Delegation 101: The Five Golden Rules of Outsourcing

If you are overloaded with work, you have no choice but to delegate. With labor growing more expensive and more demanding to supervise, many people find that outsourcing is a valuable tool for their business, especially during temporary busy periods. If you are thinking about outsourcing, here are five golden rules to always keep in mind.

Get everything in writing. This is important because it makes the terms of your working relationship clear while protecting you if the employee fails to deliver on the promised goods or if the quality is not acceptable. Both parties should keep signed and dated copies to refer to when needed. This is not just a good practice with contractors, but a good general business practice; no exchange of money in your business should ever occur without an exchange of papers to go with it.

Be clear about expectations. It’s important that your employee or contractor understand exactly what is expected of them, in terms of quality, style, and timeliness. If they slip in one of these areas, gently remind them of your expectations. Even if you think something is so obvious it doesn’t need to be explained, it never hurts to be clearer than necessary. For most people, it takes a while to master exactly what an employer wants, so be flexible and keep professional calm.

Let them do their job. Once you have chosen a contractor, worked out the legalities, and given clear instructions, get out of their hair. It’s okay to ask for occasional updates and samples of work so far, but don’t request these to the point that it interferes with the employee’s ability to actually complete their work. They probably won’t do the task in the exact way that you would, but that is usually not a drawback. Every person has their own unique style that has immense potential to add to your business.

Give honest and fair evaluations. Once you have received the completed project, tactfully yet honestly explain what you enjoyed about the work and what could be improved. This will give your employee a necessary and much-deserved pat on the back while ensuring that future work will be of even better quality. There is nothing wrong with raising the bar as long as it is fair and attainable.

Follow through. Once the employee has delivered their half of the bargain, you need to follow through with yours. Pay the person as promptly as possible and deliver any other things you may have promised. This will set up a trusting relationship that can benefit both of you in the future and make sure everyone gets exactly what they bargained for.

Outsourcing your work, either to a contractor or to a full-fledged employee, can help you step away from menial tasks and focus on things that can improve your business in a more encompassing way. Outsourcing has a bad reputation, but it can be a truly beneficial situation both for the employer and the employee.

A small business blog can be a very powerful marketing tool. A blog allows your readers to follow your business in a day-to-day pattern, getting to know your values and even you. However, a blog that doesn’t follow the basic rules of small business blogging will be more of a dead weight than an asset. Here are five tips that should get you off to the right start.

Use a professional blog address. Having your blog hosted on WordPress or Blogger just screams ‘amateur’, which is not the image that most business owners are trying to project. The ideal address for your blog is blog.yourcompanyname.com, although most variations of this will do. This gives you the legitimacy associated with having your own url and sets your blog apart from the millions of personal blogs that are flooding the internet right now.

Have a simple but elegant design that complements your branding. Use the color schemes and fonts that go with your brand. Instead of a boring stock template, have a professional web designer develop a blog that compliments your business and adds yet another professional touch to your image. Avoid the overly flashy and virus-ridden free blog templates that can be found for free or cheap on the internet; even if they aren’t full of malicious software they make the page load too slowly.

Install plug-ins and social media links. You can find a variety of plug-ins; some help your site be more visible to search engines while others simply add visual appeal. Linking to your company website as well as Facebook, Twitter, and other small business social media accounts is imperative because it gives customers a comprehensive view of you and your business, while allowing all of your online presences to be just a little more visible. These combined presences make up your online persona, an important aspect of every modern business.

Strike a balance between professional and personal. While it is okay to share an occasional human interest story, such as announcing a new baby or the retirement of a longtime employee, in general your blog should refer to industry news, jobs, and answering common questions about your company. It is not a place to vent frustration, rant about people who might be reading, talk politics, or complain. These things, while serving to relief your anxiety, will give your readers the impression that you are a negative person and likely send them flocking to your competition’s website and blog.

