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£100 For 100 Businesses In Return For Good Ideas

Danny Dion — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:47:02 +0000

Online social network for homeworkers Enterprise Nation is giving £100 to 100 businesses and would-be businesses for their “good ideas”. The competition, in association with PayPal, is asking its members how they’d spend the money on their ventures, awarding £10,000 in all.

Ideas 101 in association with PayPal launches today and asks, “if we gave you £100, how would you spend it?” And the question’s not hypothetical! PayPal and Enterprise Nation are giving £100 to 100 of its members with the best business ideas. The money can be spent on anything from training, to equipment or branded t-shirts.

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Google Gives Small Businesses a Big Voice

Cris — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:34:25 +0000

PC World:

After just over a year as a coveted, invitation-only beta, Google has officially launched Google Voice as a free service for all. Google Voice adds another component to the suite of tools available from Google providing small and medium businesses with cost-effective tools enabling them to conduct business like their much larger enterprise counterparts.

Large enterprises have the budget to invest in a robust networking, communication, and productivity infrastructure. Enterprise businesses also have the personnel resources to dedicate the expertise necessary to implement, maintain, and administer the tools. Small and medium businesses? Not so much.

Unfortunately for the small and medium businesses (SMB), though, they still have the same needs and similar business processes. They still need to communicate and collaborate in real-time with peers, partners, and customers.

Fortunately for SMBs, Google provides a diverse portfolio of tools that are free, or at least reasonably cost-effective, which allow them to appear much larger than they are, and compete on a level playing field with much larger competitors.

Read more.

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Free Expert Help For Tax Questions

Jack — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:01:15 +0000

New York Daily News:

No tax question is too tough for New York’s top accountants, and Your Money is putting them to work for you — for free.

The annual Daily News Tax Hotline is returning this week to assist filers. An all-star team of certified public accountants will be on hand tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., to take your calls and reply to your blog posts and e-mails.

To get help, call (212) 210-2044, visit nydailynews.com/money or write to tax@nydailynews.com.

The Daily News is partnering again on the Tax Hotline with the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, whose members have helped thousands of Daily News readers over the years.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for consumers to obtain free tax advice from top tax professionals,” said Sharon Sabba Fierstein, president of the society. “Our members have expertise in federal and state tax issues to respond to questions on any level.”

Your Money Editor Scott Wenger added: “In a tough economy, every legitimate deduction is crucial. Many readers don’t realize they may qualify for a refund.”

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Free Advice: MBA Students Offer Help To Entrepreneurs

Jack — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:50:07 +0000

Bizjournals.com:

Need help figuring out the next step for your small business?

The Montreat College MBA program may have some answers. A team of the school’s graduate students is offering consulting services as part of the class’ spring semester project.

The students interview the selected business owner and employees. They then research a specific issue and recommend a solution.

The program allows students to gain hands-on experience and provides participating businesses with third-party consulting at no cost.

“It’s really a mutual benefit,” Montreat professor Norm Petty says. “It gives our students some insight into business strategy and what it takes to be successful.”

A group of students recently paired with Sweet Dreams Mattresses Inc., a Mooresville retailer, to help the company analyze sales strategies. Owner Greg Law says the students secret-shopped his two family-owned stores, analyzed his market and presented him with a booklet summarizing their suggestions.

Law, who founded the $2 million business six years ago, says he used the research to help plan a third store and increase online sales.

“It was nice to get a fresh, unbiased look at our stores from a group on the outside,” Law says. “What a great resource for a small business.”

Past projects have dealt with personnel, marketing strategies and production.

Program leaders say interested companies need to have at least $1 million in annual revenue and be able to provide meaningful work experience.

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Cris — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:06:09 +0000

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SCORE Offers Free Giveaway For Entrepreneurs

Jack — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:14:26 +0000

SCORE, ‘Counselors to America’s Small Business,’ is a nonprofit organization offering 2 free workbooks to the first 1,000 people to sign up. The 2 workbooks are comprehensive guides to starting and structuring a business, and are great resources for any entrepreneur.

