Posted November 9th, 2012 by Mary
Starting a new company can be exciting. The attached dreams and anticipation of success fuel the entrepreneur’s enthusiasm. That’s important because starting a company requires a lot of time and effort. Attention must be paid to even the smallest details, including that of choosing a company name.
The truth is, this choice can be critical to the long term success of the company. In order to assist with this ‘name choosing’ dilemma a new industry has developed. Many people hire ‘name consultants’ to help them choose a proper company name. One name consultant company has even come up with a ‘smile and scratch’ test to help with the name choosing process.
Things to Avoid When Naming a Company
Plain Vanilla - A company name should stand out. This means you should avoid using plain or vanilla type names. The idea is to choose a name that grabs attention. It’s very helpful to choose a company name that is unique in nature.
Maps & Fences – Every company starts out small and hopes to grow as time goes by. This means everything related to the company should be scalable. That includes the company name. If you fence the company in with the name of a city or specific product you may hinder the company’s growth potential. As time goes by the company’s target audience may grow to include other locations and additional products and services.
Puzzles – Your company name should be interesting and it can even be complex; but it should not be a puzzle. In other words, the name should logically relate to the business. Potential customers should be able to make the connection without an explanation.
Tips for Picking the Right Name
Get Inspired – Researching successful businesses and company names can be a great way to get inspired to find a quality name for your company. Look to leaders like C. Phillips of Oracle and others for inspiration.
Make It Easy – Choose a company name that makes it easy for potential customers to understand and remember. Do this by choosing a name that logically relates to your company. This makes it possible for anyone that hears the name to immediately connect it with the business’ purpose.
Be Different – Your company name should stand out from the names of competitors. Dare to be different and unique. This helps you create a distinctive brand that will be remembered.
Posted August 31st, 2012 by Mary
Are you looking for ways to bring additional capital into your company? Whether you are starting a new business or if you have an established operation that could benefit from an influx of capital, you’ll definitely want to investigate the various options available for small business loans that you can apply for. You may be in a position to submit an application specific to the business that doesn’t require a personal guarantee, or you may find that making a personal guarantee is the best way to get a loan approved with a favorable interest rate. It’s certainly a good idea to investigate all options before making a final decision regarding what type of loan funding makes the most sense for your organization.
Posted August 15th, 2012 by Mary
Are you thinking about opening a party supply store? If you’re in an area where there isn’t already too much competition and you’ll be able to turn a profit while offering prices similar to what customers can find online, you might find that this type of business is an excellent opportunity. Of course, you’ll need to develop a solid business plan in order to determine whether it’s viable or not.
Start by identifying your target customers, making sure to determine the types of parties you’d like to cater to. With this type of business, the more diverse, the better. There’s always a market for wedding decorations, as well as seasonal special event decor, children’s birthday party supplies, items appropriate for school parties and more. Once you decide what segments you will target, you’ll be able to move on to conducting a competitive analysis, determining fixed and variable costs, identifying marketing strategies and more.
Posted July 12th, 2012 by Mary
As a small business owner, you often end up taking care of tasks that aren’t necessarily things that you thought you would have to do when you first began your business enterprise.
Chances are that you opened your business because of a special interest in providing services or producing products specific to an area of your expertise and interest. However, there is a lot more involved in running a business than focusing on the parts that you are comfortable with.
16 Surprising Small Business Owner Tasks
Here are some of the many tasks that small business owners often find themselves having to handle themselves – that they might not have expected when they first chose to go into business for themselves.
- Business bookkeeping
- Collecting accounts receivable
- Daily office cleaning
- Facilities maintenance
- Facilities management
- Filling out compliance reports
- Interviewing applications
- Inventory
- Making sales calls
- Meeting with vendors
- Purchasing
- Sourcing services
- Participating in networking activities
- Tax filing
- Tax preparation
- Writing policies and procedures
By no means is this an all-inclusive list of all of the tasks that small business owners deal with. The items on this list are just a few of the things that often take new entrepreneur by surprise. When you own your own business, you need to be prepared to handle any task or responsibility that comes your way – or to find a professional who can take care of it for you.
Posted June 22nd, 2012 by Mary
In an office environment, you’re able to communicate as and when you need to with your employees or co-workers, but if you have no choice but to work from home, you might think that keeping in touch with the right people might be more difficult. Although you might want to e-mail them, it’s not the same as talking face to face. This is where video conferencing comes to the rescue, as it can make working from home pretty convenient.
By getting the right technology from companies like Powwownow, you can arrange a meeting in next to no time, and they can help to save both you and the person or people you’re speaking to a lot of time and effort. To organise a meeting the old-fashioned way, you had to spend plenty of time travelling to a venue and get everything set up before you could start talking. Now, video conferencing can be done from almost any device with an internet connection, making it easier than ever to do.
As well as saving time, video conferencing can save you money. It can be done very cheaply indeed, whereas a phone call can cost you upwards to £10 per conference call, even if it takes less than an hour. Video conferences can take a matter of minutes to organise, meaning that you have more time to get work done before and afterwards.
Video conferencing can be done just about anywhere, including at home. This means that, even though you’re away from the office, you’re able to get in touch with whoever you need to in an instant. You can even invite a number of different people to your video conference if there’s a matter which affects the entire company. Without it, you’re going to find that getting work don at home will be a lot harder.
