Small business lessons from big business mistakes

Here is the latest Small Business News from the NASDAQ.

Small business lessons from big business mistakes
Here is a true story from which several business lessons can be learned. A while back, I needed to reach a friend who worked in the local office of a national company. Searching online, and yes, even the phone book, I found only a toll-free number that connected to an answering system for the entire company.

Should Your Small Business Accept Credit Card Payments?
Credit card payments in the United States are on the raise. More and more consumers are signing up for the little pieces of plastic and using them as their main method of payment. This is in part due to banks making rewards better and better for cardholders. If you’re planning to open up a small business, it’s

3 Early Signs Your Business Is Going To Fail
My friend, entrepreneur Marc Kramer, has started about 20 businesses. Some have succeeded, others have not. Among his start-ups, I asked him if he got signals early on that he had a clunker on his hands, and if so, what the signs were. Generally, he said, he knew within about 120 days whether or not the concept is

How Your Hobbies Can Make You Money in Retirement
If you’re looking to generate extra income during retirement , you might want to explore ways to make your hobby into a more profitable venture. After all, hobbies are the things you choose to do — activities that, in most cases, you’d happily do for free. And pursuing a hobby-related business can make for a

How to Hire for Your Small Business
You should be asking yourself a few questions before you begin the hiring process for your small business. Why have you decided to hire someone? Does this reason highlight a fundamental problem within your business? Will hiring someone help you with your long-term goals? Can you afford to hire anyone right now? If

Three new reasons to expand your market horizons
More than ever, 21st century small businesses have reasons and resources to expand opportunities beyond local markets, including international trade, and specifically exporting. Yet even though 97% of all U.S. exporters are small companies, only a fraction of that sector are exporters. But there’s good news that

Which Type of Online Lending Fits Your Small Business Needs?

The Biggest Differences Between Traditional Lenders and Online Lenders
Small businesses have historically struggled to qualify for loans from banks due to their more stringent requirements. As a result, online lenders have become popular alternatives to help fill this funding gap. Though traditional lenders and online lenders offer similar products, their application and funding

Three important people you want to be close to you

Don't Qualify for a Small Business Bank Loan? Here's What You Can Do
If you don’t qualify for a traditional bank loan for your small business, it can be a challenge to get funding. Thankfully, there are a variety of other lenders and methods for getting the money you need for your business. Alternative Lenders Lenders, like Kabbage and Bond Street, help fill the funding gap for

Pokemon Go Lures Customers to Small Businesses
In July 2016, Pokemon Go, an augmented reality game, launched in over thirty countries. It first became available in the U.S., New Zealand and Australia on July 6, and most recently, in Japan on July 21. The game takes advantage of the nostalgia surrounding a popular Japanese franchise that was released two decades

The power of brainstorming with adjectives
How dull would our world be without adjectives? You know, those handy words or terms we use, as Webster says, to “modify a noun.” Indeed, without the descriptive power of an adjective, a noun is nothing more than a bland commodity – like broccoli without hollandaise. If I offered you a soybean, you would probably be

Tips on Taking Over a Family Business
Taking over a family business combines two of the most important parts of our lives — family and work — in a potentially volatile process that can affect relationships and keep the transition from being as smooth as it could be. We asked Anna Sergunina , a financial advisor who works with small businesses and who’s

How Seasonal Businesses Can Manage Up-and-Down Cash Flow
Some businesses see steady sales throughout the year, while others see their revenue concentrated into seasonal segments — think tax preparation offices or ski lodges. These businesses have particular challenges when it comes to managing cash flow , since expenses have to be paid throughout the year, even when

How Startups Can Control Spending in Their First Year
The booming tech economy has produced a wave of smart, ambitious entrepreneurs intent on creating fast-growing companies that can disrupt existing markets or even create new ones. As with any new business, though, solid, common-sense business principles can mean the difference between prudent growth and excessive

10 reasons to never be too cool for Old School
You may think you’re too cool for “Old School,” but there’s one thing it produced that you can’t be successful without: the fundamentals. Here are ten essential operating fundamentals that are timelessly, beautifully, definitively, non-negotiably, Old School. Financial statements: Become an expert at understanding

Research, Anticipate and Plan: How to Ace Your Job Interview
Your application was filed, you got the all-important call-back and the interview is scheduled. Now what do you do? The job application process is different from the job interview process, and so are the preparations. The ValuePenguin Careers team has compiled a three-phase plan for you to get ready the next time

How Small Businesses Can Control Costs in the Early Stages