Ten Holiday Markets of British Columbia
Holiday season is here. And that means one thing: holiday markets!
Blog Archive (2016)
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BC Pitching Competitions
Have you kept your eye on the ball, entrepreneurs? Because Global Entrepreneur Week 2016 is in full swing! But with every swing, there’s a pitch—and what is an entrepreneur without their pitch? So, to motivate our entrepreneurs, we’ve collected a series of pitching competitions. We answer the “who,” “what,” and “when” regarding these competitions to help you step up to the plate and take on your entrepreneurial goals. To top it all off, you have home advantage because all of these competitions are located in British Columbia.
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The SBA is Making Some Changes!
In an effort to improve our website’s layout, we’re looking for people who may be interested in giving us feedback related to our website! You can help by completing a short, online survey OR joining us in a remote-testing session -- that's right, you don't even have to leave your computer screen! Your time and opinion is invaluable to us, so here’s your chance to speak your piece and help push the SBA forward! Interested? Continue reading to learn more:
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How to Choose the Right Point of Sale for your Business?
Whether you run a café, sell your products at a farmers’ market or provide professional services, all businesses have one thing in common: monetary transactions. Point of Sale (POS) systems process these transactions, provide reporting and can help manage staff and inventory. POS solutions can be cloud-based or license-based. Traditional POS systems through the licensing model can require several thousand dollars of upfront cost per register. Cloud-based POS applications have the most appeal to small and medium sized businesses due to their low upfront cost compared to on premise options.
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Ten Books to Inspire You During Small Business Week 2016
To kick-off Small Business Week 2016 here at the SBA, we have collaborated once again with our friends at the David Lam Management Research Library to bring small business dreamers some literary inspiration.
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SBA Library
Throughout July and August, we asked various librarians throughout British Columbia for their business book recommendations and received an onslaught of responses. My Library at LibraryThing
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Business Oriented Legal Services, Free of Charge
If you are living in British Columbia and require legal advice regarding small business or non-profit matters; have limited means of paying for legal advice; and can come to the University of British Columbia Campus in person for an appointment, the Bobinski Business Law Clinic at the Peter A. Allard School of Law (the “Clinic”) at the University of British Columbia may be of interest to you.
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Industry Overview: Online Retail (E-commerce)
Online retail stores are virtual establishments that sell a variety of consumer or business-to-business products through e-commerce transactions. Online stores allow an owner to reach a larger and more geographically diverse group of potential consumers - and can lower operating costs by eliminating the need to rent or lease a brics and mortar storefront location. As e-commerce continues to grow in popularity, the opportunities for successful online businesses will also expand.
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10 Business Books to Read This Summer
With summer finally here, we have launched our #sbalibrary campaign on Twitter to inspire the B.C. business community to kick back and enjoy the nice weather while checking out a great read. Every day until the end of August we will be tweeting out a business book recommendation from either one of the great libraries in British Columbia or one of our followers.
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Industry Overview: Portrait Photography
Portrait photography involves capturing the likeness of a person or persons using various photographic equipment- in either a studio or at a specific location. This type of photography is particularly popular for special occasions such as weddings, engagements, and births. In order to operate a successful portrait photography business, photographers need solid business management skills, along with experience behind the lens. This field has been greatly impacted by advents in technology; however the industry is expected to grow moderately in the coming years.
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Why Every Small Business Needs To Promote Itself On LinkedIn
According to data released from LinkedIn in 2016, the platform has more than 433 million users in over 200 countries around the world. Based on a study of more than 5000 businesses, HubSpot reported that LinkedIn has the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%. This number is much higher when compared to other platforms like Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).
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Industry Trend: Embracing Millennial Employees
One of the biggest industry trends of 2016 is the need for businesses to embrace millennials.
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Five Quick Tips For High-Tech Small Business
Vancouver is establishing itself as a prime location for technology start-ups in Canada; this emergence will provide benefits to the technology sector. Tech businesses need to get these five things right to establish themselves and grow. The five key components to successfully starting a high-tech small business are listed below, along with additional resources for further reading.
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Eight Green Business Ideas
The world is clamouring for products and services that protect the environment. A recent Nielsen survey found that 42% of North American consumers are willing to pay more for green products and services. There are many ways that environmentally conscious businesses can tap into this demand.
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As Loonie Sinks Export Becomes Attractive to Small Businesses
The loonie’s value has hit a decade low and while this is generally bad news for the Canadian economy, it can create business opportunities abroad. Canadian companies can now generate a profit on products and services sold at a discount on the US and international markets. Exporting has its unique challenges but it could be worth your time to see if your business could benefit from new markets abroad.
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10 Exciting Business Developments in 2016
It is a new year and everyone likes to predict what will come in 2016. We decided to review these predictions and share strategies you may want to try this year
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Extracting Insights with Data Visualization Tools (Part 2 of 2)
Continuing with our review of data visualization tools, we now introduce you four more tools that aim to satisfy very different user needs. Datawrapper Datawrapper is ideal if you want to create a professionally looking graph in a few minutes. Originally envisioned for world-class journalists, Datawrapper is an open source project supported by ABZV and developed by Journalism++ Cologne. This tool enables anyone to create graphic design-like visualizations in four simple steps, without any programming skills.