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One problem that many small business owners run into is simply thinking too small. I often have readers writing to me asking for helping getting their business ideas off the ground. I also often hear from folks who have run their small businesses into the ground. There are five key areas where you can think too small — and doom your business to failure.
Niche Too Small
Is your niche too small? Finding a small market to target with your business is key to success, but sometimes people narrow their niche too much. While doggy dental products could be a wonderful niche (as almost any dog owner can attest) you could even narrow your focus down to a certain type of dog (such as lap dogs) but going for one specific breed would be taking it too far.
Target Market Too Small
Is your target market too small? If you are looking only at one community or small geographic region then you may well doom your product to failure. It is far too easy to saturate a small market and it is far too easy for any marketing mistakes to end your campaign before it gets off the ground. In today’s economy with the availability of global marketing you need to think big when you are planning your target market.
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read comments (0)Are You Ready to Outsource Your Bookkeeping?
Author: admin
Do you run your own small business and try to do it all yourself? Why? Shouldn’t you spend your time doing what you do best- whether it is selling and marketing, customer service or making decisions on how to grow your business?
An entrepreneur tries to juggle many balls each day, but sooner or later one of them is going to be dropped. A smart business owner will realize that he/she can’t do everything because there are only 24 hours in a day. Unless you are extremely organized and enjoy working with numbers, then maybe you need to outsource this job. Too many business owners spend their time doing what they are not very good at simply because they don’t know how to go about finding someone to do that job for them.
Where do you start? Ask your accountant for referrals. Obviously you don’t need a full-time person to do your books, so your best bet is to look for someone who wants to moonlight at a part-time job. There are also bookkeepers with their own small business who are looking for clients. If you don’t have any other employees, this situation will work best for you because you can pay them as a subcontractor instead of an employee on payroll. However, you will need to give them a Form 1099 at year end for tax purposes. But, since they are accounting experts, they can help you with that task too.
You should interview your prospective bookkeeper just as you would if you were hiring him/her as an employee. Ask for a resume and references, and check them out. Since this person will be handling your confidential records, you want someone who is trustworthy.
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Be a Rich Jerk!
Author: admin
You want to meet the Rich Jerk!
Ha – don’t make me laugh. What do you think the chances are of ever getting to meet this 26-year old brat who has more money than you’ve had hot dinners?
Oh, you want to BE a Rich Jerk?
Well, that’s a completely different story! I’m going to tell you why.
A few days ago, I heard about this fellow who had sold a web site and business on eBay for a fabulous sum of money. More than that, he is still running extremely successful online businesses, which are adding to his considerable wealth, every minute of the day. Now, if like me, you’ve built the web sites, made sure that the search engines find them – and then still only make a modest living online, there’s surely something to learn from this guy’s approach. So, I bought the eBook that he wrote and, although it’s only a small book, it has some great advice.
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Every year millions of people answer “Yes” to that question and every year that answer costs many of them money, time, confidence, and heartbreak. The Small Business Administration estimates there are 580,900 new small businesses opening each year and that number does not include the small one-person entrepreneurships that pop up every day. However even if you are your business’s sole employee then there is still something to be learned from the SBA’s numbers.
According to the SBA, two-thirds of new businesses survive at least two years and 44 percent survive at least four years. Two of the key factors in the businesses survival and ability to thrive: the owner’s education level and the owner’s reason for starting the firm in the first place.
How can you make sure that you are among the winners rather than the losers in this high stakes game? The answer is inside of you. You must ask yourself four key questions to determine whether your own small business will survive and thrive.
1. Are You Ready
Have you mentally prepared yourself for the switch from employee (or student or whatever label fits you currently) to boss. You are going to be the one making decisions now about everything from office products to product line. This total control is one of the driving forces behind many people who take the plunge into starting their ownbusiness but it is also one of the elements that drives new entreprenurs crazy. When you start out there is an endless list of decisions that need to be made and new questions crop up every day.
Even more important you will need to remember that in a small business you will wear many hats. Even if you manage to start out with one or more employees you will each fulfill more than one role in your new business. And if you are running a one-man or one-woman show then you serve in every capacity from file clerk to maintenance crew to salesman to CEO. Can you handle switching from task to task and role to role like that? Are you willing to make those switches?
Similarly, have you prepared your family and friends for this switch in attitude. Your life is going to change — probably pretty drastically — and that change can have a positive or negative impact on your family life and social interactions. It will make things much easier if your friends and family are supportive going into the process.
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