All Entries in the "StartupSmarts" Category
Defining Vision, Values and Strategy for Your Business
Many growing businesses struggle with three well-known concepts that are commonly confused and misunderstood: vision, values and strategy. Business-building entrepreneurs often talk about their vision in the same context as strategy and values. But they are separate and distinct things that – if improperly mixed – can sabotage the very goals they seek to articulate. Think [...]
A Financial Statement Cheat Sheet for Business Owners
Most small business owners and startup entrepreneurs never had a formal course in business finance, and earned their “MBA” at the School of Hard Knocks. If that’s you, here’s a “cheat sheet” to help understand the three basic financial statement flavors: Balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. I agree – it’s not a sexy [...]
Best Local Place for Free Business Startup Help
They don’t have money to really market or advertise their existence, and most business owners and would-be entrereneurs have never heard of them. But America’s 1,100 Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) are a terrific resource for startups. Most SBDCs are hidden in out-of-the-way corners of local colleges and universities, chambers of commerce and vocational schools, [...]
10 Ways Small Business Uses Google Apps
BizBest has often recommended Google apps (some free; some fee) as great productivity tools that any small business or startup can access quickly and easily, including business email through Gmail, shared online calendars (Google Calendar), documents, spreadsheets and presentations (Google Docs), easy-to-build websites (Google Sites), and many others. These easy-to-use applications offer dozens of ways [...]
New Business to Business Deal Sites offer Big Discounts
Small and local business owners of all types will have new opportunities to grab deep discounts on business-related products and services thanks to a battle heating up in the daily or weekly deals marketplace. Several B2B daily and weekly deal sites have sprung up recently, offering big discounts on everything from printing, food services and [...]
Why You Should Join Startup America Partnership
The Startup America Partnership is new and largely unknown, but this independent, private-sector coalition of corporate tech titans, advisors, financing firms, mentors and sundry service providers won’t be undiscovered for long. Any business owner or entrepreneur – from startup (newly created), to rampup (initial growth stage), to speedup (going like gang busters) – should be [...]
8 Getting Started Twitter Tips for Business
Small business owners, local businesses and startups of all stripes are embracing social media marketing with gusto. Signups on Facebook and Twitter are soaring. And why not? Biz owners see these platforms as free marketing that may be tricky and unknown, but well worth a shot. After all, when half of local businesses say they’ll [...]
Guide to Sample Business Plans and Business Plan Templates
Starting or expanding a business? Looking for small business loans, venture capital, angel investors or other financial backing? Then you need a business plan, plain and simple. Every successful startup begins with a sound business plan But why start from scratch if you don’t have to. By using a sample business plan, business plan template [...]
Small Business Solutions of the Week
BizBest 30-Second Solutions “30-Second Solutions” – a BizBest exclusive – spotlights the best new and undiscovered profit- and productivity-boosting products and services for small business, explainable in 30 seconds or less. Here’s our latest half dozen: Daily Discount Deals for Biz Owners: BizyDeal is a new site offering business owners deep discounts on products and [...]
World’s Richest and Largest Business Plan Contest
Graduate level student-entrepreneurs at universities worldwide are percolating new ideas and pitching them to business plan contests to a record pace. For a few, the result is money — and gobs of it. For example, the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) — the world’s largest — will award more than $1 million in prizes to [...]
- Marketer vs Marketing What Difference Does a Keyword Make February 22, 2012
- Easy Ways to Go Green With Your Home Business and Save Money February 22, 2012
- How Many Social Media Crises Will It Take Before You Prepare For Yours? February 22, 2012
