moving beyond the start-up phase into a phase of increased competition for market share
It's that wonderful time of year again! Kick off small business week with one of these books My Library at LibraryThing Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do by Carl J Schramm
Finding the ideal location for your new business can make the difference between a successful start-up with strong traffic, or an agonizing first year of hunting for customers. No - there is no secret to finding the right location to open up shop (though GIS-based location scientists might disagree), but there are a few important questions to consider before making that decision.
There’s no getting around the fact that entrepreneurship is hard work. The rewards can be tremendous, but the time and effort that goes into building a company from the ground up is more than most people can handle—by themselves, anyway. To ease the burden of managing a startup, many entrepreneurs go into business with a co-founder. Splitting the responsibility takes some of the load off your back while also providing a second set of opinions and strategies that can steer your company in the right direction. However, co-founding a startup is a tricky endeavour in itself.
Work smarter, not harder! You already know that entrepreneurs are go-getters; on any given day these Jack-of-All-Trades’ job titles could be accountant, customer service rep, therapist, motivational speaker or IT specialist.
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.
You’ve got “THE” business idea that you’re convinced will be a success. But how can you convince your audience? With research! Prove You Know the Competition A good starting point is identifying your competition within your industry. Do thorough research to find out what makes you different from the competition, and use that difference to explain why customers will buy from you. For example, if you think locality makes you stand out, why does that matter to your customers? What data suggests that this is an asset in comparison to your competition?
We are in the middle of Open Education Week, which lasts from March 27th to 31st this year. The goal of the week is to raise awareness about sources, uses and benefits of open education. We conducted some research to find open resources that will be helpful for a small business owner. Although many websites offer free courses aimed at small business owners, it can be difficult to determine their quality. We decided only to look at recognized high quality platforms that offer free courses.
October is here and marks the beginning of Small Business Month, when we celebrate the vitality that small businesses bring to the culture and economy of Canada.