Update regularly. Most people prefer to read blogs that are regularly updated and full of interesting, constantly changing information. In fact, a failure to update your blog may make readers think that you will drop the ball in other arenas. Try to blog two to three times a week, and try to pass the duty around your company rather than assuming it yourself.

Creating a blog by yourself can be a scary process, but if you follow these five simple steps it will likely work out right. It’s important to give your company the appropriate image that it deserves, and this is merely the first step.

The Five Second Commute: This Year’s Latest and Greatest Home Business Ideas

Are you interested in the flexibility and profit potential of working for yourself? Working from home provides not only the shortest commute on the globe, but also an opportunity to build a small business without the pressure of an immense overhead. If you are interested in starting a home business, here are five fresh ideas that your community needs.

Eco-consultant. Many people are interested in living a cleaner, greener life, but they don’t know where to start. This has led to a whole new field for home businesses: eco-consultancy. Armed with knowledge of green home cleaners, appliances, and habits, you can step into homes and teach their residents how to reduce their carbon footprint by at least a sneaker size or two. Not only do eco-consultants get compensated well, they also have the great karma of doing something positive for their planet. There are a variety of ways to begin your career in this field; if you aren’t comfortable performing this job without back-up there are franchises and even direct sales positions in this field.

Party planner. These aren’t just for weddings and bar mitzvahs anymore. People are hiring party planners for occasions ranging from their dog’s birthday to their child’s baptism. The duties include basically managing the details of a medium or large gathering, which is not difficult so much as it is complicated. Best of all, there is almost no overhead because you only buy supplies as they are needed, and if you are good at your job you will be able to get by on word-of-mouth advertising.

Professional organizer. If you have flipped through the cable line-up lately, you surely have noticed that organization is a topic almost every American is interested in. Most people have the vague idea that they could do something more with their space and belongings if only they knew what to do. Many of these people hire professional organizers to step in and bring order to their home. However, not every area has these in-demand professionals, so you just might be the only contractor in your field. Home organization does require a certain amount of skills and knowledge, but if you are relatively organized yourself you are already halfway there.

Official pooper scooper. There is one nasty little chore that every pet owner would like to hire out, and that is picking up after Fido in the yard. For this reason, pooper scooper businesses are a huge and still growing field. Best of all, unlike the above options, there is no talent needed. A bucket, a shovel, and a good supply of plastic bags will get you started in this profitable home business.

Personal concierge. Do you know everybody who’s anybody in your area? Are you a master at finagling a reservation from a haughty maître d’? You may have what it takes to be a personal concierge. Basically, for a moderate fee you plan evenings and weekends out, even vacations. You find out what the client’s dream is and make it into reality. Many people with active social lives don’t have nearly enough time to manage them—but one thing they do have is money. You may just find that you have a ready, willing customer base from day one!

That thing you do – whatever it is – is your expertise. You know more than the average person about your occupation whether you’re in sales, marketing, production, distribution… doesn’t matter. You know more than most people about it. Surprisingly, this edge may be all you need to get an article published in an appropriate trade magazine! (It’s easy to publish on line, but it’s something else to see your name printed on dead trees. It’s heavy, man.)

“Euw! I hate to write – I can’t.” Save it. Yes, you can write about what you do. Why would you want to? Hinted above (the heaviness) of being published on paper can be an excellent branding/marketing tool. When people in your own industry see your byline, you gain immediate credibility, attention and respect. The potential of getting print published is highly likely to pay off as a lofty component of your reputation.

Here’s a good place to consider whether writing is for you.

But the best tip of all is this closely guarded secret: Magazines need ink! Many are actively seeking and enormously welcoming of an article contributed by someone in their field. I know this for a fact. Don’t delude yourself that they have great mountains of wonderful, professionally written articles just sitting around. Call an editor. Odds are, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Start your week with these 8 practical small business tips and news happening around the globe. More importantly, try to integrate these new insights to help your small business succeed.

