How to Manage Risks in Business

Every business has risks associated with it. This is why risk management is necessary for every business organization. As a matter of fact, it is one of the Factors That Must Be Considered Before Starting A Business. The objective of this article therefore is to explore the strategies on how to manage risks in business. In order to attain this objective, it is pertinent to begin with the semantic analysis of risk management because the strategies on how to manage risks are encapsulated in the meaning of risk management.

Client Or End User: Whose Opinion Is More Important?

When you hire a software company for your project, their main task is delivering a product that will satisfy your demands. The requirements that you set, the features that must be done, and in the end the product that works - everything simply like you want, according to your own vision of the product. But will the product that satisfies you, satisfy the end users? Does this product solve their own problems? Well, it's for them to judge.

Essentials of an Effective Business Letter

Business letter has a materialistic purpose but effective business letter can also strengthens the bonds between two organizations or the dealer and the customer. Business letters are used for many purposes such as to make inquiries, send replies, to place orders or bank correspondences etc. The main and the basic function of the business letter is not only to convey your message to the person who receives the letter but also to influence the reader. Following point can be used to make your business letter an effective business communication.

Marketing Strategies For Small Business: Solutions For Marketing The Product That Isn't There

A great deal of advertising and marketing strategies for small business and companies focus on tangible goods, such as toothpaste, cars or clothing. The consumer can see, smell or touch the product we are asking them to buy. Intangible products are much harder to quantify. Since there is no product to touch or hold, the quality of a service can't be easily evaluated before purchase, which makes it a bit more challenging to sell these and convince customers to believe whatever it is you are trying to sell them.

Take a look at three common problems and examples of how sound marketing strategies for small business can overcome these obstacles.

Why Too Many Startups Run Out of Money Too Fast

Over the last five years, my firm Red Rocket Ventures has consulted or mentored more than 500 startups -- nearly all of them suffering from the same problem. They are typically so focused on building their product, they don't raise enough capital to cover essential sales and marketing activities that will allow them to better attract additional venture capital down the road. As a result, many startups run out of money soon after launch, stalling out before they reasonably had a fighting chance.

Should You Fire an Employee Who Lies?

Your trusted assistant exaggerated the experience section of his resume. Your top sales producer lied to you about a client’s order status to cover her butt. The most obvious solution is to fire the liar, but is that always the best course of action?

Not necessarily, says Chicago human resources attorney Charles A. Krugel. There may be a difference between an employee who fudges the truth and one who puts your business in jeopardy or exposes you to liability. Firing a longtime employee because she said she had a college degree when, in reality, she was a few credits short might needlessly incur costs after she’s proven herself to be a trusted member of the team.

Startup Entrepreneurship Growing at an Exponential Rate

Everyone wanted to be a rock star in the 1960s. The “rock star” career path of this decade seems to be entrepreneurship.

As the sixth annual Global Entrepreneurship Week gets underway, several metrics show that both the number of startup entrepreneurs and the community of mentors across the world are growing at an exponential rate.

What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?

The other day I read an interesting book called Entrepreneurial DNA, by Joe Abraham, the founder of BOSI Global, an operating partner to venture-backed and owner-operated companies. The book is based on Joe’s study of over 1,000 entrepreneurs. The research confirmed the discovery that all entrepreneurs are not all wired the same way. The book suggests entrepreneurs fall into four distinct types of entrepreneurial DNA’s that leverage unique strengths, weaknesses and tendencies typical in each specific type of entrepreneur:

Why You Must Have a Business Plan

It's more than a tool for getting funding. Think of it as the road map to your business's future.

Recently someone asked me why they needed a business plan if they were getting all the funding they needed from friends and relatives. It sounded to me as if they were thinking of a business plan as just a fund-raising tool. In fact, a business plan is much more than that: It's a tool for understanding how your business is put together. You can use it to monitor progress, hold yourself accountable and control the business's fate. And of course, it's a sales and recruiting tool for courting key employees or future investors.

Why Growing Your Business Is All About Perspective

You have all heard the saying, "You can do anything if you set your mind to it." For entrepreneurs, this adage couldn't be truer.

Successful entrepreneurs tend to have what is referred to as a “growth mindset” as opposed to a “fixed mindset”. As the leading psychologist on the topic Carol Dweck puts it, "In a growth mindset, people believe their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work -- brains and talent are just the starting point," whereas people with a fixed mindset believe "their basic qualities, like intelligence are fixed."

