How to start a retail business from home
This blog is the third in a series about home-based profitable businesses that you can start without having to carry large inventories or to have a full-time presence in a physical office or storefront. It is often mentioned that small businesses employ more people than all large businesses combined. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in the Canadian economy. Industry Canada says that 99% of businesses in Canada have fewer than 500 employees and they employ 64% of workers in the private sector. A great deal of those businesses are retail based. In the USA, the retail industry provides a way of life for the more than 24 million people who earn their livelihood from it. Regardless of the type of retail business you want to start, you cannot ignore the power and reach of the Internet. Each type of retailing has strengths and weaknesses, so you […]
Top Eight Consulting Businesses
Consulting business are fast becoming the most popular businesses that semi-retired, retired and disenfranchised employees are looking to get into. So lets talk about what consulting businesses are in most demand. This can help you to decide what type of consulting business that you may want to start from home. Accounting Consultants: While every business needs good accounting help and have good inside accountants, many are hiring accounting consultants to ensure that their accounting practices are delivering the best results and forecasting data that a company needs. Advertising Consultants: With the price of advertising and the new types and and channels for advertising these days, it is no wonder that advertising consultants are in great demand. Now more than ever before in the history of advertising has there been so many options in terms of types of ads and where they are placed. Advertising consultants are tasked with finding not only […]
How to start a Consultant Business from home
Setting up as a self-employed consultant has become a popular move for people in a broad range of industries and sectors. But becoming a consultant is not as easy as just getting business cards for very little money at Vistaprint or your local office supply store and saying you are a consultant. The very term consultant denotes someone who is authoritative and knowledgeable on a particular subject, and that experience and know-how are something that other organizations need and are willing to pay for. In fact, the dictionary defines a consultant as “an expert in a particular field who works as an advisor either to a company or to another individual.” You can find hundreds, if not thousands, of Internet citations and articles about becoming a consultant with a few simple Google searches. But knowing what a consultant is and why you should consider becoming one will not help you […]
Why is Cyber Monday so important to small business E-commerce?
So what is Cyber Monday? Basically, Cyber Monday is to online retailers what Black Friday is for brick-and-mortar retailers. These online events have been around for a decade and can help level the playing field for small businesses. According to Forbes, Cyber Monday online revenue for 2014 reached $2.68 billion – a nearly 20% increase over the totals in 2013. It is important to note that more than one-third of these purchases were made via mobile devices. This shows the amazing evolution of online sales. Lets go back to the beginning. According to Wikipedia, “Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. The term “Cyber Monday” was created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online. The term was coined by Ellen Davis and made its debut on November 28, 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled “‘Cyber Monday Quickly […]
Starting Your Home-Based Business
One of our office-space tenants who follows our blogs, asked us to do a blog series about home-based businesses because her husband took early retirement and wanted to keep busy at home. We want to first talk about the most profitable home-based business and what it takes to start one. Other topics in the series of posts will include: home-based retail (online); at-home wholesale and distributions businesses; and running a consulting business from home. Let’s start with talking about what are the most profitable and easy-to-start home-based businesses. Not surprisingly, the most profitable home-based businesses do not require a great deal of equipment, holding an inventory of goods or even renting office space. But you may want to pull out your calculator (or abacus) for the very top profitable home-based businesses. Yes, you guessed it, the most profitable home-based businesses you can start involve dealing with other people’s money. Forbes, […]
Using Business Centres As Contact Points for National & International Market Expansion
There are a lot of ways to break into new markets and attract new customers – from selling through a third party to setting up an office on the ground in that market. The main goal of expanding into a new market is to increase your sales and market share, but you will get less resistance from the market if you are seen as being local. You can get distributors to buy your product and then sell it to their own customers, therefore customers see themselves as dealing with a local company. This also means not having direct control over the selling, branding or marketing strategies that the distributor uses, essentially meaning that you do not have direct input on how your product will be represented in that particular marketplace. You could buy or merge with a local company in that market, even if it is just buying a controlling […]
Things you could have done in 2016 (and still can) to grow your business
With only a month and a half left in 2016, there is still things you can do before years end that will help to grow your business in 2017. Most small business owners feel that they can not afford to lose a customer, but what if that customer is taking up most of your time or that of your staff (without paying more than other clients)? It might be time to fire those clients or customers whose business only causes daily stress to you and your team, this could free up more time for new customers who are less demanding and easier to deal with. While you are firing bad customers who are time wasters, you want to take that time and concentrate on reaching out to new prospects. You will be surprised how many customers you can get by cultivating your list of prospects on a regular basis, because […]
How Not To Kill Your Small Business
We have all heard about business best practices. But what about things that you should not do if you want your business to thrive? Remember that having good business practices and not bad ones, will help prevent you from losing customers and from getting bad online reviews and negative comments. As we mentioned in another blog posting called “The Professional Image Of Your Small Business Begins With You”, we mentioned that a small business can only look as professional as the people who are running it. You can be perfectly dressed for the job at hand, but if you have a “pottie” mouth, or make racist or sexist remarks, you’re going to lose a lot of business trust and respect. Not answering your phone or allowing your business phone to be answered by a child, can kill your business reputation. There is never a good excuse for not answering your […]
Virtual Office or Virtual Assistant?
