Archive for the ‘Business & Finance’ Category
Contributed by: Jim Rohrbach
Think the Grateful Dead were just a bunch of stoned-out hippie musicians?
You’d be Dead wrong …
OK — I hear you groaning: “Coach — the GRATEFUL DEAD??? What the heck do THEY have to do with success?” As a veteran over over 50 concerts since I got “on the bus” in 1971, I’m a relative lightweight “Dead Head,” yet I learned a lot by following them. To quote one of their song lyrics, “Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” So let me break it down to you: Continue Reading
Contributed by: John Wilder
Here are eleven tips on cutting costs in the meat department of your grocery store.
1. Get to know your meat-cutters Continue Reading
It’s gonna be MUCH harder and take MUCH longer than you ever thought — BUT DON’T GIVE UP!
Contributed by: Jim Rohrbach
“If it were EASY to start up a successful new business, then everybody’d be doin’ it, and then it would be worth the equivalent of flippin’ burgers at your local McDonalds — a minimum wage job.” — Success Skills Coach Jim Rohrbach, speaking from experience
OK — all you beginning business owners out there — don’t you wish someone would tell you the TRUTH about what it takes to start up and run a successful business? I mean, the real dirt, not the hackneyed sayings from the motivational speaker cheerleaders: “Just do it!” “Feel the fear and do it anyway!” “The sky’s the limit!” What happens when you’re a couple of years into it and the sky is falling?
Not that I want to burst your bubble of enthusiasm, but creating and maintaining your own successful business is HARD, period. The US Small Business Administration estimates that up to 90% of all small businesses close within the first five years. But take heart — the fact that business success is difficult is actually good news, because it forces you to test your self to the limit: Do you have what it takes that separates the men from the boys? You’ll never know as long as you’re working for someone else.
So let me share some of the more challenging aspects that you’re bound to go through on your business journey: Continue Reading
Contributed by: David Coffman
Business performance measurement and management promote the use of carefully selected key performance indicators to evaluate the performance of a company, its management and employees. Management theory has long recognized that the primary purpose of a company’s management is to maximize shareholder value. For large companies with stock that freely trades in public securities markets, this is a simple process of monitoring stock price. For small, private companies the situation is quite different.
Large, public companies have many stockholders that elect a board of directors, who in turn hire the key executives. This separation of ownership from management does not exist in small, private businesses. Often these three groups (owners, directors and management) are comprised of the exact same individuals. Small businesses become extensions of their owners in many ways including their objectives. Owners are typically more concerned about objectives like: minimizing taxes, maximizing personal income, maintaining personal lifestyles, minimizing the assets held within the business, and protecting personal assets. Pursuit of these objectives tends to minimize the value of small businesses. Owners often are not very interested in the value of their businesses until Continue Reading
Contributed by: Shel Horowitz
Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Pictures of the Gone World…The Celestine Prophecy…Joy of Cooking…South Beach Diet…Worms Eat My Garbage…Winning Through Intimidation—What do these books have in common?
Answer: they all started as self-published. Self-publishing first is a long and honorable tradition. Ben Franklin, Anaïs Nin, Leo Tolstoy, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman are among the authors who first published themselves and then went to bigger houses (posthumously, in some cases).
Most authors dream about landing a big New York publisher, or at least a well-respected independent house—but with 560,626 books published in 2008 just in the United States, and only a few thousand of them coming from established royalty-paying commercial publishers, the odds are steep.
But it can be done, even if you’re not a household name. Continue Reading
Contibuted by: David Coffman
From where does the value of a business come? Like any investment, business value is a function of the returns a business generates and the risks associated with owning it. Continue Reading
Contributed by: Frank A. Natoli, Esq
Let’s face it, for many of us starting a new business on a shoestring budget the prospect of hiring a competent business attorney is little more than a pipedream. As a grassroots entrepreneur, I get that. But as a small business and IP lawyer, I also know that there are some legal considerations a new business cannot afford to overlook. That said, I attempted to identify what I consider to be, the four most important considerations even the bootstrapping start-up will need to address. Continue Reading
Contributed by: David Coffman
How is business? It is the superficial question many people ask business owners in lieu of the standard “how are you”. Few really care about or even listen to your response because they know it is just meaningless chi-chat. But do you really know how your business is performing? Meaning more than just sales growth or profitability trends. Have you ever done an in-depth analysis of your business? Here’s how you can. Continue Reading
Contributed by: Frank A. Natoli, Esq.
The number one concern I have observed with our clients’ online terms and agreements is NOT with the substantive drafting of the provisions, but with the way these contracts (and yes, they are binding contracts) are implemented on the website. That said, I thought for my first entry, I would offer a quick guide on how to properly implement online terms and agreements for maximum enforceability. Continue Reading