Category: Small Business Resources
Small Business Size Regulations
The Small Business Act was created, in part, to help small businesses compete in our economic market. The passage of this act has made it necessary to establish standards of identifying small businesses. Below are the size regulations used to review business size. Size Regulations SBA’s size standards define whether a business is “small” and thus eligible for government programs and preferences reserved for “small business” concerns. What is a Small Business Concern? A smallRead More
What’s New with Size Standards
SBA proposes to revise Small Business Size Standards for some industries in NAICS Sector 31‑33, Manufacturing The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has proposed to increase small business size standards for 209 industries in NAICS Sector 31-33, Manufacturing; and, increase the refining capacity component of the Petroleum Refiners (NAICS 324110) size standard to 200,000 barrels per calendar day total capacity, and the requirement that 90 percent of output being delivered be refined by the bidder (footnote 4). As part of its ongoingRead More
You’re Never Too Old to Start a Successful Business
Think you’re too old to start a business? Think again. Mark Zuckerberg may have started Facebook at 19, but he’s in the minority of entrepreneurs. Through the years, there have been plenty of successful people in business and other endeavors who didn’t get started until a bit later. Funders and Founders recently shared an infographic outlining late bloomers who displayed proficiency in a variety of fields showing that great achievements don’t always happen at aRead More
How to Put “More Serve in Your Sell” to Make More Sales
The shift from sell first to serve first is here and now. We no longer sell by leading with the product. Sales are made by leading with the person and a relationship with them. Referrals, recommendations and introductions play a huge part in the sales process now. The sales process has changed consistently over the past decade and educating customers is essential and integral to building a trust bond. We no longer buy things and engage with businesses, people and companies that weRead More
Free small business help available
MARSHFIELD – A counselor from the Small Business Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will be in Marshfield, by appointment only, Nov. 12. Confidential business counseling is available without charge to current or prospective small business operators on issues ranging from financial management to sources of capital. The SBDC staff member will meet clients at the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MACCI) from noon to 4 p.m. Appointments must be madeRead More
Three Best Ways to Insure Your Small Business
Insuring your small business against a natural disaster, a fire or a catastrophic event is almost an afterthought in the scheme of daily operations, but it shouldn’t be. For starters, if you don’t have enough coverage to replace damaged or destroyed equipment, it might be harder – or impossible – to get your company running again. A quarter of businesses never re-open after a major calamity, according to the Institute for Business & Home Safety.Read More
Document of the Week: Confidentiality Agreement for Your Small Business
What is a Confidentiality Agreement? A Confidentiality Agreement is a legally binding contract where a person or small business agrees not to disclose certain information with other people or businesses. This type of agreement is also known as a non-disclosure agreement or a NDA. When do you need a Confidentiality Agreement? In the course of doing small business, whether developing a product or marketing a service, a company inevitably has to enlist the help ofRead More
How workplace technology can transform the small business
After eight failed startups, 27-year-old Nic Blair turned things around with two successful small businesses with using modern technology — Search Factory and Brus Media. Search Factory started out from his parents’ house, and, in just three years, the company has grown to 27 full-time staff members who operate from two offices in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, with an annual turnover of more than AU$2 million. Two years ago, Blair took the learnings from Search Factory andRead More
Interact with Investor Connect
Meet the Brightest Innovators The Cleantech Open is the world’s largest cleantech accelerator, and our Investor Connect is a ‘speed-dating’ event which connects investors with startups that have completed the Cleantech Open’s programs, grooming companies in software, materials, energy storage, smart grid, agriculture, water conservation and purification, clean chemistry, and a host of other products that also happen to be ‘clean.’ If you are an Angel, private VC, corporate VC, or potential strategic partner orRead More
Exclusive: Bye-bye Facebook, the future of social media for small businesses
It’s 3am in 2016. Bleary-eyed, you stumble away from your desk, switch off the desk light and pick up your phone to set an alarm for the morning. You decide to log on to your social media site to see if you have any messages. But the background isn’t blue, it’s yellow. Welcome to next-gen social media. Social media entrepreneurs are coming up with ingenious ways to stay connected, and the common denominator of newRead More