How to start, maintain and run a profitable business

      I' ve noticed lately that many people want to start their own business. That's great. However, to start a business you need to have a character and a business idea. Also, it is important to do a research on your potential customers or clients? Who are they? Where do they live? What is your business idea about? If you've decided to start another courier company or website design business, how will your business be a different from hundreds of other businesses in your area or in that industry? How will you market your business? Then you need to figure out where you're going to operate? Is it going to be an Internet business or bricks and mortar business? Also, very important how easy to enter an industry where you want your business to be? If it is easy, then most likely you will compete on price.   Do you see how many questions? Nowadays it is difficult to come up with some unique business idea. Unless, you are a great inventor and had created some new technolog...

  How did you design your business structure? Did you imitate someone or did you design your business model yourself? We all want our business to be successful and of course profitable. Nowadays, because of social networks, we witness a boom of innovations in marketing, technology, biomedical research, pharma. Our time is revolutionary. It seems like anybody with a new idea can become rich overnight. Many people try to follow in the footsteps of those entrepreneurs who become successful in business and independently wealthy. Let's face it we all have different personalities, educational backgrounds, skills set, talents. That is great because life would be boring. We all can't be the same. When you design your business you should ask yourself a question what is your goal? What do you want your business to be in about 10 years? It all starts with those questions? There are plentiful amount of business structures: functional, teams, stimulation, system design. Although, all those ...

I have run my business for 23 years. I always wanted to be self-employed. Since 1991 when I came to America my dream was to be a business owner. I've entertained different ideas from a pizza parlor to music CD distribution. It was a time before the Internet, and newspapers ads,books, and brochures about how to open your own very profitable business were quite popular. They all promised you to get rich quick ideas. Does it remind you of some modern-day scammers who promise you magic systems to get rich ASAP?😅 I tried one or two ideas, but quickly realized I didn't like it. Then, I've completed a small business owner training program and decided to act. One thing when you study and another when you try to build your business in reality. My new business idea was a delivery service for dental laboratories. A friend of mine was a dental technician and started to give me some business. Although, very soon I understood that find new clients would be a challenge.  English is my ...

  America always had a reputation as a country of entrepreneurs. It was a magnet for freedom-loving people who wanted financial prosperity. I can tell you that even in current times there are plenty of opportunities. We live through transformation time. Some industries died, but some were born. It happened many times during human history. The best example of current business success is the Internet platforms. Nobody even dreamed about such a business model even 10 years ago. Who can imagine life without Amazon or Uber now? Many years ago I've started my own business. I always dreamed about being a business owner.  I believed in  BS I've heard from books, media, TV. They've sold the public with a great number of energy ideas about small business ownership and achieving an"American dream". Have you noticed nobody uses anymore this term an "American Dream"? The American dream became a fairy tale nowadays. Almost,like Cinderella. It reminds me of my home cou...

  It's not a secret business environment is tough now days. All small business owners wait for that miracle when someone calls and places a huge order or requires your service. Then telephone rings and ...... and...... spammer.Damn it. Right away your feel cheated. I know that there are a lot of opinions about marketing. I can tell you mine. Spammers not only ruin your day,but almost never win your business. I'd prefer cold calling to spam. Yes, I understand, that bothers someone too. However, at least I've called from a legitimate phone number and made some personal effort. Also, I didn't buy lists of owner's personal information from those shady so called " digital marketers" who run around someone's websites to snoop for some personal information,such as business owner's name or last name along with phone number.  I agree with another way of getting personal information. For example,if someone signed to your blog or seminar. In this case person ...

 I remember like many years ago I've tried to break into delivery business. I always wanted to be a business owner, however I didn't have enough money to buy an existing business. So,here it goes. Courier business! Low starting cost, relatively easy operation, seems like plenty of work everywhere. Well, like famous Russian proverb says" measure 7 times and cut only 1". My desire to be a business owner blinded me completely. I didn't do any research about  potential competition or need for another delivery company on the market. Actually, I found one article about some courier company located 25 miles away from Boston. Courier industry has been unregulated recently and many guys out of blue started to do deliveries. Thankfully they needed only own vehicle and cell phone, almost forgot about pager and fax machine. It is laughable now, but back there those too things, I mean fax and pager were extremely important. So, his business suffered a loss,because of people wh...

