Small Business Blog

Today we bring and article from MSNBC.com where "Apprentice" ex-star shares 10 tips to start a business to your attention.  It provides helpful tips for aspiring enterpreneurs.  Enjoy and have a safe Memorial Day weekend!

‘Apprentice’ ex-star: 10 tips to start a business - Today: Technology - MSNBC.com

‘Apprentice’ ex-star: 10 tips to start a business

Carolyn Kepcher, known for her work overseeing contestants on NBC's “The Apprentice” alongside Donald Trump, offers advice for budding entrepreneurs.

If you’re contemplating a startup, consider this top 10 list my “Business Startup Litmus Test.” In my book, if you have these, you have the best possible start. If you’re lacking in any of these areas, it’s in your best interest to step back and fill in the gaps.

1. PassionBeing an entrepreneur means living, breathing and talking your idea. You have to be able to sell your concept to anyone, and that means selling with passion. Your audience needs to feel your enthusiasm and your conviction that you have the right idea at the right time. Make your passion and enthusiasm visible to everyone — how well you do this can make or break a deal.

2. Network
Nobody can start a business without help: financial, management, marketing and more. Join every network, every team, every board that’s closely related to your business. There are a number of resources on the Web that can help you as well. You’ll be surprised to find how many people are willing to help you by introducing you to the right people.

3. Knowledge
In order to bring your concept or product to market, you have to be prepared to answer every question, especially if you are presenting in front of potential investors or clients. Know the answers to these basic questions: Is there a need? Who is your market/demographic? How will you bring it to market? Is it a viable concept? Who is your competition? What makes you different?

4. Strategic partners
How do you bring your product to market? You can’t do it alone. Find out what avenues are out there for help. Approach potential distributors or marketing partners with creative ideas on how you can mutually benefit from an alliance.

5. Raising money This is always the hard part. If your business idea requires outside money, you will probably try to raise it from friends and family first. We call these kinds of investors “angels.” When asking them for money, make sure of one thing: They can afford to lose whatever funds they decide to give you. Never make the mistake of begging your friends and family for more than is reasonable given their own financial situation. If the company goes belly-up, you certainly do not want to be responsible for losses that might have an adverse effect on their lives.

6. Contribute what you can affordWhat’s good for your angels is good for you: Only put into your company as much money as you can afford. When thinking about opening a business, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Earmark an amount that will not interfere with the necessities of your lifestyle. Do not tap into funds that would be used to pay the mortgage, take care of your children’s needs, education, health care or other regular expenses.

7. Relationships
Relationships are everything. No matter who you speak to, who you worked for, who worked for you — it is imperative that you don’t burn bridges. This may sound like a cliché, but you never know when you may need to reach out to someone from your past. At the same time, it is important that you are continually building new relationships and understandings with people who can help you in the future.

8. Take it slow
With regard to networking and building relationships: When introduced to somebody who might be able to help you, start a dialogue, get to know the person and help him or her get to know you a bit. Only when a relationship is formed should you begin to talk about your business ideas, pose questions or ask for help. If you jump in too quickly, you may turn the person off and lose his/her help altogether. Another consequence of rushing: You may be revealing too much to the wrong person — someone who might steal your idea, reveal it to competitors or hurt you in some other way.

9. Informal board of directors
Whether or not you are starting the kind of company that legally requires you to have a board, you should create one anyway. Assemble a group of knowledgeable friends, colleagues and associates who are willing to meet with you from time to time to look at your plans, review your decisions and act as general advisers to your enterprise.

10. Computer and Internet savvy
The world of business runs on software, e-mail and the Internet. You can’t even make a credible approach to big-time investors without a PowerPoint presentation. Every company worth its salt has a Web site. You need a good working knowledge of computers and the Internet, or you need to be prepared to hire smart people who can help you out.

Carolyn Kepcher, founder of fwm (Finding What Matters at www.findingwhatmatters.com) and former star of “The Apprentice,” hosts a contest to find the next breakthrough idea or a new small business to apply for a chance to win one of three amazing grant packages. For more information, visit seedsforsuccess.smallbusiness.yahoo.com.

Marketing is one of the most important aspects of your smalls business.  Without effective marketing, you probably won’t see sales and without sales there is no business.  There are various ways to market your products and services, but one we will take a look at today is business networking.

As we all heard and know, people like doing business with people they know.  Word of mouth is in many case the largest growth engine for the small businesses, so what is the best way to network? 

Typically you can either network one-on-one or in a group.  The one-on-one networking typically involves meeting other people and establishing a relationship with them.  Clearly one meeting is not going to cut it as you have to maintain a relationship. 

Networking in a group is typically done through a networking group.  Such groups include networking organizations, chambers of commerce, or other business and/or community organizations.  The beauty of the group networking is that you can meet many people at the same time and establish a relationship with them through regularly scheduled meetings.  From this standpoint, the group networking is more efficient and is easier to stick to in the long run.

What are some of the networking choices out there that you should consider?

Check to see if there are any local networking groups.  Organizations such as Free Networking International (http://www.startyourownnetworkinggroup.com/NOW/) or BNI (www.bni.com) have multiple chapters in many cities.  Also consider industry association and local chambers of commerce.  Try a number of meetings and see what works better for you.

To supplement your face to face networking efforts, consider joining an internet networking site as well.   Here are a couple to consider Fast Pitch Networking (www.fastpitchnetworking.com) and Konnects (www.konnects.com).

