7 Best Practices in Hiring a Small Business Manager

September 8, 2012


Manager is probably the most important person for small businesses, after you. He is the one who manages day-to-day operations when you are not around, ensures that employees perform their job and is responsible for customer satisfaction. Yet many small business owners rush to hire managers without doing sufficient due diligence and end up regretting their decision afterwards and paying price in terms of business decline.
It is true that not every business needs a full-time manager, however in many situations it is a necessity for various reasons. For example, if you are running an absentee business manager is the one who will run the show. In some cases, business operating hours are more than you can provide yourself. Or you may just want to focus on high-priority strategic items and let the manager take care of operations. No matter what your reason is for hiring a manager the best practices described here will help you hire a manager who will help you grow your business.
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Filed Under: Employees, Management Tagged With: ,

Sell your Business Fast by Following these Best Practices

August 28, 2012


In my non-scientific estimate every one month delay after you have put the business up for sale reduces the price you will get by about 0.5%. For a business worth $100,000 this translates to a loss of approx $500 every month! In addition, the delay in completing the sale can not only result in deterioration of the business, but you can start losing important employees and customers if they get a hint that you are planning to sell the business. That’s why it is imperative for the business owners to complete the sale as quickly as possible after you have decided to sell it.
Now, selling the business is an inherently complex and time consuming process. It is not uncommon to find businesses that have been on the market for 6 months before the sale is complete. However, with little planning and preparation it is possible to reduce this time. Read on to find out how.
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Filed Under: Management, Sellers Tagged With: ,

How to Manage Franchise Relationship to your Benefit

August 25, 2012


Franchisee and franchisor have long held love-hate relationship. They know that they both need each other to be successful, but at the same time, they are constantly disagreeing and fighting over number of issues. While healthy debate and disagreements are beneficial, constant fighting over trivial issues can sap energy out of both franchisee and the franchisor.
For this reason many franchisees feel they should just venture on their own rather than dealing with the tyranny of franchisor. This could be a mistake, however. There are number of benefits of owning a franchise as opposed to running an independent business. As a franchisee, you need to develop a symbiotic relationship with the franchisor and focus on what you want to get out of it. The key is to understand and follow the rules of the game and develop a playbook that will make you a winner. Follow these guidelines when developing the playbook.
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Filed Under: Buyers, Management, Strategy Tagged With: , ,

Small Business Owners – Beware of These Social Media Marketing Traps

August 15, 2012


Many small business owners think of social media as panacea for all marketing and sales ills. They believe, often wrongly, that by jumping on the bandwagon of social media they will be able to improve their sales by 25% overnight. They are fooled by misconceptions promoted by the so called social media experts. I regularly get 4-5 emails every week from these experts offering me to help promote my blog and land it on the first page of Google Search for a charge!
While there is truth to the fact that every small business needs to have Internet and social media marketing strategy you have to first understand what it can and cannot do for your business and set the right expectations before jumping in. We do believe that there are selected social media tools that small businesses must use. It’s how you use it that really makes a difference. That is why I talked about social media best practices for small business owners in earlier post. In this post let’s turn the table and discuss the traps you need to watch out for when using social media for marketing purpose.
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Filed Under: Customers, Marketing, Technology Tagged With: ,

Should you Outsource Computer Support for your Small Business

August 12, 2012

Sponsored Post (Brought to you by Greeks Mobile)

Technology has become an integral part for all businesses these days. Whether you are operating a multinational corporation or a small mom-and-pop business you cannot build a successful business without integrating computer technology. While technology can be a great boon to grow your business, it can become equally frustrating when something goes wrong with it. Just think about the last time you called customer support of a company and you heard the representative say – “I am sorry, but my computer just crashed. I am afraid I cannot help you.” This type of situation can not only leave you and your customers frustrated, but it can result in lost sales.
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Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: ,

7 Best Practices to Follow When Buying Small Business

August 8, 2012


Very few decisions have as much impact on your life, as well as of those around you, as the decision to buy a business. This is one of the biggest decisions you will make, other than the decision to get married or have kids. Yet many people jump into this without carefully examining what it takes to run a small business. They get blindsided by the myths about owning a small business and end up paying a huge price, both in terms of money and stress, for a long time. With that in mind, we have compiled 7 best practices to follow and understand before buying a business.
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Filed Under: Buyers Tagged With: , , , ,

How to Reduce Real Estate Cost with Virtual Office

August 3, 2012


If the economic downturn of the last few years has taught anything to business owners it is to stay flexible and nimble. This applies to large corporations, but it has been even more critical for small business owners. After all, small businesses are working on a shoestring budget and do not have much room for error. I discussed the actions small business owners can take to become flexible in earlier post. I also showed a framework that can help you reduce costs in a systematic fashion. It involves looking at various costs and eliminate, rent, share and optimize them in that order.
For small business owners one of the biggest costs and impediments to being flexible is the real estate expense – either owned or leased. Lately, some entrepreneurs have come up with novel approach to help you reduce this cost, while still letting you keep the appearance of having full service office. Let’s look at how it works and what you can gain from it.
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Filed Under: Operations, Technology Tagged With: , ,

The many benefits to your business of attending marketing conferences

August 3, 2012

A guest post by Melissa
Whether your primary business is public relations, search engine optimization, or advertising, your company’s attendance at marketing-oriented conferences can be extremely beneficial to your business. Why have other business owners in your field made the decision to attend marketing industry conferences? Although staying up-to-date on industry dynamics and networking are two of the obvious answers, there are plenty of other benefits. These include gaining competitive intelligence, having the opportunity to publicly speak, having the opportunity to exhibit or even sponsor the event, seek out affiliates, having the opportunity to meet your clients face-to-face, recruit new employees, and even party with like-minded people.
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Filed Under: Management Tagged With:

Smart International Trading for Small and Medium Sized Businesses

July 30, 2012


If you run a small to medium sized business (SME) you probably already feel like you’re trying to keep a million plates spinning at once – add international trading in to this and ensuring none of them fall can seem like impossibility. When you take the step to begin trading across borders, it’s understandable to feel like you’re exposing your business to a lot of risk: what the laws of your country may protect your business against, the laws in the company you are trading with may not. Thankfully, banks such as HSBC offer a number of services, from business credit cards to important export services, designed to support SMEs as they grow their business abroad. Let’s look at those services and how they could benefit your business.
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Filed Under: Finance, Management Tagged With: , ,

Does Your Small Business have Local Internet Strategy

July 26, 2012

Sponsored Post (Brought to you by RevLocal)

Here is a quick question for you. Let’s say you are looking for a restaurant to go out for evening dinner with your friends or family. Where would you turn to find out? In the old days your answer would have been Yellow Pages (remember those thick books you used to keep?). Not anymore. These days more and more people are turning to web sites such as Google Places and Bing Local to uncover local businesses. These Online business listings, along with review sites such as Yelp, are becoming the new “Yellow Pages” of the Internet age.
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Filed Under: Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , ,