Applications will soon be accepted for the Cumberland Business Incubator’s (CBI) 2016 Accelerator, 100 Days to Launch – Tourism. The selection committee will review applications to find the top candidates with an existing business or those interested in launching a new business with a tourism focus. Continue reading
Posted by the Internal Revenue Service
FS-2015-22, August 2015
For anyone starting a small business, especially those who are self-employed, the Internal Revenue Service offers some basic information on filing, reporting and paying taxes.
Generally, one is self-employed if they:
This article appeared in Forbes Magazine 8/28/2015 – by Bob House
Selling a business can be a challenging process. However, like many challenges in life, business owners who take the time to properly prepare will fare much better than those that jump right in.
This is the real life lesson learned by one couple that successfully sold their North Carolina cafe after 18 years of devoted ownership. Their story is an example of how a little prep work can ease the selling process and perhaps more importantly, lead to a higher sales price. For every small business owner, whether planning to sell now or much farther down the road, these lessons apply. Continue reading
Attracting a prospect’s attention does not help if they disappear: if you want to make a sale, you need to direct your prospects to take some kind of action.
Your prospects can’t read your mind. If you want your prospects to take the next step you’re encouraging, you need to tell them exactly what to do. The most effective marketing messages give the recipient or prospect a single, very clear, very short action to take next. Continue reading
At the moment of every day I must decide what I am going to do the next moment; and no one can make this decision for me, or take my place in this.
Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Philosopher and Essayist
Given options, sometimes clients have a hard time deciding what to do. I found the following essay on making decisions in Josh Kaufman’s The Personal MBA – Master the Art of Business. Continue reading
Is there change going on in your world? Is there a major change pending in your organization or non-profit you volunteer with? Many of us face change everywhere we look. We’ve always heard change is hard. Sometimes it is harder than other times. What if there was a formula to approach change that would help get people aligned to work together toward the needed change? Continue reading
The week started with each of the 14 Roane State Community College’s Cumberland Business Incubator Make Camp 2015 campers aged 8 through 18 customizing their personal safety glasses so they could easily be identified if left behind. The amazing result? Not one camper lost their safety glasses during the 5 days of camp! 
More safety rules for use of the Maker Space followed as well as an overview of the options for Monday making; video documentary, tile art work, rockets or woodworking followed by all campers attending a Karate session taught by a third degree black belt. By the end of the first day campers were talking about production runs of some of their projects to sell. Entrepreneurs in the making! Continue reading
This 4th of July, the United States celebrated its 239th birthday. Hopefully you’re reading this with memories of a holiday weekend filled with fun and relaxation with family and friends.
In honor of our founding fathers, I share a few quotes that apply to business, from some of the more notable men who signed one of the greatest documents ever drafted. It’s amazing that these concepts hold as true today as they did over 200 years ago. Continue reading
John Steele Gordon
The following is adapted from a speech delivered in San Diego, California, on November 15, 2013, at a Hillsdale College Free Market Forum on the topic “Markets, Government, and the Common Good.”
The word “entrepreneur”—one who undertakes, manages, and assumes the risk of a new enterprise—comes from the French, where it literally means “undertaker.” The word was borrowed into English in the mid-19th century—perhaps the golden age of the entrepreneur—when the number of new economic niches was exploding. The activity of entrepreneurship, of course, is much older, going back to ancient times. As for America, our nation was founded, quite literally, by entrepreneurs. Continue reading
Offering value is not enough. If no one knows (or cares) about what you have to offer, it doesn’t matter how much value you create. Without Marketing, no business can survive – people who don’t know you exist can’t purchase what you have to offer, and people who aren’t interested in what you have to offer won’t become paying customers. Continue reading