Handle Your Business

Selling can be frustrating.  You spend hours practically chained to your desk researching potential clients and finding out the right angle to approach them. You try to make the initial contact and if you’re lucky, you meet some of them in person and you sell.

But, in spite of all that, nothing may happen. You may make no sales and hear nothing back from your prospects.

You fear that there’s something wrong with your product, service, brand or prices. Or perhaps that it’s something that you have said during the presentation. Out of shame, or desperation you move on to another prospect and start the process all over.

The thing is, your sale might not be lost.  Most sales don’t happen during the first presentation. You need more than just a meeting to make the sale.

This happens for a number of reasons:

• Your prospect might not need you right now
• Their decision making process is complicated

Think of large corporations. No decisi

Read full post…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Ranking Member Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) today questioned Small Business Administrator Karen Mills about her agency’s proposed spending plan for Fiscal Year 2013, and how it could most effectively assist small businesses. Specifically, at a Committee hearing on the agency’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, Senator Snowe challenged the Small Business Administration (SBA) to improve its performance regarding the rising cost of loan subsidies. From 2005 to 2009, the agency’s flagship 7(a) and 504 loan programs operated at zero subsidy, meaning the programs paid for themselves though fees, with no requirement for taxpayer support. In each of FY 2010 and FY 2011, however, the SBA required $80 million to subsidize these programs due to increased defaults, with subsidies growing to $350 million this year.

“With our country’s economic recovery from the recent recession still lackluster at best, we must ensure that the SBA can be the catalyst small businesses require to get Americans back to work,” said Senator Snowe. “That’s why i

Read full post…

When it comes to building the “next Silicon Valley,” Steve Geiger is an old hand.

Before his current gig, which involves trying to hitch Russia’s economy to the high-tech wagon, Geiger spent several years trying do the same for Abu Dhabi. Then, 14 months ago, he became chief operating officer for the Skolkovo Foundation, a government-backed organization charged with building a whole high-tech city in Russia and a robust innovation ecosystem around it.

Brimming with the requisite optimism, Geiger also knows the reality. Every region these days seems to be trying to replicate the Silicon Valley. All of them fall short.

“It’s foolish to think you can come and cut-and-paste Silicon Valley,” he said. “Silicon Valley is not a place. It’s a culture. It’s an attitude.”

But don’t write off Russia. Not yet. Because besides a clear-eyed approach to the challenges, this effort has something else: A gobsmacking barrel of money courtesy of the Russian government.

Read full post…

Q: I recently charged a large expense on one of my credit cards. The previous statement shows that I’ve used up over 80 percent of my available credit limit. However, I’ve since paid the full balance. How will this hurt my credit, and if so, for how long?

A: It’s smart to use a credit card to make a major purchase and then pay it off in a timely manner – ideally, in 90 days or fewer. Potential lenders and others that may view your credit reports recognize that. However, the exact timing of that purchase will help determine the impact the transaction has on your credit score.

Your credit score is calculated based on the information included in your credit reports on the day the credit score is requested. Your card issuer and other creditors typically report to the credit bureaus every month, though.

Read full post…

Wildly successful entrepreneurs and business leaders like Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs did not graduate from college, but that does not mean that small business owners and entrepreneurs should refrain from pursuing a university degree.

The Top Ten American Business Schools for Entrepreneurship

1 – Stanford University in California seems to be the number one school for LinkedIn members who indicate their status as alumni and company founders. The U.S. News & World Report seems to agree, as it is number two on their list. One of the reasons why Stanford is producing so many entrepreneurs can be traced to the school’s dedication to advancing the fields of business and technology.

2 – The University of Houston and its Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship stand out as the best choice for students and working professionals looking for a solid education in business. This

Read full post…

March 31, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ — Social-media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn are relatively recent means of communication. Such an account, which operates roughly like an individual’s mini-website on which information is exchanged with other people, is often for exclusively personal use. Increasingly though, businesses are using social media to promote or represent the faces of their enterprises, or even to fulfill specific commercial communications functions.

Even more confusing, a social-media account’s dedicated use could be blended. Who would own an account when its only user is an individual, but that person uses it both for personal contacts, as well as to promote or represent his or her employer? Read full post…