Many people ask what the difference is between a virtual office and a virtual assistant, because some websites and articles use them interchangeably or in similar context. This makes it difficult for an entrepreneur or a small business owner to determine what it is that they really need to help them with their business. In order to help you better understand the differences and similarities, we will first tell you what each is, and then explain how you can get the best of both services from one provider. The term virtual assistant, sometimes called a virtual office assistant (or VA for short), refers to a person who is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical or creative assistance to clients remotely from their home office. Typically, virtual assistants are independent contractors rather than employees, but some work with multi-VA firms that provide the services that the client needs. Virtual Assistants […]
Management Tips Gleaned From The Harvard Review
The Harvard Business Review (HBR) is a highly regarded general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, an organization that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. Harvard Business Review’s articles cover a wide and diverse range of topics that are relevant to different industries, management functions and geographic locations. A great deal of their articles focuses on such areas as leadership, organizational change, negotiation, strategy, operations, marketing, finance and managing people. Recently, Harvard Business Review released a book on their top management tips that were very insightful and should be shared. But the best tips were the ones that can easily be taken and put into action. While a lot of the tips may be more focused to managers of larger businesses, we found the tips that are best suited for small business owners and managers. One chore many people do not finish is to actually get through […]
3 Tips for a Small Business to Compete With Bigger Competitors
There is a great deal of business advice in books and on the internet, but much of it is not always intended or aimed at entrepreneurs or small business owners. There is even less advice on how a small business can compete with the bigger competitors who dominate the market. The advice you may get from a fellow entrepreneur might work for them, but there is no guarantee it will work for your small business, that is nature of small business. Here is some advice that does work for small business that you really need to hear. 1. Do not try to compete with the big box stores using price, they will always win Yes, the Walmarts, the Targets the Best Buys and even online giants like Amazon use pricing to draw consumers away from competitors, but as a small business owner, you will go out of business by trying […]
How to Negotiate For Lower Business Expenses
Every expense that your small business has, ends up adding to your overall cost of doing business and can eat away at your bottom line. What is the answer? Lower your re-occurring costs by negotiating discounts and lower rates with your vendors. While small businesses have been cutting back on their spending over the past number of years, according to one report, costs for goods and services togrther can be has high as 28 percent of your small business’ budget, making those costs the second largest expense after payroll. It is true that some fixed expenses such as rent, office equipment and utilities can be more difficult to negotiate, but with the right amount of knowledge, you might find some alternatives or ways to get these expenses fixed. Knowing what your big expenses will be each month will make it easier to budget and allow you to focus on negotiating […]
Getting Virtual Teams Right
First let’s talk about “Virtual Teams” as some people do not know what the term means. Basically, Virtual Teams are people that work together on various projects, but are located in different physical locations. This concept of people collaborating from various locations is one that is on the rise and has become easier as internet and telecommunication technology advances. These dispersed teams rely on shared work spaces, public WiFi, libraries and other places that they can connect to the Internet and communicate with their coworkers. Basically, they can work from almost anywhere and still be able to interact with other team members. We don’t need discuss the appeal of this type of work environment for employees, or their satisfaction in working in a flexible environment that speaks for itself. Most remote workers will tell you that they are happy to work alone, but they are most happy when they are […]
Where to locate your business
It is often said that the three most important factors in making sure a business is successful are ‘location, location, location.’ Even if your business is not retail and does not rely on walk-in traffic, your location is important to your customers and prospective clients. Yes, you prospective clients will often research your small business to find out if you are local and if you at a real business address. You may not need to maintain a physical presence near your customers, but your business address should be where your customers are – or where they expect you to be. You could have a head office location at a prestigious business address and have a majority of your production or staff working from another location that better suits the work that is being done – or where you are paying less rent. You want your customers to see your primary […]
