We’d like to invite you to visit our newest website – WomenHomeBusiness.com, where we present real stories of women (and men too!) who have succeeded in their entrepreneurial ventures. Our aim is to help you learn how to start, run and manage a successful business through inspiration and emulation. This week, our featured entrepreneur is Richard Busch, owner of Glenfiddich Farm Pottery, who at 63 decided to make a career shift and start a pottery business. He is part of the growing number of retirees who instead of slowing down started businesses to support the lifestyle that they love. After

Have you ever put on a jacket you haven’t worn in a while and found a twenty-dollar bill in one of the pockets? You’d forgotten all about it, so discovering it is like getting a gift. If you’ve been in business for a year or longer, you may have gifts in forgotten pockets sources of additional revenue waiting to be discovered and tapped. There are four ways to increase your net profits: reduce costs, increase prices, attract more clients or sell more to existing clients. When you consider that it costs you at least 60% and as much as 600%

According to the Nielsen/NetRatings’ MegaView Online Retail report, the average orders in the top 15 online retail categories are as follows: Computer hardware = $584.47 Event and movie tickets = $121.60 Automotive = $119.23 Office supplies = $102.47 Consumer electronics = $99.12 Child/baby care = $86.13 Sporting goods and outdoor activies = $74.15 Home and garden = $69.99 Shoes and athletic footwear = $53.14 Flowers, greetings and specialty gifts = $51.61 Computer software = $46.76 Jewelry and watches = $46.62 Health/wellness/beauty = $45.94 Apparel and accessories = $44.68 Toys, games and hobbies = $40.41

What does it take to get in touch with your inner rebel and run a business on your terms? Today’s Information Age has spawned a number of rebel business leaders, from Virgin’s Richard Branson to The Body Shop’s Anita Roddick and to Joie de Vivre Hospitality’s boy wonder the author himself, people who have the passion, instinct, agility and vision to rewrite the rules of business so it is ethical, respects diversity, and means more to people than simply turning a profit. So what exactly is a rebel? – Rebels get into activities that make them lose track of time

To achieve great things, you need a team. Building a winning team requires understanding of these principles. Whatever your goal or project, you need to add value and invest in your team so the end product benefits from more ideas, energy, resources, and perspectives. 1. The Law of Significance People try to achieve great things by themselves mainly because of the size of their ego, their level of insecurity, or simple naiveté and temperament. One is too small a number to achieve greatness. Read full article

If you think baseball is just the national pastime, think again. According to management consultant and ex-baseball reporter Jeff Angus in his book “Management by Baseball,” baseball can teach you everything you need to know about management. From the managers’ strategies to the players’ batting averages, baseball can impart critical lessons on project management, maximizing productivity of staff, strategic planning, facing difficult organizational challenges, or engaging big changes in a specific industry or the economy. In his book, Angus distills the lessons learned from baseball news and applies them to business management. He uses baseball stories and anecdotes from baseball

The Logo: a little history Logotype, commonly know as a logo, is a design, a graphic representation/image/trademark symbolizing one’s organization. Designed for instant identification, a logo can appear on company letterhead, advertising material and signs as an emblem by way of which the organization can easily be recognized. Originating in the 19th century, after a surge in industrial manufacturing that led to an increase in output, global distribution, and the commencement of competition, logos were created to differentiate between products within the same industry. Emblems or symbols were included on products, packages and labels so buyers could easily recognize the

This is a question we received from one of our readers through our Consult Your Guides: I’m staying in VA. Recently I’ve started a new firm (S Corp) and working as a contractor in DC through my firm. I’m the only one working for the company. My wife is partner in the company, but she is permanent employee of some other firm. Estimated revenue of my company is around 120K/yr. What salary/compensation should I draw for myself? As my wife is a partner, is it mandatory to pay salary/compensation for her? – Prashant Read our Guides’ response

We are all self-employed now. Today there is absolutely no job security. We are living in an age of corporate downsizing, and freelance consultants, or self-employed workers are growing by the day. Networking is one skill you need to practice to get ahead and survive these uncertain times. Wisdom in a Nutshell: 1. Networking is essential for both new jobs and business contracts.2. Effective networking is 12 times more effective than answering advertisements3. Advertising is becoming ineffective except on a large scale.4. Networking helps you find hidden opportunities and can set you apart from the competition.5. An indirect approach is