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Archive for the ‘Business Inspiration’ Category

5 Free or Inexpensive Places to Find Photos for Your Small Business

Posted on January 19th, 2011 by BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Grow a Business, Marketing, Small Business, Start A Business

Small business photo Whether you’re looking to use visual images to brighten your blog, marketing materials or website, here are five free or inexpensive places to find these photos – courtesy of Small Business Trends.

  1. iStockphoto. Most of the lovely photos you see here complementing our blog posts come from www.istockphoto.com. You are free to buy a subscription or pay as you go. As a bonus, there is a free photo of the week as well.
  2. Free Digital Photos. If you publish a credit for the person who supplied the image, you are free to use photos from www.freedigitalphotos.net. You can find the instructions for publishing credits to the right of the image. If you do not want to publish a credit, you must purchase a license, which starts at $5 per image.
  3. Photogen. A nice site loaded with free, quality stock photos. Check it out at www.photogen.com.
  4. 123RF. The site, www.123rf.com, contains a healthy collection of 8,476,759 royalty-free stock photos. You can purchase credits to fit your image needs or participate in a subscription fee payment plan.
  5. Free Range Stock. Any relation to free-range chickens? Nope, it’s actually a site supported by ad revenue. Images on the site are free. Check it out here: http://www.freerangestock.com/.

For 45 more resources, check out TJ McCue’s list.

What about you? What sites house your favorite photos?

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Have an Outstanding Small Business? SCORE Nominations Are Open.

Posted on January 18th, 2011 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Launch My Business, Promote My Business

Small business award Are you a small business owner who has demonstrated unique vision, innovation and achievement in 2010?  You may be just the candidate the SCORE awards committee is looking to honor.

The SCORE Awards celebrates excellence in America’s small businesses and honors businesses that are outstanding in the following categories:

  • Minority Owned Small Business
  • Small Business Launch by an Individual aged 50+
  • Veteran Owned Small Business
  • Woman Owned Small Business
  • Socially Progressive Small Business
  • Nonprofit Organization

The deadline for entry is March 15, 2011. Winners will be announced at an awards program in Washington DC on September 15, 2011.

Don’t by modest; nominate your small business today.

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Confidence Among Small Business CEOs Grew Substantially in Q4 2010

Posted on January 10th, 2011 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Grow a Business, Incorporation, Small Business, Start A Business

A study released Thursday finds confidence among the country’s small business CEOs improved substantially in the fourth quarter of 2010. The Vistage Confidence Index grew to 106.3 last quarter – up from 95.1 in the third quarter, 94.4 in the second and 93.7 in the first.

The study, which surveyed more than 1,700 small business chief executives, found that 77 percent are expecting improved revenue over the coming year, while 63 percent foresee greater profits. What’s more, 54 percent plan on hiring new employees, marking the first time in three years that the survey noted the majority of respondents plan to hire.

“Nearly half the CEOs surveyed pledged their personal assets to keep their companies running, their people employed, and our economy from collapsing,” said Vistage International chairman of the board and CEO Rafael Pastor. “They are the unsung heroes of our economic recovery and the brighter days ahead.”

As U.S. small businesses, particularly those within the retail sector, awake from a record-breaking holiday shopping season in which consumers spent more than $32.6 billion – the most in the season’s history – analysts are looking toward small business and entrepreneurial activity to help bolster the economic recovery.

Other recent surveys such as Wednesday’s ADP National Employment Report, which found the addition of 297,000 private sector jobs in December, will help deliver confidence to entrepreneurs forming a company and startups looking to get incorporated.

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Year Starts Off with a Slew of Optimistic Reports for Small Business

Posted on January 7th, 2011 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Corporation, Grow a Business, Small Business, Start A Business

The first week of 2011 has already started with a bang for the small business sector and the economy in general, as a number of significant studies released this week paint a picture of a rapidly improving economy – perhaps faster than many originally anticipated.

