A survey conducted by Lloyds TSB among smaller businesses in North West England suggests that confidence for the coming year could be on the rise. The banking group spoke to 110 companies in the region, and found that many of them believe that then situation in Europe and at home will improve.
42% of the businesses Lloyds spoke to said that they believe that orders over the first six months of 2013 will go up, while just 13% believe the opposite may be the most likely outcome.…
Are you a small business owner who is looking for a high impact way to advertise, promote and get out there without burning a hole in your pocket? Then setting up your own pop up shop or participating in a pop up event might be the best thing to do. Here’s why…
1. It’s Time Tested
Pop up stores have been around for a really long time now. However it is only recently that pop ups have started getting the thumbs up from small business owners all over.…
No, this post is not about the geographical location of the best workplace in the world; instead, this post is about 5 of the best workplace types in the world. And yes, it’s worth reading 🙂
Today, technology enables us to be more mobile and productive. We are no longer need to setup an office on a business park to run our business. Instead, you can now run a reputable business without the costs of maintaining a full-fledged office.
Especially great for independent business owners, here are top locations for running your business – with or without employees.…
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.…
