Carol Tice | Page 10

1. Track payments carefully. 2. Try a friendly call or email. 3. Choose the right person to follow up. 4. Offer a repayment plan. 5. Rebill and add a late charge. 6. Take preventive steps. Dun & Bradstreet 7. Consider guaranteed-payment methods. working through an intermediary agency Have you had problems with late payers?

charging customers 15 cents a bag China joined in 2008 Italy banned the bags outright European retailers are in an uproar If you’re a retailer, how do you handle the paper-or-plastic issue?

Many small-business owners have been unable to hire new workers over the past couple years. It’s a problem that has contributed to our still-high unemployment rate. No real answer has emerged on how to get small businesses in a position to hire again. One program that’s working is from the ever-entrepreneurial Kauffman Foundation. New York […]

Since the dawn of the Internet, small retailers have lived in a magical, tax-free bubble. First off, they didn’t collect sales tax — an advantage that is likely to be gone shortly, with the inevitable approval of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement currently before Congress. Some individual states aren’t waiting and are already […]

Aren’t trade shows supposed to be dead? More than a decade ago, with the rise of the Internet, many predicted trade shows would go the way of the dodo. But instead, they’ve flourished. I think people long for personal contact more than ever in our era of Webinars, video calling, and instant messages. Also, the […]

I’ve got a couple of cheery topics for you today — death and taxes. Try to stay with me for a minute, though, because there’s some really important news out that could help you hang onto your business and keep it in the family.You may know that the federal inheritance tax has been a political […]

It’s tough to stand out as a small company. Every business has been marketing so hard since the economy tanked in 2008, it’s like a sea of message-babble out there. But there are still ways to grab a lot of attention. What if you pulled something so different, it made everyone stop and look? Here […]

I recently had an interesting experience at my doctor’s office. The atmosphere at her office is always super-positive, and everyone’s always smiling and relaxed. When her nurse came in with my chart, my doctor just gushed over her. “You got the test results out of that lab — you’re awesome!” she said. “I know they’re […]

The tough economy has been a learning lab for many small businesses on cost control. Fortunately, advances in technology have helped. For instance, many business owners have turned to low-cost or free, cloud-based services as a way to save on IT administration costs. But there are lots of other ways to save money in your […]

There was a lot of nervousness going into the holiday season. Would shoppers finally come out and spend? The answer turned out to be a big “yes.” Cautious forecasts such as the 3.3 percent predicted by the National Retail Federation were blown out by the reality — retail sales were nearly 6 percent higher in […]

All through the recession, small businesses have struggled to find the capital they needed to grow. But as 2010 drew to a close, business owners reported their access to capital is improving. Helping to make the frozen lending wheels turn again are several new sources of federal backing for small-business lending in the past year. […]

In my work helping small businesses improve their blogs, I’ve found some common mistakes that can kill your blog — drive visitors away and make them never want to come back. Fix these problems, and your business blog will start to get noticed and attract new clients. Here are 10 of the biggest blogging flubs, […]

Retail’s Big Show, more than 18,000 retailers 1. Global retailing Global Powers of Retailing 2. Going green. 3. Going mobile. 4. Local relevance. 5. Social networking 6. Shrinking assortments. What retail trends are you watching for 2011? Leave a comment and let us know what you think will be important to your business this year.

My friend Derek Halpern of the blog DIYThemes recently had an interesting customer-service experience with Brita water. He bought a filter, but when he got it home, it didn’t fit his faucet. When he called Brita, its customer-service rep immediately said it would mail him off some additional parts that would make it fit — […]

Darrell Issa sent letters Politico reports ProPublica reports drop him a line. bigger regulatory burdens at the state or local level What do you think is the most burdensome federal regulation?

study of 10,000 Internet shoppers If you sell online, how did you handle customer service this holiday season?

As the year winds down, it’s time to look in the mirror at ourselves as business owners. It’s an opportunity to look back and evaluate how well we’ve done as business leaders in the past year. As former New York Mayor Ed Koch used to ask city residents, it’s time to ask: “How’m I doin’?” […]

Two federal programs that help foster small-business innovation have struggled for financial support this year. The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs limp along from year to year on annual authorizations, waiting for lawmakers to get up the gumption to make their more than $2 billion in funding permanent. An agreement […]

When it comes to work/life balance, apparently, perception is not reality. A recent study from NFI Research shows that while executives often think other people’s work/life balance is out of wack, those same execs feel they’re juggling their own lives pretty well.A majority of senior executives and managers in the survey — 57 percent — […]

1. Financial savvy: PayItGreen Survey 2010 calculator 2. Venture capital and IPO markets: 3. Leadership success skills: Overcoming Business Nightmares 4. Management: Business Innovation for Dummies Alex Hiam something 5. Tax smarts: Tax Credit Company 6. Next-generation marketing QR codes your business doesn’t have a Facebook fan page 7. Cloud, here I come cloud-based platforms […]

Out of more than 700 industries, research firm IBISWorld has identified the six small-business types most likely to do best next year. How will your industry do? Take a look at the top-performers report. It shows that with the recession ebbing, some industries will profit by helping consumers pull out of the downturn, while others […]

High swipe fees have been the bane of merchants in recent years, as costs soared. We got swipe-fee relief on credit cards earlier this year, but debit-card fees remained high.

marketing strategies 1. Think freebies. get a coupon 2. Provide entertainment. 3. Hold flash events through social media. 4. Reward your best customers. 5. Get out of your store 6. Co-promote. How will you bring in customers this last week of the shopping season?

finding customers finding loans higher unemployment numbers 1. Small business hiring is up. turnaround in small-business hiring 2. Small-business bankruptcies are down. still to come 3. Marketing budgets are growing. study from Zoomerang 4. Sales of businesses are increasing. businesses are trading hands What do you think — are these changes harbingers of an economic […]

The federal government tends to come up short on handing out contract work to small businesses. Make it a woman-owned small business, and that goes double. If you’re interested in government contracting, know that you can break in and learn how contracting works. There’s an opportunity later this week to learn how to crack the […]

top 10 retailers for customer service now part of Amazon 30 physical stores

one entrepreneur says you’re wrong to use GAAP The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Do you use GAAP, or do you pay yourself first?

I write a lot on this blog about how to keep your doors open — how to survive the downturn and make it through these tough times. Today, though, let’s take a longer view and talk about how to build your company for the long haul. Specifically, how can you design your business to last […]