Tips and Tricks to Grow Your Business

Taking some of Rhonda Abram's advice, I've been keeping an eye out for possible expansion through acquiring another business. An opportunity popped up this weekend. I didn't jump on it and here is why:

1. The business is essentially online. I asked about site metrics, how many visit, how long they stay, areas of interest. I couldn’t get any site metrics because they hadn't EVER been done.
2. Apparently the business hasn't made any money for an extended time, since before the recent economic downturn.
3. The business was started as a hobby site, which by itself is ok, but never has had any structured marketing strategy. There is NO BUSINESS PLAN.
4. The current owner has no entrepreneurial track record. This site was an afterthought, never any intention that it would be profitable. He's getting tired of it and the financial outgo.
5. What is left for assets? An interesting domain name of some value and a core handful of people who would miss the site if it wasn't there. Liabilities? Numerous, including a dated site layout that would take extensive remodeling.

This isn't a business ready to be sold. It's a business begging for competition. Didn't take me long to realize that although the basic premise is sound, my money would be much better invested starting from scratch. If the domain name comes available, I might consider purchasing that but at nowhere near the inflated asking price.

Are you selling a business? Is it ready to sell? Are you buying a business? Are you asking the right questions?

Dennis

Technorati tags: Small Business, Quickbooks

Just between us…have you been missing out on the Wednesday Webinars? You missed the Webinar link on the community home page? You saw a promotional post in the Industry forums, then you got a phone call and your train of thought derailed?

Last week Rhonda Abrams, syndicated columnist and small business owner, talked about how to grow your business during a recession, even to the point of expansion through buying other businesses! She's reasonably bullish about the future, you could say.

She pointed out that you really need to have your financial house in order, including knowing how and what you are spending your money on.

I thought of her this morning when I purchased a new laptop docking station/keyboard at my local office store. I often need to get out of this basement office and work somewhere I can see actual daylight. The unit cost $99. The "customer account executive" tried to sell me a 2 year insurance plan for $24.99.

Now I never buy these things. Experience has taught me that although I might get burned once in a blue moon, I'm much better off going with the unit by itself. But imagine this…that added another 25% on top of the cost of the unit.

If you take your finances seriously (even if you missed Rhonda's webinar), should you really be adding another 25% to the cost of your tools? I can't recommend it.

Dennis

Technorati tags: Small+Business

I'm not a big fan of reinventing the wheel, so when I found this fact sheet from the Queensland government ecoBiz, I knew I couldn't say it any better.

Get this - "An audit of office buildings in NSW found $23 worth of reusable stationery was thrown out every year per employee."

I've wondered about the common advice I've heard for years about turning off a light vs. the use of energy to turn it back on. The best rule of thumb - if you are going to be out of the room more than 10 minutes, turn it off. (If I can only get the kids to do that.)

Afraid of wear and tear on the computer by shutting it down and then bringing it back up? As systems are designed for some 40,000 power cycles before failure, you could do this once a day for some 109 years.

Get the facts in a nutshell and find at least a couple you can do right now.

Dennis

Technorati tags:Small Business, energy efficiency

When the light bulb in question isn't doing more than just putting out light. That's right; the job is bigger than just creating lumens. Your employee satisfaction and efficiency and your customer experience depend heavily on lighting. But let's say you can't afford a design consultant? Pay a visit to the Designlights Consortium, sponsored largely by utility companies from NY, NJ and New England.

First of all, check out the description of high performance T8 lighting systems; everything I've seen recommends lighting with electronic ballasts and T8 systems.

Then move on to one of eight knowhow series design guides. You can choose from office to retail to warehouse lighting design. At the very least you can learn enough from these guides to make a more informed decision if you do contract the design/installation work out. You don't need to reinvent the wheel as you can check out one of several case studies.

Get control of your lighting needs. The dividends will pay off even if you decide not to take the Commercial Lighting Tax Deduction (although if you own your building and don't work from a home office, I have no idea why you wouldn't).

Dennis

Technorati tags:Small Business, energy efficiency

Okay, maybe you don't know what a CFL is, but I bet you've seen them. A CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) is the pigtail-shaped bulb that you can use to replace incandescent light bulbs. In the rush to find more energy-efficient lighting (a hot issue for my home office right now), one clear alternative is CFLs in standard light fixtures. But what about the safety issue?

Watching some news program lately (it was probably CNN), I saw a report that outlined several rare metals in CFLs, in particular mercury, and what you need to do if your fumble fingers drop one. The report made it sound really hazardous.

See this link for a thorough and rational approach to using CFLs, courtesy of energystar.gov. Yes , the bulbs do contain mercury, about 1/100th of the amount in an old-fashioned thermometer. It needs to go to the recycling center when it finally does quit. And this report tells you all the common sense steps you need to follow to clean up a broken bulb.

So far I'm not finding a safer, energy- and cost-effective solution to my lighting needs. These big fluorescents are giving me a headache.

