Computer hardware and software direct marketer CDW Corp. began a quarterly magazine for small businesses called Biz Tech, the Vernon Hills, IL-based company said yesterday.
The publication focuses on information technology strategies for businesses with 20 to 99 employees and features ads for CDW products. The first issue contains 64 pages and will be distributed to 50,000 businesses nationwide, drawing mainly from CDW’s customer base.
After conducting market research, CDW identified the 20- to 99-employee segment as one with unique IT needs. The research also showed that this segment often is overlooked by existing media resources.
Biz Tech will address senior decision makers and IT executives with articles that cover technology and business issues. Case histories drawn from CDW customers’ experiences also will be provided.
CDW also created a Web site, biztechmagazine.com, which provides additional tools, a discussion board, access to CDW technology expertise, archived articles and white papers.
Choosing the right Small Business Software is one of the primary tasks for a small business. Every small business, and industry has specific business processes, and needs from a business software. There is nothing as perfect or best small business software, there is the right software for your business.
Identify Your Business Processes
Your first step is to identify the business processes. Start with making a very basic list of the processes. I will give an example from a small ecommerce business which sells tangible goods.
- Ordering from suppliers
- Receiving the goods to the warehouse
- Entering the goods into the inventory system (barcoding, data entry, physical storage, etc.)
- Photographing the goods, and digital editing
- Listing the items to the website
- Online Marketing, Promotion
- Customer Relationship Management “CRM”
- Sale occurs
- Email Management/Nofitications (also newsletter management)
- Packaging and Shipping
This is a preliminary draft of business processes which occur at a small ecommerce business environment.
Core features of a small business software :
- Contact Management
- Sales Force Automation
- Inventory Management
- Purchasing and Vendor Management
- Productivity Tools
- Payroll and Employee Management
- Financial Management
- Time and Billing
- Fully integrated Web Store
- Order Management and Fulfillment
- Customer and Vendor Center
- Shipping Module
- Customization
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I will frequently update this list of bookmarks which will serve as an Importing to USA Guide .
How To Start An Import Business. This Report From 36 Year Veteran Importer Reveals Tricks Of The Trade. This is the most comprehensive Importing Guide I’ve ever read.
Importing Information Government Websites
Books and Guides About Importing
Other Importing Information Sites
Is becoming a successful entrepreneur your biggest goal? Do you have doubts in mind before getting into real business?
Let’s look at the characteristics and skills of successful entrepreneurs determined by researchers and experts. Then you can decide yourself if you can become one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world.
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As a business owner, you have to be familiar with the term “Time Value of Money“. If there is an inflation in an economy, which means banks are paying certain rate of interest for your cash, and money is losing its value along the time, then we start talking about the time value of money.
Time value of money results from the concept of interest. So if the interest rate is 0% (no interest), the money will keep its same value along the time.
Let’s start with a simple example. I have $100.00 bill in my hand, and what will be the value of this $100.00 bill next year same time? You may say, it will be $100.00 , it is a piece of paper. But it doesn’t work this way in real life. I can go to the nearest bank, and maybe get 10% interest for keeping this $100.00 in a saving account for one year. So next year this time, I can go to the bank, and get $110.00 cash back. Therefore within 10% interest rate environment, my $100.00 cash has earned a total of $10.00 within 1 year, and now I have $110.00 instead of $100.00. [click to continue…]
Every business owner has to follow the data and statistics in their industry. You can use U.S. Census Bureau’s RSS feeds to get live data and news.
U.S. Census Bureau has a categorized RSS Feed Library and it’s avaliable for public use.
What is RSS? RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is an easy way to keep up with your favorite news and information. An RSS feed contains headlines, summaries and links to full news stories. If you click an RSS link, you will see XML (or eXtensible Markup Language) code in your browser. This is to be expected, since you do not view RSS content through a browser. You view the headlines through an RSS news reader (also called an RSS aggregator).
You may also choose one of these RSS Readers if you don’t have a favorite one already.
Firstgov.gov also offers Government RSS Feeds for different industries. You may view the complete list of Government RSS Feeds to start syndicating your favorite industry news.
