For companies looking to improve their efficiency when it comes to managing their fleet, vehicle tracking systems might be the answer, using GPS and cellular advancements to keep tabs on mobile assets 24 hours a day.

One of the main problems for companies that use vehicles a lot in day to day business is their inappropriate use. Often, the insurance policies that companies take out on vehicles don’t protect the car for any damage which occurred whilst the vehicle is being used for personal purposes, and as such any injuries incurred by the employee in question will result in a rejection from most insurance companies when it comes to making a claim.

When tight deadlines are part of a firms operating schedule, for example in the case of delivery companies, vehicle tracking can be integral in increasing customer/client happiness and staff efficiency. Routing systems can be easily devised and managed through the combination of GPS and cellular tracking, avoiding busy highways, particularly expensive toll roads and unforeseen road works that waste time and ultimately money.

Of course when people think of vehicle tracking, the prevention of theft is probably one of the first things that come to mind. As well as general trackers on the vehicle which can alert companies if their vehicles go off route – avoiding one of the main ways in which cargo is stolen; by being driven to chop shop before having significant amounts of ‘merchandise’ is dropped off – trailers can be fitted with transmitters on locks, so that the relevant parties are alerted if a stock area in a vehicle is opened.

If the vehicle itself is stolen, then obviously recovery is made very easy with the installation of a GPS tracker, and for vehicles that are carrying loads which are likely to be hijacked, then a scout vehicle can be used to check up on assets that have been stood still at an unauthorised location for too long, which also increases safety for the driver.

With all these advantages, vehicle trackers are fast becoming a necessity for modern companies which rely on their mobile assets to do business. It is now possible to prevent and solve crime relating to vehicles more easily, lower insurance premiums and fuel costs, and increase efficiency with the implementation of this one technology.

The Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) will provide cheap loans to both businesses and home owners who want to install renewable energy equipment, as part of the government’s Green Deal scheme.

It is hoped many people will install renewable energy equipment such as solar PV panels, ground source heat pumps and biomass boilers as part of the scheme to not only reduce their energy costs but to also help the government meet its targets on carbon emissions.

One of the rules of the scheme states that loan repayments must never exceed the savings on energy bills, so it is hoped that this will encourage people to take up the finance options available.

The Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, said:

“New firms like the Green Deal Finance Company are testament to the attractiveness of the Green Deal framework and its potential to offer a better deal to consumers.”

The GDFC is made up of 16 members including energy companies such as British Gas and npower, banks such as HSBC and Lloyds and retail group Kingfisher who own B&Q. It is hoped that more companies and local authorities will become part of the group to make the funding as accessible as possible.

There are also a number of other government incentives available for home owners who install renewable energy sources including feed in tariffs as well as the Renewable Heat Incentive which is due to be launched in autumn 2012.

Replacing a boiler with a more environmentally friendly version, whether it’s a wood chip and log boiler or a wood pellet and log boiler can help you make significant savings on your heating bills, and as they use all your existing pipes, it is easy to install and can cost much less than you expect.

If you’re looking for advice on renewable energy then contact independent advisors Enerfina. They can recommend the ideal source for your home and have also negotiated special deals with suppliers to ensure that you get the best price possible for your renewable energy equipment”

If the employer halts their contributions because they cannot afford the payments or due to a merger which altered budgets, then it’s possible that the winding up will be carried out by the company’s usual trustees. If a company becomes insolvent, it’s normal that the regular trustees will also be joined by independent trustees, but the regular trustees will no longer make important decisions relating to the pension and instead remain in place to aid the smooth winding up of the pension scheme. The insolvency practitioner is bound by law to inform the Pensions Regulator when a scheme must be wound up. Independent trustees are often appointed by the Pensions Regulator; whether this is a person or, more often than not; a company, the appointed body must have no vested interest surrounding the giving and receipt of the final payments.

When winding up a pension scheme a trustee investigates the previous management of the assets of the scheme and assesses the value that would be available for the employees who are in this case the beneficiaries of the scheme. After this the trustees “realise the value” which essentially involves selling off the property that remains. It is also important that they invest the profits during the process by investing them in low risk ventures to curb potential losses.

The final pay out of the pension scheme to its beneficiaries is conducted according to the original plan to divide the profits between the members from when the trust was established.

