How Seasonal Businesses Can Manage Up-and-Down Cash Flow

Now is the winter of our economic discontent
If you’re wondering how the economy’s doing, here’s what top news outlets are reporting: “U.S. GDP Fizzles in the fourth quarter” ( Marketwatch.com ); “Economy grinds to a halt in last quarter 2015” ( Money.CNN.com ). But there’s good news: Q1 2016 GDP is projected to be in the 2% range, unlike the two previous

Gen Y: Startup Tips
More than half of Gen Y ers  start or want to start their own business. I wholeheartedly believe that entrepreneurship is the new job security for Gen Y , which is why today I’m focusing on how to prepare

Are you asking the Outsourcing Power Question?
Biutou Doumbia lives in a tiny village in Mali, in western Africa. She and her family live in poverty, very close to the line between survival and, well, you know. Oh, one more thing: Biutou is a small business owner. She makes and sells peanut butter. In Mali, as reported in a Wall Street Journal article, peanut

Ensuring Family Biz Legacy
Few family enterprises survive long after founders pass them to younger generations. You can beat these odds with frank discussion of some of the most important and often ignored aspects of running a business. The  Wall Street Journal  article,

Family Biz and Tax Advantages
Family businesses often employ parents, children or grandchildren. If your business does, employees from your family might warrant tax exemptions that can save you big. “One of the advantages of operating your own business is hiring family members,” claims

How to Choose the Right ROBS Provider When Financing a Business
Entrepreneurs looking to start or recapitalize a business are always thinking about securing enough

Small Business Value Improvement
Maybe you set personal goals for this year like losing weight or quitting a nasty habit. If you own a company or small business, your goals focus on hitting revenue or profit milestones. The trick is how to make

Jim Blasingame's 2016 Crystal Ball Predictions
Here is the 16 th edition of my New Year predictions. Wall Street’s digital greed, Washington’s anti-business policies and collusion between the two continue to create a moribund Main Street economic environment for small businesses. With a declining global economy and having exhausted financial manipulation

Small business owners – still crazy after all these years
Small business owners are constantly compared to other, more popularly trodden professional paths that could have been

Smart Biz Plan: Outsource
An expanding business makes many demands on your finances. One of them is the cost of hiring additional staff. Instead of taking on full time workers at the early stage of the business, using contract employees to fill a

Sell Your Biz Misconceptions
Ironically, the same traits that drove you and your business to success can also lead to missteps when time comes for you to sell the biz. The biggest culprit may well be your own eternal optimism. While a positive

5 Top Tips for New Biz
I started my firm on a leap of faith six years ago. Knowing nothing about running a business when I began, I learned plenty of lessons along the way. I hope my been there done that advice is helpful

The Power Question: Ask it and then deliver
One hundred twenty years ago, lawyer Paul J. Harris moved his practice to Chicago. While he enjoyed the new opportunity his adopted city afforded, Harris missed the friendly relationships he knew growing up in a small Vermont town. One fall day in 1900, while walking around the Windy City’s North Side with Bob

Increase Prices: Best Biz Advice
How long has it been since you evaluated your pricing strategy? If you feel your business is not as profitable as it should be, do a pricing test. It takes some courage, but you might be pleasantly surprised by

Exit for Owners: Considerations
Are you a business owner thinking about exiting your company? Which exit route benefits you most? It’s a move tough to undo and you better know the pluses and minuses going in. While the number of exit routes seems

Biz Value: Right/Wrong Ways
Buying and selling a business, particularly a smaller one, rests on what its value is. Trouble is, some of the most widely used are very complex and end up wide of the mark. Based on sheer guesswork, these methods,

4 Power Questions That Will Cultivate Your Leadership Tree
Jim Blasingame reveals the four Power Questions that will help you mentor your employees to become leaders in your

Small-Business Owners Should Carefully Evaluate Funding Options
By  Dmitriy Fomichenko Learn more about Dmitriy on NerdWallet’s  Ask an Advisor No one ever said that starting a business and growing it to a sustainable level would be easy. Despite the key role small businesses play in  job creation  and our economy, credit available to small-business owners from the major