Steve Schlagel's Small Business Blog

Make “Small Business Saturday” Work for You

November 21, 2011

Small Business Saturday is dedicated to supporting small businesses on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.  Are you ready?  Start now to include the project language in your signage, marketing materials, and website.  Small Business Saturday 2011 (November 26, 2011) is the second year for this nation-wide venture. With heavy participation by [...]

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Small Business Giving Builds Community

November 18, 2011

When the economy is tight, it’s not easy for small businesses to give back to their communities. For the record, 90% of our small businesses give to charities and non-profits in their area. And, 60%+ of them admit that charitable giving brings them success.  Even when they are have little time or money to spare, [...]

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Creative Leverage vs. Debt

November 16, 2011

Creative leverage can mean profits while debt – what some might call “leverage” –  increases small business risk significantly. You don’t profit by becoming a “debt slave.” So, don’t buy into the concept of leverage as making debt work for you.  Instead try out these ideas for creative leverage and tailor them to work for [...]

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Getting Past PowerPoint

November 14, 2011

Microsoft’s PowerPoint has long been the way to make slide presentations for training and marketing. Few small business owners can claim mastery of the program – although most of us hunt and peck our way towards more or less acceptable presentations. PowerPoint bundles with Microsoft Office, but there are options for those who don’t have the [...]

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Pay Attention to your Personality Index

November 11, 2011

We all know the “personality” who constantly seems to get in his or her own way. Short-tempered and shortsighted, the person(ality) doesn’t realize that these traits are getting in the way of greater business and personal success. Are you killing your own business? Can your public personality mean the end to your small business? Such [...]

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Manage your 2012 Overhead Now

November 9, 2011

Minimizing small business overhead is a perpetual problem. Make it a daily concern, and budget for your future costs now. After all, with revenues down and margins slim, you can lose your dream with two or three months of out of control overhead.  Were overhead costs part of your small business dream? Were they part [...]

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Is Your Education Enough?

November 7, 2011

Is your education enough to run a business? Expertise and experience you have in abundance. But, is your education all you need to succeed in the small business you started? Successful people are educated people. Their education never ends. Once you accept that you need to stay ahead of the learning curve, you have to [...]

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Do you have Klout?

November 4, 2011

Klout is a real time and relevant benchmark for those who market through social media.  Are you using social media to build and market your small business? You are wasting your time – if you don’t know how big your audience is. Klout.com is an analytics platform that scores your reach. Klout cross crunches variables in [...]

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How to Hire Using Craigslist

November 3, 2011

Hiring with Craigslist (www.craigslist.com) might be your best option for reaching interested qualified hourly workers – but only if you use it well. To be certain, it’s an employer’s market right now with unemployment at 10%. But, you can’t take for granted a pool of talented, experienced candidates. You still have to get the word [...]

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Three Ways to Maintain Sanity in a Crazy Economy

October 28, 2011

Loss of motivation and confidence in the big economy leads to loss of the same in the smaller world of your business environment. Doubts creep in and erode your enthusiasm. Such concerns and emotions are normal, but you can prevent being overwhelmed and defeated by them. Consider these ideas to remake your daily activities and [...]

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