Here we go:

1. IndyStar.com says true entrepreneurs seem to have a knack not only for spotting an emerging business opportunity, but also for spotting another opportunity within that first opportunity.
2. Do you know the basic psychology of marketing? Understand the difference between needs and wants? AllBusiness.com offers an overview of marketing and how it affects your business.
3. Do you really need to learn employment law? A new study in the UK shows that 78 per cent of entrepreneurs deal unaided with employee-related paperwork. This may be from another country but I have a strong feeling the U.S. has the same trend.
4. Time to brand yourself because CareerBuilder.com says like consumer products, you have a brand as well and that is your reputation.
5. If you want to hire good employees, don’t just rely on your academic books. Why don’t you try football? Rob of Businesspundit explains what you can learn from this contact game about hiring.
6. Regardless if you are in online or offline business, do you believe we are all in the business of ideas? Small business marketing consultant Amy Biddle suggests to all small business owners that our primary business is the business of being a visionary.
7. Because many Gen-Y people don’t want to climb the corporate ladder, will they succeed as entrepreneurs? Just combine the freshness of the younger generation with the work ethic of Gen-X or boomers and they’re good to go!
8. Jamie Herzlich of newsday.com says keep customers by keeping them happy. This might appear obvious but check again for you might be missing some important points in your business.

We’re giving to you the must-read tips for entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on gathering new insights to help you succeed. Read our compilation for today:

1. If you are a Six Feet Under entrepreneur or interested in running your own funeral home, you may want to invest in Maryland’s funeral industry because a new court decision has opened the door for more entrepreneurs to enter the funeral business under the legal and financial advantages afforded by incorporating.

2. Looking to expand your online business? Why not try the virtual world Second Life? Read this interesting news about how entrepreneurs reap profits from this site.

3. Protecting your business data like financial statements, marketing plans, or business plans is a very important task every entrepreneur should not forget. For $10 dollars every month, At&T is offering a Remote Vault service to allow small businesses with a broadband Internet connection to remotely access, copy and store data from PCs or laptops to an AT&T Internet Data Center.

4. Visit BootStrapMe to learn some great bootstrapping suggestions from a diverse group of business leaders. One interesting suggestion is to be honest with yourself by not chasing an idea forever if you can’t pull it off.

5. Fortunately, Rhonda Abrams of Gannett News Service believes cash isn’t the only way to reward employees. Understand how you can use well days, birthdays, extra time off, and employee of the week program as meaningful tactics.

Tired of spending countless hours surfing the Internet and looking for best marketing lessons suitable for your small business? Don’t worry! We’re compiling the most relevant marketing articles and news that will guide your small business towards success. Today, there are 7 marketing tips you may want to read:

1. Ageless Marketing offers a comprehensive guide on how an understanding of the seasons of life can make you a more effective marketer.

2. Branding Autopsy explains why the notion “to get a customer, a marketer must be willing to lose a customer” is one of the most important lessons he learned.

3. For online entrepreneurs interested of hiring SEO experts, Scott Buresh of The Post Chronicle offers a good advice – for your search engine optimization campaign to be truly successful, a search engine optimization company must understand your business, products and services enough that it can accurately promote them on the Internet.

4. Understand why Branding Blog doesn’t believe in low rent strategy.

5. Testimonials are great, if you know how to do it properly. Guerilla Consulting explains the trouble with testimonials and how you can avoid it.

6. A new marketing study by the University of Missouri-Columbia reveals it’s a customer’s loyalty toward the salesperson – rather than the products and services tied closely to the seller – that can inspire greater sales. However, this loyalty can make your business more vulnerable.

7. Running an online business? You should watch this insightful video loaded with important online statistics to help you understand the internet better.

Is your business a fan of creativity? A recent survey shows that majority of US workers suffer from lack of creative stimulation. This is a very fatal blow for many small businesses since creativity is the core of our existence.

In a study of 674 full- and part-time workers, 88 percent said they consider themselves creative, but only 63 percent said they are putting their creative abilities to use on the job, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey commissioned by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

Moreover, 39 percent of respondents said they do not think of their company as a creative entity. Nevertheless, the survey found that 75 percent of workers believe their employers value their creativity.

