Joseph Benoit: Small Business Finance Strategist Good for the Environment, Good for Business Cost-effective strategies for greening your business By Joseph Benoit   |   March 17, 2010

By Joseph Benoit

• Good for the Environment, Good for Business
• Get a Head Start on Taxes
• How to Find the Pricing Sweet Spot
• Increase Efficiency with Electronic Deposits
• Extend Your Payables Window
• See all articles »

In April, many Americans will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for our environment and teach its citizens how they can live a “greener" existence. Amid the escalating costs of doing business, going green is not only good for the environment, it’s smart business.

Reader Stories: Unique Entrepreneurial Businesses & What Makes Them Successful

By Mitchell York, About.com Guide

See More About:

• unique small businesses
• high profit margins
• competition
• barriers to entry

A business school professor once suggested his students look for the best small business ideas and opportunities in "the space between the elephant's toes." He meant that the best, most profitable businesses are often ones that few people have ever heard of and that are hard to imitate. Start those kinds of ventures, the professor said, and you have a higher probability of charging aggressive prices and achieving robust profit margins -- provided, of course, that you have a legitimate niche with enough customers. So, what's your space between the elephant's toes? And how's it working out?

Share Your Smarts

Test Prep Courses On Demand

Frustrated by traditional, outmoded approaches to test prep, former Kaplan executive Jose Ferreira saw an opportunity to provide better, more customized, and ultimately more effective test prep cours…More

Translating the U.S. Market for Euopean Tech Companies

Marketing, product positioning and go-to-market strategies are similar in Europe and North America, but the messaging (value prop, elevator pitch, sales brochure, cold calling) is not done in the sam…More

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Turn past customers into your best source of new business

By Paul Green

There are two ways to boost sales in your business: either get more customers, or sell more to your existing customers.
Most businesses focus their time and resources on acquiring new customers. But that’s crazy! Persuading someone to buy from you the first time is really hard.
Existing customers are already in a relationship with you. And as long as you didn’t screw up, it’s easier for you to talk to them, and then sell them something else.
Where most businesses fall down is forgetting to keep in touch. Look through your files - how many one off jobs have you done for a customer who you’ve never spoken to again? It’s likely a number of those customers will have had extra work they COULD have put your way, had you stayed top of mind.
Here’s the secret to turning past customers into your best source of new business (and it’s simple): Build a system to stay in touch with every single customer as long as you can

Guide to soft selling for small businesses

Sales are the lifeblood of any business, as it is ultimately profitable sales that put the money in the bank. Many business owners stereotypically think that in order to bring in the sales, they must train themselves/staff to be pushy salesmen, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Sales expert Richard White explains the principles of soft selling and how tactics such as story telling can help build long lasting and profitable relationships. Most people would tend to agree that ‘People do business with people they know, like, and trust’. If that is true then if we want to increase the amount of business we do from each customer then we should be working on becoming more known, more liked, and more trusted.
The most important of these three elements and where the more aggressive style of selling fails miserably is on the trust element. Unfortunately, many pushy salespeople who have failed to close the deal did not succeed because the customer naturally assumed that the sales person was only interested in their money! Soft Selling on the other hand is about being more effective at building long-term profitable relationships based on trust and a win-win relationship.

About Rob Ryan

Rob Ryan founded Ascend Communications in 1989. Rob served as President, CEO, and Chairman of Ascend, taking it public Friday the thirteenth of May, 1994, at $13.00 per share. In 1995 Rob and Terry started Entrepreneur America.

Rob gained his first experience in Local Area Networking as a Systems Analyst at Lawrence Livermore Lab in the mid-seventies working on the first non-military extension of Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet.

He became a principle architect of Dec Net with Digital Equipment Corp. in the late seventies, then authored the Intel portion of the Ethernet Specification which set the local area network standard in the early eighties. He joined Ungermann-Bass as Director of Engineering in 1982, leaving in 1983 to found his first company, SoftCom, which was sold to Hayes Microcomputer in 1984. In 1989, Rob left Hayes with three engineers to found Ascend.

