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Question:I have read numerous articles about how small-business owners are having difficulty finding qualified workers. Can you offer some ideas or solutions as to how others are tackling the labor crunch?
Show Me the Money: Online Financial Services
Digital Library > Acquiring and Managing Finances > Loans “Show Me the Money: Online Financial Services” With the rise of the Internet, the benefits of online financial services keep escalating. Looking for a loan? Instead of just calling on local banks, spend some time on the Web. By tapping a larger pool of providers, you may get a better rate…
When Good Deeds Run Afoul
Digital Library > Operations and Technology > Suppliers “When Good Deeds Run Afoul” Ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s has a reputation for being a socially responsible business. But it learned — the hard way — to proceed with caution when combining benevolence with business. For example, co-founder Ben Cohen learned of a bakery that hired the homeless and used…
Simplicity Sells: The Unplugged Moment
Digital Library > Defining and Serving a Market > Business conditions “Simplicity Sells: The Unplugged Moment” Today our lives are divided into two realms. Part of the day is spent in the Internet world, where we’re working as fast as we can, as hard as we can. Yet when we’re not in high gear, we want to completely "unplug" and…
Banks Say They Are Lending! Where’s the Money?
Much has happened in the commercial credit markets as a result of the Great Recession, but it comes as no surprise given the conditions that existed before the credit crunch.
Goal Setters Go Farther
Digital Library > Building and Inspiring an Organization > Planning, general “Goal Setters Go Farther” Jotting down some goals can help you face the millennium more confidently. Studies show that only 2% of the population has written goals. Interestingly, those are the ones who achieve success. Check out "What Are Your Goals: Powerful Questions to Discover What You Want Out…
No. 1 CFO Concern: Understand Customer Needs
Digital Library > Building and Inspiring an Organization > Planning, general “No. 1 CFO Concern: Understand Customer Needs” "Spending more time understanding customer needs" was ranked as the No. 1 issue by CFOs for 2000, according to 37% of the respondents to a KPMG survey. Other important themes for the year are to: Determine how the Internet will affect profits…
Battling the Cash-flow Blues
Palo Alto Software, based in Eugene, Ore., opened in 1983 as a business-planning consultancy that was slowly nurturing a software product. A year later Tim Berry, president and founder of Palo Alto, launched Business Plan Pro, now the best-selling business-planning software.
Balancing Cash Flow and Bigger Clients
Digital Library > Defining and Serving a Market > Market strategy “Balancing Cash Flow and Bigger Clients” Paul Baker and Todd Reifenrath started Chicago-based Webitects.com in February 1999 to lasso the burgeoning demand for Web-site design and Internet content management. However, Webitects may be giving away a lucrative component of its services: a software interface that allows clients to manage…