To help you boost your creativity, I have gathered several resources for you to read:

Jpb.com offers numerous creativity tips such as 10 Steps for Boosting Creativity, 10 Creative Myths, and Creative Idea Implementation Plan.

Brain Reactions has gathered 31 tips for improving your creativity and I personally like the idea of spending time with kindergartens and trying new experiences to widen one’s perspectives.

Download this pdf file from Laughterremedy.com to learn how you can use humor to enhance your creativity.

Compass Life Designs guides you on how to unlock your creativity by exercising, brainstorming, and using affirmations.

Ettiengt at Flixya will help you boost your creativity using your 5 senses.

We’re giving to you the must-read news concerning small businesses and entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on learning new stuff. Today’s leading news include:

Nina Kaufman, an official blogger of WomenEntrepreneur.com, provides a lesson on how entrepreneurs can survive trademark lawsuits. She also emphasizes the importance of having a legal counsel before starting your branding and trademark process.

If you want to build your business, you should know the Dr. Stephen Covey’s 4 “L’s” of success in your career or your relationships – living, love, learn, and leave a legacy.

Involve your business in saving the environment by following these recycling tips. According to LondonTopic.ca, it will help lower operating costs through more efficient use of materials and resources, save waste disposal costs and show your customers that you are environmentally conscious.

The Seattle Times reports how business coaches can help entrepreneurs stay on task. According to David Matthew Prior, a business coach based in Saddle River, N.J., “Coaching isn’t therapy, and it’s not consulting. The basic philosophy is that the client knows the answers, and the coach is there to facilitate and provide structure, support and accountability. And there is no coaching occurring if the client is not taking action.”

As promised, we’re bringing to you the must-read news concerning small businesses and entrepreneurs, so you don’t have to sort through numerous online publications and focus more on learning new stuff. Today’s leading news includes:

Optimism remains high today. According to The Washington Post, small business owners expect their sales and profits to be the same or better over the next six months

Not so good news for female entrepreneurs because the law passed in 2000 that would directly help small businesses owned by women still hasn’t been implemented.

Confused with numerous online tools available in the market? Search Engine Land will guide you on which Google products a small business should use.

Learn how Arvizu Advertising & Promotions Inc, a startup company specializing in marketing to Hispanics, has succeeded using the simple guidelines – Set aside your ego. Find your niche. Go grass roots. Dream.

This is your chance to shine as U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is seeking nominations for the 2008 NH “Small Business Person of the Year” and other small business champion award winners. Feel free to volunteer yourself or other deserving entrepreneurs in this prestigious ceremony.

Can’t think of any good ideas to improve your business? Brainstorming might be of help to you. It is basically a team activity starting with the listing of ideas to unlock your imagination and discover the different solutions to your problems. In some cases it also advisable to have a brainstorming session alone.

All you need is a poster-size paper, pen, and coffee to boost your minds. Invite your reliable and outspoken employees to participate. You can either facilitate the session or assign one of the members to do it for the team. There are two ways to kick off your brainstorming session:

Pinpoint the Problems

A traditional trigger is listing down all recurring problems encountered by your company. This may come from your friendly customer service, sales, and marketing group. You may want to divide the problems according to process or department. For instance, late deliveries are categorized under distribution while annoyed customers are strongly connected to customer service team.

Word Association

If you are brainstorming specifically to write an advertising tag line, using word association is a more effective approach. This will help you link several keywords you can use that will strongly appeal to your market. You can visit the website WordAssociation.org to practice word associations and learn the most popular associations to common words.

You might also be interested to download a PowerPoint presentation on how to run a successful brainstorming session at Scribd.

Here’s something that will uplift your spirits. A new study (PDF, 26 pgs) conducted by the Small Business Administration (SBA) has revealed that the survival rate of small businesses has improved.

