Author Archives: Barbara Eldridge

Anticipating Growth

| October 16, 2004

Here we are again just past the October 15th deadline! It has amazed me the number of people who were still racing to make that deadline. As small business owners it is important to be using this time of the year for looking ahead to plans and projections for the New Year. Growth in any business challenges your skills as a business manager and your financial resources, putting you on a tight rope.

One step on that tight rope involves a comprehensive plan that clearly outlines where your business stands now (not last year), its assets, debts and the current … Read More

Connecting: 3 Ways to Stay On Top

| September 5, 2004

As a growing business owner are you getting caught in the hyper competitive market environment? When you work alone it is often difficult to fulfill all the roles you have to play. So how do you stay competitive? I often harp on the importance of staying focused to the high priority, high payoff areas of the business, but when you are doing it all, everything seems “high priority”. But being in business means staying connected to the people who do business with you as well as the people who refer business to you.

There are three areas that can help … Read More

What Stifles Growth or Promotes Success?

| August 16, 2004

Your success in business comes down to the difference between managing your work or letting your work manage you. What’s it going to be? The biggest contributors to clutter are those good old fashion letters, junk mail, memos, e-mail printouts and sticky notes, So how do you sort through all the junk and all the distractions and concentrate only on the things that are important to you and your business? In business ownership and management, as in war and other activities, you are only as good as your last success. Just as you always have to be on the lookout … Read More

Mid Year Leap &/or Mid Year Correction

| July 16, 2004

As I was preparing the flyer for Mind Masters 3rd Quarter Planning workshop I had the realization that by June 30th half of the year would be finished. How many of you after these several months working day and night to achieve those goals you set in January to create a new service, introduce a new product or even design a new business model – all at once find all the drive that brought the initial motivation and excitement has melted away, the steam has run out, the place you are in is comfortable and the dream world has slipped … Read More

Make Yourself Known in the Market Place – Carve Out Your Place

| May 2, 2004

According to Alan Kay from Disney’s R&D Department: “When you … offer unique value your competition cannot, then you … make headway by giving your ideas away.”

You can expand your visibility by disseminating information as one of your prime marketing tactics. Don’t make the same mistakes most small business people do, and think that the knowledge and experience you have is widely known, on the contrary, you are the owner of a capital asset that others do not possess and have no easy way of possessing it.

There are many avenues available to you to present what you know. … Read More

When Do You Incorporate?

| March 16, 2004

One of the questions I often get from my members is, “when is the right time to incorporate”? The answer is often the question of liability that one needs to take into consideration before deciding which entity best suits ones business needs. Do you have employees that put you at risk driving your business vehicle or dealing with customers? Each business entity has its advantages and drawbacks, benefits and tax consequences.

Picture a situation where an employee is driving with you in your vehicle and you are in an accident. The accident is not your fault but your employee gets … Read More

Keeping It All Together

| February 16, 2004

Here we are in the second month of the year, are you already finding yourself coming and going, wondering how to get done all the things your business demands of you? Is it more like being in a batting cage with things coming at you, rather then in the game playing to win? Over the years I have experienced my clients suffering through those long lists of “got to get done” things, but what I have come to understand is most of those “things” are not focused, nor do they consistently support the things that really matter, your dreams and … Read More