The Small Business Blog

JUNE 20, 2010

Try to learn a bit about the industry that your prospective business customer works in so you don’t look out of your depth. If only more people would learn the value in such information. Listen carefully to what your B2B clients require. If you can determine exactly what they need, you can serve them better.

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 8, 2010

Learn from the experience and then move on to your next potential customer. Plan your sales targets in advance and track progress throughout the year. This helps you to continuously evaluate your sales performance. Don’t obsess over missed sales opportunities. Give incentives to staff for making sales. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 13, 2010

It is difficult to say but in small business we can learn a lot abut the importance of public relations through this story. Nobody really learns anything real about business, only about life… VB, Stefan Issa Crea Said on May 15th, 2010 at 3:33 am Is this the same thing as personal branding? Nice sharing. I love the analogy.

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 2, 2008

Now you can learn what went wrong and understand your business better, it will force you to rethink and face facts. You will be amazed what you can learn about the financial dynamic in your small business within one hour, that is often all it takes to get started. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

That said, I’m a firm believer that a bit of ‘gut feeling’ on the right person goes a long way – I’ve hired many people over the years and sometimes the candidate who is ‘technically’ the best, doesn’t always fit in to the organisation – that’s just something you learn over time though.

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The Small Business Blog

DECEMBER 20, 2009

Top 5 Tips on Making Big Changes by Stefan Töpfer on Dec 21, 2009 The top 5 tips weekly post is always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. If you are no longer personally growing and learning in your role it can cause your business to stagnate. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2009

5 tips for Sourcing Employee Training for Small Businesses by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 09, 2009 The top 5 tips weekly post is always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. » « Previous Entries This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Business Checklists.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 31, 2010

Learn about how your company structure affects pay. Top 5 Tips for Paying Yourself by Stefan Töpfer on Feb 01, 2010 The top 5 tips weekly post is always full of hints and tips for small, home & micro business owners. If possible, get some advice from your accountant regarding the level of pay you plan on taking from the business.

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The Small Business Blog

JULY 13, 2010

It might take time, but you will learn a great deal about how to, and how not to, do things! Networking not only allows you to meet potential clients but you will also learn valuable lessons from people who are more experienced in the business world. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 2, 2009

by Stefan Töpfer on Feb 02, 2009 Much has been made in the last few days about the problems surrounding Sage Live , the online accounting software service for small business from Sage Group PLC (LSE:SGE). « US Small Business News round-up – 2009/02/02 Winter Chaos But For Small Businesses Online It’s Business As Usual.

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 14, 2010

Learn everything you can about your competition, their products and how they advertise. Make sure you have a consistent message across every advertising medium that you use. Talk to the newspapers / radio or TV stations that you plan to advertise with, they can often advise you. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 2, 2010

Many small businesses struggle to find finance, especially with the financial climate being as decidedly frosty as it is at present. Jp14 Said on March 5th, 2010 at 10:36 pm Another common thing is to keep learning. Hiring people comes with fixed costs. If you can outsource work to freelancers, then do. Not an excuse not to succeed.

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 16, 2010

If an area such as accounting is your weakness, rather than wasting time learning the skill it may be more cost-effective and time efficient to outsource the service. Work out if these weaknesses will truly impact your business, and if there are ways to improve in these areas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

You might be surprised how much you can learn about your people and your business! when I was managing people I learned fast that setting an example got the most response and number 4 helped keep people fired up. If you want them to be engaged, ensure that you’re engaged. Be accessible – today’s workers value face time.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 13, 2010

Although he never finished high school, Scudamore loves nothing more than learning. Within his business he has established what he calls a Mentor Board of Advisors, a group of people he turns to for advice and learning. Today they have 95 franchise partners across North America and are in 47 of North America’s top 50 cities.

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 18, 2010

If you want to build a business it’s important to learn how to let things go. Carl Said on July 6th, 2010 at 4:33 pm In business it is difficult to disconnect emotions from judgment the two don’t mix. Stefan Töpfer Said on July 6th, 2010 at 4:43 pm Hi Carl, great comment. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

MAY 20, 2010

When you begin employing staff you need to quickly learn how to not only manage them, but also how to help them achieve their best. Allow your staff time to come to you with ideas or questions; you’ll learn a lot about your business and might even discover an avenue you’d never thought of taking. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

JULY 20, 2010

As I have mentioned previously , I am looking to help small businesses to hold conversations, engage with each other and learn from what is happening in the big business world. Small business owners need to consider ‘online’ an extension of their market place and learn to communicate well within that environment.