On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management released its monthly survey of manufacturing output, noting growth for the 17th consecutive month in a critical economic sector that employs one out of every six U.S. private workers.

Then, on Tuesday, the Small Business Administration announced it has supported more than $12 billion in loans to small businesses since the passage of the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act last September.

Wednesday, ADP’s National Employment Report revealed the addition of more than 297,000 private sector jobs last month, led chiefly by small and medium-sized businesses – a massive gain over November’s addition of only 92,000 jobs.

Finally, ComScore released its review of the 2010 holiday shopping season, claiming consumers spent more than $32.6 billion, marking a 12 percent increase over 2009 and the biggest shopping season on record.

While few expect these optimistic trends to continue uninhibited through 2011, they do start the year off on a good note for entrepreneurs forming a corporation.

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Turning a Severance Check into an Entrepreneurial Venture

Posted on January 6th, 2011 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Form My Business, Small Business, Start A Business

The economy is gradually beginning to improve; consumer spending rose dramatically in December, manufacturing activity is up, small business borrowing is increasing and the availability of credit is improving.

Nonetheless, unemployment remains high and is expected to be so through 2011. But even as companies across every sector continue to lay-off top talent, many recently fired professionals are using those hefty severance checks as fuel to launch their own business.

For these entrepreneurs, it is important to be certain that their business idea is actually a lucrative prospect, especially in a slow economy. Do your research, speak to industry experts  and consult friends or even former colleagues.

Although research is important, it is still critical to move quickly if you want to start a business. Severance checks are usually meant to be a source to live off of – not a startup investment fund, so don’t delay.

“I could have invested [my severance] earlier instead of living off of it,” Lou Warren, former manager of a Kansas City plastics company, told Entrepreneur magazine. “We would have had more money to play with and could have considered different options. We could be twice as profitable as we are now.”

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Pushes for Renewable Energy Policies Addressed with New Year

Posted on January 5th, 2011 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Corporation, Green Businesses, Grow a Business, Small Business, Start A Business, Work For Myself

The American southwest may turn out to be a hub of green energy innovation and entrepreneurship, as the new year has brought renewed vows on energy policy from the region’s leaders.

In Arizona, newly elected governor Janice Brewer has pledged to develop a solar industry to become “the envy of the world,” according to the Solar Home & Business Journal.

Meanwhile, recently inaugurated California governor Jerry Brown has vowed to continue the state’s push toward a 33 percent renewable energy market by 2020, providing substantial incentives to green tech entrepreneurs forming a corporation in the Golden State.

“As Californians we can be proud that our state leads the rest of the country in our commitment to new forms of energy and energy efficiency,” the governor said in his inaugural address. “I have set a goal of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020 and I intend to meet it by the appointments I make and the actions they take.”

However, New Mexico is dealing with a more divided approach toward its renewable energy policy. While the state legislature has been pushing for a cap-and-trade program similar to that of California’s, newly elected governor Susana Martinez has promised to oppose such efforts, asserting the move will harm business growth and job creation.

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Key Small Business Predictions for 2011

Posted on January 4th, 2011 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Grow a Business, Small Business, Start A Business, Work For Myself

A number of key projections show 2011 will be a year of small business growth, as owner confidence is anticipated to improve throughout the year alongside greater access to credit and heightened consumer confidence, among other prospects.

While the economy is not expected to fully recover over the next year, it is expected to continue its climb out of the recession’s ditch, with high unemployment rates lagging farthest behind.

Writing in The Street, Jonathan Blum predicts that 2011 will spell a number of crucial changes – for good or for ill – for American small businesses. In four central predictions, Blum anticipates that ultra-fast 4G mobile networks will mitigate the dominance of leading broadband data providers.

He also predicts the advent and ubiquity of free accounting software, alleviating a substantial financial burden. Third, Blum foresees the growth of free, online legal services. The trend has already begun with legal bloggers and websites such as RocketLawyer.com.

Finally, Blum projects the growing influence of … robots.

