Financing small businesses

I’m not sure that availability to capital for small businesses has improved much over the past few months. From what I’ve seen, many small businesses have had credit lines reduced or terminated, and have difficulty finding banks who are willing to extend credit. There seems to be some activity by the administration and congress to improve the business credit situation. If you’re concerned about business credit, take a look at Read more

A Standard for On-Line Shopping

From all accounts, more and more of our shopping is done on-line from the comfort of our homes. Retailers, and even commercial distributors, recognize the value of the Internet and keep making improvements to their web sites to enhance our on-line shopping experience.
Very few companies, however, can meet the standards set by electronics distributor Digi-Key Corporation. Digi-Key carries over 1.3 million parts from over 430 manufacturers – electronic components that Read more

What is your IQ (Innovation Quotient)?

Dell Computer Company, Apple Computers, Microsoft, Google, and E-Bay share much more than only occupying space in the computer-sphere. Each of these businesses was founded by people who was not satisfied with the status-quo, who looked at the world differently, and constantly asked “why?”. These businesses not only started with an innovative idea but have thrived on continued innovation.
The December 2009 Harvard Business Review features innovation in business and published Read more

Appreciative Inquiry

As we are in the season of thankfulness and thanksgiving, it occurred to me that an introduction to the discipline called Appreciative Inquiry would be timely.
Briefly, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is the process of change management that seeks out the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. Instead of negativity, criticism, and diagnosing “problems”, AI helps people improve, dream, and offer new solutions through a process of asking Read more

Cutting costs or increasing profits?

A publication editor contacted me this week asking for my input into an article they are thinking of running about what small businesses can do to cut costs. This got me to thinking that business owners should not be focused on cost cutting but rather on increasing profit and improving cash flow.
In good times, and especially in tough times, business owners should always be concerned about costs. Costs need to Read more

Peer-to-Peer Lending

An alternative financing source that has gained traction over the past few years is peer-to-peer lending facilitated by on-line site such as www.lendingclub.com, www.prosper.com, and www.peerlendingnetwork.com. Small businesses hit with high credit card interest rates and which can’t find banks willing to lend money are increasingly funding their needs with low-cost peer-to-peer loans. Investors concerned about the volatile stock market and low interest rates are attracted by returns offered by Read more

How secure is your data?

Are you confident no one can hack into your systems and access sensitive or proprietary data? See this Wall Street Journal Article called Passwords 101: How to Protect Your Data.

Will Limkemann

Payroll Services

One piece of advice I give consistently to small business owners, even those with only two or three employees, is to engage a payroll processing service. Why? I’ve seen way too many small businesses get into serious financial difficulty by failing to file quarterly tax returns on time, and worse, not making payroll tax payments when they are due. As trustees of taxes withheld from employee paychecks, employers are obligated Read more

Listening to customers

One of my goals in exhibiting at the AIO convention, two weeks ago, was to solicit comments that might result in improvements to the line of lamps we were exhibiting. The goal was wonderfully accomplished as we returned with two significant ideas which will dramatically improve the product line.
I wonder, though, how often we, as business people, truly listen to and take to heart comments that customers and prospects make Read more

Is it time to return to “snail mail”?

At the COSE Small Business Conference last week I led a workshop titled “You have the business card, what do you do now?”, where we discussed techniques for follow-up after getting business cards at networking events, trade shows, and conferences.
Among the techniques we discussed was sending notes, letters, brochures, and postcards by regular mail. The rationale is that today people are so bombarded with e-mail that they are more likely Read more