Archive for January, 2010

Home Business – Start Organized, Stay Organized, Save Time

January 28th, 2010 admin
Home Business - Strategic Planning Ideas
When you start a new home based business, it is easy to overlook or put off some of the boring mundane chores while you concentrate on building up your business. One such chore is creating a proper home office filing system for your business documents. In all the excitement and hard work of the first weeks and months of running a new home business, it will be hard to find time for everything you need to do. Good time management strategies will pay off but, even if you have worked out a schedule for yourself, this will almost certainlyly need some fine tuning to get your days running smoothly and you will probably find you have too many chores to get through each day.

Putting things off is never a good idea and filing is no exception. If you procrastinate, the task will not go away and you will, in fact, find it has grown bigger and more difficult to manage. The amount of documents you generate will depend on the type of business you have started.

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Keys To Finding A Great Business!

January 27th, 2010 admin
Finding a Great Business | Business Strategic PlanningWith many home business opportunities available today, how do you find a truly great business? Rather than take a gamble with your future financial security, read on to find out exactly what to look for when choosing a home business.

1. How big is the market?
The larger the market, the more potential sales you can achieve. Look for a business where age, income and culture do not overly influence the customer’s requirement for your product or service. The more people interested in your products or service, the more money you will make.

2. What is the industry trend?
What is the general direction of the industry in which your business will operate? Is the industry expanding, staying level or shrinking? You will need to look for an industry that is expanding as well as a highly desirable product or service.

3. The nature of the product or service itself
Is the product one that people will use often? Look for a product that is consumed (used up) and needs to be replaced regularly. This will give you repeat orders from the same customer and create a steady flow of income.

4.

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Outperform the Economy: New Strategies for a New Decade

January 27th, 2010 admin

The SBDC at UNF invites you to attend “Outperform the Economy: New Strategies for a New Decade” on February 11th from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the UNF University Center.

The morning session will discuss tactics for improving performance by employing competitive intelligence to gather and use information to make decisions – and a forecast on what to expect in the coming year that may impact these decisions. The afternoon session will focus on using process management to identify efficiencies to improve your bottom line and how to develop business continuity strategies to address critical points of failure in these processes.

Can’t make the all-day program on the 11th? The morning session will be presented again at the St.

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Ten Things to Consider When Reviewing Your Business Plan

January 27th, 2010 admin
Strategic Planning Consultants
Once your Business Strategic Planning have been completed, it’s time to review your work. Remember, writing your business plan is a significant step in making your small business concept a reality. Therefore, you should review your plan carefully and ask others who you feel can provide sound advice to also critique your document.

Your business plan should include:

  • All key sections: Executive summary, business overview, sales and marketing, management team, competitive analysis, and financial plan.
  • A table of contents.
  • All key points explained clearly.
  • Concise language, eliminating any extraneous material, hype, or repetitive statements.
  • Substantiated facts, such as current and accurate data and verifiable claims.
  • A clearly defined target market and realistic goals to reach this audience.
  • A clear competitive analysis presented in a manner to show how you will gain a competitive edge.
  • Financial projections that are neither overestimated nor underestimated in a time frame suitable for launching the business. Be conservative with your estimates.
  • Visible contact information on a cover page and at the end of the document.
  • Content that has been thoroughly proofread and checked carefully for spelling and grammar.
Remember, a business plan is typically designed to attract investors and also to provide a blueprint for your business.

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SBDC’s get their funding…

January 26th, 2010 admin

The Small Business Administration will provide more assistance and capital to small businesses. The FY 2010 Appropriations Bill shows the SBA will receive $824 million which is $212 million above 2009 and $45 million above the request. Highlights include:
· Overall Lending: Supports $28 billion in new lending to small businesses
· Microlending: $25 million in new microlending. $22 million in related assistance
 · SBDCs: $113 million ($3 million above 2009, $16 million above the request)

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SBA loan activity in North Florida is UP

January 26th, 2010 admin
According to our SBA North Florida District office, SBA loan activity is up 28% in the first fiscal quarter! Read about it here.
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An interview with Lauren Little: Edible Arrangements

January 26th, 2010 admin








Lauren Little is the owner of two Edible Arrangements stores located in Avondale and Bartram Park (Mandarin). Edible Arrangements is a franchise concept which specializes in creating delicious fruit designs filled with fresh strawberries, pineapple, grapes, oranges, cantaloupe, honeydew, bananas and pears. Arrangements are guaranteed fresh and are available in a variety of styles and sizes.

Lauren took time out to answer a few questions about her business…

Who is your customer?

My customer is anyone who has an appreciation for a sweet, unique, healthy gift option.

