Rural sourcing is like outsourcing, except to rural areas with lower costs of doing business. It’s like off-shoring, only it’s on-shoring. We’ve talked about it before, most recently in “Rural sourcing can replace outsourcing.” Two more rural outsourcing firms to watch: Saturn Systems celebrated 20 years in 2010. Rural America OnShore Outsourcing has a collection…
The narrower your niche, the wider your opportunity. Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? It seems like if you chose a narrower niche, you’ll have fewer potential customers. Actually, it works just the opposite in the real world. Let me give you an example. When Sheila Scarborough sat down to draw our target market for Tourism Currents,…
For those of you who have contracted work out to other people or partnerships and have paid those people or partnerships $600 or more in the past year, it is soon the time to report that to the IRS and to remind the subcontractors that the payments they received are taxable. The same is true…
Income Producing Activities are those actions that move you towards your business and income goals. So why don’t we spend our time working on exactly those things? We Get DistractedWell, there are as many reasons as there are minutes in the day to get distracted. And, well, we have so many options. What shall I…
If you’re online for any length of time, you’re bound to get flamed. And in any group of people who are thinking about getting their small business or tourism destination online, there are always several who are seriously worried about being attacked online. I think this is a natural extension of our small town concerns….
Viruses, trojans and other malware love to travel via USB drives these days. It’s up to you to stop them in your business. Inc. Magazine featured some of the USB malware problems and solutions recently. Here are my top 5 suggestions for small businesses from that article: Use a newer operating system. Windows Vista and…
There are tons of business listing sites out there, and more pop up every day. Some are geographic, some are by industry, some are like yellow pages, some are just shady. Lots of them try to capture the business owners’ attention and dollars. Which ones should small businesses spend time on? Too many choices Here’s…
Starting Jan. 1, 2011, the standard mileage rate for a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) becomes: 51 cents per mile for business miles driven from 1 Jan thru 30 Jun; 55.5 cents per mile 1 Jul thru 31 Dec, 2011 19 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes from 1 Jan…
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