How to start, maintain and run a profitable business

  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...