning tile & grout. The patented technology & equipment produce amazing results very quickly (500-1000 sq. ft. per hour). If you have [...]
This week’s episode of Brain Brew Radio is online. Highlights include: An artist looking to market his office doodles How to spruce up a vintage furniture company why change is non-negotiable
Tim Weiler faces a common hurtle for the part time entrepreneur: I am absolutely 100% positive that sales of Syncura will wildly surpass my current salary. So what the hell am I doing strapped to my cubicle at work? “You’re supporting your wife and kid and ensuring that we don’t get thrown out on the [...]
Barbers Reinventing Their Industry
Small Business Trends: The venerable small business trade of the barbershop is changing. For 30 years barbershops were in a long decline in which the numbers of barbers in the United States kept going down. However, since 2001 the industry has been making a slow resurgence. How have they managed to turn the industry decline [...]
The Street: “According to the National Coffee Association USA (NCAUSA), 49% of Americans age 18 or older drink some type of coffee beverage daily, and many of them are waiting in lines at specialty coffee retailers to get their fix.” via Jason Duncan.
Seth Godin has some great advice for new authors: Build an asset. Large numbers of influential people who read your blog or read your emails or watch your TV show or love your restaurant or or or… Then, put your idea into a format where it will spread fast. That could be an ebook (a [...]
Reveries: “The most popular promotion for the Hagerstown Suns minor league baseball team is not Star Wars Night, Bald Night or Beer Night. It is Faith Night, where religion is the drawing card, reports Reid Cherner in USA Today (7/22/05). ‘Baseball, faith, and American, it’s a perfect fit,’ says C.J. Johnson, marketing director for the [...]
Fortune Small Business: Working Hours: Running a small business can be an all-consuming job. Most companies with employees are open for about 11 hours every day. Some 6% are open 24 hours a day. (NFIB) Rivals: The enemy is nearby. Asked to name the main competitive threat to their business, 41.5% of entrepreneurs polled named [...]
Jeff Cornwall: While the iPod was not the product of an entrepreneurial company, it has helped to spawn a whole industry for entrepreneurs looking to create new products around the huge demand for this new technology. Dr. Cornwall points to an article from eWeek that highlights the tech boom surrounding the tiny device: These days, [...]
How To Determine How Much To Offer For A Business
All Business: The first thing you need to do is hire an accountant or a business broker with good accounting skills to perform a valuation. Much like real estate, you need to have some comparables. Research how much similar businesses have sold for, or might sell for, in your area. A good local business broker [...]
One year ago: Grave Marker BizOp.
My post Office or Home Based Business? generated quite a bit of talk. Chris De La Rosa wrote: I’ve been working from home doing several different things internet related and not only have I been successful, I love it. I dread the thought of going back to a daily 9-5. Not to mention the circus [...]
Businesses For Stay At Home Moms
One year ago today: Businesses For Stay At Home Moms.
How Much Should You Pay Yourself
Microsoft: It seems like a silly question, but it’s one that owners of business startups have to answer. How much of a salary should they receive? Depending on how the business is structured, the answer can be, “What the market will bear,” “Just part of what I’d make otherwise” or even “Nothing at all — [...]
A Day in the Life: You may have noticed the recent spate of reality shows following the lives of certain celebrities or people with particularly interesting jobs. As the cameras trail, the glitz and glamour is peeled away to reveal a more realistic view of what life is like for the subject. And more often [...]
Rhonda Abrams: “As a management consultant for many years, I was surprised to discover just how many small companies procrastinate when it comes to sending out invoices. In fact, the second client I ever had — a successful florist — nearly had to close their doors solely because they delayed sending out their bills.”
The marketing email newsletter Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! has twenty great trade show tips. Here are some of my favorites: Everybody else is here to meet people too Show your badge Best places to meet people Want to meet one of the speakers? Is it worth it? Trade Show Math Travel light [...]
Washington is Paying Too Much Attention to Entrepreneurship
Dr. Jeff Cornwall: The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship offers a couple of examples of Washington’s increased interest in entrepreneurship in our economy. While this may at first sound like good news, I am concerned that over time it may lead to increased meddling by bureaucrats in D.C. in the entrepreneurial process. … All real entrepreneurs [...]
Blinksale, the new web-based email invoice generator, has launched.
Guerilla Marketing Tactic – Mobile Sign
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How to Get Smart Fast, Or Don’t Go It Alone
Paul Allen: Too many entrepreneurs try to do it alone. But it’s easy to work together with a group of entrepreneurs that helps everyone succeed. That is what YEO and other organizations like it are all about. There are many examples of this in history. In 1727 Benjamin Franklin and 12 friends formed a group [...]