Survival rates over the five-year period were similar for the different size classes, except the smallest. The survival rate for establishments with 4–7 employees was 75.3 percent; this rate slowly rose to 84.2 percent for the 512–1,023 size class. Even small size classes had relatively high five year survival rates, 61.4 percent for one-person establishments and 70.1 percent establishments with two to three persons.

Isn’t that wonderful? Of course, but the big challenge now is how to survive the first five years. To supplement our initial post about survival tips, check out these new weapons against failure:

1. Stay focused on your goals and objectives. Exercise scenario planning to anticipate possible reaction of your competitors and develop contingency plans for potential problems.
2. Be patient. Do not obsess with the idea of overnight success because it does happen to all of us. Slow and steady is the way to go.
3. Increase repeat purchase. Get your customers hooked with your products by developing effective marketing campaigns and promotional gimmicks. Find ways to win back lost customers.

Via The Small Business Blog

As small business owners, we are sometimes guilty of talking too much or dominating every business meeting. We might be carried away by our passion to delight our customers, or even frustration about our current business performance.

But do you know that listening is a good management style as well as a strong motivator to your employees? Leading by listening is a not new concept although it is not a common practice.

In fact, the 7th rule among the ten rules that worked for Sam Walton, founder of retailing giant Wal-Mart, is about listening to everyone and finding ways to get to talk.

The folks on the front lines — the ones who actually talk to the customer — are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there. You’d better find out what they know. This really is what total quality is all about. To push responsibility down in your organization, and to force good ideas to bubble up within it, you must listen to what your associates are trying to tell you.

So the next time you feel like talking, shut up and listen to what your partners or employees have to say. For starters, check out Tyner Blain’s post about ten active listening skills.

When asking for startup funding from several venture capitalists, having a great elevator pitch is very important. This is a very concise presentation about your company, products or services designed to draw attention to your business proposal. Just like an elevator ride, you must limit your pitch to a few minutes, or about 150 to 225 words.

Go BIG Blog recommends you pitch everyone, all the time, to improve your skills in this area.

Like practicing at anything, the more you pitch, the more you learn about the pitch itself. You learn how people are reacting to your value proposition, how they are digesting your message, and whether or not you even make sense. I’ve probably given the Go BIG pitch a thousand times, but every time I modify it just a bit to make it better.

Here are some additional tips:

• Use plain English to minimize misunderstanding.
• Use analogies to break down complex and technical ideas. Do not babble on the technical aspect but focus on the most important advantages.
• Be passionate when delivering your pitch.
• Establish your credibility as an expert in your chosen industry.

Many business experts and experienced entrepreneurs believe location, location, location is the most important thing for startup businesses. Even today, this classic advice remains relevant. Finding a good area to conduct your business is as important as having excellent products or services.

Of course there are some exceptions like online startups. However, if you are into retailing and other service-oriented businesses, location matters most. Here are some tips on finding the best location for you:

Know Thyself
Location depends on your good understanding of the scope of your operations like the importance of walk-in customers, or if there is a need for more customer interaction. You must also determine if the demographic or population in the area represents your target market.

Smell the Competition
Find out how many direct or indirect competitors operate in the area and draft your competitor analysis. See if the market is highly competitive and if you have a unique advantage over them. Forecast how much money is needed to compete aggressively and establish strong presence. If you do not see any positive gain, start looking for another place.

Rush on Business cautions entrepreneurs not to overlook the zoning ordinance. Additionally, Communication at Work encourages you to follow the coffee shops as part of her 9 tips for choosing a business location.

To protect you and your business against any form of fraud, erratic deliveries, and late payments for products sold or services rendered, it is important to sign a business agreement. It will also empower you to create binding agreements between your customers, vendors, and other partners.

Although hiring a lawyer will add up to your expenses, Business Lawyer Blog emphasizes the importance of customized agreements instead of standard forms that you can easily download from the Internet.

Some people prefer to go the “cheap” route by picking a form randomly off the Internet and plugging in details trying to customize the form without having the legal knowledge to do it right. When things go wrong, as they often will, if the completed form is enforceable at all the court’s interpretation of what it means can come as an unpleasant surprise to the nonlawyers who signed it.

