Mariners once dreaded sailing the seas around the Earth’s equator. Not for the heat or the sharks or the waves. Rather for the lack of wind. Sailing ships would often become stuck for days or weeks, unable to move due to the shortage of any…
Considering online funding? As a small business owner, no one needs to tell you that getting a loan from traditional banks can be a real crapshoot, whether it’s a business or a personal loan. Far more often than not, when a small business rolls the…
Keep on truckin’. That’s the message the Lone Star State sends over-the-road owner-operators looking to make it big in the transportation and logistics business. In 2016, more than 3,000 trucking industry professionals throughout the U.S. were surveyed to determine the best and worst states to…
Should five per cent appear too smallBe thankful I don’t take it all‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the tax manTax Man (Beatles, 1966) Few people celebrate April 15. No one sits around the table to carve turkeys and watch football. There aren’t any fireworks…
Like the countless number of stars in the night sky or grains of sand on a beach, there is an infinite number of ways to build a small business. The challenge for you, the business owner, is to identify the strategy, compile a business plan…
In baseball, a player who bats below .200 is said to be hitting below the Mendoza Line, so named for a light-hitting shortstop for the 1970s Pittsburgh Pirates. That means the batter makes an out more than eight out of every 10 at bats. Sounds…
Everyone has something to sell these days. It seems like everywhere we go, we are bombarded by sales pitches. Fill up at a gas station and an ad plays on the pump’s screen. Go to a ball game and you’re surrounded by advertising (even the…
Last month we discussed the continued optimism of American small business owners as 2018 draws to a close. As that article mentioned, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2018 4Q small business index measured a strong 69.3, just six-tenths of a point down from its all-time…
If you are an entrepreneur looking for a sure-fire business idea, manufacturing crystal balls would be a good one. Everyone wants to know what is going to happen in the future. Unfortunately, few people have a consistent knack for accuracy. Still, by carefully reviewing recent…
A growing economy and full-employment workforce are great things for America and its citizens… unless you’re a small business employer looking to fill a job and face an ever-shrinking pool of applicants. In July 2018, the national unemployment rate stood at 3.9 percent. That is…
