Category: Tools and Information

  Moving, Expanding for Love | Getentrepreneurial.com

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moving-office-locationsYou know how important it is to do what you love. So what do you do when what you love makes you really successful? Do you stay a one-person or one location operation? Of course not.  You expand!

Well, it isn’t exactly that easy. Deciding that expanding is a good idea and actually making it happen for your sweet little enterprise is something else entirely. Still, if it’s what you think is best, here are some tips to help you do it.

Look at the Numbers

There’s a difference between doing well and doing well enough to expand. A lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners move too quickly with this. They think that a few months of ending in “the black” means that they are ready to take on the huge expense that is opening another business. Don’t make this mistake! Instead, wait until your business has built up enough of a reserve to keep your current operation afloat for at least a couple of years as well as fund the building, staffing and marketing and running of a new location for the same amount of time–yes, even before you try to talk to a bank about loans.

It’s a good idea to talk to your accountant as soon as you make the decision that you want to grow and expand your location. You can start setting aside funds for expansion. This way you won’t be tempted to spend them building your current location.

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iPad Air 2 Full Review: Is It Good for Business? | Business News Daily

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downloadThinner, lighter and more powerful than last year’s model, the iPad Air 2 is a tablet that’s hard to beat. It’s the sleekest tablet on the market, and its 9.7-inch display is beautiful to behold. Plus, the addition of Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner gives it a big security boost. But as a work device, Apple’s flagship iPad still has some noteworthy shortcomings — especially with so many great Windows-powered slates to choose from. That bottom line is that the iPad Air 2 is a very good productivity device, but it’s far from perfect.

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9 Apps Entrepreneurs Love That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of | All Business

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Certain apps — from Mailbox to LinkedIn — are a given for entrepreneurs on the go. But with thousands of apps out there, it’s easy to overlook something that could make your life easier or, in some cases, just brighten your day.

With that in mind, we asked nine founders from YEC the following:

Q: What relatively unknown app do you open first thing in the morning to help you start your workday?

1. Slacker Radio

Slacker streams ABC News and is updated every 30 minutes to an hour. I love it; I’ve been using it to listen to news in the morning while getting ready and while walking or taking the bus to the office. NPR One is a new contender, but I still feel Slacker’s stream is more news than audio documentary or interview. – Chuck Reynolds, Levers

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10 Steps to Learning Your Customers’ Behaviors | Inc.com

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getty_200464106-001_43942In many endeavors, let alone product development, there’s a gap between knowing what’s best and actually doing it.

Gaining behavioral insights about your potential customers usually falls into one of these gaps. The reason? It can be awkward and exceedingly time-consuming observing and recording the behavior of people you’ve never met as they use or struggle to use your product.

“A conversation with a stranger can be a little, well, strange,” writes Jon Kolko, Vice President of Consumer Design at Blackboard and the Founder and Director of Austin Center for Design, in his new book.

But founders, even shy ones, should take heart. For one thing, there are ways to overcome the social challenge of ethnographic research. For another, the insights you’ll gain about your customers’ behaviors will drastically supercede anything you’d learn from focus groups or online surveys.

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To Franchise or Not to Franchise | Lydia Mehit

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So, you want to start a business and you’ve decided a franchise is for you.  There are a number of advantages to selecting a franchise.  Here are several of them.

  • It is a proven business model.
  • You have a pre-defined target market.
  • You have brand recognition because the product or service is already known.
  • The business methods and systems are already in place, all you have to do is follow them.
  • Training is provided for you and your management team.
  • Operations manual that details all of the job descriptions, processes, procedures, rules and requirements for operating the business is provided.
  • You receive on-the-job training at a working franchise.
  • The franchise team helps you open the business and gets you started on the right foot.

Continue reading “To Franchise or Not to Franchise | Lydia Mehit” →

Smartlation Smart Translation Services | Cool Business Ideas

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Using a patent-pending algorithm that analyses translator data from a vast pool of registered translators, Smartlation promises to give users the freedom to select the translation services that best meet their requirements and budget.

What does this mean for users? Let’s say you need a legal document translated from English into Farsi and Portuguese. Smartlation lets you specify not only languages but also specific areas of expertise so you find translators who are experienced and knowledgeable. The platform also makes the procedure simple by managing both jobs i.e. Farsi and Portuguese in one place. Transactions also go through the platform simplifying the payment process.

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How to improve your mailing list before everyone unsubscribes | Mashable

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Reply-all disasters are so common, they have their own Wikipedia page.They’re so ubiquitous, even, that the bad manners of reply-all offenders overshadow the bad manners of those who make and distribute mailing lists in the first place. While the listservs that dominated the 2000s may not be as common anymore, mailing lists are still central to the operation and social functioning of companies, universities and other associations. For the record, “listserv” refers to a software used to send mass emails; “mailing list” is the colloquial term.

We’ve compiled 11 tips that will help you improve your mailing list etiquette — and maximize effectiveness, while you’re at it.

1. Repeat to yourself: Listservs are public.

Think about what you’re sending before you send it — if it belongs in a private email or makes more sense to send to an individual, you shouldn’t send it through a mailing list. Also check the recipient of the email before you send it. This year, the University of Virginia’s top-ranked law school sent admissions stats of more than 100 people who applied for clerkships to a listserv of all those applicants, and then sent another email with subject line “PLEAE DELETE IMMEDIATELY.” But we all know email doesn’t work like that.

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Learn Better through Variation: A Case for Getting Away from Your Desk | Page19

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You might really like your office, but getting away from it can help you learn better and remember more. Here’s why.

Routine can be very helpful when it comes to building a framework for creative work. But if you want to learn something new, shaking up the standard will serve you better.

According to How We Learn, varying your workspace is much better for your learning than sitting down in the same place to toil. Why? Because of how our brains store memories.

Imagine it’s Tuesday and you’re listening to your favorite jazz album while working through a few pages of notes on a seminar you just attended. A few days later, you’re at a friend’s house and she puts on the exact same jazz album. The areas of the brain that hold the memories of what you learned on Tuesday while listening to jazz will be activated, making it easier for you to retrieve that information.

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What Entrepreneurs Should Know Before Starting a Business | Business News Daily

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When you’re getting ready to start a business, you may think all you need is a great idea and the cash to make it happen. This is a good place to start, but there are so many other elements to startup success that entrepreneurs tend to overlook when they’re caught up in the excitement of a launch. Ten successful startup founders and executives shared the best tips they believe every aspiring entrepreneur should know before starting a business.

“Commit to mastery, to becoming a learning machine.You don’t need only one tool or skill to build a house or building. You don’t need to be the best at all of them, but you need to understand them.” — Ney Torres, CEO of CarFootprints.com

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