America’s SBDC Blog

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Q&A: Boost Your Business Knowledge with a Board of Advisors

October 28, 2012

Q: I run a small business with seven employees. At times I find myself looking for advice on a variety of business decisions, but unlike big corporations I can’t afford to hire a high priced consultant. Who can I go to for affordable small business advice?

A: Everyone needs good advice when starting and running a small business, even those who have done it before. And it has nothing to do with size. Executive managers of large companies routinely consult highly experienced and respected advisors for unbiased feedback before making key decisions or implementing major changes.

So why should you be different? You can get the same kind of experience and insights, without the high fees of professional consultants, simply by forming an advisory board for your small business. (more…)

Trick or Treating For Small Business Funding

October 26, 2012

As a kid, it didn’t take long to learn which neighbors to avoid on Halloween. There were the cheapskates who expected you to share a single Tootsie Roll with your kid brother. Or the curmudgeons who claimed trick or treating hours were over and all you punks needed to get back home ASAP.

When it comes to searching for funding, you’re no longer the kid with the ultimate trick-or-treat route. Now’s the time to knock on every door, no matter how uninviting they might seem from the curb..

Let the Funds Knock on Your Door

You could create a Website soliciting donations for you and hope for the best, or you can create a profile on Kickstarter. Fair warning: Kickstarter’s business model caters toward creative projects and tech businesses. This online community serves as a platform for entrepreneurs to: (more…)

Four Business-killing Mistakes to Avoid

October 25, 2012

Franchise businesses are a wonderful way for professionals to build thriving small businesses, but there are some icebergs out there potential franchise owners need to avoid.

Here are four:

Failure to absorb the FDD

It’s baffling to think that a franchisee would invest thousands of dollars in a business venture without knowing what he or she was getting into — especially when the law requires franchisors to disclose detailed information about operations, costs, earning potential and legal requirements.

But it happens. People get so excited about their business venture that they don’t read the Franchise Disclosure Document, or just read the Item 7 expenditures and Item 19 earnings information and skip over the rest. Then they’re caught by surprise later when it’s too late. (more…)

Better Search Ads with AdWords Ad Extensions

October 24, 2012

I was recently listening to Seth Godin give a talk at Google where he said that the internet is the first medium that wasn’t invented specifically to carry ads (unlike magazines and television). So to become successful as a company, Google had to figure out a way to make ads just as useful as their search results and that’s exactly what they did with AdWords. After some 10 years where the look and feel of the ads didn’t change much, now Google has started offering all sorts of ways to make the ads more interesting through ad extensions.

Ad extensions are a way for advertisers to enhance their text ads with additional information that the user might find interesting like a location, a phone number or additional links to a website.

Because extensions make ads bigger, they draw more attention and because they make the ads more specific, the people who click are better prequalified. And just as with AdWords in general, creating an extension is free and you only pay for clicks. (more…)

Legal Myths That Can Cost You A Fortune

October 23, 2012

Myths about the law abound. They range from age-old lore, like “possession is nine-tenths of the law,” to mistakes about intellectual property rights. When you fall into the trap of letting these fables guide your decisions, you can get your business into trouble. So let’s dispel some of these legal myths.

Myth 1: Hey, I own that intellectual property. Misunderstandings about intellectual property ownership are rampant. Many businesspeople think if they register a new business with their home state, they automatically obtain trademark registration of their business’ name. No such luck. The trademark registration process is a completely independent process, and you don’t get any trademark registration rights just from setting up a new company.

Similarly, when businesses hire independent contractors to work on new ideas and inventions, companies often assume that they own the intellectual property created by the contractor. Wrong again. Unless you have a special agreement in place assigning the IP rights to your business, that contractor remains the owner of any copyright or patent associated with his or her work. (more…)