How to Effectively Borrow Ideas, Strategies and Tactics
About: “Today’s small business owner is confronted with new business problems and opportunities on a regular basis. Running a company requires the ability to look outside the business for solutions, ideas, and best practices. However, borrowing ideas and best practices can be wrought with danger. Learn what big business already knows about benchmarking best practices [...]
One year ago today: Selling Services on Ebay.
Philip Greenspun: “I’ve decided to amuse myself and, I hope, inspire some young hard-working folks, by writing up ideas for businesses that should be profitable.” Here’s the first one: Chinese-made motorhomes.
Software For Side-Business: The Neglected Market
37 Signals: “When you think small business, think 1-10 people not 50-100. There’s an endless supply of 1-10 person companies. Who cares about the Fortune 500? It’s time to care about the Fortune 5,000,000. Forget the enterprise market. Forget the mid-sized company market. Build for the smallest of small companies and you’ll find a thirsty, [...]
Carnival of Personal Finance #6 is up at Free Money Finance.
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Political Calculations.
Office or Home Based Business?
Entrepreneur’s Journey: A lot of small business owners worry that running a home based business can hinder their ability to convince clients to buy because of the perception that they are not professional if they do not have an office. Another possible concern is hiring new employees – will they be willing to come work [...]
→ snappytomato.com Snappy Tomato Pizza specializes in providing top quality pizzas, hoagies, salads and “snappetizers” with exceptionally efficient and friendly service. They make pizza dough fresh daily and use a blend of fresh cheeses. They also use a special homemade pizza sauce recipe that is delightfully unique. Snappy Tomato Pizza uses a fine selection of [...]
How To Interview And Hire People
Scott Berkun: “The advice in this essay comes from many years of interviewing people for different jobs in the tech-sector. I’ve written this as a general primer. It should apply well for any kind of job: managers, designers, programmers, testers, or anyone that needs to work in a fast paced, collaborative, high energy environment. Look [...]
Business Reform: “The rationale behind our list is as follows: We wanted to find the ten best Christian-owned, -run, or -founded franchises and list them according to their degree of market presence, financial success, their commitment to local communities, their overall quality (both in terms of service and product), as well as rate of growth.” [...]
The Nanny Business Has Changed
One year ago today: How the Web Has Changed the Nanny Business.
Jamie Beane from Access Communications sent me an email: “Intuit has launched a new community site called QuickBooksGroup.com, that was developed to give the millions of small business owners who use QuickBooks a forum to talk, shop and share advice.”
This week’s Brain Brew Radio is online. In this episode, Drew the Dramatic Fool in Pittsburgh finds out how he can articulate the benefit of his recently released DVD of silent movies.
37Signals: “Constraints are a unique advantage that small teams have over the big guys. Less money, less time, less people. Don’t be too eager to relieve yourself of these advantages through VC money, long release cycles, and quick hires.”
Franchise Pundit: As a follow up to the previous post Is caring for the elderly a profitable business?, I’ve been looking at a few other elderly care franchises. My preliminary favorite is Comfort Keepers. All the non-medical elderly care franchises have roughly a $25K franchise fee and 5% royalties. But, Comfort Keepers sets itself apart [...]
When Lifestyle Businesses Clash with Customer Demands
Jeff Cornwall: Many folks end up becoming entrepreneurs because of a specific hobby, interest or passion. For example, many people enter the restaurant industry because they like to cook. However, they soon find out there is a lot more than good cooking required to make a restaurant succeed. Staffing, inventory management and customer relations all [...]
Torsten Jacobi: “Go ahead and be original, because it’s the people passion, guts, and daring that will win. Not just because going through life with passion and guts beats the alternative (which it does), but also because it’s the only way to be successful. Today, the one sure way to fail is to be boring. [...]
Via Jason Duncan, comes this excellent article from Entrepreneur on business planning. Highlights include: Don’t put off writing a plan. Don’t confuse cash with profits. Don’t dilute your priorities. Don’t overvalue the business idea. Don’t confuse a plan with the act of planning. Don’t fudge the details in the first 12 months. Don’t sweat the [...]
Businesses Target Illegal Immigrants
National Public Radio: “Advocates for undocumented workers in California have failed to win legislative approval for state-issued auto licenses for illegal immigrants. But that doesn’t mean the undocumented can’t buy a car, register and insure it — or even get a mortgage and buy a house. The loophole that allows unlicensed people to buy a [...]
Starting a Personal Shopping Service
Three years ago: Make Big Money With Your Own Personal Shopping Service.
One year ago today, Dr. Cornwall at The Entrepreneurial Mind described latest marvel of the marketplace: health care kiosks.
Just like in Loonies in Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, ATM users in Japan can try to gamble their way out bank fees. According to the BBC, Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank is introducing slot machine games of chance which run while the ATM processes its more mundane transactions: Get three sevens, and your withdrawal [...]
