Logo Design Works is at cross roads now. We have stayed small for a very long time and offered personalized logo design services to clients from all over the world. Even though this meant we could not take on too many logo design projects, it allowed us to be in control of the process and the deliverable that we offered our customers.

For the past two months, we have had an increase in sales and the trend seems to be accelerating. This despite the slow down of the economy. Now, our small team of 4 lead logo designers and a small number of junior designers (you can count them on your fingers), is not able to cope with the increased projects.

We know we need to increase our work force to handle all the new sales, but the question is: what happens if the sale start to slow down? For small design firms I guess this question is not easy to answer. Do we start recruiting new logo designers? If we do then we are stuck with salaries that have to paid no matter what happens to the sales.

So do we go for freelancers? The problem with is that freelancers are not reliable any more. At least in the logo design industry. When your core service depends heavily on the quality of logo design concepts you provide, you can not risk placing that responsibility in the hands of unknown and untested logo designers.

We are now thinking of taking on partners or angel investors who would be able to provide us with the management know how and the resources to be able to bring on full time logo designers and be still able to wither any turn in the sales cycles. I will update this post as and when we have had major changes to our situation.

Finding good people to populate your small business or startup is crucial. Without a pool of sharp, productive workers, your business is doomed. Payroll is one of your biggest ongoing expenses. This whole area of human resources is full of hidden opportunity costs as well as the hidden expenses of losing a key worker. You must not only find suitable candidates, you must be able to attract them to the point where they choose to work for you. Only then does the really hard work begin of retaining your most valuable people.

Business owners are naturally attracted to younger workers, even fresh graduates. After all, they have a fresh education and it’s possible to get productive results based on sheer talent rather than experience, which costs more.

On the other hand, the more experienced you become, the more you realize how valuable it is. As the bulging baby-boomer workforce ages, yes, they are older, but by now, they have acquired 20 to 40 years of experience. Here is an excellent article that makes the case for considering mature workers for employment in your company. Sure, there’s a fine line between “mature” and “geezer,” but many companies discount recruiting older workers because they think hiring the experience is too expensive. But, when you take a closer look, you just might want to reconsider your priorities.

Risk is an essential part of running a business. It can make your dreams come true but it can also shatter it if you are not careful. A new study shows that successful entrepreneurs are more likely to take risks.

Some 60 per cent of those with assets of more than $1 million said a high appetite for risk had been a big influence in generating their wealth, compared with 36 per cent of those with less than $1 million of assets.

Given that risk is all around us, you should learn how to take calculate your chances of survival in this game. Here are some of the things you need to consider:

1. Look before you leap. Research about the risk you are about to take and consult with experts in the field to gather more information. The more you know the better your chances of survival.
2. Have a Backup Plan. Because there are different ways to solve a problem, you should have an alternative plan in case things will go out of hand.
3. Rank the risks. If you are taking several risks, you should prioritize which one to tackle first. A good measure is to consider the consequences of each scenario and the probability of it happening. However, this is a very tricky method because it’s difficult to avoid subjective opinions.

Some entrepreneurs are afraid to take bigger challenges because they can’t handle the idea of failing. To make matters worse, some say “no” even without even trying. In case you are in this same situation, you might want to do some attitude adjustment. Here’s how:

1. Impossible is Nothing. This famous Adidas advertising slogan is the first step towards better attitude. When faced with a difficult task, you should not give up easily. Explore your options and ask other people for advice.
2. Think big. You should start a business with the dream of becoming a big company in the long run. Combining your think-big mindset and hard work, you can take on challenging projects without fear.
3. Prepare all the time. Instead of dreaming of overnight success, start sharpening your skills and learning new ones. When the big opportunity knocks on your door, you are more than prepared to seize it.
4. Focus on your strengths. Some entrepreneurs spend their time focusing on their weaknesses until they reached a point where they can no longer appreciate their strengths. Find your key skills and learn how to use it to your advantage.

There are many temptations hindering the success of small businesses across the globe. These are the things we should not do but for some reason, many entrepreneurs keep doing it. Here are some of the fatal temptations in running a small business.

1. Cutting corners. Some entrepreneurs offer substandard products or poor service just to minimize expenses. They are tempted to buy cheap raw materials or accept bargain deals without regard to quality.
2. Forgetting the basics. Every business has essential parts like special equipment, unique business skills, or secret formula. However, we sometimes take these things for granted because we focus on new but less significant matters.
3. Listening to everybody. Starting a business can be very confusing so we solicit advice from experts in different fields like finance, marketing and leadership. Although there is nothing wrong with that, we should learn to evaluate every advice and uncover any hidden agenda if there’s any.
4. Not assessing your business skills. There are some entrepreneurs who believe that common sense and luck are the main ingredients of success. It is important to know your limitations so you can identify what skills to work on and the people you need to hire.

It is a common knowledge that employees who have fun at work are the most productive. It means part of our responsibilities as entrepreneurs is to make our company a happy place. Today, it is not enough to celebrate holidays and birthdays to have fun in our office. We should take a step further by doing some of these things:

1. Engage in social events. Movie nights, bowling, or even a simple coffee session are good for bonding sessions. Discourage any conversations about business and focus on personal matters.
2. Create a “happy” team. Gather your fun-loving employees together and come up with different creative activities to add more laughter in your company.
3. Review your office practices. There are some annoying activities in your office like soliciting money among employees that negatively affect other co-workers. You should correct these things as soon as possible.
4. Maintain a positive attitude. Employees usually mimic the attitude of the business owners. Lead your team towards a more optimistic life by starting within yourself.
5. Adopt flextime. Some employees have other personal matters to attend to like children or sick relatives. Giving them a flexible schedule will not only ease their stress but build loyalty to your company as well.