The trustees’ are bound to abide by these guidelines, irrelevant of both the potentially disconcerting circumstances and the total value of the assets. Because of this it is common for some members to be paid before others, as they are considered a higher priority. This depends on their own participation in the scheme and their own standing contributions.

It is possible that additional payments can be given to the members irrelevant of the original specific trust constitution and these payments are taken into consideration by the trustees under statutes. These additional payments can be made by the Pension Protection Fund in cases in which employees contributed to pension schemes that eventually went up in smoke. This can be especially vital in situations where a scheme was severely underfunded and then reached insolvency.

Ill health pensions and survivor’s pensions are a good example of all this and are protected up to a percentage of the original policy’s value, meaning that the contributors’ investment is, to a certain degree, safe.

An end to downtime

Where the mobile let the busy entrepreneur stay connected by voice and text, mobile broadband takes that connection to the next level. Meetings, conferences and other trips are unavoidable, but they don’t have to make massive holes in your work schedule.

Of course, the laptop was always an essential anyway. You could load it up with work documents to keep you busy on the train, as well as taking advantage of hotel Wi-Fi at the other end to get you up to speed with your email. But now, mobile broadband adds a new level of interactivity to each trip.

Getting your phone online on the move

Things can still stay simple – and cheap – with your mobile too. All smartphones now connect simply and effectively to 3G networks for reasonable data transfer speeds, making checking email and even editing documents on the move a reality. Social networking and even video conferencing are also viable options, with front facing cameras now pretty much standard on smartphones.

Of course, this is the cheap option and you’re going to have to make a few shortcuts in terms of quality. Those small screens aren’t the best for Office based tasks, for example, while you’ll have a choice between an on-screen keyboard or a tiny QWERTY – not the best for a sustained typing session. However, for keeping in touch and making basic alterations, a smartphone deal with some data attached is the absolute minimum every entrepreneur should leave the office with.

Stepping up: tablets and laptops

If you really want to take your office on the road though, a laptop or tablet PC with mobile broadband is essential. A dongle can be picked up for free on mobile broadband contracts, while monthly data deals certainly won’t cost you an arm a leg – especially for the amount you’ll get out of it if you’re commuting regularly.

Tablets use the app systems common on smartphone, while laptops give you the full home computer experience. That said tablets and pads still; have the wow factor – great for client meetings – as well as being smaller, lighter and so more easily portable.

Either way, mobile Wi-Fi (or MiFi) is now another great option. It works just like your Wi-Fi at home or in the office, but out of a small portable device just a little bigger than a regular dongle that you can pop in your pocket and connect up to five devices at once. Even better, a MiFi dongle doesn’t stick out the side of your machine on the train!

The future now: hybrids

With the Motorola Atrix smartphone and Acer Eee Pad Transformer, the next generation of essential business technology is already with us. Both devices snap into a handy portable QWERTY keyboard, making an otherwise sub-optimum business device into a great option for working on more complex documents.

In the end though, as long as you’re connected to the net on the move you can stay in touch with your business – and more importantly, your clients and staff can keep you up to date with every aspect of your work. Without this, the chances are you’re going to be lagging behind the competition.

–

About the author: Chris Marling writes on behalf of Broadband Genie, the independent comparison site for mobile broadband, MiFi, free laptop deals and much more!

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Lighten the Code

Make sure that your website’s code is not loaded down by unnecessary technical details. If it was built by a professional website designer, it will more than likely have a built-in hosted platform that is user friendly and will not contain excess code. However, if you or another nonprofessional designer created your website, you may need to take a second look. Oftentimes, nontraditional platforms that may not be search engine-friendly are used, so organize your folders and check your text and site map with a readability tool. Aggressively optimizing your HTML code can do wonders for your rankings. Refer to the W3 guidelines for designing websites that are search-engine friendly.

Utilize your Keywords

Create a list of natural keywords that would be a good match for your website. Take a few minutes to jot down all the words that naturally come to mind when you think about searching for your website if you were looking for it. Enlist the help of family and friends, ask them to do the same thing, and then examine the results. You will more than likely come across phrases that you had not thought of. Which words appear on both lists? Choose the words that overlap and chances are those are the keywords that other people are most likely to search for first.

Then do a query for each keyword that you’ve selected. If you already have an established website that appears in the first 15 pages, then you have successfully come up with a good list of keywords to use. If you have examined ten of your keywords and your website doesn’t show up, then you’ll need to create a different list of keywords.

Start with your Homepage

Make sure your homepage contains quality text with 2-3 high performing keywords. It is okay to get creative during this process, but the goal here is to have your website appear in the top ten pages of search results. So, you will need to include the top keywords that are most likely to appear when someone is searching for your website.

Creativity is a plus but make certain that you include the top three keywords on the home page or in the main page. Then track how each keyword performs, keep an eye on your rankings to determine which targeted keywords is more effective, success will be determined if you move up in the rankings. If you operate in a local area, using keywords that include your city may be advantageous as they are typically much easier to rank for.

Content is King… Always

Provide good content based on your top keywords. Optimize the content of your website by using the targeted keywords in a well-written article or blog post. Write about something that highlights each of the keywords. The objective is to improve the overall rankings of your website with concisely written content.

Maintaining a blog is important for any website. A blog will provide fresh content that can be optimized for search engines. More, fresh quality on your site gives your business an authoritative presence in your subject area.

Network Using Social Media

Search engine optimization and social media are slowly melding into the same beast. It’s obvious to search engines like Google that if a business has 1000 “Likes” on Facebook and 10,000 Twitter followers then they are obviously important players in their field.

Use social media to create links to your website. The easiest method of using social media networks like Facebook and Twitter to create links to your site is to write status updates, Tweets and blog posts that link back to your website and individual web pages within your website.
Search engines track Facebook and Twitter and include updates in their results. If it’s relevant, well-written and useful, the search engine will pick up on it.

Call in Favors

Don’t be afraid to ask for help from family and friends. Enlist the help of loved ones, associates, friends, acquaintances and co-workers to spread the word about your website. It’s a form of viral marketing that uses word-of-mouth advertising. Ask if you can post on their website with a reference and link to yours, or ask close friends and family to use one of your keywords as a highlighted link on their social media page.

Be careful and don’t abuse the relationship, make sure the link is relevant and is something that’s beneficial to them or their friends, readers, and subscribers.

Fast Data Center Connectivity for Faster Websites

Today, more and more homes and businesses have access to high speed internet. Speed of websites is definitely a part of the Google algorithm. High speed internet will play a larger role in providing search results for online users. Small businesses need websites and internet connectivity that is fast and always on. Nonstop online operations allow webmasters to keep fresh, original content online without any downtime for users. Businesses and home users rely on high speed internet for a connection they can count on. In the same way, search engines want to make sure they deliver search results to websites that are speedy and always running.

Bots and crawlers have begun to look at the load speed of individual websites. This information was posted on Google’s Official Webmaster Central Blog, and Matt Cutts wrote about the issue of speed in a blog post, entitled, “Google Incorporating Site Speed in Search Rankings.” Cutts is the head of Google’s Search Quality group. His article reveals how page speed is going to become an important factor in determining search engine rankings. Searchers want fast, accurate search results without having to wait endlessly for a page to load.

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Blake Sanders is a tech writer at broadband comparison site Broadband Expert. With a specialization in high speed internet and wireless broadband, Blake writes on the latest industry news and information regarding internet.

Before a scheme can enter the PPF it must go through a period of assessment, lasting a minimum of one year. A scheme will be eligible to go through this assessment period if it has been subject to a qualifying insolvency event (for example, the appointment of administrators). The assessment is essentially an evaluation of the scheme’s assets and liabilities, to determine whether or not a scheme is able to afford annuities for its members at or above the level of compensation that would be awarded by the PPF. All data is reviewed to ensure that the correct level of compensation is awarded to members. If the scheme is unable to afford the appropriate annuities, then its assets are transferred directly to the Fund and the Pension Protection Fund Board becomes responsible for paying members the appropriate compensation. At this stage, all members of the scheme will be notified of the relevant contact details for the PPF.

Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS)

Pension scheme members hit by scheme insolvency may also be eligible for the Financial Assistance Scheme. Managed by the Board of the Pension Protection Fund, the FAS makes payments to top up scheme benefits to members of schemes that are insolvent or on the verge of becoming insolvent. Owing to its different funding basis, the FAS is subject to different regulations from the PPF. The FAS offers help to members who have lost out on their pension. The conditions of assistance are as follows:

1. Members must have been part of an underfunded benefit scheme that started to wind up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005

or

2. Members must have been part of a scheme that could not afford to pay its members the appropriate benefits, in cases where the employer cannot pay the shortfall (because it is insolvent, or obsolete, or no longer under any obligation to pay its debt to the pension scheme)

or

3. Members were part of a scheme that started to wind up after 5 April 2005 but the employer became insolvent before this date, therefore making the scheme ineligible for help from the Pension Protection Fund

FAS annual payments act as a ‘top up’ to the pension paid by the scheme to the equivalent of roughly 90% of members’ accrued pension rights. At this stage of assessment, calculations determine the appropriate levels of assistance and amounts of compensation for scheme members. All pensions must be paid at PPF levels of compensation. This means that members at or above the scheme’s normal pension age at the start date of the assessment will receive 100% of their pension. This also applies to those in receipt of an ill-health pension, or a survivor’s pension. Those members under normal pension age at the start date of the assessment will receive 90% of their pension entitlement, subject to a compensation cap.
For more information, visit the Pension Protection Fund website.

High-achieving teens entering their junior or senior year in high school may take one of two courses in a seven-week, residential program from July 5 – August 19.

* Babson Entrepreneur Development Experience: for the current or aspiring entrepreneur who wants to discover how to fit his/her business idea into the greater world picture through lessons of corporate citizenship and business development.

* Babson Idea Generation Program: for the aspiring changemaker who wishes to create innovative, real-world solutions to social, economic, and environmental issues — now. The student must want to develop his/her problem-solving skills and work in a challenging and fun team environment.

Tuition for either course is $7,380 and includes housing, meals, activities, and 4 college credits.

Each of these courses is taught by top-ranked faculty in a challenging campus environment. Students will earn 4 college credits and they may opt to take a second 3-credit class in courses that may include: macroeconomics, accounting, business law, calculus, printmaking or a foundation class in arts & humanities. They will differentiate themselves from their peers for college applications and have the opportunity to build their network in meeting with business leaders and industry experts, all while exploring the city of Boston.

High-achieving teens entering their sophomore year in high school may participate in a one week nonresidential experience from June 27 – July 1.

* Service Learning Experience: a non-residential program for rising sophomores who are passionate about social outreach and want to spend their summer experience helping some of the world’s biggest changemakers locally to make an immediate difference. No college credits are earned for this program.

Tuition for Service Learning Experience is $400 including materials and lunch.

Babson’s Summer Study Programs for High School Students provide a living/learning laboratory for students to focus on applying and advancing their knowledge in business and entrepreneurship. In this collaborative community, students will gain the tools and experience to impact and reshape organizations, industries and the world. Each program will introduce students to Babson’s way of Entrepreneurial Thought and Action and provide resources and strategies for students to think about company and world issues through their classes, cases, speakers and scheduled activities.

The application deadline is March 1, 2011. For more information visit: www.babson.edu/summerstudy.

The Business Start-Up Institute was created by Jim Holley, an experienced entrepreneur who left a secure position in aerospace engineering to pursue his own venture 20 years ago.  After selling his business, Holley set out to help aspiring entrepreneurs avoid the trials he had encountered on his own journey.

The Entrepreneurship Program curriculum, which has drawn classroom crowds at prestigious U.S. universities for many years, is available online at http://www.BusinessStartUpInstitute.com.  All courses feature video lectures and allow students to learn at their own pace. Along with links to online resources, the courses include tools such as a financial forecast template and a guide for writing a winning business plan.

Read more here.

The Reinvention Summit is the first ever virtual conference on the future of storytelling. It’s a real Stone Soup creation that has been produced in just 90 days through the hard work of many people. There will no doubt be many stories to share in the coming days and weeks.

The live sessions are scheduled from November 11 through November 22, 2010. There are 4 broadcasts scheduled per day from 2-6pm ET/11am-3pm PT.

In addition to LIVE access, all paid attendees get access to conference archives for playback on your own time.

The Reinvention Summit celebrates the One-Year Anniversary publication of our book – Believe Me: a Storytelling Manifesto for Change-Makers and Innovators. Discover why your vision, brand, and leadership need a bigger story, especially when you’re in the midst of reinvention. In this quick and provocative read, you’ll explore a new mindset for better relating to others in this new age of communications. This book contains 15 storytelling axioms that can shift how you think and relate to your world.

Read more here.

“Personal Investing: The Missing Manual provides an easy-to-understand introduction to investing,” explain the authors. “We provide step-by-step instructions to setting up a low-maintenance investment portfolio for any goal. We also summarize the overwhelming choices available in college and retirement savings accounts, their pros and cons, and the best ways to use them. Readers will also find boatloads of helpful tips, like how to divvy up retirement money when investment choices are limited (like many 401ks) or how to save for college for more than one child.”

Personal Investing: The Missing Manual will show you the important stuff you need to know:

• Investing demystified. Get clear, real-world examples of why investing is crucial to your financial goals.
• How to invest. Learn how to evaluate four types of investments so you make the right decisions
• Hidden gems. Discover lesser-known, low-cost investments that provide tax advantages
• Retirement, Education, Healthcare. Find chapters devoted to the fine points of each of these big-ticket goals
• Flexibility. Learn how to change your investment strategy as you age
• Choices. Find an investment plan that’s right for you—whether you’re a conservative investor or a go-for-broke risk-taker

Personal Investing: The Missing Manual is the third in a series of three books—including Your Money: The Missing Manual and Buying a Home: The Missing Manual—aimed at helping readers make sound financial decisions.

• A few minutes every day is worth a hundred hours at the last minute: Your task may be huge, but it’s easier to attempt to chip away at it little by little rather than tackle the entire thing in one go. The same applies when it comes to studying for your exams; even though you’re a busy entrepreneur, it’s best to spend at least half an hour every day looking over your notes and going through what you’ve done in class. This helps your memory register facts and information more effectively and also makes your job much easier when it’s time to take your exams. You don’t have to cram and stress out at the last minute because you feel you haven’t studied enough.
• Build and maintain a study network: It’s always wise to stay connected to the others in your class, even if you’re all from diverse backgrounds and locations. You may have missed a lesson or two and need to catch up; you may want to tap their brains and clear your doubts or engage them in study discussions; or you may want to team up and do some combined study during your exams. Whatever the reason, it’s good to keep in touch with your peers in class.
• Approach your degree as you would a business issue: You may be a hotshot entrepreneur, but when it comes to your class and your school, you’re a student just like the rest of the class. So you owe it yourself to do the best you can instead of relegating this as just another fad that you’re trying out. If you decide to go back to school, you must apply yourself seriously to the job of studying and completing your assignments. If you’re not going to put in the required amount of effort, then it’s not worth your time or money.

Entrepreneurs have an edge over their classmates if they’re pursuing a business degree because of their years of experience. When they combine their practical experience with the theoretical knowledge they gain in class, they’re well on the path to success.
—
This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degrees . She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com

But still, over here the US crisis, is what we see on TV or hear elsewhere. So I’ve heard that many of the (younger) professional use the crisis time to complete their studies and be better prepared next time the company gets back on track. If you are looking to take some business & Entrepreneurship courses, Christina Laun has prepared an excellent list: 100 Ivy League Business & Entrepreneurship Courses You Can Take for Free.

She says: “Just because you don’t have the deep pockets or stellar grades it takes to get into top tier schools doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the same resources these establishments offer. Through open courseware programs, you can access course materials from a wide range of top universities. Whether you decide to take these courses on your own time or just skim through the information, we’ve compiled a list of 100 places to start looking for great business and entrepreneurship information.”

From the list, I’ve selected a few that seem interesting for a small business owner:

• Entrepreneurial Marketing: Gain some new perspective on your business’ marketing from this course. You’ll be able to analyze to whom you are trying to sell products and the best ways to do so given your resources.
• The Software Business: If you have an interest in starting a software company, this course can be a good place to get some introductory information.
• Introduction to Marketing: This basic marketing course covers the 5 C’s: Customer needs, Company skills, Competition, Collaborators, and Context.
• Listening to the Customer: Communication isn’t just about conveying ideas within your office but with your customers as well. This course will help you learn to better get feedback from your customers about your products and services so you can create more effective marketing plans and products.

The complete list is here.

The Yahoo Boostrapers Group is for:

1. The bootstrapping entrepreneur using a variety of personal or other available resources to start a new venture without the benefit of external funding

2. The bootstrapper already operating a business and using bootstrapping techniques to grow his/her venture

3. Anyone who is planning or has ever dreamed of starting a small business but believes it will require too much money or hard-to-get external investment to make that dream a reality.

4. Those friendly to the efforts of bootstrap entrepreneurs either with experience and background in business or some related field who can offer help, support or advice to those starting or growing a business with little or no financing or outside investment.

The group is open for anyone to join here: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/thebootstrappersgroup/

First thing, I tried to see what it does and got the answer from the opening press release: “Instead of going to MySpace to scour through teenagers and goth queens, the casual business owner can now have a home among his peers. Sta.rtUp.biz is a small business social network where networking and resources intersect.”

So I’ve decided to sign-up to see what is what. First, you can build your profile – no surprise here, and if you invite 5 more people you get access to the eBusiness library with over 165 ebooks (let me know if you want an invitation from me).

Also you get access to the discussion forum – and most importantly the discussions are moderated by 3 experts: a corporate lawyer is there to answer any legal question. The “Search Guru” guides your website up the Google rankings with the free search engine optimization, and the veteran serial entrepreneur acts as your mentor on all business management and strategy.

A section you definetively don’t want to miss is the Motivational Video Clips area – like this video about a 5 years old entrepreneur – who did well. Looking at the Ask an Expert area – plenty of action there – good sign.

Starting a Business had never been easier! Well, have a look and let me know what you think.

• Be Professional. People usually find it difficult to maintain the same level of professionalism at home as they do at a 9-5. But believe me, professionalism is key to your success as a home business owner.

Correct! The thing that usually happens is that because you are small, you tend to do some things on a lower level, some sort of “well, it’s going to work this way as well” in which “this way” is not very good. Of course, in some cases, you simply can’t perform better, but if you let this add up, you will get a messy business. You will have not so good contracts, not so good offers, not so good customer care, not so good supplies and then, you’re not so good either.

• Separate Business from Pleasure. You have to be able to separate your business hours from your personal time. Take it from me, getting the two of these mixed up is both very easy and very costly.

Balance in life is probably my biggest issue right now. So yes, you should separate business for pleasure, even if you work with your family. Ok, you are colleagues at work, but as soon as the work is over, don’t forget they are your family. Or other way put, don’t bring your business into your family, but you can bring your family into your business.

• Location, Location, Location. If you do not have an office in your home, I suggest that you at least get a computer desk and arrange all of your business valuables around that. This is important because it helps to keep you focused on your tasks. You can be a lot more professional if you are not constantly reminded that you are at home.

Agreed. If you are working from your couch, your commitment, way you solve things and everything else goes down. Also, usually, home, means your private place where you can feel safe away from any outside dangers. And this is going to modify your perception about the outside world. Not sure if you become lazy or something, but for sure you develop some sort of autistic behavior.

• Demand Respect. Don’t sell yourself short. The minute you pay your incorporation or DBA fees, you are officially a legitimate business in your industry. You must demand the respect of your competitors as well as your customers.

Moreover, in some parts of the World you can’t do business without incorporating. Also, you need a name to put on your business cards.

• Spend Less, Make More. Be frugal with your spending in the beginning. I guarantee you that hard times are coming and you will want to sell that $300 chair and $4,000 laptop when they arrive.

I have approached this subject on several occasions. There is a saying: “if you buy a BMW from your first year, it’s a sure sign you will get down sooner or later”. Don’t make any investments that don’t have a direct result in the production. Better invest in something to grow your business.

• Build Relationships. Trust me, people are usually more loyal to people than they are to companies.You should be able to identify with the customer a lot better than the corporation that has 50,000 employees.

Well, yes. Word of mouth is a very important sales tool when you are small. It doesn’t matter what you do, but it always matter who you know.

• Separate Accounting. Be sure to keep your personal funds and your business funds separate. It is very tempting to get your companies money mixed up with yours(especially when they are kept in the same account).

I said that as well, in an article over www.boostrapme.com – Bootstrappers should keep finances separate

• Monkey See, Money Do. Success is duplicatible, so make sure that you don’t let your competitors leave you behind. Everyone copies everyone, so if you see a technique or practice that could work for you, copy it. Add it to what you are doing because I guarantee you that they will duplicate your next big breakthrough.

I don’t have anything against getting inspiration resources from your competition. In fact, the business that do well are business that do the same like all the others, just a little better!

• Business is Business. Oftentimes friends and family, who are all well-intentioned, will hinder your business from being successful. It is OK to allow your friends and family to benefit from your labor.

Fully commented on this over here.