Five Tips Every Small Business Owner Needs To Know
While there are plenty of tips all over the internet for small businesses, few are aimed at the business owner. As a business owner, sometimes you have take a step back and look at yourself in the mirror – and decide if you are making decisions for yourself or for your small business. Here are five proven strategies: Be unique. Have a unique product or service offering, or a point of view that your competition does not. Your offering must stand out and have its own point of view that is uniquely yours. If your potential customers cannot distinguish between your product or service and that of your competitor’s, as the new person in the marketplace you will probably not get the sale. Remember that consumer expectations today are heavily influenced by the larger players who have established a track record for what they are offering and how they deliver […]
Tips On Hiring And Managing Employees
As you get your small business off the ground, you will at some point need to hire employees to take care of the day-to-day functioning of your business. Before you start to look for employees, you need to define their job descriptions and what qualifications they should have to fill that position. You want to recruit the best and brightest, and create a workplace environment that they want to be a part of – and one that will retain them, so they do not get lost to your competitors. You also want a workplace environment that stimulates creativity and productivity at the same time. Just look at what Google, Bing, Apple and Yahoo have done. Yes, those are extreme examples, but there are many things they do that you can scale down to fit your own workplace. Happy and healthy employees are productive and will keep your business going strong. […]
Registering Your Business
So you have your business idea and you have developed a good business plan, now what? The purpose of this post is to give you granular details on where to find the information and online registration portals to make the registrations and get the proper licensing for your business. The earlier post tells you to think about and this post helps you determine what registrations and licensing requirements your business may need now and in the future and where to get your business registration and licensing requirements from your municipal, provincial and federal governments. Information for US businesses wanting to do business in Canada may also be of interest in addition to this how to register your business post. Licensing Requirements You will find a lot of very useful information on the Government of Canada site: licensing requirements for your business or industry search licensing requirements for municipal, provincial and federal governments Registering Your Business Name […]
Organizing Your Small Business Finances
The success of your small business will depend to a great degree on how well you plan and manage your finances. This is especially true if you will be seeking financial help, either from a start-up loan, an investor or from a government grant. It is imperative that you have a well-developed financial plan as part of your business plan. There is an old saying: “No one plans to fail, but many fail to plan.” This is important to remember if you are a new business owner. Starting up a new business can be deceptively simple, but from the very outset you need to be aware that even the most basic business model entails considerable financial planning. Your financial plan is where you need to prove your numbers and show that your business idea is viable and profitable. As part of your financial plan, you need to have a financial projection. […]
With back to school coming, are you planning to start a new business?
For students across the country, the lazy days of summer are coming to a close and a new school year is right around the corner. As an entrepreneur thinking of starting a new business, where to begin can be your biggest obstacle. In our previous blog Getting the Kids Back to School is a Reason to get Serious About Business, we talked about how many parents start thinking about their business when their children’s summer is about to end and the are going back to school. But what about those stay-at-home parents who do not yet have a business? Maybe it is time to start a home-based business that allows you to send the kids off to school and be home when they return from school each day. So where to begin in starting a new business? Do your homework No small business is guaranteed to be successful. One way that will improve […]
Characteristics To Look For In A Remote Worker
When you are looking for remote workers, you want people who have experience with little supervision (well, little in-person supervision) that are able to show results from the work that they are being asked to do. Your business has to be able to count on them, without you standing over their shoulder and making sure that they are getting the job done correctly and efficiently. Even though they are working remotely, they have to be team players. If an applicant does not demonstrate the ability to work with other team members or understand the concept of constant communication with head office and other team members, they might not be suited for your team. Because wherever your team members are located, holding daily meetings can keep them united and working towards one goal. You need a remote worker who can also check in with other team members a few times each […]