Discrimination against employees has been an ongoing problem in many businesses nowadays. In Salt Lake City a young employee has accused Park City for pervasive race discrimination and a hostile work environment for Latinos. While in the UK, 3 women has alleged that a culture of gender discrimination was fostered by top managers in Bloomberg. This case could result to $145 million in damages.

Entrepreneurs must learn the dangers of discrimination and its impact to the business. While race and gender issues are very rampant, there are 9 different types of discrimination according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):

1. Age
2. Disability
3. Equal Pay
4. National Origin
5. Pregnancy
6. Sex
7. Sexual Harassment
8. Religion
9. Retaliation

Recently, EEOC has released a revised guideline focusing particularly on unlawful discrimination against workers with caregiver responsibilities. These are the people who take care of their children or relatives who are very sick and old. While this is composed mostly by women, the number of male employees with caregiver responsibilities has risen recently. Under this new law, businesses will be penalized if they do the following:

1. Refusal to hire an employee who takes care of disabled relative because this might affect his or her performance.
2. Unwillingness to adjust the workload and schedule of a pregnant employee
3. Not allowing fathers to leave to take care of their babies
4. Not hiring mothers with young children because they might take many leaves to take care of their children.

The ongoing Campbell’s soup recall of more than 72,000 cans is a wake up call for many entrepreneurs to have stricter quality evaluation procedures. More importantly, it prompted us to prepare in case we experience this same problem. Speed is very here because a defective product can trigger serious damages to your customers. Here are some of the important steps you should do when recalling a product:

Step 1. Assign a responsible person in your company to oversee the entire recall activities.

Step 2. Gather info about the product you want to recall such as bar code, description, size, manufacturing date or import date.

Step 3. Track the customers who received your defective product, inform them immediately stop sellingor using it. Depending on the problem, a product can be repaired, disposed, or returned to your company.

Step 4. Inform the public about your recall, no matter how small your business is. Don’t just rely on your customer service and learn to use all your employees to spread the word as soon as possible. Get in touch with the media to help you out.

Step 5. If you have a website, create a “Recall Safety Information” in your homepage and make sure it is very conspicuous to your readers. Maintain this information even after the actual recall. There might be some customers who don’t know about this yet.

Step 6. Assist your customers for any refund, repair or replacement caused by the recall. Prepare your team to deal with angry customers and ask them to be more patient.

Step 7. Be prepared to spend additional money for the recall to be effective. This is the price for being lax on your quality inspection.

Business intelligence is about gathering information on current market situations, upcoming trends, and competitor activities. If you think this applies only to big companies, think again. A new survey has revealed that poor intelligence results to substantial losses:

58% of surveyed business executives admit that business opportunities have been missed or problems have not been spotted as a result of not having access to relevant information at the right time;

The survey indicates that the Fortune 500 companies are losing approximately $250 million per year in missed business opportunities as a result of inadequate business intelligence.

You may not lose thousands or millions of dollars but the point is you will lose lucrative opportunities and might not stay on top if you don’t take business intelligence seriously. The good news is you don’t need to spend too much money on this, if you apply the following tips:

1. Check your competitors’ websites. Most businesses now do have websites and that is a rich source of competitive information. Important sections include “About Us”, “Press Releases”, and “Products or Services”. Don’t forget to check the profile and competencies of its founders or co-founders to gauge how well they know the market.
2. Internet research. A simple Google search will give you tons of information about the market trends and financial data of your publicly traded competitors. If you are looking for annual reports and financial info, check out Yahoo! Finance and SEC Filings & Forms (EDGAR).
3. Use your network. If you have friends or professional colleagues connected in your industry, why not give them a call or set an informal meeting? This is your chance to collect info not commonly available in websites like hearsays or daily operations.

Starting from scratch might be very daunting for some starting entrepreneurs. They might find it very difficult to build a customer base, develop new products, handle initial marketing campaign or hire reliable employees.

To sidestep these birth pains, one alternative is to buy an existing business and expand it to reap more profits. All systems are already in place and you might just need to tweak it to be more efficient. When buying a business, you should carefully consider the following:

1. Reasons for selling. If it is so good, why sell it? Don’t expect some owners to tell you the truth but you should find ways to validate the reasons provided. You can talk to some of the employees or other business partners.
2. Business image. Although having a negative business reputation gives you the power to bargain for a lower acquisition cost, it can hurt the future operations of your business. You should meet with several customers and suppliers to gauge the existing business image.
3. Financial statements and sales records. Get the financial statements for the last 5 years and hire an accountant to audit all the books for accuracy and consistency with tax returns. This will also give you a good estimate of business profitability and much how liabilities you have to assume.
4. Legal documents. Some of the important legal contracts include articles of incorporation, purchase agreements, sales contracts, employment contracts, copyrights, and trademarks. You should consult with legal experts to be more accurate.