To get your free copy of How to Really Start Your Own Business and How to Really Structure Your Own Business, visit the SCORE Web site (www.score.org) today, and click on ‘How-To Workbooks Giveaway.’

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Starting A Small Business For Profitable Results Risk Free

Cris — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:00:06 +0000

Top Small Business Coach Robert Moment Offers Unique Guarantee for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

PR-Inside.com:

Robert Moment, innovative forward-thinking small business and marketing coach (www.howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com) recently announced that he is offering an unconditional money back guarantee for his small business coaching services. While many professional business coaching firms promise satisfaction, only the Moment Group is offering the unique opportunity to take advantage of a full month of small business coaching with a complete refund given if the client isn’t 100% satisfied.

How Small Business Coaching Can Help
Robert Moment explains that small businesses often run on a fallacy – that hope is enough to keep business owners going. Instead he suggests that belief is much more powerful and pro-active. Hoping you will do well is passive, while believing you will do well empowers you to take action as a business owner – and action is essential to success.

The Moment Group’s small business coaching provides detailed information on what Moment calls the ’7 Crucial Points’ for small business success… read on.

Ideas To Fix Unemployment Atlantic Online: To stanch the flow of continued job losses...

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Your Small Business Can Benefit From Google

Jack — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:00:05 +0000

NFIB:

Google is the most widely used search engine on the Internet. But a search engine is not only a valuable research tool for the conventional Web surfer, it is also a commodity for both the traditional and not-so-traditional small business owner. An increasing number of entrepreneurs are discovering other valuable aspects of Google for establishing and building their business.

Other amenities include Gmail, Google’s Web e-mail application; Google Docs; and Spreadsheets and Google Trends. Add to the mix Google Calendar, Blogger, Google Talk and Google Maps, and a small business owner has just about everything he needs to get his business on solid ground. Perhaps the best thing about all of these services is that they are free—which is always an attractive benefit.

While all of these tools are exciting and noteworthy, there are even further enhancements that will enable small business owners to grow their businesses. They are:

* Google Relationship Management: Last year, two of the biggest names in customer service relationship and management formed a strategic alliance with Google in order to allow customers to manage AdWord campaigns. The move allows customers to track their online marketing activities and Web traffic effectively through hits and inquiries. For entrepreneurs, the move allows them to quickly identify prospects and allocate various resources.

* Google as a Platform: Last year, Google launched Apps For My Domain. This service allows organizations to outsource their communications applications including e-mail service to Google and to customize their user interface with their own branding and color scheme. Ultimately, this means an individual can send and receive your own e-mail address instead of having the “@gmail.com” at the end. Also, administrative users can access a Web-based control panel to manage the user account list and establish aliases and distribution lists. For the nominal fee of $50 per user, per year, a business owner can set up the premium edition of the service that will increase customer support, storage space and allow for greater functionality.

* Google and QuickBooks: Recently, Google partnered with Intuit Inc. to allow small businesses to create and manage advertising campaigns with Google AdWords and provides a comprehensive list of products for sale free with Google from within QuickBooks. The move follows a growing trend that indicates more than half of all small businesses across the country use the Internet to meet and fulfill various sales, marketing and customer service goals and needs. Thus uniting Google’s Web expertise and Intuit’s enormous base of QuickBooks applications will lessen the chore of managing budgets and tracking finances for business owners.

Entrepreneurs should indeed explore and utilize these mostly free and useful tools to enhance their businesses.

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Free Advice From Those Who’ve Done It

Danny Dion — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:00:05 +0000

TheDay.com:

Thinking of starting a business? In need of marketing advice for your existing business?

Then consider tapping into the services of the southeastern Connecticut chapter of SCORE, which dubs itself the counselor to America’s small business community. It’s valuable advice – and it’s free. As in, no charge.

The southeastern Connecticut SCORE chapter is an impressive group; it includes many retired executives with deep corporate experience, and others with specialties ranging from metallurgy to finance and marketing.

