How to start, maintain and run a profitable business

  I have been a professional manager all my life, and it is a very demanding and stressful job. You are between a rock and a hard place every day. From one side, you need to run a business efficiently and smoothly. On the other hand, you must deal with employees' personalities and personal problems. Originally I am from the old Soviet Union, and in my home country manager should be demanding and always in control. When a manager compromises on something with his subordinates, this signifies the weakness of an authoritarian management style. It mirrors how authorities run the whole country. Many years ago, I found a job at Dunkin Donuts. It was my first job in America, and I worked hard. In about a year or so, I became a store manager. Of course, I knew only one style of management. I became a control freak and confronted my subordinates about anything I considered a violation of Dunkin Donuts standards. Plus, I tried to purge a system of thievery in my store. I started to suspect s...

  Water can be our best friend. It relieves our thirst and helps us in gardens. Also, water can be our enemy and bring destruction and damage. Emotions can be like water and flow freely without resistance. Our minds and emotions are connected when we feel angry, upset, happy, or satisfied. Do you always control your mind and emotions when starting a business venture? Do you always calculate all risks and obstacles or make feelings-based decisions? For example, you are looking for a location for your business. You like an architectural style of a particular building and some attractions nearby. Suddenly, you forget about the benefits of your company being in this area. You want the idea of your company being here. Another example is you come to a client's office to sign a service agreement. You like the interior, and everybody is so friendly and nice. Sometimes they even order excellent catering just for you. Your mind starts to get foggy, but emotions run wild. You forget about you...

A business enterprise needs to forecast the demand for its products or services. What can businesses do to predict the future sale or order of supplies? You can build statistical models or use your judgment. For the majority of business owners, a daily routine is quite complicated. A business owner sometimes doesn't have time to build a statistical model. A business mustn't run out of supplies or be understaffed. You can't let your clients or customers down. Big corporations can afford to hire consulting firms to do forecasting for them. Although, even the most sophisticated forecasting models don't give any assurances. So, what is the solution then? Any forecast has some flows. Political, economic, or weather problems can affect it. I think small business owners have an advantage in forecasting. Why? A small business owner is involved with business regularly. That gives an advantage in comparison with big corporations. A daily sales volume gives an idea about stuffing...

  We all know that a company's success is based on two components: operational and marketing. One can't function without another. There are many examples when great innovative companies that have been destroyed without effective marketing.  Many companies don't have an effective marketing strategy, because companies think that their invention will be sold by itself. In fact, marketing strategy is very important and should be based on careful research and analysis. How can a company conduct R&D? What information can be used for marketing segmentation?  The most popular approach is to find demographics and geographic data. We can add also firmographics (information about industry and company), and psychographics( information about customers' motives to buy). Data on demographics, geographic, and firmographics aren't that difficult to find in the Internet Era. Although, psychographics are the most important. According to Thomas V. Bonoma and Benson P. Shapiro's...

      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 ...