Small Business Idea: Chalkboards for Business
Have artistic talent? Then maybe doing chalkboards for business is the small business idea for you.
My artist friend Ja says that his chalkboard business is really picking up and it does seem that chalkboard signs are becoming increasingly popular. Lots of restaurants and pubs sport chalkboard menus and there also seem to be more chalkboard murals and interior art around.
For businesses, chalkboard signs are not only trendy but easier to change or update than traditional signage and can be cheaper than going the traditional graphics route.
You could design and sell custom-made illustrated chalkboard menus for restaurants and cafes, as Claire Watson of Chalk It Up Signs does, and even, as Zexzee Chalkboards does, design and sell chalkboards themselves.
This article from the Seattle Times will give you the flavour of what being a chalkboard artist is like: Chalkboard artist Malia McCabe creates memorable menus.
Until you build up enough clientele (or even after if you want) you could combine this small business idea with doing murals and window painting.
So if this small business idea appeals to you, start putting your portfolio together. It will probably take some cold calling to get started.
More Small Business Ideas
See Small Business Ideas for even more.
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Small Business Idea: Chalkboards for Business originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 08:05:21. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Read. Learn. Succeed. Sign Up Now.
You don't need to go back to school to learn something. For instance, I offer five free online courses to help you make your small business as successful as possible.
Follow the links to sign up for one or more of these free courses:
Free Small Business Online Courses
- The Small Business Success course: Become more organized and productive through this online course as you learn to market yourself and your business more effectively.
- The Speak for Success Course: The seven speech lessons in this online course will make you sound more polished and professional - and ultimately, because of the power of good communication, become more successful.
- The Starting a Business in Canada Course: If you're wondering what steps you need to go through to make your new business legal or wrestling with writing a business plan, this 10 week course will lead you through the process of starting a business in Canada - step by step.
- The Small Business Makeover Course: Designed to increase your business success by focusing on buffing up five aspects of your small business; your business planning, business finances, customer service, information technology management and small business marketing.
Image (c) Stewart Cohen / Digital Vision
Most Popular Articles | Newsletter | SB Canada Forum | RSS Feeds | Follow Me on Twitter Read. Learn. Succeed. Sign Up Now. originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 08:02:19. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Time Management Tips for Fall
Changed schedules and vacations make it even tougher than usual to juggle business, family and play and back to school season can make it seem like there's just too many balls in the air.
If 'busy' and 'stressed' describe you, knock some of the stress out of fall with my 11 Time Management Tips.
These other time management resources of mine will also help make it easier to balance your work and life while still accomplishing what you need to do:
And don't forget to share your tips: Readers Respond: What Are Your Time Management Tips?
More Time Management Resources on About.com
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Most Popular Articles | Newsletter | SB Canada Forum | RSS Feeds | Follow Me on Twitter Time Management Tips for Fall originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 08:08:17. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Business Holiday Gift Guide
Looking for gift ideas for a business person this holiday season or maybe, if you run your own business, something to add to your own gift wish list? This Business Holiday Gift Guide presents a selection of business gifts for holiday gift giving or receiving.
Most Popular Articles | Newsletter | SB Canada Forum | RSS Feeds | Follow Me on Twitter Business Holiday Gift Guide originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 08:00:35. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Are You Afraid to Start a Small Business?
Well of course you are!
Only a fool wouldn't feel at least a twinge of anxiety at the prospect of starting a new small business.
You're doing something new, something uncertain, something risky. Add the scare factor of shaky economic times and no one will blame you for doing a bit of quaking.
But don't let fear stop you from doing something you truly want to do. In the article just linked, you'll learn how to manage your fear by preparing to succeed and by changing your attitude to failure.
You can also manage your fear by mitigating the risk of starting a new business. Much of small business success is simply a matter of choosing the right business to start in the right place at the right time. In uncertain economic times, it's more important than ever to Not Do What You Love and choose to start a small business that will meet people's needs, such as one of the small business ideas profiled in Best Small Business Ideas for Businesses That Will Prosper in Tough Times.
Image (c) Peter Dutton
Most Popular Articles | Newsletter | SB Canada Forum | RSS Feeds | Follow Me on Twitter Are You Afraid to Start a Small Business? originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Sunday, August 29th, 2010 at 08:15:44. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Cool Tool of the Week: MojoMotor Content Management System
MojoMotor is a lightweight publishing application that makes it easy for anyone to maintain a website.
From the overview on the MojoMotor website: "MojoMotor excels in small-medium sized sites, where a highly technically skilled web designer/developer has built it, and subsequently wants to empower their clients to manage their own content. Classic "brochure" (static) sites fit this bill, as well as small, simple dynamic sites."
