Why there are so many small business companies missing the boat to huge global markets? Primarily because the journey involves a few initial struggles, which discourage a small business entrepreneur. These are:

• Financing is often difficult to find.
• Many entrepreneurs don’t know from where to get started.
• Often businesspeople fail to understand the cultural differences between international markets.
• The bureaucratic paperwork may also discourage an entrepreneur.

Besides the fact that the majority of the market lies beyond the borders of U.S. there are many other compiling reasons behind why a small business should try to go beyond national borders. Believe it or not, there are many advantages for a small business in the international market, than huge corporations. For example, exporting products can absorb excess inventory, soften downturns in the domestic market and extend product lives. It can also spice up dull routine work of a business.

Small businesses have several advantages over large businesses in international trade. They are:

• Overseas buys enjoy dealing with individuals rather than with large corporate bureaucrats.
• Small companies can usually begin shipping much faster as there is no huge queue.
• Small companies provide a wide range of suppliers.
• Small business organizations can give more personal service and more undivided attention, because each international account is a major source of business to them.

These are some of the compelling reasons why you, as a small business entrepreneur should think positively and seriously about taking your span of business abroad. No matter what others say, if you think that you have what it takes to expand, then you should go for it. If you enjoyed this daily dose of work relief, make sure to subscribe to the Workdose Daily Dose Email and/or RSS feed. And did we tell you how much we love it when you give us props via Twitter and Facebook?

Begin With Planning
One of the main reasons of failure of small business is lack of proper planning when starting the business. It’s amazing how many people are eager to start a small business but have only a vague illusion of what they want to do. But what you should do is, when you KNOW that you want to establish a business organization, you should discuss your idea with professors, friends, and family and in relevant online forums to help you get started. Then you should develop that idea and give it a “business plan” form. A business plan is a detailed written statement that describes the nature of the business, the target market, the advantages the business will have, the disadvantages the business will face, how they will create a market for themselves, how they will compete with the competition etc.

Act to Achieve a Solid Financial Stability
Number 4 mistake on the list of 17 common mistakes of small business entrepreneurs is related to having a weak financial backing. Before starting the business you should have the correct amount of capital on hand, or you should have a proper plan of getting the money in time. Starting a business with too little money on hand, or too much money on hand is bad for you. You should also pay close attention to not buying on credit too much. Many family members, friends, angel investors, venture capitalists, governmental units help out and invest on new businesses.

Try to Know Your Customers
One of the most important elements for succeeding in business is to know the market. In business, market consists of people who are/will be interested in your service or product. Once you have identified your market and its needs and demands, you can start acting according to it. The way to meet your customer’s needs is to provide goods and services which offer superior value than your competitors. Maybe you can offer less price, or add one or two new features to your product to create a position for your business in the market.

Manage Your Employees
As a business grows, you won’t be able to monitor each and every part of your business effectively. Even if you give 60 hours a week to your business, you won’t be able to manage accounting, HRM, marketing and all other essential parts of a business. That’s why you will need employees who will help you out. It’s not easy to find good and qualified help when you offer less money and benefits. But it’s more important to keep the best employees once you have hired them. But believe it or not, its easier to keep an qualified employee to a small business than to a large business. Because in a small business the employee will find that they are doing a more challenging job and their ideas are being granted.

Keep Accurate Records
A business can fall into trouble very fast, if they don’t keep accurate and timely records. That’s why accounting in business is so important. A businessperson who will set up an effective accounting system early will save much grief later.

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SWOT analysis is a planning tool used to analyze an organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Actually the word SWOT is the first letter of the above mentioned four things. It helps to project what is the situation of the business/market now? What is the state of the economy and other business environmental factors? What opportunities exist to capture a profitable share of the current market? What products and customers are most profitable? And many other questions like these. The following image will explain SWOT analysis further.

I will demonstrate how to do SWOT analysis of the current market, by pretending that I’m going to launch a file sharing website (web-based business). But first let’s just point one 4 key areas of SWOT analysis.

• S or Strengths represent the strengths of your company. It is not related to any other companies in your niche. Strength depends on only you and how you lay out your company.
• W or Weaknesses represent the weaknesses of your company. This is the opposite of Strengths.
• O or Opportunities represent the areas or gaps created by your competitors, which you can utilize to make profits for your company. It doesn’t depend on how you plan or layout your company. It depends on how bad your opponents are.
• T or Threats are measured by how good your opponents are. It’s the opposite of Opportunities.

