http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/ Yahoo Small Business Advisor blogs: ideas, advice, and opinion to help start and grow a business. Profit-Minded, SmallBiz Vote en-US Copyright (c) 2012 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved 2012-05-18T13:07:29-04:00 5 http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/ http://l.yimg.com/a/i/brand/purplelogo/uh/us/smb.gif Mental clarity is important for entrepreneurs not just for the sake of completing business tasks on time, but for the sake of ensuring that you're running the business you intended to run and living the life you want.http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/consciousness-raising-startup-success-170729082.html2012-05-18T17:07:29ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/consciousness-raising-startup-success-170729082By Scott Steinberg Crowdfunding isn't just today's hottest new form of high-tech investment — it's also a potentially new and better approach to raising money online that threatens to upend traditional approaches to venture capital and angel investment. With the recent passage of the JOBS Act, suddenly, not only can you reach out and connect [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/crowdfunding-why-business-t-afford-ignore-200756970.html2012-05-17T20:07:56ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/crowdfunding-why-business-t-afford-ignore-200756970By Tanya Smith A well branded social media profile is essential for small businesses today. The profile tells people all about you and the value you offer, and it can provide those in your circle of influence a place to connect and get involved. Having a well written social media profile can certainly enhance how [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/branding-social-media-profiles-002445562.html2012-05-11T00:24:45ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/branding-social-media-profiles-002445562Having once birthed a baby and a business in the same month, Linda Tomb knows a thing or two about the unique challenges that women entrepreneurs and working moms face. After a decades-long business career, during which she helped to expand a chimney sweep service across three states, launched three high-tech companies, and secured several [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/frazzled-focused-five-time-management-tips-women-entrepreneurs-161923947.html2012-05-10T16:19:23ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/frazzled-focused-five-time-management-tips-women-entrepreneurs-161923947By TJ McCue It should come as no surprise that your customers research before they buy. But many small business owners don't believe in managing their brand and reputation online. Every business, from doctors (yes, even doctors) to lawyers to retail stores is judged online. Lisa Barone, at Small Business Trends, explains in her post: [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/online-marketing-revolves-around-reputation-224613221.html2012-05-09T22:46:13ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/online-marketing-revolves-around-reputation-224613221By Brent Leary It's tough keeping up with today's socially-empowered customer. Armed with social networks and mobile devices, their adoption and adaptation to the latest technology is accelerating at breathtaking rates. Just look at what took place this past Christmas: • US online holiday shopping season reaches a record $37.2 billion, up 15 Percent vs. [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/using-big-picture-keep-today-customer-202643063.html2012-05-08T20:26:43ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/using-big-picture-keep-today-customer-202643063"Fear is the biggest reason people don't start their own businesses," says Paska Nayden, a business coach in Fairfield County, Conn., who serves a national clientele. "Fear comes into play when you're making any kind of life change, such as getting married, starting a family, or switching careers. And it becomes louder when you're considering [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/beyond-fear-being-own-boss-210552548.html2012-05-04T21:05:52ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/beyond-fear-being-own-boss-210552548By Paul M. Rand Think about the last time you got a new client or customer. There's an overwhelming likelihood that your new business came from someone recommending you. In fact, 92 percent of all consumers report that a "recommendation from people I know" is the biggest influence on their purchase behavior, according to a [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/path-recommendation-every-small-business-needs-know-234358026.html2012-05-03T23:43:58ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/path-recommendation-every-small-business-needs-know-234358026As a result, the only truly sustainable competitive advantage for any small business is their customer service. 70% of customers are willing to spend more with companies that provide excellent customer service.http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/managing-reputation-key-customer-171429590.html2012-05-02T17:14:29ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/managing-reputation-key-customer-171429590In 2009, less than a year into her first job out of college, Stacey Shiring was laid off. Then her sister, three months pregnant, was downsized out of her job as a designer at the Los Angeles Times. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. Shiring and her sister paired their graphic design [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/bad-girl-course-gave-bridal-business-boost-203703523.html2012-04-26T20:37:03ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/bad-girl-course-gave-bridal-business-boost-203703523Mike Silagadze was a graduate student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario when he started a company, Top Hat Monocle, in his living room three years ago. His business idea, based on his experience as an undergraduate in engineering, was to help professors better engage with students by leveraging the technology every one of [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/5-million-revenues-3-years-business-4-lessons-171958664.html2012-04-17T17:19:58ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/5-million-revenues-3-years-business-4-lessons-171958664A Profit Minded post on Friday that explained how business owners could employ crowdsourcing to save money on small graphic design jobs was unwelcome information to one group of entrepreneurs: graphic designers. Not that the blog trumpeted anything all that new. Reporting on the trend in 2009, the New York Times quoted an MIT business [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/crowdsourcing-cuts-costs-income-others-224016426.html2012-04-10T22:40:16ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/crowdsourcing-cuts-costs-income-others-224016426As