Sales Tax Can Be Tricky for New Entrepreneurs, Especially With Online or Mobile Sales. There Are Seven Key Rules to Help Clarify Tax Collection, Covering Responsibilities and How State and Local Taxes Apply. Understanding Them Ensures Compliance and Avoids Issues.
The 7 Rules for Collecting Sales Taxes Read More »
Discover How Corporate Bonds Can Provide Cash Flow During Revenue Delays, and Explore How Royalties Can Tie Investor Returns to Your Sales Without Control.
Advice About Bonds and Royalties to Fund Business Growth Read More »
Patent Protection Is Crucial for Safeguarding Innovations, but for Small Businesses, Enforcing These Rights Can Be Prohibitively Expensive and Time-Consuming. Many Opt to License Their Inventions to Larger Companies, as the Costs of Litigation and International Enforcement Often Outweigh the Benefits.
What are Patents Really Worth? Read More »
This quiz was designed to test your knowledge of small business regulatory and compliance issues. Are you ready to put your knowledge to the test?
Staying on the Right Side: Test Your Small Business Regulatory Compliance Knowledge Read More »
Business licensing is one of the most confusing aspects when starting a new small business since it varies so much from state to state and from industry to industry.
How to Know If You Need a Business License Read More »
If your industry requires practitioners to be licensed by a state licensing board then you likely cannot organize as an LLC because you are considered a professional service company. You can however register as a Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC) which is a bit different.
What You Need to Know About State Licensing Boards and Creating a PLLC Read More »
A franchise investment isn’t as high as most people think, especially when you put the investment cost into context and compare it with starting a business from scratch. There are eight factors that determine a franchise’s investment costs.
So Why Does a Franchise Cost So Much Anyway? Read More »
Not all industries and occupations are treated equally in the eyes of government officials. Some industries and occupations require the business to obtain a “Business License” to operate. This video provides the background into why some industries and occupations require oversight from a government entity.
VIDEO: Business Licensing Demystified Read More »
It is often far better to see what the market leader is doing and just be a little different in your value proposition. Being the first to market means you will make lots of costly mistakes that your competitors can learn from and then capitalize on at your expense. Keurig and Xerox were not the first movers but today they dominated their markets by capitalizing on the dominant players mistakes..
Watch the Leader and Profit by Capitalizing on Their Business Mistakes Read More »
A question many franchise entrepreneurs have is related to how much money they will need as they conduct early-stage franchise research.
How to Find Out if You Have Enough Money to Buy a Franchise Read More »
Guest post by: Christopher Ryan CEO or Fusion Marketing Partners and Center for Business Modeling. Chris is a SCORE colleague and a marketing and sales maven. We are super fans of each other’s work. The following post was published by Chris on his blog in April of 2017 and is chock full of valuable advice.
Seven Things You Can Do (or Not Do) to Increase Marketing Success Read More »
Learn how savvy entrepreneurs recognize they may have a confirmation bias that can stifle their success and discover how to avoid them.
How Your Confirmation Bias Is Stifling Your Business Success Read More »
As we discussed in the Anatomy of a Business Owner, most self-employed, micro, and lifestyle businesses are started by a person with a strong technical persona. Often, these entrepreneurs are suddenly seized with the desire to start their own businesses because of their strong technical skills. Michael Gerber, the author of “The E-Myth,” describes this
Is Your Business Persona Aligned for Success as a Business Owner Read More »
Rather than attract and retain key talent in-house, have you ever thought about building or using a platform like innocentive? Innocentive connects seekers of solutions with solvers. By using this type of platform, you can pay talented individuals based on the number of transactions you need instead of retaining them for a reoccurring salary. They
Buy and Sell Innovation Read More »
When you have a free product or service with high amounts of traffic, platform advertisers become interested in subsidizing your free product or service by paying you a fee to share their advertisements. Free products generate high platform traffic and increase the attractiveness of your platform to advertisers. Freemium users get basic functionality for free.
Free as a Business Model Read More »
When it comes revenue streams, they are generally either “transactional,” resulting from a one-time payment, or “recurring,” resulting from ongoing payments that deliver value or provide post-sales support. When it comes to defining a business’s revenue streams, I find it helpful to consider a list of different types of revenue streams to guide me and
Choosing a Revenue Stream Read More »
Money is one of four very powerful emotional appeals. Discover how using money as an emotional appeal will cause people to unconsciously stop what they are doing and pay attention to your marketing message.
Money Is A Powerful Emotional Appeal To Get Attention Read More »
One of the most confusing issues facing many newbie business people is related to the confusion and frustration related to taxes, vocabulary, and acronyms.
Business Confusion About Taxes, Vocabulary, and Acronyms Read More »
Many local ecosystems have initiatives and programs to foster innovation in their own community as a way to grow new technology or manufacturing companies. They do this in the hopes it will bring in new money as the primary employer grows to maturity. However, sometimes it is not the product that generates the revenue, but
New Product vs. New Economic Model Read More »
Why do we have government-issued marriage licenses? Now that I have your attention, remember that you are not free to “practice” without a license. For example, you are not free to drive a car or to sell guns to the public without a government-issued license. At one time it was forbidden to have sex or
Is It Time For a Review? Read More »
That got me thinking about the role licensing plays in business. A common belief is that state licensing is necessary to protect the public from bad actors. The reality could not be further from the truth. Can you imagine a group of people getting together and spending their time and money to create a petition
Is Licensing Really Necessary? Read More »
I recently read an article about Uber Taxi that got me thinking about the role the government plays in creating monopolies. For those not familiar, taxis are licensed and are given a medallion to prove they are licensed. Uber Taxi is a ride-sharing mobile application where any car owner can list their location and make
Monopolies Require Government Assistance Read More »
Let’s face it. Many business ventures will ultimately fail. Unfortunately, there are no signposts along the way that says “Exit now or face financial ruin”. Entrepreneurs often hang on, ignoring the signals that their business is doomed based on pride, or sometimes they just can’t see the forest for the trees. I have often heard
Knowing When to Quit Read More »
The sustainability of your business revenue is important to understand if you want to keep your business solvent.
Not All Business Revenue Is The Same Read More »
If you were within the top one percent of academic achievers when you attended school, you were likely highly motivated to be that the top achiever. You would do almost anything to be in the coveted position of “Top Student”. Similarly, if you were on the cusp of flunking out, you likely were highly motivated
Extremes and The Effect on Motivation Read More »
Customer acquisition costs represent a significant indirect expense. Once you acquire a new customer you should implement strategies to keep them coming back again and again. When you fly you often have a choice of airlines that fly the same route. To encourage repeat business many carriers offer frequent flier miles that equate to perks,
Pricing Strategies – Pricing For Loyalty (Repeat Business) Read More »
New disruptive inventions don’t only affect manufacturers like our button manufacturer in yesterday’s post. Sometimes technology affects service businesses as well. Let’s consider the safety razor and the impact it had on the barber industry. While Jean-Jacques Perret invented the safety razor in France during the latter part of the 18th century, the invention reached
How Disruptive Technology Can Affect Your Business Read More »
Coming up with a great idea is the easy part. It is the execution of bringing your idea to market that is the hard part. I have run into many clients who have a great idea, around which they want to build a business. When I mention that they can license the product to a
Being an Inventor Does Not Make You an Entrepreneur Read More »
I often encounter businesses that at their core are pure services businesses, but which also sell products as part of their offerings. For example, consider a small part-time mobile oil change business. They are primarily in the service business of changing a person’s oil. However, their service includes the sale of motor oil. I’m often
Sales Tax Workarounds for Service Oriented Businesses Read More »