4 Tests to Fail-Proof Your Business Idea

You've put in the time, and you're ready to launch your new business idea. It's an exciting time. But how ready are you?

I don't need to tell you how much risk is involved in venturing. Financially, it is very important that you test your idea before you commit to a big launch. The knowledge you gain from testing your idea will help determine if it is ready for the market and improve your business plan. You'll set yourself up for success by preemptively identifying problems and minimizing risk. And hopefully, your nerves will be eased.

How to Protect Your Business Idea Without a Patent

It's natural to fear that your idea might be stolen. But you can't turn your vision into reality without the help of others. Sooner or later, you're going to want to ask an industry expert to evaluate your product or service. You're going to need to collaborate with a manufacturer or distributor. But patents cost thousands of dollars and take years to be issued. You can't afford to wait that long to start bringing your product to market.

Thankfully, there are creative ways to actively protect your idea without applying for a patent. Here are four affordable strategies that will protect your business idea from being stolen:

Why Every Personal Brand Needs a Target Audience

The following is the fifth in the series "Personal Branding For A Better Life," in which marketing expert Jim Joseph applies big brand marketing lessons to help you build a successful personal brand.

One of the fundamentals of good marketing is making sure you understand your target audience -- not only who they are, but what makes them tick.

8 Ways to Come Up With a Business Idea

The start of the year is a great time to gear up to start a business. But, of course, you first need to figure out a winning concept. "You have to come up with a lot of ideas to be successful," says Stephen Key, cofounder of the website inventright.com based in Glenbrook, Nev., and author of One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs: Live Your Dreams and Create Your Own Profitable Company, (McGraw-Hill, 2012).

Key, who has licensed more than 20 products in the last 25 years, says he generates ideas by finding different ways to engage his mind, from walking the aisles of stores to brainstorming about holes in the marketplace.

Here are eight techniques from Key and other experts that could help get your creative juices flowing:

A 7-Year-Old's Inspiring Dream to Be an Entrepreneur

For a lot of kids with entrepreneurial aspirations, the lemonade stand is the go-to business idea. Not so for 7-year-old Ryland Goldman. This kid has bigger plans.

When his family recently moved to Los Gatos, Calif., Ryland spotted a golden business opportunity: lots of foot traffic. His family lives a block away from Ryland's elementary school. Every morning a steady flow of parents and their children stream by their house.

3 Steps to Creating Your Branding Message

You only have one value proposition and you want it to stick in your customers' minds. BMW is the "ultimate driving machine." Apple customers "think different." Nike's message -- "Just do it" -- is ubiquitous with the brand.

In my column "The Secret to a Strong Branding Message? Focus," I discuss the need to be one thing in the minds of your customers. But how do you determine what that one clear message should be?

The answer is to triangulate. The basic notion of triangulation is that you can figure out a location if you know its distance relative to three distinct points. This is how ship captains stay out of the Bermuda Triangle.

How to Start a Business in 10 Days

With an executive staffing venture about to open, a business loan from the in-laws gnawing at her conscience and a new baby to care for, Michelle Fish was already feeling the pressure. But what really pushed her over the edge was an unexpected communiqué from the IRS demanding immediate payment of a "huge sum" owed from a prior business in which she was a partner. Poof! Her seed money was gone. "All the spreadsheets, all the forecasting, all the preplanning took a back seat once that bill came," recalls Fish, hearkening back to the 2003 launch of her Charlotte, N.C.-based firm, Integra Staffing.

Report: Snapchat's 23-Year-Old CEO Said No to $3 Billion From Facebook

Until recently, it would have been a safe bet that no 23-year-old in the world had ever turned up his nose at $3 billion. But that's exactly what Evan Spiegel, the co-founder and chief executive of messaging service Snapchat, did when Facebook offered to buy his company.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the offer, The Wall Street Journal reports Facebook offered Snapchat an all-cash deal of $3 billion or more. At the time of its last funding round, in June, Snapchat was valued at only $800 million. (It raised $60 million in June of a total $73 million to date.)

How an Idea Partner Can Help Launch a Million-Dollar Startup

As an entrepreneur, you mind is constantly thinking about the next "big" idea. But what you might deem the next Facebook, could be a total flop.