Earlier this month, I spoke with the local chapter. It’s a most impressive group, but what struck me the most was how helpful they want to be to local entrepreneurs considering a business venture, whether it’s starting their own firm or merely finding out about the facts of small-business ownership, from the highlights to the pitfalls.

The local chapter is part of the national SCORE organization, which for many years was known as the Senior Corps of Retired Executives. These days, however, it goes simply by its SCORE moniker.

The organization has been around since 1964 and estimates that it’s helped nearly 8 million “aspiring entrepreneurs.” It now has nearly 400 chapters nationwide and about 10,500 active counselors. Read full article.

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Launch Your Own Web Site For Free On Google

Cris — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:00:15 +0000

PC Magazine:

Google today announced the widespread availability of the new Google Sites app. Launched back in February, the site was initially limited to use by companies and organizations. Integrated into Google Apps, Sites gives users the ability to create Web pages that can be securely hosted by Google at http://sites.google.com/[your-website].

The new app lets you create Web pages “from scratch with the click of a button,” according to Google. Sites features built-in WYSIWYG editing tools similar to those in Google Docs, as well as embeddable documents, calendars, photos, videos, and gadgets.

Also like Docs, Sites gives editors a variety of privacy levels, making sites created with the app vieawable only by those who have been given access.

Google suggests a wide variety of projects that can be created using the new program, including, team projects, company intranets, community groups, classrooms, clubs, and family updates.

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Free Advice On Your Worker’s Compensation Coverage

Danny Dion — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:02:05 +0000

It may not be the sexiest topic in the world, but every small business has to have Worker’s Compensation Coverage. Unless you know what you are doing, you can get stung badly. Allbusiness.com has an excellent article about that. Here is some of it–

Workers’ compensation benefits provide coverage for medical expenses as well as reimbursement for lost wages when employees are injured on the job. Workers’ compensation coverage includes two types of protection: workers’ compensation and employer’s liability. The workers’ compensation portion of the policy pays for claims made by employees, and the employer’s liability portion pays the cost of defending lawsuits filed against the company by an employee or an employee’s family.

Workers´ compensation insurance may not be at the top of your list of things to think about, but it should at least be on that list for three reasons:

Workers’ compensation insurance is required by law in all 50 states.

Workers’ compensation insurance can protect your business from lawsuits.

Without the right coverage, an injured worker might sue your business to recover medical costs, disability costs and damages.

If you understand how the system works, you can take advantage of simple ways to reduce workers’ compensation costs.

Getting Covered

Each state enacts its own workers’ compensation statutes, so you need to check with your state insurance commissioner’s office or your insurance agent to find out about rules that govern your business.

Depending upon where you live, you can buy coverage through a state-run fund or a private insurer; some states offer a choice of either. If your state doesn’t offer a state-run insurance fund and you can’t qualify for private insurance, you will be insured by an assigned-risk pool.

Cutting Workers’ Compensation Costs

Workers’ compensation premiums depend upon the nature of your business, the jobs your employees perform and the number of hours they work. Each job type is assigned a classification code. Riskier work is classified as such and assigned a higher premium. Thus, you might pay 48 cents in premiums for every $100 in payroll that goes to a clerk in a retail store. By contrast, a truck driver’s premiums might set you back $9 per $100 of payroll. But there are ways to control your costs. Try these strategies:

Review your classifications to make sure you’re using the proper codes. Ask to review your case with your state workers’ compensation rating bureau. If you aren’t satisfied with the result, request an onsite inspection and rating.
Consider a deductible. More than half of states allow small companies to cut premiums by paying a deductible on workers’ comp claims. Paying deductibles, which typically range from $100 to $1,000 per claim, can reduce your premiums by as much as 25 percent.
Check your payroll. Most states don’t require you to include overtime in the payroll numbers used to compute your premiums. If your state is one of them, make sure you don’t figure in overtime.
Stay out of the Pool

If you’re in an assigned-risk pool due to a poor safety record or unusually high risk, you’ll pay high premiums for relatively poor service. Find out why you’re in the pool. If the problem is your firm’s safety record, you should take steps to improve safety and reduce the chance of accidents in your workplace. Enhancing workplace safety will improve your workers’ quality of life as well as your bottom line. Consider some of the following ideas:

–Give each employee a workplace safety manual that details rules and safe work practices.