Dennis

Technorati tags: Small Business, Quickbooks

A couple days ago, UPS dropped a shipment at my front door I wasn't expecting. Before I could stop the driver, the truck was down the street and I had a package addressed to the former owner of our recently acquired home. Somebody might have kept it, but I went searching on the UPS website for a place to notify them of a wrong shipment. I found a ton of info about shipping, everything but how to get a package picked up for wrong address.

As luck would have it, I have a "mail store" about 5 minutes away who ships for UPS amongst others. I explained the situation. He replied, "They sure don't make it easy, do they?" He took the package and marked it "refused".

Shippers - don't assume because you track the shipment to delivery it actually got into the hands of the right customer. You might have an incorrect address and who knows what happens from there.

Anybody from UPS is welcome to comment below. I'm sure they want to get packages to the right place too. Anybody else is welcome to comment as well as long as you respect the driver who is just trying to do a hectic job .

Dennis

Technorati tagsSmall Business, Quickbooks

I work from a home office. I intentionally leave the coffee pot upstairs so I actually have to move to get some. Otherwise I would hook up an IV directly from the pot.

How much coffee do you use in your office every day? Employees can't live without it? Customers expect it? You may have stopped using polystyrene cups, but how "green" is your coffee?

One way you can find out is look for Rainforest Alliance Certification. Coffee beans are largely grown in areas of Central America, Ethiopia and Sumatra (and a host of similar countries) - all areas that suffer deforestation and environmental degradation. Your business can make its own contribution to solving the problem, plus you can get the benefit of good public relations. Going green in your coffee makes a good impression.

While you are at it, look for Fair Trade Certification as well. Money goes where it's supposed to, back into the community and increasing a standard of living for workers. You can find Fair Trade Coffees online at Montana Coffee, my favorite purveyor of beans and a thriving small business from Whitefish, Montana. If you know other outlets, please post them in the comments.

Caffeine or not (I only drink hi test), get your day off to a green start.

Dennis

Technorati tagsSmall Business; Green Business;Quickbooks

Need some good news? Some good news that makes sense? Check the thread - Growth during Recession? Small Businesses Say "Yes!"

To start with, check out the upcoming webinars - Rhonda Abrams, Pam Newman and Anita Campbell (who recently hosted a QB Ask the Expert event about using Web 2.0 tools to grow your business). Spend a few with the Get Back to Biz survey to find out what everybody else is thinking. It's your choice how you spend your time.

I just watched a vid clip of Rhonda Abrams about the future of small business in tough times. The whole thing boiled down to your choices, even when it seems like the rest of the world is spinning out of control. I especially like what she had to say about taking the time right now to position your business to catch the inevitable upswing.

I was just mentioning this morning to my web designer that right now is the time to position myself for business expansion by improving tools and certifications, building on the social networks I belong to, improving the financial/credit picture. I want to catch the wave when it appears.

It's a good thing to get some confirmation.

Dennis

Technorati tags: Small Business, Intuit

A colleague was griping recently about fumbling with a new Blackberry and here I am thinking about getting one. Took me forever to get a cell phone. Amazing since I am geeky enough to have been married over 10 years to somebody I met in an online chat room (she's a programmer).

Have you caught this show Technology Jones on Mojo? This is where a uniformed anonymous hit squad marches into your life and then out with every technological necessity you ever depended on, automatically transporting you back in time technically. I watched a comedian today get transported back to 1957. He wasn't doing real well with the old Underwood.

What would that do to your business? He was having a tough time just getting through to a live person on an old rotary dial phone. Interesting, especially when you suspect that you might be losing business because you are behind the technological curve.

I'm not saying everybody needs the latest technological gadget the day it's released. But in today's climate, this ought to have at least an annual evaluation, just like blowing the dust off your business and marketing plans.

Dennis

Technorati tags: Small Business; Business Technology

It isn't enough to train your staff and maybe yourself to stay out of adult sites and the 1001 variations of phishing and email scams. Now you have to be paying attention with hardware right out of the box.

One commentator at CNN: Electronic gadgets latest sources of computer viruses calls this the roach theory, i.e., you think you only have one roach because that's all you see. Hah!

Buying infected hardware isn't exactly new, but it is reaching a whole new level originating from the kingdom of tainted products - China. Maybe it is just sloppy QA. I wouldn't bet on it.

What to do -

1. Get control of your IT, no matter what size business you own. Don't let anybody install anything to one of your business computers that is strictly consumer-oriented (like digital picture frames). Period.
2. Once you got the little critters multiplying, it's harder to get rid of them. Don't skimp on anti-virus software and don't expect that one is going to catch everything despite what the marketing says. Do some research in online forums; fire up Google. Find out what all the techies are saying before you invest.
3. I have scheduled a major scan of my operating hard drive every 24 hours. I have enabled all the auto-protect features I can find. If your system can't stand the strain, upgrade. You just can't afford to have this happen to you.

You can't stop buying hardware that originates somewhere else on the globe. You can challenge your assumptions about how safe it is right out of the box.

Dennis

Technorati tagsSmall Business;Business Technology