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Greening Your Small and Home-Based Business

One of the women entrepreneurs I recently interviewed on WomenHomeBusiness.com is Jen Husted, owner and founder of JIH Designs. What sets her business apart is that JIH Designs positions itself as an “eco-conscious graphic design studio.” Why is going green becoming important? According to the GreenBiz State of Green Business 2009 , the annual buying power of green consumers was estimated to be $500 billion in 2008.” A new book by Jennifer Kaplan entitled

Sourcing and Manufacturing Your Products Abroad: How to Use Alibaba.com

As a small business owner, an important element to creating and sustaining a successful business is a constant and reliable source of quality products. The key question of course is where to find these suppliers and manufacturers. If you are open to finding manufacturers and suppliers from other countries, particularly China, check out Alibaba.com . Alibaba.com has emerged as the leading marketplace for those who wish to buy and sell their products globally. Whether you are looking for a manufacturer or buyer for your products, Alibaba.com provides a business-to-business marketplace where you can find potential partners. While the site has

Get Listed on Google Maps and Increase Exposure of Your Small Business

Yellow Pages are so 1990s. Nowadays, if you are running a small business dependent on customers finding and coming to your physical store or office, then you need to get listed on Google Maps. Type in Google search terms that include business types and specific locations such as “landscaping Annapolis MD” or “hair salon in Chicago” and the very first results are the local business results, with more information about the business including their location in the map. If your competitors are there, you better make sure you get listed on Google Maps as well! After all, this is free. Here’s how

Pitching the Media Correctly to Market Your Home Business

We understand the power of the media. Being mentioned on TV, newspaper or radio can significantly boost our reach and brand, even our sales. The key question, however, is: How do we do it? Here are tips on how to pitch your press release or news item from public relations professional Kristin Marquet, President of Marquet Communications.

Grandparents: How to Reach this Market for Your Business

Grandparents are a huge market to tap, whether you are directly targeting them for your seniors travel business or indirectly for your children’s toys business. Estimates from different surveys show that there are anywhere from 30 to over 70 million of grandparents in the United States alone, and a sizeable portion of these grandparents take care of their grandkids for various reasons. The National Mail Order Association has collected a great deal of data on grandparents According to GRAND magazine , the demographic characteristics of grandparents are: average age of first time grandparents is 47 over 70 million grandparents 4,000

How Your Small Business Can Become the Leader of the Pack

Managing & Growing

Businesses are in fierce competition, and it’s a no-holds-barred fight out there. As a small business owner, you have two options: be just one of the entrepeneurs out there who operate within their comfort zones; or you can break from the perceived limitations of small businesses. You can choose to become an Alpha Dog.

5 Ways to Test Your Business Idea Affordably

Before you pour your life's savings or a huge chunk of your time into your business, it is best to test first whether your business idea will work or not. Avoid spending large sums of money and get excellent feedback by following some low-cost tactics to research your business:

Improving Your Small Business: What You Can Learn from Dr. Laura

We always hear about strong communication being a necessity in relationships to avoid a lovers’ quarrel, but what about when it comes to professional relationships? Many small business owners might not think those Dr. Laura Love type shows and columns have anything to do with their company, but in fact, they might.

How I Created an Effective Web Site for Under $100

Can you create a website for under $100? Of course you can! I did it, and so can you! Is it easy? Maybe yes, maybe no. A person knowledgeable of HTML and CSS can whip out a website very easily for a low price. For someone with little to no skills, then it all depends on your willingness to learn and your intestinal fortitude. Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a web designer. Nor am I a programmer. But I do understand a little of HTML and knows how to use Frontpage (yes, the antiquated and now

10 Reasons NOT to Start a Home Business Part Time

Starting a home business part time is one option many entrepreneurs take in starting a business. Part-timers work on their businesses after getting home from their day jobs or working only on weekends. While keeping full time jobs, many opt to start a home business on the side for a number of reasons: It enables the part-time entrepreneur to earn and save more money to be used as capital for their business. It allows the part-time entrepreneur to save enough money to serve as financial cushion for themselves and their families when they decide to pursue the business full-time. There

Marketing to the Super Niche

I am currently reading an excellent book “World Famous: How to Give Your Business a Kick-Ass Brand Identity” by David Tyreman. A passage that struck me talks about the fallacy of being everything to everyone (which according to the author the big businesses do not even do): For your business to join the ranks of World Famous brands, you must abandon your desire to sell to a broad, undefined market. Marketing to everyone is maketing to no one because your brand must resonate with consumers on an emotional level, and that can be achieved only through knowing your specific market

Are You Measuring the Performance of Your Small Business?

Business is about measure and control. So what measurement tools should we use? The ability to measure business excellence and its performance provides businesses with insight into the financial as well as non-financial ways to analyze their performance in an easily understandable manner.