–Conduct regular inspections of the facility to identify and correct hazards such as poor lighting, unsafe warehouse conditions and ergonomically incorrect workstations.

-Communicate to employees the importance of safety in the workplace. Award and recognize safe operations.

–Write safety procedures and distribute them to anyone who drives a vehicle for your business.

–Keep detailed records of all accidents and set quantifiable goals for improvement.

–Create return-to-work programs for injured employees and stay in close contact with employees who are out.

–Use ergonomic products. The right chairs, keyboards, mats and tables can sharply reduce claims.

–Provide protective equipment. Goggles, helmets, gloves and other safety gear make sense in many situations.

Ideas To Fix Unemployment Atlantic Online: To stanch the flow of continued job losses...

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Free Notebooks For Students As A Business

Cris — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:00:04 +0000

NicheGeek:

Last summer we wrote about FreeHand Advertising and its initiative to give free, ad-supported notepaper to college students, and now ABS Notebooks is going a step further and handing out whole notebooks instead.

The Shadow Notebook is a five-subject notebook that gets cobranded with participating colleges and universities across the US and distributed by the school at the start of each semester. The university’s logo appears on the cover, and pages of school-related maps and information get included within. Thirteen four-colour, full-page advertisements, meanwhile, act as subject dividers in each notebook, giving advertisers the means to engage students while they are a captive audience in the learning environment. Students, naturally, carry the notebooks with them throughout the day over the course of the semester, which from the advertiser’s perspective amounts to 96 impressions over a four-month period, ABS says. So far, about 700,000 notebooks have been distributed to college students at campuses nationwide.

College students spend some USD 198 billion per year, according to Harris Interactive, so it’s no wonder advertisers are going to new lengths to reach them. We’ve now seen free photocopies, free printing, free notepaper, free phone calls and now free notebooks—it all goes to show, there’s no such thing as too much free love!

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Loan Expo Set For Small Business Owners

Danny Dion — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:00:55 +0000

Knoxville News Sentinel:

Small business owners in need of capital can find out about federal and state guaranteed loans at the 2008 Small Business Loan Expo on Tuesday at the Knoxville Health Department, 140 Dameron Ave.

The expo is free and starts at noon.

The event is “a great opportunity for businesses to connect with the people who can help them grow,” Robert Minter, director of the Knox County Supplier Diversity program said in a statement. “Lenders and government staff will also be on hand to answer questions from attendees until at least 5 p.m.”

The Expo is the first of its kind for Knoxville, Minter said. Business owners will have an opportunity to meet -one-on-one with lenders and hear about several loan programs, including SBA’s new Patriot Express Loan initiative, Minter said.

Patriot loans are earmarked for veterans and families of active and retired military members. Read more.

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Setting Strategy: MBA Students Offer Free Advice To Area Businesses

Danny Dion — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:00:14 +0000

Kansas City Star:

Award-winning Bo Lings Fine Chinese Cuisine, with about 150 employees at six area restaurants, has mastered the art of Chinese cooking.

But owners Richard and Theresa Ng have found that operating the business can sometimes present stressful challenges. Last year, for example, the Ngs faced an important decision: Was the time right to further expand their business?

They turned to an innovative strategic planning resource — and got advice, for free.

A group of five students in a University of Missouri-Kansas City capstone MBA course studied the situation and in December made a recommendation: No, not yet.

The students also presented the Ngs with a 30-page action plan proposing changes for the restaurants’ fundamental operations to foster future growth.

“Together, we spent 600-700 hours interviewing employees, studying training, communication and organizational structure and, then, looking at contemporary management thought,” said Pete Lucas, who received his MBA in December. “It would have cost thousands of dollars to hire the management consultants needed to do the work.”

He said the students found that employees were reporting to both Bo Lings’ managers and owners — and this was a confusing structure. Read on…

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