Business planning may be arduous, but skipping this step can leave you uninformed about your firm’s place in the market. The type of information gathered during the planning process can help you foresee potential risks and develop strategies for dealing […]
Six Things You Can Outsource to Grow Your Business
Maybe you’ve got mixed feelings about outsourcing. As a business owner, you realize two things. One, in America outsourcing is still a dirty word. Two, it’s also critical to modern business. Regardless of how you feel about it, outsourcing is […]
Seven Must-Haves for a Successful Business
I have been working with small business owners for more than 30 years; some are very successful, and some are not. I realized that the successful businesses shared some common characteristics. Below are some of the traits and must-haves that […]
Survive and Thrive – in Business
Year Three….hard to believe it has gone by so fast. I reflect back to the fall of 2010 when I decided to leave Corporate America after 30 years to take that leap of faith and start my own business. With […]
End of Year Checklist for Every Business
For small business owners the end of the year means more than holiday parties and last-minute shopping, it’s also the time to get business in order for the New Year. While it may be hard for small business owners to […]
Why Stay in Business?
I’ve been in business for 2 years now. As we’ve grown, I have learned a lot, had some fun, and experienced some problems. There are days that I ask myself (along with other business owners that I meet) what’s the point? Especially […]
Tips on Setting Your New Years Business Goals
Set Specific Goals Setting goals is important. That is how you convert abstract IDEAS (i.e. cut expenses, increase sales) into specific, concrete TARGETS (i.e. reduce G&A by 5% before the next stockholder meeting, increase sales of retail brands by $60,000 […]
10 Tips for Holiday Giving to Charities
The holidays are approaching quickly. Here are 10 tips for Holiday giving to charities. Please review these tips to make sure you protect yourself from getting taken advantage of and to make sure your generous gift is used for the […]
Celebrating my Journey to “A Year in Business”
Last October, I decided to take a leap of faith and start my own business. I had been working for other companies since 1976 and was used to getting that steady paycheck. With only eight months of money in my […]
Business Networking Tips
I started my company, Alternative Funding Options (AFO), eight months ago and I have had to do a lot of networking in order to be able to build up my business. It seems that most people think that networking is […]