A small business quote a day keeps you thinking, inspired and entertained 

“We live in an age in which the pace of technological change is pulsating ever faster, causing waves that spread outward toward all industries. This increased rate of change will have an impact on you, no matter what you do for a living. It will bring new competition from new ways of doing things, from corners that you don’t expect.”

Andrew S. Grove (b. 1936) US entrepreneur, author, and chairman of Intel Corporation, Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company and Career (1996) 

To find previous Quotes of the Day look here 

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from India:

• Can You Afford to Overlook Bookkeeping and Accounting: As an ex-CPA and now an entrepreneur managing several small to mid-sized business, I am still amazed at how small business owners from a non-accounting background get duped and fall into crisis due to improper bookkeeping and accounting practices. In a worst case scenario you can get embezzled by someone you trusted to handle your books, if you are not careful or your business might fall into dire straits due to improper management of business records.
• Cloud Computing: The OnlineOffice Benefits: ‘Cloud Computing‘ is in the media everywhere these days. What does is mean and how is it going to help your small business or home business?
• How Much Do You Make: Taking A Critical Look At Finances: How Much Does A Small Business Owner Make: Taking A Critical Look At Finances. How Much Does A Small Business Owner Really Make?
• SMEs shrug off downturn to up IT Spend: A CompTIA survey claims over half of UK small and medium-sized enterprises expect to increase their IT spend over the next year
• I wandered lonely as an unmanaged cloud service: Would you be suspicious if a piece of software claimed to be the first product capable of monitoring the “entire” enterprise infrastructure, bridging the gap between the data centre and the cloud?…
• Start-up aims to put extra chip inside netbooks: Quartics is pitching a ‘co-processsor’ for netbooks that would augment the CPU and graphics chip for handling Flash movies and videoconferencing
• Company insolvencies rise steeply in Q3 2008: Asian entrepreneurship special - the rise of Indiaas an economic power & the businessopportunities & collaboration now open to savvy entrepreneurs. Posted Details | Posted iTunes · play small business podcast now …
• Will Time permit this talented economist to make n impressionRaghuram Rajan, the PM’s honorary economic advisor, said in 2006, ‘It is important for India to exchange its paternalistic, directive government, which seeks to remedy every wrong through a subsidy, a quota, or a scheme, for one that creates an enabling environment for the people and unleashes their entrepreneurial zeal.’ Two years later, his words seem prescient. But how much of what he says should be done will be done by the government in the limited tenure it has left.

As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.

A small business quote a day keeps you thinking, inspired and entertained 

“I’m a dirt-under-the-nails serial entrepreneur.”

Donna Dubinsky (b. 1955) US IT executive, ‘Secrets of the Fastest-rising Stars’, Fortune (Patricia Sellers; 2000) 

To find previous Quotes of the Day look here 

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from Australia and New Zealand:

• Cash-flow woes a boon for sme: Receivables finance is on the rise as small businesses feel the cashflow squeeze.
• Cloud Computing: The OnlineOffice Benefits: ‘Cloud Computing‘ is in the media everywhere these days. What does is mean and how is it going to help your small business or home business?
• Filter plans a step too far: NetRegistry: Australia’s biggest domain name seller NetRegistry has slammed the government’s proposed internet content filtering scheme, claiming that the proposal would hurt small business.
• A start-up? Don’t wind me up: Isn’t starting a business right now a really bad idea? Not ncessarily, writes Adrian McFedries.
• Consumer glint of hope: Consumer sentiment has perked up, with big interest rate cuts and cheaper fuel at the bowser helping to stoke shoppers’ confidence. The monthly Westpac-Melbourne Institute survey shows consumer sentiment rose 4.3% in November to 85.5 points from 82 points the previous month. The gauge, though, remains in negative territory, remaining below the 100-point mark that divides pessimism from optimism as it has done so since February.
• Tony Stewart denies threatening policeman: SIDELINED NSW Small Business Minister Tony Stewart has denied he threatened a senior police officer, telling him to halt an investigation into a close associate.
• Small business banks on lending: SMALL business owners in Perth are seeking to remain positive, despite the uncertainty lingering in the global financial markets and access to finance, according to business advisers.
• Small is the trend in a tight market: The real estate industry has to deal with and adapt to big changes in the commercial and industrial property market as a result of the upheaval in global financial and investment markets.
• Angels of the office: THEY may be the first ones to be hired and the last to be fired, but receptionists and personal assistants are commanding a higher price tag, making them a luxury item for small business.

As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.

A small business quote a day keeps you thinking, inspired and entertained 

“I will undoubtedly have to seek what is known as gainful employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public office.”

Dean Acheson (1893-1971) US statesman, Time (December 1952) 

To find previous Quotes of the Day look here 

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from Canada:

• Cloud Computing: The OnlineOffice Benefits: ‘Cloud Computing‘ is in the media everywhere these days. What does is mean and how is it going to help your small business or home business?
• Obamania!: What this election means for Canada.
• Now hear this: Robert Coghlan, owner of Coghlan’s Ltd: Robert Coghlan, owner of Coghlan’s Ltd., explains how his company is making a social difference and bringing a little joy to the lives of the mentally challenged.
• CFIB Encourages Agri-Business Members to Consider Results of CWB Director Candidates’ Survey : Today the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) released responses to its Candidates’ Views on CWB Issues survey.
• E-commerce tech terms you should know: Transacting business seamlessly over the internet means having a decent grasp of how things work, and more importantly, why they don’t. Put another way, when the e-commerce standard is Amazon.com, small-business owners better bring some serious game.
• Women entrepreneurs seek way through glass ceiling: Connie Clerici didn’t think of its as a glass ceiling. Perhaps it was more like an ‘oh come on’ epiphany.
• Don’t treat your customers equally: When juggling new clients, or simply balancing between current accounts, companies often fail to prioritize the right customer. They focus on the squeakiest wheel, or just default to the biggest client, rather than the customer with the greatest long-term potential. Or worse, they strive to treat everyone equally.

As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.

A small business quote a day keeps you thinking, inspired and entertained 

“Success should not be measured by earnings per share, but by market share.”

Bruce Henderson (1915-92) US consultant & founder of Boston Consulting Group 

To find previous Quotes of the Day look here 

Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from the United States:

• Small Businesses React to Obama’s Election: Small business owners around the nation were split down the middle when it came to voting in Tuesday’s election. An Election Day poll for business owners on Inc.com reflected an exact 50/50 divide between those voting for McCain and those voting for Obama. Now that the election is decided, small business owners are looking towards the future under an Obama presidency.
• Cloud Computing: The OnlineOffice Benefits: ‘Cloud Computing‘ is in the media everywhere these days. What does is mean and how is it going to help your small business or home business?
• Small-Business Owners Lobby to Cut Credit Card Fees: With business slowing and every dollar important to their bottom line, some merchants are pushing for changes.
• Health care reform, transportation top business wish list for Obama administration: Maryland business groups say health care, spending on infrastructure and relief for small businesses were among their top priorities as a new administration prepares to take over the White House in January.
• Small businesses rethink holiday spending: Many small businesses are scaling back their holiday plans not only because of budgets and cash flow but because some owners believe these hard times call for less frivolity.
• MCC closes $4.5M in Loans: Mercantile Commercial Capital LLC of Altamonte Springs, a company specializing in placing U.S. Small Business Administration 504 loans, closed four loans worth $4.5 million in September.
• Small Business Finds Online Banking More Accommodating: According to Aite Group, 53 percent of banks it surveyed for commercial online banking support are noticing greater retention rates after migrating the small-business clients to a business-banking platform from a retail consumer-oriented solution. This underscores the growing trend toward specializing services for the small business market; 65 percent of that segment plans to actively use such services by the end of the year.
• Obama’s economic agenda could affect small business: A new Democratic administration and Congress means that 27 million U.S. small-business owners — already shaken badly by the economic slump — could face an array of new issues, from potentially higher taxes to costlier workplace benefits.
• Software engineer funds nonprofit studies program at gordon College: A local software entrepreneur has helped fund Gordon College’s new Center for Nonprofit Organization Studies and Philanthropy, which now is offering a minor in nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship that college officials call a first of its kind among Christian liberal arts campuses nationwide.

As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.

A small business quote a day keeps you thinking, inspired and entertained 

“Problems are the price of progress. Don’t bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.”

Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958) US businessman & engineer, quoted in Strategy + Business (1997) 

To find previous Quotes of the Day look here 

I found this new small business news blog LaunchLab.co.uk and one of the articles has really shocked me. It talks about the fact that 49 % of small business owners would lose their homes if their business had to close down, that is an unbelievable statistic. Is this what entrepreneurs have to do these days to stay in business, while the government uses our tax money to bail the big, stupid and greedy bankers out - that is shocking.

Rather than me repeating it all here, why not head over and read the story on their blog, I found it a great source of small business information. God knows we need more of these sites and I have to say I like the clean and easy layout.

Well done guys at the LaunchLab. — ST.