To separate the million-dollar idea from the total duds, an entrepreneur should enlist the help of an idea partner, or someone to act as a sounding board and provide feedback.

10 Things a Business Owner Should Know About Mezzanine Debt

In a world of easy money availability with brokers pitching surefire financing approaches, mezzanine debt gets lost in the shuffle at times. Most brokers and investment bankers do not really understand mezzanine debt, fewer still have ever been in the mezzanine finance industry. Most business owners have heard of it, through an advisor or through their banker, but they still need more information to understand how it can work for them.

4 Effective Ways You Can Raise Capital for Your Start-Up Business

"How to raise capital" is the biggest concern for every start-up enterprise. Every start-up requires sizeble investment before it starts to deliver profits that in turn are utilized for the growth of business. You need funds at every step of your business development.

Check out 4 most reliable sources you can raise capital for your startup for:

Success in Small Business: What Model Is Working Right Now?

Gone are the days of creating a business, looking around at what other successful business owners are doing and copying them. Doesn't work. It also creates needless feelings of competition, which is not fun at all.

No, times have changed. We are seeing a brand new paradigm in business success. The new paradigm is that customers and clients come to you because they resonate with you and your message. This sounds very simple, and it is... unless you don't fully understand how deep this actually goes.

Growing Funds Along With Your Business

It isn't an exaggeration to say that funding is the life energy of a business. If you own a small or medium sized business, then you must deal with cash flow issues day-in and day-out. It can be frustrating if you struggle to maintain your company's cash flow and are unable to cover ongoing operating expenses. At the same time, your company's invoice aging report shows that there are a significant number of outstanding invoices.

The Salient Parts of a Cash Flow Statement

If you are a small business owner, it is imperative for you to become financially literate. You also need to become very conversant with financial accounting language and terminologies for periodic reports on your business as a going-concern. You need this knowledge to deal with banks, financiers, customers, suppliers, business partners and even regulatory authorities. Since money is generally regarded as the live-wire of any business, one of the most important reports you need to watch the health of your business is the cash flow statement.

Forget What Your Customers Need; Branding Is About What They Want

The following is the second in the series "Marketing Like the Big Brands," running every other week in which marketing expert Jim Joseph shows entrepreneurs on a small-business budget how to apply marketing strategies used by big brands.

Being a brand is what separates you from your competitors and creates a much stronger connection with your customers.

10 Questions to Ask Before Determining Your Target Market

The better you understand your customer, the faster your business will grow. But new ventures often struggle to define their target market and set their sights too broadly.

"We often overestimate the market size, and in many cases there may not be one at all," says Robert Hisrich, director of the Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz.

How to Build a Lean and Efficient Business Plan

The concept of the lean startup, developed by entrepreneur Eric Ries, looks at how product development cycles can be shortened and businesses can run more efficiently by continuously measuring progress and feedback. This philosophy is particularly relevant when it comes to thinking about your business plan.

In business, it is the continuous planning process that matters. Your business plan, like your business, is a living, evolving, flexible thing. It requires rapid changes and fact-based decision making. I like the body metaphor implied by the term. Lean doesn’t just mean thin; it also means healthy, muscular and efficient. Here five ways to help make your business plan leaner:

A Young Entrepreneur's Quick Path to Profitability

Vermont's Matt Benedetto has been selling things since he was 13, when his mother taught him to crochet and he started making winter beanie hats for skiers in the Northeast. But when he graduated from college last year, the young entrepreneur decided it was time to think bigger.

His idea? A line of fabric-covered iPhone cables and a new business called Eastern Collective.

How to Outwit Your Competition

Decades of experience have taught me that making thoughtful improvements to existing products is a consistently profitable way to innovate. An effective way to come up with ideas is to start by surveying the market in a familiar industry and asking: What's missing?

Maybe a potential demographic has been completely overlooked by industry leaders. Maybe there's been a lack of innovation for years. You don't have to reinvent the wheel to create a winning innovation.

The question to ask is: How can the products already out on the market be made better? Here are three ways to help you out-design your competition:

5 Essential Ingredients of a Winning Business Idea

Ideas come in all shapes and sizes. But my experiences and the experiences of my many students have taught me that winning ideas -- ideas that are profitable, quick to license, and inexpensive to venture -- share specific traits. Namely, they pave a smooth path to success by clearing the most difficult barriers to bringing a product to market before an entrepreneur has invested significant amounts of time, energy and money into an idea.