Example: SWOT Analysis Roadmap of a File-Sharing Website

1. Strengths: Is your new file sharing website something which will have the ability to attract new customers? Do you have superior speed, navigational facilities, and better looking design than your competitors? What makes you superior than your competitors?

2. Weaknesses: Is your new file sharing website lacking some features which would have been useful and appealing to your potential customers?

3. Opportunities: What can you do to make a good use of your competitors’ mistakes? For example, Rapidshare has a bug in its system. It can’t differentiate computers from the same IP range. So what happens is even if you aren’t downloading, sometimes it says that “You are downloading”. 4Shared triggers automatic downloads whenever you click on a download link which is really annoying. These are your opportunities to be careful about these mistakes and make a better file sharing system.

4. Threats: What are opponents doing which is better than you?

I hope this post was helpful to you. SWOT analysis is a very important tool for businesses growth. You should do this analysis not only before starting your business, but also every now and then to find out what’s your current status on the market.

• Personal Savings
• Relatives
• Former Employers
• Banks
• Finance Companies
• Venture Capitalists
• Government Agencies (Small Business Administration, Farmers Home Administration, Economic Development Authority, Minority Business Development Agency etc)

An estimated 90 percent of all start-ups receive money from friends and family. As it’s the most common form of financing method for small businesses, I’m not going to discuss about it further.

You may want to consider borrowing money from a potential supplier to your future business. The future supplier may be interested in funding your business if he/she thinks that you will be a big client in the future. But you have to remember that, its not a good idea to ask such an investor for money initially. Begin by asking for advice; if the supplier likes your plan, he/she might be willing to fund your business.

Other than personal savings, individual investors are primary sources of capital for many small business entrepreneurs. These individual investors, popularly known as Angel Investors, are private individuals who invest in potentially hot new companies before they go public. Financehub.com and garage.com are some of the websites who bring entrepreneurs and angel investors together.

Investors known as Venture Capitalists may also finance your business, but for a price. They might ask for a huge stake (as much as 60 percent) in return they will give you the money needed to start your business. If the stake is too high, you might lose control over your business. So always be careful about this sort of financing. If you are going to set up a relatively small business firm, better choice would be Angel Investors rather than Venture Capitalists. If your business needs millions of dollars to start, experts recommend that you talk to at least 5 different investment firms and their clients to find out the right venture capitalist for you.

Many US Government Agencies also help small businesses to start operating. For example Small Business Administration (SBA) advises and assists small businesses by providing management training and financial advice and loans. SBA provides loans and micro loans of different scale to new businesses. But the amount of the loan will depend on how solid your business plan is.

What do you think is the best way for financing your future small business? Whatever that may be, be sure that you have a reasonably full-proof business plan.

Best wishes.

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More Financial Resources
Financing the business is often the most thought of topic when forming a new business. Generally people have to start their business with their personal assets and small loans from banks. But if two or more persons join hands in forming a new business, it gets much easier to raise sufficient fund and it takes off huge amount of burden from one person’s personal assets. That’s why monetary benefit is the biggest reason behind forming a partnership rather than sole proprietorship. Another good thing about partnership (like sole proprietorship) is that the profit of the business is taxed only ones, as personal assets. It means that, even if you are getting more help from the partner in form of shared activities and monetary benefits, you are still being taxed like a sole proprietorship, which denotes superior value for your business.

Sharing of Management, Skills & Knowledge
It is simply much easier to manage the day-to-day activities of a business with carefully chosen partners. Partners give each other free time and provide different valuable skills and perspectives. Suppose someone wants to set-up a small computer servicing center. He has all the technical skills needed for this job. But he lacks accounting and management skills. In that case, it’s better to find a suitable partner for this job, rather than hiring an accountant. Because he can manage all the “desk activities” of the farm for free plus work hard than an employee.

People Take Partnerships More Seriously
Clients or customers prefer a partnership business more than they prefer a one-man-show. They feel that partnerships are more reliable. As far as my opinion goes, I won’t purchase a large quantity of raw materials from a sole-proprietorship business. The reason behind this, I feel that the business might close down quickly and there will be no organization to refund or compensate me if something goes wrong.

Longer Survival
Because of the 3 points mentioned above, a partnership lasts longer than sole proprietorship. A study that examined 2,000 businesses started since 1960 reported that partnerships were four times as likely to succeed as sole proprietorship. It is believed that, a businessman performs better and works in a disciplined way, if he/she is being watched by another partner.

Have you decided about which form of business ownership you want to follow? If it’s a small-medium sized business organization that has regular clients, rather than customers, my suggestion would be to go with partnership.

