5 Reasons You Should Pay Someone to do Your Accounting

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Many small business owners start out thinking they will do everything they possibly can in their business to keep costs low, including doing their own accounting.  Some have learned the hard way that small errors can add up to a big mess. Continue reading

Standing Room Only & Hot Fudge Sundaes at CBI Pitch Night!

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Pictured left to right: Holly Hanson (Director Cumberland Business Incubator), Kimberly Williams (Spa Escapes), Ben Ford (Dendrophilia Landscapes), Cathy Kimmerly (OH Fudge!), Stuart Sitton (Select Auto Sales), Allison Crawford (Momentum Behavior Analysis), Jody Franks (Franksarousa Farms), and Facilitator Diane Morey (A to Z Printing)

Congratulations to the entrepreneurs who made their Pitch to the standing-room-only assembled crowd at the Cumberland Business Incubator (CBI) on Monday May 4th. Seven business owners worked on their business concepts for nine weeks utilizing a business model canvas approach called CO.STARTERS in preparation for Pitch Night. Five of the entrepreneurs were intent on growing existing businesses while two were developing brand new businesses. Continue reading

20th Century Leadership & Motivation

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If you have employees, at the heart of your business is knowing what motivates people to do great work. It turns out that over the last 50 years a group of Social Scientists all over the world have taken a very systematic look at this question. Continue reading

So You Want to Start a Business or Buy an Existing One?

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We have a number of people who come to the CBI for help in buying a business or to start their own business. Sometimes it’s a short conversation when they come looking for the grant money they believe we have. We don’t have grant funds or grant applications to buy a business or start a business. We don’t have access to a pool of investors who loan money without a sound business plan, or know of any that will loan 100% of the cost of a business even with a great plan. Continue reading

What’s Your Fair Share?

This October’s issue of INC. magazine has an interesting article about splitting founder’s equity.

15 years ago Atlanta-based Ockham Technologies had three founders. One founder had part of the original idea and was putting in sweat equity and cash. A second founder was putting in sweat equity and cash but wasn’t part of the original idea. A third founder was part of the idea and put in cash but no sweat equity. What type of split of the equity would have been “fair?” Continue reading

Ready for an Hour of Code?

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Technically The International Hour of Code week is later this year in December, but why wait? See video below:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC5FbmsH4fw] Continue reading

Do You Code?

Nearly everything today is based on computers and computer processing. My car has computers in it. My washing machine has computer chips in it. My phone is based on a computer and code, called apps.

Code.org says that by 2020 there will be 1 million more computer jobs than computer science students in the United States. Experts fear U.S. society will be dominated by users of computers and programs that they don’t understand and haven’t created. Continue reading

Are You Ready?

Do you have good ideas that would take your business to the next level but don’t know where to find help to implement them? How can you minimize the risks and increase the probability of success in your business? Do you have dreams of starting your own business but don’t know where to begin? Continue reading

Square Appointments

Have you purchased something recently at a retail store or coffee shop or paid for a service where your credit or debit card was swiped through a small white attachment to a cell phone or iPad? That small white square was probably the Square. Yes, that is the actual name of the device and card processing service.

I avoided the Highway 127 Sale (the longest stretch of garage sales anywhere!), but I would bet there were a number of vendors with the Square attached to their phones to process payments. Even once-a-year vendors at craft shows and garage sales are using the Square for their credit and debit card customers. My massage therapist in Illinois was one of the first service providers I knew that adopted the Square in her business. Continue reading

Making Sales but not Making Money? Watch Your Margins when Pricing –

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I find business owners have a hard time keeping the gross profit margins on their product or service in mind when establishing pricing. To be able to maintain your gross profit margin, you need to know what your costs are. Continue reading