If your idea doesn't have the following five ingredients, you may want to assess how much you're willing to put on the line to see it succeed.

7 Steps to Finding Success as a Millennial Entrepreneur

Older generations say millennials have short attention spans, a sense of entitlement, and little patience. The fact is, those qualities are not necessarily bad -- especially for young entrepreneurs.

What some call faults can actually be advantages if leveraged in the right way. The key is finding that sweet-spot between youthful enthusiasm and the more “old-fashioned” values that have served as the backbone of business for generations. I started my company when I was a freshman in college. Fourteen years later, we are generating annual revenues in excess of $10 million.

Here’s what I’ve learned about striking that balance:

Choosing The Best Funding Strategy For You

There are plenty of strategies you can use to fund your business's growth. The trick is picking the one that suits your company best.

From credit cards and credit unions to VCs and IPOs, a dizzying array of financial tools can help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. With so many options, it's important to pick the best tool for the job. Finance professionals call this "structuring" your business finance, and the right structure can mean the difference between building a monumental company and sinking in the quicksand of debt.

Why Friends And Family Are Your Worst Business Enemies

Every week our firm gets phone calls from clients around the country who have lost their money by investing with friends, family or neighbors they trusted.

In nearly every case, in the beginning there was a guarantee of unusually high returns with no risk, and of course the promises of success from a trusted relationship. However, by the time they call our office, the money is gone, their calls are being ignored and they need legal advice on what to do next.

How to Raise Money for Your Startup -- Now

Raising capital for a startup venture during these difficult economic times has been a major obstacle for many aspiring entrepreneurs. But it's not impossible.

There are several steps budding business owners can take to get in front of prospective investors and to help make sure they pony over the cash you need, says Asheesh Advani, author and co-founder of CircleLending, a peer-to-peer lending service that was acquired by Virgin Money USA in 2007. He now serves as CEO of asset management services company Covestor. Advani was a speaker at Entrepreneur's Growth Conference here on Jan. 11, 2012.

Here are Advani's best tips for landing the money you'll need to get your business off the ground:

7 Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing Your Business Entity

Many new business owners believe choosing and forming their business entity is something to check off their list on a weekday night after researching on the web for an hour or so.

Please be careful. There are many complexities and issues to consider when choosing the right business entity based on your situation. Here are a few myths that may help you in your quest:

Hiring a Lawyer: 5 Mistakes to Avoid

Every new business will need a good lawyer, so it's crucial that you get the best advice your budget allows. Making a mistake can mean wasted money and time to get contracts redone and equity deals renegotiated.

To make the process a little easier, we've identified five common mistakes that startups make as well as the clearest ways to avoid them.

Incorporating? Avoid these 5 Mistakes

Think your start-up is so small it doesn't need to form a corporation? Think again. Incorporation gives you limited liability. More clearly stated, it provides a shield for your personal assets outside of your company. The apartment you own? The car you drive to your shared office space? Until you have an Inc. or LLC. at the end of your company name, that can all be up for grabs if someone decides to sue you or an investor wants their money back.

How to Build a Business Plan For Your Personal Brand

If you were marketing a big brand for a living, the notion of outlining an annual marketing business plan would be second nature to you. Those of us who have managed brands through the years are very much used to the process.

3 Ways Your Network Can Help You Flex Your Innovation Muscle

I was in Madison, Wisconsin recently to give a speech. One of the things I noticed right away is that it’s a really social, lively, connected place. It’s easy to talk to your neighbor and bring your solutions and even your challenges to the business next door. That’s how organic, authentic innovation really happens.

5 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche

Nihilist. Religious denier. Reformed romantic.

Inspiration for entrepreneurs?

Turns out, you can learn a lot about running a business from Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher and philologist who turned Romantic thinking on its head. He actually had some ideas that provide a helpful path for entrepreneurs.

Just look at his overall philosophy of life affirmation: Essentially that says we shouldn't let all the ideas and doctrine around us and let it drain our energy. Isn't one of the essential ingredients of true entrepreneurism the willingness to let go of doctrine and seek our own way?

Here are five specific concepts by Nietzsche that still resonate for business leaders today: