Growing a Business

Need real-world advice on how to take your small business to the next level? Make sure you have an up-to-date business plan, then check out our selection of articles on small business growth strategy.

Existing Companies Need Planning

Think business plans are just for startups and companies that need funding? Not if you want to grow and thrive.

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Implement Your Plan and Keep It Alive

Creating a business plan is just the start of the planning process. Next, you need to track progress and adapt.

Successful Budgeting Involves People

Managing budgets has less to do with data in spreadsheets than the people responsible for acting on that data.

Strategic Plan for Your Business

Think of your business strategy as a pyramid: to get to the peak, you need the right tactics and programs.

Plan vs. Actual Comparisons

Profits vs. Cash

Small Business Taxes

Strategy for Growing Your Business

Social Media Marketing: The Marketing Skills you can learn from Obama

I was fascinated by the analysis of the Obama campaign. In many ways, Obama’s campaign and its success is a big, bright, “LCD sign” of the times. New media has come of age in a very public way.
Most people seem to agree that the campaign used a number of techniques to capture an audience and even [...]

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Achieving Success

by Cidnee Stephen of Strategies for Success, www.strategiesforsuccess.ca
Let’s face it, at some point in our businesses we are faced with at least one insurmountable obstacle – one that challenges our passion, taps out our resources, and pulls us far, far out of our comfort zone. Many business owners give up at this point, wave the [...]

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Not Everybody is Your Customer

This is hard to write about, and hard for business owners to accept. It seems so negative. Still, it seems like we all need a fresh reminder. Bill Cosby said it well: “I don’t know the secret to success, but I do know that the secret to failure is trying to please everybody.”
This reminds me, [...]

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Dealing with Rising Gas Costs

If you travel by car for business or to commute to and from work, you are probably looking for ways to cut the costs of traveling. An article on eHow.com gives tips on how to maximize fuel efficiency when you travel. Here are a few tips from this article:
Plan the trip so as to avoid [...]

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Flaws or Opportunities?

Did you know that problems with your products are not necessarily going to make your customers dissatisfied? At least, not in the long run. Instead, they can provide an opportunity to turn customers into evangelists for your customer service.
Think about this common scenario: you boot up your computer, ready to work (or play a game, [...]

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Using the Bplans.com Cash Flow Calculator

Cash flow is how much money is coming in to your business, generally sales, and how much is going out, as bills paid. Cash balance is how much money you have in your business checking account. If there is no cash in the company coffers to pay the bills, the payroll, or the taxes, you [...]

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7 Business Planning Fundamentals for Hard Times

Time flies. Thirteen months ago I posted Economic Dark Clouds on Small Business Trends. Back then I said “the economic news is clustering now,” but my point was essentially sticking to the fundamentals …
With some notable exceptions, your business moves up and down far more because of very-micro specifics of what you and your team [...]

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Strategic Plan for Your Business

You know it when you see it
More years ago than I care to say, as a vice president with Creative Strategies International, I gave up trying to define strategy. During the years I was in that business, I discovered, slowly, that most people believe they are naturally good at strategy. They may not be [...]

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Earning Income as a Nonprofit Corporation

Nonprofit corporations, by definition, exist not to make money but to fulfill one of the purposes recognized by federal law: charitable, educational, scientific or literary. Under state and federal tax laws, however, as long as a nonprofit corporation is organized and operated for a recognized nonprofit purpose and has secured the proper tax exemptions, it [...]

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How Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) Are Taxed

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is not a separate tax entity like a corporation; instead, it is what the IRS calls a “pass-through entity,” like a partnership or sole proprietorship. All of the profits and losses of the LLC “pass through” the business to the LLC owners (called members), who report this information on their [...]

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