Update: April 2nd 2008
Here’s a new guide I’ve written about How to Get Government Grants, so please visit this guide for more up to date information.
Update: August 18th 2007
One of my friends who owns a food packaging and distrubition business in NYC has told me about a free program he’s used. He was able to get a $350.000 GRANT for his NYC based small business by using these resources. Basically this program has all the free resources, lists of government agencies (with addresses and phone numbers) and what to do step by step to get federal grants. I have filled the form to order my program a few minutes ago, and I’ll be checking it out myself. It’s again, totally free, you will only pay $1.97 Shipping for the package. Order your copy of Grant Master here.
Getting a small business grant for you business may be easier than you think. Many grants available for small businesses by federal government are offered through state development agencies. State Agencies offer these grants and other types of financial assistance to encourage and assist entrepreneurs in starting or expanding a small business.
There are several ways to search for the right grant for your business. Let me give you the information about finding the right federal grants for your small business.
Searching for Federal Grants for Small Businesses ONLINE :
There are numerous resources to help you get a federal grant for you small business, or startup business idea. Other than searching for general keywords such as “Small Business Grants”, “Small Business Federal Grants” etc. , you should start with reviewing government grant resources. Here’s some very valuable websites to help you find the right federal grants for your business:
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What is Franchising ?
The term ‘franchising’ has been used to describe many different forms of business relationships, including licensing, distributor and agency arrangements. The more popular use of the term has arisen from the development of what is called ‘business format franchising.’
Business format franchising is the granting of a license by one person (the franchisor) to another (the franchisee), which entitles the franchisee to trade under the trade mark/trade name of the franchisor and to make use of an entire package, comprising all the elements necessary to establish a previously untrained person in the business and to run it with continual assistance on a predetermined basis.
The principle is simple – some companies choose to grow, not by developing in the conventional way, but by granting a license to others to sell their product or service.
If you have a capital to invest for your startup business, franchising would be a good option for you. Even though deciding to go with a franchising may increase your startup costs, you will have many advantages of being an owner of a well known business which already has market share, and brand recognition.
Entrepreneur Magazine publishes top 500 franchises each year, and this is the list of top 10 franchises for 2005.
1. Subway
2. Curves
3. The Quizno’s Franchise Co.
4. Jackson Hewitt Tax Service
5. The UPS Store
6. Sonic Drive In Restaurants
7. Jani-King
8. 7-Eleven Inc.
9. Dunkin’ Donuts
10. RE/MAX Int’l. Inc.
We will be reviewing several franchising options at our Franchising category, and also write about advantages and disadvantages of different franchising brands.
You may also review the Top 500 Franchises for 2005 at Entrepreneur.com .
On April 27, 2005, HP released a survey that shows the primary challenges for U.S. small businesses are core business issues: operations, customer relations and employee relations. But even as they focus on the basics, small-business owners have an eye on the future, with plans to significantly increase technology spending and adoption of new technologies.
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive and released in conjunction with National Small Business Week events held in Washington, D.C., polled nearly 400 small businesses nationwide in early March.
Survey results showed that community involvement and supporting local businesses are high priorities for small business owners. More than half of the survey respondents were women, who reported that being a role model, teaching others and giving back to their community are key motivators. Wealth was less important to women when considering whether to start their own business. [click to continue…]
I have heard about “The Goal” on several occasions from several friends during the years, and last week I have decided to read the 3rd edition of The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.
Eliyahu M. Goldratt (1948 – ) is an Israel-born physicist turned business consultant, the originator of the theory of constraints (abbreviation: TOC). He claims that he applied the scientific method to resolving some permanent problems of organizations.
Source: Eliyahu M. Goldratt , Wikipedia
The Goal is almost 400 pages, written as a novel. Main character, Alex Rogo, is a plant manager at UniCo, and his factory is facing troubles. The book is written from Alex Rogo’s perspective. It is a very easy to read book, in fact it took me two evenings to finish the book. Third edition has interviews as bonus feature, and interviews give a different perspective to the readers from real life cases.
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