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Are You Self Directed?

Even though you are your own boss when you are running your own business, you have to be self directed and self disciplined. You have to remember that you are responsible for your success or failure.

Are You Self Nurturing?

A common characteristic of an entrepreneur is to take new calculated steps towards success. Even though no one else is supporting your idea, if you feel that your decision is right, you will have to go with your plan. Do you think you are self nurturing enough?

Are You Action-Oriented?

A great concept of a business will do you little good if you don’t know or aren’t willing to convert it into a visible output. You have to be action oriented to turn your dream into reality. Do you have the burning desire to actualize your plans?

Are You Highly Energetic?

Managing a business is not a child’s play. Setting up a new business is even harder. A new entrepreneur has to work long shifts and work harder than he has ever worked before to create an impact. Setting up a business may require 18 hour shifts, 7 days a week. It’s your business; you should be willing to work for it; otherwise profits won’t come. So, are you energetic enough to convert your plans into money?

Can You Accept Uncertainty?

Successful entrepreneur always take calculated risks. But no matter how calculated the steps are, there is always a fair amount of uncertainty involved in a business. Do you have the heart to accept the uncertainty and work even harder to reduce the effects of the possible uncertainty?

So, do you really have what it needs to become an entrepreneur? Remember, you don’t need to have these attributes by birth. But you should have the willingness to develop these qualities if you are thinking about stepping into this exciting world of entrepreneurship.

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Resize your poster. Instead of doing it the usual way, print smaller versions of your poster printing. The smaller your dimensions, the cheaper it will be on your printing price.

Go for standard materials.

Switch to using the standard paper stock for your poster. Although you would want for your marketing tools to be durable so they can have a longer life, there are standard stocks that can resist minor damages without you having to shell out too much money. Using thicker and more complicated materials just adds to the overall price of your print job.

Go for spot color printing.

As you well know, colors in your poster mean your printer will use different inks. Inks mean costs. The more inks used, the higher your costs. So stick to spot color to save your money. Try to apply one or two colors to add life to your design. Or you can also choose to work on varying the shades of one color to create an effect of different hues in your poster.

Go for wholesale.

Or bulk orders. Be sure to have your printer produce a big number of your print collaterals as you can definitely save on costs this way. The more you order, the more likely that you can decrease the price of each piece of your marketing tool. So be sure to print at a time when you really need a huge amount so you can get a discount from your print provider.

Say ‘No’ to instant printing.

If you have not noticed it yet, printing any sales literature gets more expensive if you want it done earlier than the usual turnaround of your print provider. They would have to do a quick job, which means they would have people working on your print order 24 hours, not to mention the overhead costs. So they would definitely charge you for that. Have your materials printed way ahead of your marketing schedule to avoid rush orders. You not only make it easier for you to work on your budget, it would also give less pressure to your provider if they can have their usual time to prepare to print your order.

Try these techniques now and see a big difference in your printing costs.

Credit: This article was authored by janice. For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Poster Printing

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Earlier in twitter, group following was not possible. On the basis of users’ feedback, twitter has launched new features “Twitter List”. It enables group relationships beyond following each other. Anyone can create and publish twitter lists, so if you have a new idea for one, just click “New list” in the sidebar of your Twitter account. Add accounts to a list using the “Lists” drop drown on a twitter profile page.

Twitter list has some incredible benefits for small businesses in how they can organize or otherwise endorse people they follow. There are no best practices for using Twitter Lists. However, we will share some great ideas to spark your imagination.

Twitter lists can be private or public and small businesses can follow any lists without resulting in an influx of people they follow. Twitter helps you to notice and noticing others in this competitive business environment. Twitter has a very fair and equal platform for everyone to connect to their desired audience or customer and engage.

Instead of becoming obsessed with the number of followers you have amassed pay attention to the lists you are enrolled on and see which associates you have attracted. We know few companies encourage employees to Tweet. This would be a healthy why to highlight and endorse one’s association with the company. Does your business make use of VIPs or similar stars that could be a street team for your brand? Draw attention to them and they will highlight you.

Associate yourself with industry associations or peers. On Twitter, it’s collaboration not competition. What are you using twitter lists for? Share it in your blogs or comments! There has to be someone in your company who is great on twitting. Showing humbleness and embracing talent on twitter is a great service for your audience to help grow your audience.

There are more ways for small businesses could benefit from Twitter Lists. To know more about how twitter can be benefited for your organization read an e-book on “Twitter Marketing”.

Credit: This article was authored by Ryan Mutt.

