Canadian Banker's association has some useful links.
Getting Started in Small Business
Planning and preparation can make all the difference.
Minding Your E-Business
Security and Privacy Matter
Available online only
Small Business Financing
Information on various sources of business financing
In today's consumer-driven world, it's getting harder and harder to keep customers happy. If your business can't deliver a product or a service that immediately satisfies the client, it will be trampled by the long line of competitors behind it. The following is a list of 100 hacks and resources to keep your business at the top of its game, delivering quality Web services and products while maintaining the highest standards of customer service.
Source: The Web Entrepreneur's Customer Service Toolbox: 100 Hacks and Resources - Inside CRM
Orange Country has some tips around building a business plan or buying a business.
A Profit & Loss Spreadsheet would be a good first step for managing the accounting of a small business. If you can get the daily P&L down to a science, it will make it easier to predict how well you will do in the future.
www.score114.org
Source: daily p&l profit calculator spreadsheet filetype:xls - Google Search
People are looking outside the stock market for returns.
It was the second largest increase since the survey six years ago, exceeded only by a 75 percent increase in the first quarter of the year. The survey measured the change in share price during the round. Web 2.0 companies are especially hot. Of 12 financings where the stock price was more than three-fold higher, seven were Web 2.0 or related fields, said Barry Kramer, a partner at the firm.
Source: VentureBeat » Rosy conditions for raising VC
Here is a list of the top 100 firms.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/vc100/stage/early.html
Here's wikipedia's take.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_venture_capital_firms
Here's a list of Venture Capital blogs from http://www.ventureblogs.com/
Here are the sites that I went through in detail:
- Basecamp - rejected due to price and the feature set wasn't exactly what I wanted
- Zoho Projects - I choose this one
- Joint Contact - My second choice due to the Outlook 2007 integration features
- activeCollab - too "new" for me
- WhatWhat Status - Too silly of a name to even consider
- DevShop - rejected due to price (most expensive of all)
- GoPlan - My third choice (would've been my second choice since it has so many features for the price but I liked the Outlook integration of Joint Contact)
Apparently this site sells better T-shirts than CafePress
Make your website more attractive and more profitable with your own free Spreadshop. Earn commissions on your uniquely designed products.
Sell Custom T shirts - Open a free shop to design & sell : Spreadshirt
August 22nd, 2007 · 12 Comments
I use PayPal to receive payment from sponsors on this website and small coding projects for clients. Almost all the payments are received in US dollars but transferring funds into your Canadian-based US dollar account from PayPal is not easy. Exchanging US funds into Canadian dollars in PayPal is not ideal because PayPal charges a steep currency conversion fee of 2.5%. If you have a RBC US Dollar account, here’s how you can transfer US dollar funds from your PayPal account into your chequing account (it took me a few iterations to get it right):
- Log into PayPal and click on My Account, then Withdraw followed by Transfer funds to your bank account. In the Withdraw Funds by Electronic Transfer page click on Add Bank Account.
- In the Add a Bank Account page, select “United States” as Country and type in “Royal Bank of Canada” as the Bank Name.
- Enter the 9-digit routing number exactly as suggested by the graphic. Royal Bank’s routing number is “026004093″.
- Since the trick is to get the account number correct, ignore the example suggested by the graphic. Instead, enter the five-digit transit number of your account followed by your actual account number. You can also get the exact sequence of numbers (transit number followed by account number) from your monthly statement or online.
- Re-enter the account number and click Continue. Wait for PayPal to make two small deposits into your bank account and then confirm that you have added the bank account successfully in PayPal by entering how much was deposited.
- Once confirmed, your US-dollar account will show up in the To field in the Withdraw Funds page and you should be able to transfer funds in US dollars into your USD chequing account.
I am not sure if this method would work for US dollar accounts held at other financial institutions. If you’ve successfully transferred US dollar funds to and from PayPal, I would love to hear from you.
I'll need to get my British Passport before I can join this group...
Passport to Export - Where will it Take You?
Doing business in another country can be a challenge, so it's good to know that UK Trade & Investment is there to help you succeed.
Through our Passport to Export programme we offer new and inexperienced exporters free capability assessments, support in visiting potential markets, mentoring from a local export professional, free action plans, customised and subsidised training, and ongoing support once you're up and running.
The programme puts together in one simple responsive process all the tools that exporting companies need to grow their business. So if you're looking to export, be sure to make us you first port of call.
Source: Support to Succeed
Perhaps the moral of this story is, any PR is good PR.
Or may be it's always believe in yourself.
Probably it's "get on live TV with your product and get a bunch of arrogant know-nothings to bash your product to get the sympathy of the public on your side. "
But most likely it's to create a fun, functional, humorous product that everyone can enjoy.
Everything is worth something to someone.
Retailing at £25, it is one of the top-selling luggage items at John Lewis department stores and has proved a hit at Mothercare, Fenwick and Debenhams.
Yesterday, Mr Law said: "When I went on to the programme I was full of confidence that I was going to get the investment I needed.
"But they ripped me to shreds - I was absolutely gutted. They were rude and obnoxious and just focused on the strap, which was actually something that was quite easily fixed.
"I was terrified that by appearing on the programme I may have ruined my company before it had even started. But afterwards we had loads of hits on the website from people who said they thought it was a brilliant idea.
"Now I am absolutely delighted to have proved the Dragons wrong. It just goes to show you should never give up."
Source: Dragons' Den reject celebrates soaring sales of 'worthless' invention | the Daily Mail
Since my career path has changed somewhat over the last two years, this blog will now focus on starting a small business, something else my wife and I would like to do.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Women in Business Initiative (WBI) provides you with the business tools and resources you need to succeed. Using a team-based approach, WBI enlists the talents and the cooperation of qualified business counselling and community outreach officers, flexible lenders, expert consultants and other business support organizations throughout the region. Together, we can help you reach your fullest potential as an entrepreneur.
Source: Women in Business Initiative