So from the point of view of a web designer, great stuff because he/she is freed from the tedium of continuously maintaining whatever website he/she has built. (And believe me, site maintenance can be really, really tedious.)
But also, from the point of view of the client, it's great stuff because you can eliminate all those aggravating phone calls and emails trying to get your web designer to get off his you-know-what and update your website with your latest time-sensitive material.
Catch, those of you who are suddenly sitting up and paying attention - You have to get the web designer/site builder to embed MojoMotor into your website design, but once this is done, you personally or anyone you designate to do the job, can update your own web pages quickly and easily!
Cooool!
One MojoMotor license costs $49.95 USD and has a 30-day, 100% money back guarantee.
More Website Tools (Previous Cool Tools)
Related: Before You Buy a Content Management System (About.com Web Design)
Most Popular Articles | Newsletter | SB Canada Forum | RSS Feeds | Follow Me on Twitter Cool Tool of the Week: MojoMotor Content Management System originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Saturday, August 28th, 2010 at 08:06:01. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Beyond Customer Service: Now You Need to Be a Brand Butler Too
Phrases like brand butlering always make me want to stick my fingers down my throat, but the behavior this trendy name describes is worth paying attention to.
Brand butlering, a term coined by Trendwatching.com, is about creating relevance, service and utility for your customers.
As Ann Handley explains it in Serving Is the New Selling: How to be a 'Brand Butler' (American Express OPEN Forum),
"You need to create value for your customers by sharing a resource, improving their lives, or making them smarter, wittier, better-looking, taller, better-networked, cooler, more enlightened, and with better backhands and cuter kids. In other words: Your brand must increasingly share or solve, not shill."
She gives many examples of brand butlering in her article, such as a company that sells fencing publishing advice on how to install and maintain fencing. Even better, she makes suggestions about how small businesses might extend their reach and provide more value to their customers.
Have a read; there may well be ideas here that you can use.
And as for customer service, good customer service is still a good thing, of course. Here are some resources to help you make sure your customer service is as good as it can be:
More on Good Customer Service
Image (c) Joshua Ets-Hokin / Getty Images
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Beyond Customer Service: Now You Need to Be a Brand Butler Too originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 08:03:06. Permalink | Comment | Email this
How to Create a Fan Page on Facebook
If you already have a personal Facebook page, you can create a Facebook Fan Page to promote your business. Here are step by step instructions for how to create a Fan Page on Facebook.
More on Social Media Marketing
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How to Create a Fan Page on Facebook originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 08:15:23. Permalink | Comment | Email this
What's Your Advice for Starting an Online Business?
Terry says, "Make sure that you get a real domain name such as yourbusiness.com rather than one of those extension domain names like domainnamesareus/yourbusiness.com. They may be cheaper but they make you look like an amateur."
My number one piece of advice to anyone starting an online business is not to launch your online business until you have enough product to fulfill demand and your back-end capabilities are fully tested. If the item customers want is out of stock or the customer otherwise has a bad experience, they tell dozens or hundreds of people, never come back, and your business is damaged.
What one piece of advice would you give anyone on how to start an online business to increase their chances of success? Add your advice here.
More on Starting an Online Business
Image (c) Andreas Pollok / Getty Images
Most Popular Articles | Newsletter | SB Canada Forum | RSS Feeds | Follow Me on Twitter What's Your Advice for Starting an Online Business? originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 08:16:20. Permalink | Comment | Email this
The Vision Statement of Tata Motors & Yours
"What's the vision statement of Tata Motors?" T.J. asks. "And how did they come up with it?"
The vision statement of Tata Motors Limited, India's largest automobile company, is to be "best in the manner in which we operate, best in the products we deliver, and best in our value system and ethics."
Now, I can't quibble with Tata Motors' success (the company had consolidated revenues of USD 20 billion in 2009-10. Read more about Tata Motors here), but their vision statement is not a very good example of one.
For one thing, it's rather meaningless. Chanting "We want to be number one" would be just as inspiring.
For another, it's not a vision statement at all, but a mission statement.
What's the difference? A mission statement articulates a company's purpose. It announces to the world at large why your company exists. A vision statement focuses on a business's future; it articulates your dreams and hopes for your business.
Think of it this way; a mission statement answers the question "Who are we?" and the vision statement answers the question "Where are we going?"
That's why businesses need both mission statements and vision statements, the first to inform the public and the latter to inspire themselves.
Does your small business have a mission statement and a vision statement? These resources will help you write one or both if you need to or give you sample mission statements and sample vision statements you can compare yours to to see if yours needs a little sprucing up.
Writing a Mission Statement or Vision Statement
Sample Vision Statements and Mission Statements
And More Samples
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The Vision Statement of Tata Motors & Yours originally appeared on About.com Small Business: Canada on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 08:05:18. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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