30 October 2010

Serious (Small) Business

I apologize for the lack of updates. Work over here has taken me away from my normal posting time (as has sleep).

Today I would like to talk a little bit about small business. I am already working on a business and marketing plan for my small business, and when I return from overseas I will be working to realize my publishing dreams (he said with stars in his eyes). I'm quickly finding out that getting everything needed to start a small business - all the minute details - is almost overwhelming. How does one start a small business with everything they have to do?
One way to do it is by sheer force of will. I salute those who can do that.
The way I am going is to gather all the resources I can in order to make a polished (or at least not-so-rough) finished product. I discovered two sites that will help any would-be entrepreneur in their quest to start their own business, whether it be a full up company, or an at-home-run eBusiness. First is www.sba.gov/, the Small Business Administration's online resource. It is chock full of details, including resources in your local area. The "Small Business Planner" will assist you in actually designing your business and gathering the tools and knowledge needed to run it, as well as articles on leadership, management, and other topics of interest. The second site is www.score.org/. SCORE provides workshops and articles for small business start-up and development, and even has a resource for local, seasoned entrepreneurs to mentor you as you take your small business journey. Both sites are free, and are chalk full of useful information.

Second on today's business topics is this little device: http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/25/smallbusiness/pogoplug/index.htm. I thought this was really cool. An external hard drive that has internet capability so you can acess your business files anywhere. Don't get me wrong, DropBox and sites like it are a boon to anyone or any start-up small business. But large space on such sites comes at a price (DropBox is $250 for extended space). This $139 PogoPlug is an excellent, cost-effective resource to store business files and be able to access them outside of the home or office.
Just a side note: I found it strange I found this on CNN rather than Forbes...but useful knowledge is useful knowledge.

Slowly but surely working on a bit of fiction. I should have that up within a week or two for your viewing pleasure.

No comments:

Post a Comment