Want to gauge how well your business do in your industry? Well, there’s an app for that – a pretty powerful one. SizeUp – super-easy-to-use business intelligence tool that can help you analyze your competitors and industry; to find exactly where’s you in the comparison charts.
How SizeUp works
It’s easy to underestimate SizeUp: Entering the site, you are presented with a clean-looking layout with only 2 fields to fill out: Your niche and your location.
What you see is just the very tip of the iceberg: Once you’re in, you will get valuable insight about your niche and your competitors.…
Most businesses give key information right in their names. Starbucks Coffee. Nationwide Insurance. Dunkin Donuts. Your brand isn’t about the service you provide, it’s about what makes your company the absolute best option. A fill-in-the-blanks website and mass produced logo will let potential customers know what your business does – but that’s about it. In an age where there are hundreds of choices available, your brand must be about what makes you different.
Be metaphorical
Many of the most successful brands have symbolic logos.…
I discovered this interesting video while looking for small business inspiration. It’s a good finding. It’s Patch’s exclusive video interview with John Puckett, the founder of Caribou Coffee and co-owner of Punch Pizza.
John and his wife co-founded Caribou Coffee in 1992 with a big plan to establish 200 stores in 5 to 10 years. Things are looking good and going as planned…
John were successfully established 100 stores in 8 US states, but then he encountered a problem, which mainly related to work-life balance.…
The stock market is a fickle playground – entire life savings can be gained and lost in the space of a day – but despite its turbulent nature, there are some things that you should just not do if you’re looking to emerge unscathed from the financial battlefield. These are ways you could ruin your portfolio and all your investments with disastrous ease, and have ended many a career over the years. Here are six losing strategies for stock traders.
1.…
Effective content management systems (CMS) can make employee workflows much faster, lead to greater web productivity, and help streamline publishing processes. The point of a CMS system is to allow an organization to make content changes to a website, without touching the code and structure of a website. Web designers and developers can rejoice, because their infrastructures are safer when others post web content via a CMS. These five characteristics of good CMS solutions can help companies that are searching for the right fit.…
In my opinion, there is no other power as disruptive to your business as ranting. It’s tempting to rant, especially when you feel that you have every right to do so. “The economy sucks…” “the Gov’t sucks…” “the market sucks…” and so on… While there’s nothing wrong in opinions, rants will only impact you – and the people around you – in negative ways; it’s that obvious.
Before you know it, you are slowly being surrounded by those who think alike.…
Are you ready to turn your ideas into real business? Well, hold your horses… first things first: You need to know how to start right. You need a plan; or better yet, you need a checklist and follow-the-dotted-line guide. While you are searching for resources, this blog post will enlighten you with 5 startup checklists you might have missed during your search.
Well, if you are doing business in the US I’m sure you know that the go-to site for startup advice is SBA.gov.…
The very first notion of banking can be traced back to 2000 BC, when grain loans were conducted between farmers between cities. In the Roman Empire, lenders based in temples started to accept deposits and were able to change money.
However, banking as we know it didn’t start to come into play until the medieval era, when the Bardi and Peruzzi families set up banks in many parts of Europe.
Banking today mainly takes its lead from the Bank of England, which was established in 1694.…
Are you under pressure right now? Well, if you are a small business owner – in whichever part of the world you are – the answer would unanimously be “YES.” With the uncertainty in the economic situation, Government regulations, market outlook… not mentioning the internal issues you may have, such as trust issues, “poisonous” workplace dynamics, internal thefts, poor service/management, and so on… it’s only normal when you feel overwhelmed at times.
When I ask small business owners, “Is this (your business) what you want to do?”…
Well, simply put, it matters because the government says it matters. So unless you are a) Brave b) A little stupid c) Have no intention of ever paying any of your employees ever again, then feel free not to read on. For those of you who are a little intrigued by what the changes to the PAYE system mean, consider this a lubricant ( yes, this piece has taken on a ‘tone’) to gently ease you in to the super sexy world of RTI.…