So, it is important to arm yourself with enough knowledge regarding business contracts. This will help you discuss more intelligently with your business partners and with your legal counsel as well. As reference, Entrepreneur.com shows the ins and outs of business agreements for starting small business owners.

Did you ever consider the contributions of your small business to the economy? Small Business Trends talks about the increasing number of single person businesses based on the latest statistics by US Census.

For proper perspective, US Census defines Nonemployer statistics as “one that has no paid employees, has annual business receipts of $1,000 or more ($1 or more in the construction industries), and is subject to federal income taxes.”

For the past three years the number of single-person businesses has grown each year between 4% and 5%. That means the single-person businesses grow faster than the rate of growth of the U.S. population as a whole (which grows at about 1% a year according to the U.S. Census).

As of 2005, there are 20.3 million single person businesses generating $951 billion annual sales or about 78% of all US businesses! As Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu adequately put, “Great acts are made up of small deeds.” In terms of revenues, real estate logos, construction logos, and technical services are industry leaders.

While this is a positive news on the macro level, it also signals intensive competition in the years to come and more business failures. In one study about success rates of small businesses (PDF, 14 pgs), it is estimated that “businesses with fewer than 20 employees have only a 37% chance of surviving four years (in business) and only a 9% chance of surviving 10 years.”

So, gear up to outsmart and outpace your competitors with innovative marketing programs and strong customer service.

Nevertheless, be proud to be one of the entrepreneurs driving the economy!

From personal to business, planning is always necessary for survival. In the case of starting entrepreneurs, a business plan summarizes the different facets of your business from mission/vision, long-term directions, and financial estimates.

While this is a serious requirement among MBA students, Guy Kawasaki showed a study to validate if there is really a need to do formal business plans.

The analysis revealed that there was no difference between the performance of new businesses launched with or without written business plans. The findings suggest that unless a would-be entrepreneur needs to raise substantial startup capital from institutional investors or business angels, there is no compelling reason to write a detailed business plan before opening a new business.

Despite these recent findings, drafting a business plan remains a very important exercise particularly for starting businessmen. It gives you a checklist of things you need to cover before you can formally start your own business.

There are many things you need to know before you embark in any business undertaking. This includes the nature of your industry, target market, scope of operations, level of technology, intensity of competition, marketing strategy, investments needed, and many more. Using a simple business plan, you can organize all information to serve as a good foundation for your decisions.

Just do not take too much time preparing your business plan. Instead, focus your efforts in the running the daily operations.

Online networking services such as LinkedIn and Biznik offer entrepreneurs and business owners a great way to connect with others in the industry, find work, or even find employees or collaborators.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn appears to be based on the Six Degrees of Separation concept, keeping you apprised of your connections, their connections, their connections connections, etc. It becomes easy to get introduced or recommended, or you can search for fellow employees or old classmates. If people in your network are hiring, you can see this in your member panel. Got questions? LinkedIn has Answers. Just ask, and one or more members will likely answer.

Biznik

Biznik’s social network was once Seattle-based, but just relaunched with new features and a wider geographic scope. Thanks to location-aware features, online meetings can turn into event planning. Other new features include messaging and business referrals.
These are merely two of many online networks, though these are probably most suited to business owners, professionals and entrepreneurs.

There are always new businesses starting up, but it seems that this is a hot time for the “startup”, especially for online businesses. In my weblog subscriptions folder, I found around ten weblogs about Startups, many of which are relatively new sites themselves. Then there’s a new online reality show called StartUp, with 21 episodes scheduled, that will show at HDOnlineCinema.

With all this Startup fever in the air, if you think you have some salable ideas but not the wherewithal to get them started, check out Cambrian House, a crowdsourcing site. Ideas come together and wisdom and skills are combined, according to their How it works page.