“Already machines that think play a large role in many enterprises,” he writes. “For example, by most accounts, 80 percent of the financial market trading on such places as the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq are done by machines. And this intelligence is quickly filtering down to small businesses.”

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Small Business Sector Needs Mentors and Incubators, Says Expert

Posted on January 3rd, 2011 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Grow a Business, Small Business, Start A Business, Work For Myself

While small business confidence has fluctuated over the past few months, consumer spending is unmistakably up, and the manufacturing industry is also experiencing significant gains. Most factors point to a coming economic rebound, providing ample encouragement to entrepreneurs forming a company.

However, unemployment is expected to be the last horse through the gate, as it still hovers around an unyielding 9.8 percent. Meanwhile, small businesses – employers of nearly 50 percent of the private sector workforce – are left with the responsibility of bringing the economy back to steam.

Huffington Post CEO and managing partner of SoftBank Eric Hippeau believes what’s need to spur growth in the small businesses sector is more mentoring and entrepreneurial incubators. To create a startup scene, he argues, you first need an environment to encourage it.

Specifically, Hippeau references New York City’s recently initiated Venture Fellows Program.

“New York City took a bold step on December 6 when it launched its Venture Fellows Program to pair entrepreneurs with leaders of established businesses for a year of mentoring at no charge,” he wrote in BusinessWeek. “The program is a smart and efficient way of spurring businesses to create next-generation jobs in such growing sectors as media, health care and fashion.”

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As Analysts Look Back on 2010, a Year of Innovation is Seen

Posted on December 31st, 2010 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Grow a Business, Small Business, Start A Business, Work For Myself

Looking back on 2010 shows a year rife with technological innovations – the Apple iPad, the rise of Groupon, the Android Phone and new mobile devices such as near-field communications – as well as indications that the economy may begin to grow in strength in 2011.

For one, 2010’s holiday shopping season was a tremendous success over previous years, breaking records and suggesting vast improvements in consumer confidence, while a number of key small business confidence indexes foreshadow growth in that sector as well.

There has also been the emergence of the New York City startup scene – a highly tech-focused market that has even come to rival Silicon Valley, with bigwigs such as Google and Facebook swooping into to pick up real estate and talent.

Still, California will remain a tough contender when it comes to tech and entrepreneurship and LLC formation, as John Babcock, founder of venture capital firm Rustic Canyon Partners, told SoCalTech.com.

“I think the top influencers of 2011 are secretly working on the next great applications of the internet that will drive disruptive new business models,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of innovation come out of Los Angeles in the past few years, with Demand Media, Socialvibe, Zag, ShoeDazzle, Factual and many others. Pay attention to what Los Angeles entrepreneurs are doing, it’s going to be an interesting 2011.”

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A Stalled Economy Does Not Imply Stalled Entrepreneurship

Posted on December 31st, 2010 by The BizFilings Team
Category: Business Inspiration, Small Business, Start A Business, Work For Myself

As U.S. small businesses employ nearly 50 percent of the private workforce, many analysts are predicting that economic recovery will come primarily from this sector.

However, unemployment remains leveled at a stubborn 9.8 percent, and many economists such as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have claimed it may take several years for unemployment to drop to pre-recession levels.

As a result, many Americans who are fed up with being unemployed and unable to find a job are launching their own businesses to get back to work. And they do not have to do much research to find success stories of adverse entrepreneurial conditions. Howard Schultz of Starbucks, Mark Cuban of Broadcast.com and Steve Jobs of Apple and Pixar are just a few sources of inspiration.

“With the majority of jobs created by small businesses (and all businesses start small), you may find that you and several colleagues can come together to create financial independence for yourselves – and jobs for others,” writes Lea Strickland in The Street. “Even in tough economic times, new businesses and smart businesspeople can succeed, grow and thrive. It takes planning, realism and hard work.”

Forming a company is not a simple task, but given the right attitude and ample effort, adverse economic conditions can make for just the right entrepreneurial circumstances.

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