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Turn your IT expertise into a business

Transforming your information technology expertise into a successful and ongoing business can be a great way to make use of these skills and to take control of your financial destiny. It is such a common path that the membership group the Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA) exists to support the work of these small business owners and freelancers.

Choose Your Market

A first key step is to decide whether you will serve a business or consumer market. The choice influences who your competition will be (i.e. global IT consulting firms vs Best Buy’s Geek Squad), where and how you should be marketing, and in what areas you need to hone your expertise. You won’t find many computer consultants who try to work with both markets, simply because there are such different needs in each customer group that costs will rise and profit decrease as you try to serve both.

Use the Best, Cost-Saving IT You Can

An important method which should be both a money-saver and feather in your cap for marketing, is for you and your business to take advantage of the latest and best options in IT to make your work more efficient. For example, visits to clients sites will be necessary at times (to develop relationships, to see the hardware situation yourself, etc.) but often you should be making use of remote login systems to offer technical support and auditing of client computers. Logmein and Gotomypc are low-cost or free examples, and remote login should cut down on the extreme waste of travel expenses and time.

Another resource is the use of virtual offices and virtual receptionists. Rather than renting out a business office, you can make use of your own office, internet-ready cafes, or any location with a connection and cell phone signal. Virtual office services give you a business address, the potential to rent office or meeting space on an as-needed basis, and even locations in multiple cities to allow a traveling lifestyle. Virtual receptionists can give customers and potential customers calling in a better experience than speaking to voicemail, and at a much lower cost than a full-time, dedicated receptionist.

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To make sure that your projects communicate effectively, we have described here…

How to Create a Communications Plan

Using the latest Communications project management template released today, we have described how to create a bullet-proof Communications Plan for projects. We have provided a snapshot of this template here by listing the 10 steps you need to take to create a Communications Plan for your project.

Step 1: Situation Analysis
The first step to take when creating a Communications Plan is to perform a Situation Analysis. This is a fancy term for researching your existing communications environment.

Review the performance of all communications within your project and identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Then identify any lessons learned from past communications exercises, so that the same mistakes made in the past are not repeated here.

Step 2: Communications Objectives
Great. So you know what your communications strengths are and where you need to improve. You are now ready to set out your communications objectives.

List the top three objectives that you want to achieve from your project communications. For instance, you might want to inform stakeholders of the project progress, boost management buy-in or improve your team productivity.

Step 3: Communications Guidelines
Then set out your communications guidelines for controlling communications within your project. For example, you may decide that:

√ All messages will be distributed through pre-defined channels
√ All critical communications will be pre-approved by management
√ All communications will be tailored, based on stakeholder needs

Step 4: Target Audience
Now define exactly who it is that your team will formally communicate with. Remember, formal communications are a method for controlling the messages sent out by your team. They promote a single consistent view of your project to a specified audience so that “everyone has the same version of the truth”.

Step 5: Stakeholder Needs
Each target audience group will have their own needs. These stakeholders will require information that is specific to their role in the project. For instance, a Project Sponsor will need to be informed of high priority risks and issues, whereas a Quality Reviewer might need to be notified of the current status of project deliverables.

Step 6: Key Messages
Then list the key messages that need to be sent to each Stakeholder. Key messages may include project status, project issues, project risks, project deliverables or project resources.  The next step is to define how you will deliver each message to them, through a delivery channel.

Step 7: Delivery Channels
There are a huge variety of ways in which you can deliver your key messages to stakeholders (e.g. emails, articles, meetings, conferences). For each stakeholder, identify the channel that you will use to deliver your key messages.

Step 8: Communications Schedule
Now you are ready to create the schedule of communications events, activities and actions that are required to deliver the right messages to the right people at the right time throughout the project. Create a detailed schedule of events and for each item listed, specify the timeframes for completion and any dependencies on other events in the schedule.

Step 9: Communications Events
For each event listed in your schedule, describe it in depth. Make sure that you define the purpose of the event, how it will take place and when it should occur.

Step 10: Communications Matrix
And finally, once you have listed the events and described them in detail, you need to identify who will manage them and who will review their effectiveness. Create a Communications Matrix which lists for each event who is accountable for the event, who will take part and who will review its success.

Once you have taken these 10 steps, it is up to you to get your Communications Plan approved by your manager and then execute it to deliver communications efficiently across your project.

And just one last tip – to improve your communications you need honest feedback on your team’s performance. Implement feedback measures such as questionnaires, feedback forms and surveys to learn how to continually improve communications within your project team.

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