I am a small business owner. As many other businesses, business volume in my courier company has declined. Different reasons,but main is a pandemic. Catering companies were my biggest customers. Since the beginning of quarantine, catering industry and hospitality industry in general has declined significantly. Many couriers started home deliveries for restaurants, supermarkets and so on. Well, here they come. Let me introduce Internet platforms created by some brilliant minds in Silicon Valley. People who don't even know one thing about delivery business, decided to run one. Ideas behind platforms were brilliant. Some bloggers even brag about  how great they are.  Very low overhead, lousy customer service and low paying independent contractors.  On the top of that, rip of of restaurant industry. How else restaurants will make money during pandemics?  Many of those contractors who deliver for platforms either illegal immigrants or just desperate unemployed people. don...

 Business is healthy, when employees are productive. Productivity is very important, if you want your enterprise to succeed. I think communication between management and employees creates a productive environment. Communication should be upward and downward. When business starts new product or new branch it is always helpful to explain an objectives to an employees. Then, ask them to express an opinion. This is how a team work created, Indeed, people want to be heard and felt that their opinion counts. Manager should always make sure of that. Of course give a feedback on employee's proposal and encourage an initiative. Another important detail, an employees should be giving a flexibility to create own way to be a productive . Creativity is important to increase a productivity. Boring routine is counter productive. It should be a habit for an employees to communicate their opinion with management and create own way of work, as long as it doesn't  hurt a production.   ...

  Let's face it. To be successful in creation of marketing strategy, business needs a data. Some businesses are obsessed with data. Data should be a tool in manager's arsenal. Indeed, managers should be able to analyze a data,and managers need a vision.  Vision and data are two important components of  a great marketing strategy. So, where does data come from? The data you use to track progress toward goals, gain customer insights, and drive strategic decisions must first be collected, aggregated, and organized. There are three types of customer data: first-party, second-party, and third-party. First-party data is collected directly from your users by your organization. It’s considered the most valuable data type because you receive information about how your audience behaves, thinks, and feels. Second-party data is data that’s shared by another organization about its customers (or its first-party data). It can be useful if your audience types are the same or ha...

  An Internet platforms becomes more and more popular. Marketplace on the Internet becomes very competitive. Unfortunately, many business ideas for an Internet platforms aren't original in my opinion. Their founders imitate an existing ideas. A platform strategy should be and original. In order to enter a market you need an analysis. What is your business will be about? Who will your customers be?   In traditional competitive strategy, it is generally assumed that customers can determine their willingness to pay for the product or service independently. Although, it is not always the case. This is why the formulation of a platform strategy requires a good deal of imagination,data and analysis to help platform entrepreneurs and managers tackle the challenges of value creation and value capture. Also your platform strategy is very important. As more critical to success as the idea behind the platform itself. When you create a strategy always ask yourself what is you...

  Our business environment and business models are changing in front of us. Many different factors effect those changes from cultural to economical. Although, basic principles of managing business are the same, some new innovations evolved . More none employees are doing more work for business. By some estimates, none employees are responsible for performing more than 25% of work in the enterprise. The nature of work is evolving, with a shift toward short-term, skills-focused, team-based work engagements. There is growing recognition that a diverse and inclusive workforce can deliver more value; a workforce ecosystem approach allows organizations to attract candidates they have never seen before. Workforce management must evolve. Organizations need new approaches to managing internal versus external workers.  Management by objectives as important as never before. What is the strategy of your company? What are your management objectives ? How will your objectives bene...

Putting an effective e-commerce strateg in place is one of the most impactful steps you can take to grow your business online. However, how do you create a e-commerce strategy? You will find countless blogs,articles and books about e-commerce strategy. Mostly, in my opinion, those advisers plagiarize each other.  Plus, you will find a bunch of platforms where for a monthly fee all marketing will be done for you. Almost like in the fairy tale. "Your wish is my command". I think an effective e-commerce strategy should start with one question"What is your business is about?" and " Who are my customers?". Or even where do they live? If you don't know, you can hire the best e-commerce marketing services,but still won't have any success. In order to be successful you need to be an original and bold. Don't just buy a list of potential customers from some spammer or hire an marketing company. First you need a vision and analysis.