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Incoming Searches that might interest you:

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WTO Panel to Investigate U.S. Tariffs on Chinese Tires

January 26th, 2010 admin

by Edison Mandarin

The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday established an expert panel to investigate and rule whether punitive U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made tires breach WTO regulations.

The panel was established at a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), at which China reiterated its position that the U.S. tariffs “run short of factual bases and breached the U.S. obligations under the WTO.”

“The Chinese government deeply regretted the U.S. decision to impose restrictions on Chinese tires and believed it was a departure of international consensus of G20 leaders to fight against protectionism,” the Chinese delegation said.

“China once again urges the United States to promptly withdraw its measures. And we believe the panel will make impartial determination on this case,” it added.

China initially made the panel request in December, but it was rejected by the United States in accordance with relevant procedures.

U.S. President Barack Obama approved punitive tariffs up to 35 percent on all car and light truck tires from China last September in a so-called attempt to “remedy the clear disruption to the U.S. tire industry.”

The same month China filed a complaint to the WTO and requested consultations with the United States on the dispute.

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5 Secrets of Social Media for 2010

January 25th, 2010 admin
Social media took a wild ride in 2009. The mainstream press fell in love with Twitter, Facebook grew aggressively and a new wave of companies starting taking social media seriously as a business tool. Below are 5 secrets to staying on top of it all in 2010
1. Pay Attention to the Metrics

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Chief Marketing Officers are going to pay more attention to metrics and tie in social media more directly to overall business goals, not just web-related goals. When starting up new project agree on what the metrics should be and what goals are appropriate.

2. Scale Good Habits

As you grow, make sure you match your structure, policy and guidelines to your organization size. What works with 2 people won’t work with 20 people. All in all your structure should encourage good habits. Your entire team should be motivated to respond quickly, post consistently and talk like a human. Speaking of policies and rules…

3. Have Rules, But Trust People

As your social media strategy matures, you’ll add in more rules and guidelines. However, you can’t have a rule for every situation. You need to trust your team. Lead by example, don’t manage with rulebook.

4.

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Free SEO Analysis Tool

January 22nd, 2010 admin

The internet has free SEO analysis tools and websites showcasing SEO services willing to do a preliminary analysis for free. The internet tool helps to assess the strength of the SEO of a website in a few seconds. The tool will give recommendations as to improvements to be made with content, ranking, link networks and technical problems. .

Using a professional SEO service for analysis is more reliable than the instant online tool. Many professional SEO services offer a professional free SEO analysis service before taking on a professional job. The free SEO analysis report will give the client the confidence that the professional service has understood the problems of the website and have the answers to the problems.This free SEO analysis helps them show you their capabilities and you to judge their competence. .

Search engine optimization firms

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Choosing Search Engine Optimization Companies

January 21st, 2010 admin

You know of course that search engine optimization companies can assist your site in improving its traffic. What you probably do not know is how to choose the best company among the many SEO companies offering the same kind of service. Search engine optimization companies or internet marketing companies offer SEO services, such as internet marketing services and link buildings that improve rankings. All in all, they offer strategies for search engine marketing which increases the traffic of your website and generate more sales. You must know how to distinguish the internet marketing experts from the run of the mill ones so you can make sure you hire the right company.

To do that, the first thing you should do is to check out their services. How they will go about improving your ranking is something a good SEO company can properly explain to you. They have good consultants who can explain to you their planned marketing goals for your site. They should not use tricks in improving your search engine ranking but should have specific plans. The guidelines of the different search engines, like Yahoo and Googles are things you should read beforehand.

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What Family Business Consultants Do

January 20th, 2010 admin
Family business consultants can help families look at things from the outside in. Let’s face it, we all want to take care of our families and we want to take care of our businesses – in part because a well cared for business will take care of us.

On the one hand we have today’s issues with the family to consider as well as this or that crisis at work. How can we figure out which is of greater significance right now – if one can be addressed?

You’ve heard the expression about not being able to see the forest for the trees. True enough when it comes to focus on what’s important to both the business and the family on our own.

It’s so easy to become wrapped up in day-to-day activities, in the business and at home, that we fail to look at the big picture or think about the future beyond which wheel is squeaking the loudest right now.

That’s where family business consultants and coaches comes in. They can help us remember our long-term goals while we are naturally focused on the fires that are raging right in front of us right now.

Family business consultants can help us identify problem areas that need improvement today as well as those we’ll have to face in the future.

In some cases, that could mean changing staff assignments; who does what to head off problems of one kind or another that they can see looming ahead and that we will not recognize on our own until it is too late to handle them cost effectively.

Family business consultants can help us identify the strengths and weaknesses of individual family members, taking the heat for us when the resulting decisions are not popular.

Cousin Bob might not be suited for sales, after all, even though that’s where he has been since he started with the company.

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