There’s also MobIncentive [via Entering Startup], another crowdsourcing site. You propose an idea that you’d like to see become reality, and, if I understand correctly, others who agree offer cash incentives to the person or group who is willing to complete the idea. If you have a look at the current items, though, being the fastest to drink a beer (for a prize of $20) isn’t exactly in the entrepreneurial vein.

I’m a bit shocked and somewhat enlightened with the results of a new survey conducted by Discover Small Business Watch, a monthly index measuring the relative economic confidence of U.S. small business owners who employ less than five employees.

Independence not money is the primary motivator among entrepreneurs. Even if the majority (64%) believes that it is riskier and harder to run a small business compared to working as an employee in an established company, our latent need for power and control emerges. Besides, who doesn’t want to be the Man or the Boss?

Survey Highlights:

• 46% of owners started a small business to have more flexibility with their time or to be more independent. Only 19% cite making more money as the primary reason.
• 61% would still choose independence over working for someone else – even if offered more money than they currently make.
• When asked about the biggest challenge facing their business, 28% cite finding new business and 21% cite managing cash flows.

This survey will be more interesting if they can capture how many among these 22 million small businesses today started as hobbies. Maybe there is also a way to verify and quantify the role of passion as key driver for the growth of small business.

Expect to see more posts on business development and cash flow management so we can help you face these major challenges.

Via Small Business Connection

Perhaps you have heard of SCORE, Counselors to America’s Small Business, yet you are not clear about who might benefit or how SCORE works. SCORE is a non-profit resource arm of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). SCORE organizes the activities of more than 10.500 volunteers – largely retired business owners, executives and corporate leaders who have been where you want to go. SCORE has more than 389 chapter offices around the U.S. In addition, SCORE offers a wide range of free, online courses you can take to learn more about how to manage your business.

There is something to be said for learning from the experiences of others, and the value of cumulative learning. You can query experts by e-mail from SCORE’s front page, asking for specific tips and advice to help you succeed. And, give SCORE’s newsletter a try. Many people learn to depend on SCORE as a benevolent, silent partner that is always there when you need them.

At the risk of overspouting about resources that happen to originate in my home town, (see my Kauffman Foundation post), I want to make sure everyone is aware of the resources available at Duct Tape Marketing, the site of John Jantsch. Indeed, he has tons of product and platforms at seminars around the country.

But his weblog and channel partners have a near gaggle of excellent information there – for the taking – that is vetted as useful and valuable for small businesses.

Just as a single example, in a recent post on June 13, “Most of the Time Talent’s Not Enough,” Jantsch discusses the difference between talent and creativity. I suppose, one could make the case that an accountant can be “talented,” but not “creative.” On the other hand, creativity IS a talent. It all depends on how you define each word.

So, he makes the case that talent alone is not enough; one needs creativity to promote one’s talent. So, how does this spin for creative people, designers, writers and such? Do the creatives need talent to promote their creativity, or more creativity to promote their creative talent? Woo!

I’m just playing with semantics here. Jantsch makes his message clear and thought provoking.

If you are not a natural strategic thinker, learning how is one of the most difficult challenges for a small business owner. Most small businesses are run by people who specialize in watch repair or dry cleaning or hairstyling or cooking or — well, you get the idea. And just because you can fight your way through a broken Timex or a superb Hollandaise recipe does not necessarily mean you have the talent to think strategically about the development of your business.

The five basic components of strategic thinking in business are: Organization, Observation, Views, Driving Forces and Ideal. It just may be best to start with your business’s eventual ideal position. It is often easier to think through the others when you have a well-defined dream, then backtrack to define the organization and other strategic factors and behaviors that will get you there.

By its very nature effective strategic thinking is abstract, yet specific and personal. There are guidelines, but no rules, and guidelines are also made to be broken. Here is a good place to start to organize your strategic processes – or, to see how your thinking measures up.