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 23, 2010

« Top 5 Tips for Learning More About Your Customers Budget 2010 – The Saviour for Small Businesses? As a customer I always appreciate a smile, a thank you and personal service. So why shouldn’t I strive to give my customers the same? The answer is that I do. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

JULY 27, 2010

For example, if you learn about products that are doing well in other countries then you may be able to adapt them for sale here if no-one else is doing it. Although these sectors will be crowded, at least there is a guaranteed market there for you to fight for a share. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

APRIL 27, 2010

I look forward to reading your pitches, and learning more about your small businesses! All I ask is that you respect this offer, and don’t post any links to ‘dodgy’ websites, any such links will be promptly removed and the user reported to Facebook. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 15, 2007

Cash-flow – compare your cash-flow fore-cast with the actual numbers on a regular basis and learn from it, it’s not about being spot on, but about knowing what happened so you can control it. Mark-up – make sure you review your mark-up on a regular basis to protect your margins. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 28, 2007

The small business health-check questions for this episode are: Do I know what is going on in my business in all areas or have I abdicated some responsibility to staff? Martin Zwilling Said on January 28th, 2009 at 3:55 am I have tried to turn the analyis of failures into principles which are critical to the succes of a startup.

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 17, 2009 On my blog I often talk about not spending money, bootstrapping and cash-flow planning. Stefan Töpfer Said on November 17th, 2009 at 10:41 pm Hi Deborah, you know what is even more weird, small business failing because of what the governments and banks did to them. – ST.

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The Small Business Blog

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

I came across one company from Canada which took SEO optimisation into their own hands and learned through experience and extensive testing a few proven ways to boost Google’s rankings of your website. Encourage other sites to link to yours – this may be a well known strategy but it can’t be reinforced enough. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

JUNE 29, 2010

The only issue that comes up is that just like with traditional hardware and software… there is always a learning curve and employee’s often run into tech problems that they either try to solve themselves… or ask their neighbor to help out with. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo! Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

OCTOBER 11, 2007

Here is some of what she emailed me: “… I was a nurse of 13 years experience in all areas of nursing and a practicing aroma therapist, so using my extensive knowledge in health care and natural essential oils and emollients I created my blend, Tattoo Aftercare®, (Scots are also famous for blending skills!) Love it and need it.

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The Small Business Blog

MARCH 30, 2010

Another tip I have is to learn to say ‘no’ Too many people especially in this economic downturn are too afraid to say no to tasks or turn down work if they are a freelancer. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site. You also need to ask for more resources if you are snowed under. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

APRIL 16, 2008

If you consider the skills potential of parents, if each parent would only contribute one hour on average per week to their learned professions. John Said on September 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pm Yes I agree with you…both are equal and opportunity should also be equal divided. This would be a staggering number of man hours per week.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 13, 2008

But saying that, we are still learning and growing. I have learned a lot just from the info posted here! but not so people know this I come from german Ruri Said on December 1st, 2009 at 2:49 pm IMO, business planning is important to ensure the company can achieve the goal from current business situation.

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The Small Business Blog

OCTOBER 2, 2007

This has created not only many health problems like cardiovascular disease, a weaker immune system, frequent headaches, backache to name but a few, but also social problems in areas like child-care, care for relatives, increase in divorces and other symptoms of a social fabric breakdown. Work-Life Balance 2.0 great work stefan.

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The Small Business Blog

JANUARY 21, 2008

Ann White Said on January 31st, 2008 at 2:58 am Following a proven path, and learning by doing is a better way than trying to figure out how to reinvent the wheel. I reckon that an over commitment to fixed costs (property and plant) and poor use of cash (inventory stocking etc) are as much to blame as weak marketing. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

Its can be a bit hard for some people to understand this concept A Coffey Said on January 13th, 2009 at 10:37 pm Great post. AC lynnscott Said on August 3rd, 2009 at 12:30 pm Hi Stfan. I think that benefits are rarely discussed in a direct manner anymore, at least with B2C marketers. Thanks for the reminder. -AC

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The Small Business Blog

AUGUST 3, 2010

Life is about never giving up so if you must fail, fail fast, learn from it and move on… Lars Hilse Said on August 7th, 2010 at 2:52 am Yes and no… Yes, because there are some old school business people out there who believe that 9-5 is mandatory for success. Beware though as the pursuit of money itself can also put you in chains!

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The Small Business Blog

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

Medisoft Software Said on June 13th, 2009 at 8:07 am It seems that Winweb is a great way to go. Mel @ Make Rain Said on July 31st, 2009 at 10:55 am Wow this is great to know going to have a look at it as I am busy learning how to use pastel, maybe this is something that will come in handy and maybe a little easier to use.

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The Small Business Blog

APRIL 1, 2008

Skills needed: You will need to be very good at graphic design and it will help if you know how to print T-shirts already, although you could learn. robe de soiree Said on October 20th, 2009 at 4:55 am it may also wish to pay for the development of an offline catalogue to promote your designs. Digg Furl Netscape Yahoo!

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OCTOBER 1, 2007

Kerry Said on May 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm I agree that it might make sense to ‘bootstrap’ when you’re just starting out, but doesn’t it also make sense to consider whether you have access to good financing opportunities? But, I have learned from each and every one of them. Patience, resilience and determination.

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