• Visit “Ben Means Business”

Ok, a little nice self promotion You can read more stuff on Ben’s blog about interesting subjects: Choosing the Perfect Business Name, The Seasons of Your Business and many more

• Bootstrapping a green business
• Start a record store-without the records!
• Start a thrift shop for $900 (I wonder what is thrift??)
• Bootstrapping a print solution

and many more.

Got something to bootstrap? Write me about your idea, and maybe will find a way together!

They say: “I just want to share with you issues I dealt with starting out — and consequences of some I still have to deal with today. This is written with a Metro Manila, Philippines setting in mind but should be easily replicated elsewhere.”

Here are the 7 tasks in the article (with my comments of course)

• Unleash the Entrepreneur within

While they give plenty of external resources on this one, I think it’s missing a point. Money! The only reason entrepreneurs want to start a business is to make money. Of course, money can have different names like work for yourself, being your own boss, pride and recognition, or whatever reason an entrepreneur might have, but the real framework for anything you would like to accomplish is making money.

• Save at least 3 months worth of living expenses…

Even if they are talking about web start-ups which might require little or no initial investment, planing to earn a living from the newly started business in 3 months might be fullish. Unless there are some special conditions which allow you to get customers, deliver and cash money in very short sales cycle, chances are that it will take about a year to get the financial security you need (and that if you are lucky). But yes, you should save money, make a budget and be prepared to say what they say: “I used to buy nice clothes or shoes at least once a month or whenever I eye a sale; since starting our company, I’d buy a nice dress every quarter or so — and no new shoes!”

• Find 1 or 2 partners

I have started the same, with 2 partners. And while I know it was the only way I could start a company at that time, you should think very well about picking up your partners. Most likely is not very important who your partners are if things don’t work, but it makes all the difference in the world if it works and there are money to burn. Once again, an impressive list of external resources on this subject on the blog.

• Register your company

Interesting to see what it takes to start a business in Philippines.

• Have a common conducive workplace

(I had to look in the dictionary to find out what conducive means ). Basically the workplace should be a good enough environment to start a business and to sustain whatever you are doing. Of course I agree with that, but chances are that you might need a year or so to be able to rent a nice place to work. Usually if you start small, an office at home is quite ok, especially if you start an online business like they did.

• Raise funds from your own pocket and from family and friends

Unless you are in USA, is quite hard to find investors ready to burn money for just an idea. Everywhere else, be prepared to have a 7 figures turnover to get the investors attention. Once again, relevant articles are linked on the paragraph there.

• Focus your efforts

While they have a funny explanation about focusing on the business “I gave up my car and comfortable living at my parents’ to stay in a cheap condo so I can be near our office.”, most likely one of the early days issues is that because you have bills to pay, you can’t say no to customers or business lines that simply aren’t good enough to make you grow. You know that for this customer you will work more than you should, you know that on the long run, doing X or Y is going to slow you down, but you are simply too hungry not to take the job!

I would add an extra step:

• Make a business plan!

While some will not agree with this one, is absolutely fundamental to see what it takes to pay the bills. What are your expenses, how you are going to cover them and how long till you break even.Well, enough ramblings, you better have a look at the “7 Must-Do Tasks Before You Start Up” – there are plenty of resources there which you might find interesting.

Oh, and good luck to the people behind the blog and their venture!

• FSB Care
• Business Banking
• Telecom
• Deposit Account
• Mobile Terminals
• Financial Services
• Factors
• Legal Benefits Package
• Credit Card
• Insurance Service
• Finance for Business
• Medical
• Merchant Services
• Legal Information Online
• Delivery Service

Want to find out more about what these mean? Here is the site section dedicated to FSB members benefits. I think that also the library of documents might be interesting for small entrepreneurs in UK.

But what’s really interesting (and in fact the part that made me stop and have a look) is the FSB forum where you can find real questions and solutions from entrepreneurs on subjects like: Employing immigrants, Funding startups, or Bureaucracy gone mad!

Nice! I’d love to have a non-profit organization back here to help me with the legal aspects of running a business and all the rest! But there aren’t any – maybe we should do one?

I’m not sure about the printed magazine, but the blog is interesting because of it’s dual approach: it got interesting information about business environment in the Asean region and also general thoughts, ideas and articles on running a Small Business in general.