10 Businesses You Can Run From Home

Posted by Matthew Toren, on March 5th, 2010

Interested in starting a business?  This post is the first in a series that will detail 100 Business Ideas.  Each week, we’ll post an article describing 10 businesses in a specific category.  This week’s post gives you ideas for businesses you can work out of your home.  A future post will discus Internet businesses, so they aren’t on this week’s list.  Stay tuned for all the lists, and then look forward to the compilation post with all 100 ideas.  There is no lack of opportunities to be self employed.  Just pick an idea that appeals to you, and go for it.
Backyard Plant Nursery
If you have a green thumb and love both plants and people, this is the business for you.  Did you know that most of your local nurseries don’t grow most of their own plants?  They actually buy them from small, specialized growers.  You can easily become one of their suppliers.  The key is to specialize in specific kinds of plants – the ones that are in demand.  The only way to find out which plants those are is to ask.  Get started in this business for just a few hundred dollars after talking with local nurseries to find out what they’re looking for.  Want to know more? Check out this book.
Personal Shopper
You say going to the mall and the grocery store are your idea of a good time?  How would you like to get paid to shop?  Personal shoppers are popular in many areas.  Generally, the larger the city you live in and the more affluent the city, the more prominent this business will be (think San Francisco, Miami, and Scottsdale), but personal shoppers can thrive just about anywhere.  The best part is – there are low to no startup costs.  Print some flyers to post around town or put an ad on Craigslist, and you’re on your way!  From there, networking and referrals will fuel your growth.  If you think this is the business for you and you have 50 bucks to spend, get this book.

Entrepreneur Magazine: March 2010

Cover Story

From a Lean Year, a Rich Vintage
As the top of the wine market crashes, new entrepreneurs like James Stewart are bringing high-end grapes to the masses.

Ways of Being Entrepreneur For Ordinary People

Ways of Being Entrepreneur For Ordinary People
 
By M. Suyanto, STMIK AMIKOM Yogyakarta
After having a positive mental attitude as a foundation to become entrepreneurs, creating a dream and trying to catch up, take steps to start a business without money, knowing the secret or business catapulted strategy, then the fifth step is to accept failure as a lesson. Failure is a label that often we associate with an action that did not work and so applied, these labels make us say people who are unable or people who fail. This decreases our enthusiasm to become a successful person.

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Choosing a Business and Getting Started as an Entrepreneur

By Mitchell York, About.com Guide to Entrepreneurs

So you think you want to be an entrepreneur? Have a great business idea but don't know where to begin? Or looking for a great idea to start your own business? You'll find the answers to your questions here.

1. Is Entrepreneurship Right for Me?
2. Choose a Business to Start
3. Business Ideas
4. Buying a Business

5. Buying a Franchise
6. Calculate Startup Costs
7. Business Planning

Is Entrepreneurship Right for Me?

Entrepreneurship is a challenge, no doubt about it. It's a risky undertaking, and most who try it don't end up with the success they envisioned. But for those who do, it promises financial freedom, time freedom and job satisfaction that is rarely matched in a traditional job. Are you cut out to be an entrepreneur?

• Swinging for the Fences: Risk, Reward, and Entrepreneurship
• Do Entrepreneurs Need Good Luck?

Choose a Business to Start

Some experts will tell you to find an underserved market and serve it. Others will tell you to do what you love and the money will follow. I recommend a more balanced approach.

• Choosing a Business to Start
• Too Good to Be True? 7 Questions to Ask About a Network Marketing Opportunity

Manage and Grow Your Business

 

By Mitchell York, About.com Guide to Entrepreneurs

Once you've launched your business, the challenges have just begun. The first challenge is how to grow your business. As your business grows, you'll have to manage people, finances and your own time.

1. Marketing Your Business
2. Managing Finances
3. Managing People
4. Managing Your Time
5. Managing Growth

Marketing Your Business

"Marketing" encompasses everything you do to attract customers and persuade them to buy your product, including advertising, public relations, publicity and selling. Marketing is the primary factor that determines how much your business will grow.

• Making Time for Marketing
• Small Business Web Strategy
• 4 Elements of a Successful, Profitable Website
• One-Stop Marketing Resource

Managing Finances

Good financial management can make or break a company. It's not just a matter of having enough money -- it's about having enough money for the right things at the right time. And accurate financial reports can be an essential management tool.

• Cash (Flow) Really Is King
• Using Financial Statements As a Management Tool
• Payroll Management - Minding Your Employees’ Money