Interns can help your business with new ideas, youthful enthusiasm, future employees, and public exposure, not to mention the cheap or free labor. Look to local, regional, and statewide colleges, universities, vo-techs, and community colleges for potential talent. Most offer credit to students for internships, and many have trouble finding enough places to send students!…
All the best ideas are borrowed (or stolen). So have you taken any field trips lately? Similar businesses may be the most obvious targets, but also add dis-similar businesses in your region to your list. Take a good hard look at businesses you visit frequently, scrutinize their ideas. Steal shamelessly! Compare your work to others’….
If you have a business website, or just are planning one, read this article. Print it out. Apply it to your site! No, really, print it out and compare your site to each and every point. This year’s list of top problems clearly proves the need to get back to Web design basics. There’s much…
Nebraska borrowed this idea from North Dakota. So you can borrow it, too. a Marketplace for Entrepreneurs. The Marketplace idea is patterned after a North Dakota event that’s been attracting 7,000 people for the past 17 years. The Marketplace is based on the belief that small towns must look within for economic development, not count…
Ed Morrison is so on the ball. Here’s an item from his latest round-up of economic development news. The undersecretary for rural development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a clear focus for rural development: renewable energy, broadband access and location. Read more. To these three, most knowledgeable observers would add entrepreneurship: growing a…
The IRS has made a change that should make it a little easier on small employers. Beginning Jan. 1, 2006 , certain employment tax filers will be able to file the new Form 944 (Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return) once a year rather than filing Form 941 (Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return) four times a…
A new user-created online resource (“wiki”) is now online at www.smallbusiness.com. I’ll be checking out the resources, so watch for more reports. [small biz] [rural] [Becky McCray]
A recent post at Vinography blog explores “Numerical Ratings: Consumer Friend or Spawn of Devil?“ What’s the general application? Numerical ratings can help customers decide to whether buy and decide what to buy. Are you the “in-house” expert, whether on a product or service? Can you rate your products or offerings? Can you position yourself…
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