I had a look at the articles about Small Businesses, and I have to say that they are well targeted and easy to understand. Let’s take a look at a recent article: Common mistakes small businesses make – it’s short and well thought. The first point they approach is “Doing it all alone.” I think this is the most common pitfall in all small business start-ups! They have another good article called: “Simplifying Just In Time” – it talks about the Just In Time concept implemented first by Toyota: “The original practice of JIT involves a demand-pull system, which means customer orders prompt production so the company does not produce inventories for stock. Raw materials arrive at the factory floor just in time for production. Needless to say, JIT involves minimal to virtually zero inventories.” I didn’t know about this, and it seems there is more on the subject in the printed magazine.

Talking about doing business in the Asean region, there are plenty of articles about regional meetings, SAAS in India.

Here it is again: SME Insight from Philippine

I stumbled across this article: 99 Life Lessons Learned from Quitting Corporate America – some are funny, some are simple facts, but they all seem to be real! Here is one that is hard to understand for a Web Junkie like me: “13. Software and high-tech is not the only industry in the world. People become billionaires and millionaires making ketchup, selling hairagami or making dumpling.”

Anyway, you can have a quick overview of her writings by looking at the “Most Popular of EdithYeung.com” column in the right side. From the categories I can see that she writes most about success , something all entrepreneurs want to have. And here is the archive with all the posts so far.

I had an interview there a few years ago about my own entrepreneurship experiences and I’ve also did some guest-posting on several occasions. I’m adding below some links to some of the great posts – but really, they are highly irrelevant, you should get and read it all:

1.  Balance especially important for part-time entrepreneurs
2. Don’t mix personal finance with business finance (that’s one of my guest postings
3. How to make your business great

These have been said, I invite you to subscribe to Bootstrape RSS here so you don’t lose any of the writings!

His blog is about personal experiences, feelings, thoughts and facts in his everyday life. I would recommed it as a light reading as the blog seems to be quite new. Some of the topics are:

•  TURNING A MISTAKE INTO A SALE
• IF YOU DON’T TRY, THEY’LL NEVER BUY
• THOROUGHLY UNDERSTAND CUSTOMER NEEDS

Althought I don’t find the blog design particulary user friendly, the BizzBangBuzz blog is an incredible collection of resources for entrepreneurs – each post quotes a relevant article on the respective subject. It’s like reading 100 or more blogs into 1 – it has plenty of subjects (the blog starts in 2004!). Probably the easiest way to take advantage of the blog is by subscribing to it’s RSS Feed – and read the articles that interest you.

Here is a list of the most recent articles currently on the homepage – just to have an idea:

• Avoid Rookie Mistakes
• Outline of an Employee Handbook
• Top Ten Management Concepts

I know I don’t have time to write about all the 100 blogs in the list, but I will try. Let’s start bottom up.

 The Freestyle Entrepreneur blog

I believe that the most relevant way to talk about this blog is talking about it’s co-owners and their entrepreneurial path and contribution to the business world.

• John R. Ingrisano  says about himself: “I’m an SBO (that stands for Small Business Owner, just in case you were curious). Why am I an SBO?  My kids say it’s because I’m unemployable.  I’ve been outside the box way too long to go back to being a cubicle-dwelling wage slave.  Plus, I hate meetings with a passion and would rather change the whole course of my business on a two-mile walk with my dogs than spend six months sitting through dozens of meetings to form a committee to look into revising the lunchroom menu.”
• Jeff Hunsaker, co-owner of The Freestyle Entrepreneur: “Admittedly, I only aspire to be entrepreneurial…but I share in the excitement and believe it embodies the future of working in the United States.

The blog itself it’s a nice collection of stories from the day by day life of any entrepreneur, together with personal experiences that give hints on how entrepreneurs are runing their businesses.

But where are all these ideas come from? Well, in a twisted and un-expected strange way, the ideas come from…blogging. Yes, blogging is an outgoing process in which you share your thoughts with the world. But then again, blogging is an incoming process in the same time. Somewhere in the process of playing smart and write a blog, bloggers need to accumulate knowledge about the things they are writing.

They are reading other blogs, they receive comments from readers and maybe they do guest blogging. And for that, they start to know things. And if you know things (like why the banners don’t work anymore, or what’s the market status or anything else) you are getting smarter. Because you can have an opinion on things.

Sure, your colleagues might know the market as good as you know it, but you have an advantage. Because you are blogging, you know how to communicate your knowledge better, in the same way you are connecting to your readers.