When it comes to customer service for your business, extremely helpful and courteous behavior – extremely polite, extremely generous works. But when it comes to product choices, it is possible to overdo. Harvard professor, John Gourville explains how more people often choose at one extreme or another… say the most basic cell phone or the most tricked out model… finding the middle choices too foggy. It’s important to think through your product and service extremes.

Gourville focuses on the compromise effect as the process consumers go through when they are presented with too many choices. It’s known as extremeness avoidance, and it depends largely on the nature of the choices – whether the options cover for each other, as in leather seats vs. cloth seats in a car model, vs. the option to visit New York or San Francisco. With the car seats, no matter which covering you choose, you still have seats. But with the travel choice, you simply do not get the Statue of Liberty in San Francisco. Granted, you get the Golden Gate bridge, but the bridge is no lady!

Why on earth would you not subscribe to the weekly newsletter of Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge website? It’s HARVARD fer cryin’ out loud! Yet, we all know there’s no crying in business. And let’s just say, Harvard has been known to bring it.

Like so many other amazing sites, Working Knowledge is huge. It would take a month in there just to scratch the surface. More than 200 Harvard faculty participate in this “forum for innovation in business practice, offering readers a first look at cutting-edge thinking and the opportunity to both influence and use these concepts before they enter mainstream management practice,” according to “About Us.”

Replete with research findings in such categories as finance marketing, operations and strategy, the site is eminently searchable by more than 50 industry categories – from accounting logos to electronics logos, manufacturing logos, real estate logos and software logos. They even include a call center category.

They actually have a Faculty Q&A where you can ask specific questions of Harvard professors. Now that’s class. It’s just too cool for school… literally. Well, it IS school, I guess.

So many media, so little money — the lament of the small business owner. When you are poring over your advertising budget, so often, a larger amount is needed to promote your two or three top selling seasons. This bulge can only come out of the steady, monthly budget. Peter, meet Paul.

An ongoing, periodic newsletter can be one effective way to make sure every month, or at least every other month gets its fair share of promotional activity. Newsletter budgeting is solid and predictable, unlike spot campaign budgets. But an effective newsletter is probably more than any of your current employee’s back burner can handle. Take a look at this comprehensive analysis of what it takes to publish a newsletter before you leap. Once you start a newsletter, it’s really difficult to “unstart,” and you don’t want to look foolish in front of your customers.

Can the U.S. government actually help you with your small business? It certainly has no shortage of rules, regulations and hoops for you to jump through. But, it makes up for some of that with actual help for the small business owner. The feds even have set up a little something called the Small Business Administration.

They even have a link to “How to Name Your Business!” Great! But when you follow it, you don’t get what you expect… instead, you get something better: a checklist of legal steps and recommended procedures to protect the very clever name you do think up! Turns out, it is very important — perhaps vital — to not only protect your business name, but to protect yourself from choosing a name someone is already using!

In fact, the more important factor may well be to prevent yourself from using something that someone else is already using. The potential damage from that happening can overwhelm any business with lawsuits. Even a “cease-and-desist” of using your company name can result in a dumpster filled with thousands of dollars-worth of freshly printed brochures, business cards and stationery. And that’s the second-best case scenario! (Best case is not getting caught at all, but don’t hold your breath for that!)

… but what a way to go!! Since I am from Kansas City, Mo., home of the Kauffman Foundation, it’s difficult for me to assess its nationwide (or worldwide!) influence from the hometown. Yes. It’s a Local Big Deal. Here is where the intensely serious entrepreneur winds up, fighting not to get bogged down in thousands of pages of research, analysis, advice and case studies… classes, education, training… on every single aspect of starting a business… aspects you’ve not thought of yet!

For example, periodically, the Foundation partners with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) to produce a comprehensive report that ranks all 50 U.S. states on the “…degree to which their economies are structured and operate to effectively compete…” This report is packed with useful information about where you are – or where you should be! Check it out!

The Kauffman entrepreneurial site is too huge, and yet, if you are intense, this is your portal. Start with their 182 entreprenur sites. Good luck… drop breadcrumbs so you know where you’ve been and how to get back home!