In addition here are some networking resources that you might find helpful:

http://www.business-networking-techniques.com/

www.businessknowhow.com/tips/networking.htm

We hope you find this article helpful. Now armed with new knowledge you are prepared to venture into the networking realm of business relationships and marketing.

 After a two-week interruption with our blogging, we are back.  The reason for the interruption – a computer crash, which brings us to today’s topic:  Data Backup – does your business need it?

As a small business owner you most likely find yourself very busy running daily operations, taking care of finances, personnel, and marketing.  That typically leaves very little time to make sure that you computer is running at its maximum capacity.  You probably have thought about the need for data backup, but either think it’s too cumbersome to manage or never get to it.  Then one day, your computer crashes and you are left with… nothing.  That could be very damaging to your business and very time consuming to restore the information, if it is even restorable.  Many people who do experience a computer crash, become dedicated data “backupers” after the fact.  Here is your chance to learn about the best options available and setup your backup system before you have a major crash.

The two main categories of the backup are local or web-based.  With the local backup you can copy data to a CD if you have a CD-RW drive, copy data to an USB drive or to an external hard drive.  You can either do it manually that is probably not an option for most of us due to the perpetual lack of time or you can use a software like Norton 360 to schedule it. 

The web-based options include backing up your data manually to your ftp site if you own a website or setting up an automatic service with one of the providers.  From personal experience, backing up manually is typically not an option.  We’ve tried it, but still managed to loose data in the last crash (which was pricey to recover).  The best option in our opinion is the “set and forget” service.   There are two main providers that we would like to bring to your attention:  http://www.idrive.com/ and http://mozy.com/.  You can get a free automatic backup with both companies for up to 2GB!  If you need more space, you  would need to pay $4.95.  Both companies provide you with secure data transfer and an easy interface.  You can schedule to back up every hour, every day or as often as you want.  Idrive doesn’t delete your data from their site even if you delete the file from your computer.  Both sites offer you versioning – saving different versions of the same file.  With Idrive you can even map the drive and access the data just like it was on your computer.  And what’s the best, the service does all the work for you. 

We hope you find our quick data backup overview helpful.  Don’t procrastinate signup with one of the companies today!  Data recovery services are an expensive option, you definitely want to avoid!

By Rhonda Abrams, USA TODAY

Despite the stagnant economy, nine out of ten small business owners see opportunities for their own companies, according to a just-released survey conducted for Intuit, maker of Quickbooks. More than three-fourths expect their business to grow in the coming year. This isn't just sunny optimism, either, because 65% of these small businesses have survived a recession before.

Surprised at this optimistic outlook? I'm not. In previous recessions, one of the things I'd observe is that many small businesses actually can grow by taking advantage of opportunities, such as weakened competition and big company cutbacks. So when the people at Quickbooks asked me what I'd like to know about the current state of small business (I was paid for my involvement), I wanted to see whether entrepreneurs shared my sense that even in a bad economy, there's reason for hope and plenty of possibilities.

Entrepreneurs see potential even in today's economy. In fact, growth is the number one issue on small business owners' minds. Fully 80% say that growth is the top or high priority in the coming year. Growth keeps more entrepreneurs up at night (27%) than other issues, edging out worries about paying the bills (21%). (The survey was conducted March 7 – 11 of 751 small businesses by the Global Strategy Group.)

"The optimism of small business is inspiring," said Rick Jensen, senior vice president of Intuit's small business division. "Entrepreneurs have faced obstacles since day one. They take things head on, play offense… With all the news, all the headlines, we wanted to go straight to small businesses and see what they're feeling."

What does that mean for you? Here are ways to grow even when the economy stagnates:

•Keep marketing. Thinking of cutting your marketing budget? Don't! Businesses that maintain their marketing efforts during slow times come out of recessions healthier and with a larger market share than before the economy went downhill. Stay visible.

•Hire terrific talent. A lot of great people are going to be getting pink slips or taking early retirement as large corporations cut back. You'll be able to attract employees with a wealth of experience — and terrific contacts — who might never have considered working for a small company before.

•Target big corporations' small customers. In bad times, large companies cut back their services to smaller customers. But their "small" customer could be your huge customer. Go after them now.

•Become the outsource source. Big companies are under pressure to reduce fixed costs, so if you provide services usually handled by corporate in-house staff, now's a good time to suggest they use you as an outsource provider.

•Get your finances in order. Clean up your credit as well as your financial records. Establish a credit line at your bank. Have money available to you if you need it.

•Consider acquisition. Are there businesses you can buy? Your competitors may want to throw in the towel, especially established small businesses with owners nearing retirement. You may be able to buy some businesses at a big discount in this environment.

•Develop a loyalty program. It's critical to keep the customers you have. Set up a method to provide discounts or rewards to loyal customers. Even a simple punch card program can work.

•Sell from your website. Increase profit margins by selling direct to customers and cut out the middle man whenever possible.

•Go digital. Find ways to do more of your administrative functions on the web. Look for inexpensive outsourced services, rather than doing everything in-house with the overhead that entails.

•Concentrate on increased sales rather than new product development. Look for new channels, new customers, rather than investing heavily in development.

Finally, stay positive. Remember, recessions are cyclical. Take advantage of opportunities now, so you'll be in a great position when the economy improves. Trust me, it will. And you'll have a healthy, growing business.

Rhonda Abrams is president of The Planning Shop, publisher of books for entrepreneurs. Their newest is Finding an Angel Investor In A Day. Register for Rhonda's free business planning newsletter at www.PlanningShop.com. For an index of her columns, click here. Copyright Rhonda Abrams 2008.