If you’ve started a new business during the past year, you may be wondering how to file your first tax return as a sole proprietor. Here’s the run-down for businesses in the USA. How do you know if you’re a sole proprietor? If you haven’t incorporated, you are a sole proprietor. If you formed an…
Imagine with me…. Every day, as you start work, you know exactly what you’ll work on first. And what comes after that, and what comes after that. Not a vague sense of a looming to do list, but an exact knowledge of the few most important things to work on today, in order. It’s do-able. When…
It all started at SOBCon08. I met, in person, some online friends and made some new ones. After that conference, I started contacting a few people, drawing them in for a very business minded group. I was looking for people that were approximately my peers, not way ahead or way behind in knowledge. Everyone had…
It’s the most basic of business basics. Love your customers. You’re heard it a million times, and if you’re feeling stressed, it’s easy to forget. When you are working, in the flow, making progress, and a customer calls or walks in and interrupts, it’s hard to remember. But… how do you work on that? Jon…
You’re in a small town; you’re running a business. Did you know your local cooperative extension has an entrepreneurship program to help you? Yes, the cooperative extension service. They’re probably in your county courthouse. In Oklahoma, the statewide entrepreneurship program includes more than the usual fact sheets. Glenn Muske specializes in home-based and micro-business. Then…
Sometimes the best advice comes from other small business owners. Mark Hayward asked on Twitter,“Small biz owners, are your numbers down? Ours seem to be off quite a bit from this time last year…How are you compensating?” In the course of our conversation online, we came up with two suggestions: 1. Diversify – What else…
Ready for some help with your business? You can research online all day, read every book, even talk with friends and family, but sometimes you just need another experienced business person to sit down with you, face to face, and work on improving your business. No matter where you are, odds are that you are…
Business cards hold an enduring fascination for me. Sifting through the thousands I’ve collected, I have a few ideas to make your business cards more effective. I’m not talking about the cool kid, all graphic-design-y, work of art, hunk of metal, whatever cards. I’m talking about business cards that work for business. If you go…
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