a business and technology reporter, I've written a lot over the past few years about how organizations are using crowdsourcing to get things done—from solving major scientific problems like protein folding, to translating urgent text messages sent by victims of the Haiti earthquake to English-speaking emergency workers. But I was reminded how relatively unknown [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/tap-dozens-designers-price-one-231938598.html2012-04-06T23:19:38ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/tap-dozens-designers-price-one-231938598As small business owners know, chances of getting a bank loan these days are slim. Banks are rejecting as many as 90 percent of all small business applications. Is there a way to beat the odds? Lena Gjonaj says the best way to position yourself for financing is to avoid the mistake virtually all entrepreneurs [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/beat-small-biz-bank-loan-odds-don-t-213800404.html2012-03-30T21:38:00ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/beat-small-biz-bank-loan-odds-don-t-213800404Businesses that are seeing increased revenues during tough economic times have six things in common, according to a survey of nearly 1,100 business owners conducted by the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute. "Growing revenues during the recession was no small feat. However, insights from the Institute's most recent Index provide a fresh understanding of [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/six-habits-companies-grown-during-tough-times-124521602.html2012-03-21T00:45:21ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/six-habits-companies-grown-during-tough-times-124521602"Business owners who seek to learn from others and reach out to resources for help are more successful than those who don't." So says Ken Yancey, CEO of SCORE, a national nonprofit network of experienced business executives who offer free counseling to entrepreneurs. In his 20-plus years on the job, Yancey says he's come to [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/could-coach-help-business-stay-afloat-184815242.html2012-03-14T18:48:15ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/could-coach-help-business-stay-afloat-184815242Mom and Pop are taking off the gloves. Today the New York Times reports on a growing trend among independent online businesses to tap into the anti-corporate zeitgeist that fueled the Occupy movement. Independents have long competed using tactics such as personalizing service and dodging direct price comparisons. Now there's a new approach: small business [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/mom-pop-fight-back-115828385.html2012-02-28T11:58:28ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/mom-pop-fight-back-115828385We're pleased to announce that Yahoo! Small Business Advisor - including the Profit-Minded Blog - is now available on iPad through Yahoo's Livestand iPad app. You'll find us in the Business & Finance section. To pin Advisor to your Livestand library, simply tap the green plus sign when you view Advisor in the Livestand table [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/small-business-advisor-time-anywhere-115440187.html2012-02-28T11:54:40ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/small-business-advisor-time-anywhere-115440187We're pleased to announce that Yahoo! Small Business Advisor - including the Profit-Minded Blog - is now available on iPad through Yahoo's Livestand iPad app. You'll find us in the Business & Finance section. To pin Advisor to your Livestand library, simply tap the green plus sign when you view Advisor in the Livestand table [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/small-business-advisor-time-anywhere-167.html2012-02-23T21:03:40ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/small-business-advisor-time-anywhere-167Mistakes teach some great lessons. But they are often painful, so it's better to learn from others' mistakes, whenever possible. Rene Shimada Siegel was nice enough to share some of her hard-earned lessons with me. She started her business, High Tech Connect, 15 years ago after leaving the corporate world so that she could have [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/business-lessons-learned-hard-way-221204285.html2012-02-01T04:37:12ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/business-lessons-learned-hard-way-221204285Results of a recent Yahoo! Small Business survey about political issues in the upcoming election revealed a lot of anxiety about Washington right now. While you can find more details in my article "Small Businesses: 'Washington Is Worse than Wall Street,'" I didn't get to quote very many of the desires that respondents articulated in [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/election-notes-small-biz-owners-want-220719045.html2012-01-10T22:07:19ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/election-notes-small-biz-owners-want-220719045Good news for those of you happy to see 2011 disappear: Business owners' optimism and hiring plans are looking up as 2012 gets underway, according to a monthly indicator of the U.S. small-business economy. Half of small-business owners said they plan to hire in 2012, and 56% said they intend to raise wages for some [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/2012-starts-positive-small-biz-outlook-175015250.html2012-01-03T17:50:15ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/2012-starts-positive-small-biz-outlook-175015250The Occupy movement's protest against Wall Street, big-business excess, and rising economic inequality has not really caught on among small businesses, despite some shared interests. In fact, Occupy Wall Street is dividing small business owners rather than uniting them. An informal poll on Yahoo! Small Business Advisor (left) suggests that a small majority of our [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/occupy-wall-street-loses-small-biz-support-005600048.html2011-12-06T00:56:00ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/occupy-wall-street-loses-small-biz-support-005600048Despite the economic tremors coming out of Europe and the stock market whiplash of November, a few reports this week may ease some of the tension small-business owners, in particular, are feeling in this economy. The hiring outlook trends upward The overall jobless rate dipped to 8.6%, and total nonfarm employment rose by 120,000 jobs [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/november-slight-growth-small-business-activity-183254387.html2011-12-02T18:32:54ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/november-slight-growth-small-business-activity-183254387Cyber Monday and related retail events around the Thanksgiving holiday weekend have so far produced decent gains that should make retailers very thankful. Here's a quick roundup of the numbers: * On Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), online sales rose 33% over last year, according to IBM Benchmark. The final tally was $1.25 billion [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/ecommerce-posts-big-gains-long-thanksgiving-weekend-235204289.html2011-11-29T23:52:04ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/ecommerce-posts-big-gains-long-thanksgiving-weekend-235204289Recent reports on small-business lending activity suggest that an engine for the American economy may be revving up. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) said that small business loan activity reached the highest mark in the agency?s history during FY2011. — [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/rise-small-business-lending-boosts-hope-212925231.html2011-11-19T06:28:50ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/rise-small-business-lending-boosts-hope-212925231This week the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear several cases that challenge the Obama administration's health-care law, and one of the cases comes from a powerful advocacy group representing small businesses. That National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) filed suit over the individual mandate in the health-care law, known as the Patient Protection and [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/high-court-hear-small-business-group-challenge-health-001626463.html2011-11-17T00:16:26ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/high-court-hear-small-business-group-challenge-health-001626463Baby boomers aren't just swelling the ranks of the retired; they're also starting businesses in large numbers. Roughly 8% of entrepreneurs in early-stage startups are older than 65, and 18% are over the age of 55. That data was released in November in the study "Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2010 National Entrepreneurial Assessment for the [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/entrepreneurial-impulse-thrives-older-americans-004925653.html2011-11-15T00:49:25ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/entrepreneurial-impulse-thrives-older-americans-004925653In doing research for my article, "Veterans Show Force as Business Owners," I received many more quotes and tips than I could use. Since all small business owners could definitely benefit from the veterans' words of wisdom to help with starting a business, attracting clients, and managing priorities, I collected some for this blog post. [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/vets-reveal-biggest-first-challenge-business-055230543.html2011-11-07T05:52:30ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/vets-reveal-biggest-first-challenge-business-055230543Check out the results of this recent poll (Oct. 31) on Yahoo! Small Business Advisor: I am a little surprised that "sales" ranked last, but may be because it was linked with "marketing." I've heard anecdotally from small business owners that revenues are really the biggest challenge right now. But you can't get to the [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/startup-funding-top-challenge-2012-174528277.html2011-11-01T17:45:28ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/startup-funding-top-challenge-2012-174528277Whoa. Jared Bernstein, the former top economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, just threw cold water on what many politicians want you to believe about small businesses. They aren't the "engine of job growth," he said. "In what may be the most misunderstood fact about the job market, although most companies are small — [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/economist-small-businesses-not-job-growth-engines-232446833.html2011-10-24T23:24:46ZProfit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/economist-small-businesses-not-job-growth-engines-232446833While annual strategic planning is common in the corporate world, many small businesses neglect this important step in preparing for the coming year. If you haven't started yet, there's still time -- and the tips below might help you. I — [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/business-planning-tips-2012-234211059.html2011-11-19T06:24:52+00:00Profit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/business-planning-tips-2012-234211059U.S. small businesses hold a significant share of patents and influence in green energy and technology, according to a report released today by the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy. While small businesses account for 8% of total U.S. — [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/small-businesses-play-big-role-green-tech-innovation-205346447.html2011-11-19T06:28:08+00:00Profit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/small-businesses-play-big-role-green-tech-innovation-205346447The recent article "Steve Jobs and 7 Rules for Success" inspired many readers, as anyone can see from the hundreds of comments they posted. One reader resolved to publish her comics because she is passionate about them, another to publish — [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/readers-ponder-8th-rule-success-steve-jobs-career-174233858.html2011-11-19T06:25:19+00:00Profit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/readers-ponder-8th-rule-success-steve-jobs-career-174233858Street vendor in Kunming, China, selling jujubes. Photo by Virginia Hines of San Francisco (also works for Yahoo! Small Business Advisor), who commented on the image: "She may not be Steve Jobs, but this lady knows the keys to a — [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/entrepreneurial-spirit-210728867.html2011-11-19T06:27:07+00:00Profit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/entrepreneurial-spirit-210728867Oscar Quiles, president of Pentaq Manufacturing Corp. in Puerto Rico, has been named National Minority Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Quiles, pictured above (center), received the award from Joseph Jordan and Marie — [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/maker-military-uniforms-minority-small-business-person-215615508.html2011-11-19T06:30:00+00:00Profit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/maker-military-uniforms-minority-small-business-person-215615508The topic of search-engine optimization (SEO) intimidates many, as if it's a matter for engineering topic. At least I used to think so in my early days of editing Web content. But every person who works on a site — [...]http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/blogs/profit-minded/basic-writing-boost-seo-help-sales-212538975.html2011-11-19T06:22:24+00:00Profit Mindedadvisor/blogs/profit-minded/basic-writing-boost-seo-help-sales-212538975