COMMON ISSUES MOST FAMILY BUSINESSES FACE A family-owned business is any business in which two or more family members are involved and the majority of ownership or control lies within a family. Family-owned businesses may be the oldest form of business organization, and today they are recognized as important and […]
TIPS FOR MANAGING BUSINESS CYCLE DOWNTURNS A business cycle is a sequence of economic activity in a nation’s economy that is typically charac6erised by four phases – recession, recovery, growth, and decline – that repeat themselves over time. Economists note, however, that complete business cycles vary in length. The duration […]
REASONS WOMEN BECOME ENTREPRENEURS Women have owned and operated businesses for decades, but they were rarely recognized or given credit for their efforts. Often, women entrepreneurs were “invisible” as they worked side by side with their husbands, and many only stepped into leadership positions when their husbands died. But a […]
WHEN AUTOMATION BECOMES NECESSARY FOR A SMALL BUSINESS Automation refers to the use of computers and other automated machinery for the execution of business-related tasks. Automated machinery may range from simple sensing devices to robots and other sophisticated equipment. Automation of operations may encompass the automation of a single operation […]
DECIDING WHETHER TO HIRE A CONSULTANT A consultant is an individual who possesses special knowledge or skills and provides that expertise to a client for a fee. Consultants help all sorts of businesses find and implement solutions to a wide variety of problems, including those related to business start-up, marketing, […]
STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL INVESTOR PRESENTATIONS Investor presentations are an important but often overlooked aspect of entrepreneurial efforts to secure financing for their businesses. Presentations are particularly important to business owners hoping to raise money from private investors. Whereas institutional investors such as banks rely primarily on financial statements, business plans, […]
KEY ELEMENTS OF A BUSINESS PROPOSAL Business proposals are documents that attempt to persuade targeted clients to buy a particular service or products. These documents, which are used in academia and government as well as business and industry, nay range from relatively short (a few pages) proposals to “formal” documents […]
REASONS FOR BUSINESS FAILURE Business failure is defined as the closing of a business that results in financial loss for at least one of the business’s creditors. An associated term, business dissolution, refers to the formal termination or closure of a business as well, but with dissolution, financial loss (for […]
SPECIFIC EXPENSE ACCOUNT POLICIES FOR A SMALL BUSINESS Expense accounts, also called expense allowances, are plans under which companies reimburse employees for business-related expenses. These expenses include travel, entertainment, gifts, and other expenses related to the employer’s business activity. Of particular interest to businesses and their employees is the tax […]
HOW GROUPTHINK WORKS Groupthink is defined as “a mode of thinking people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. Groupthink refers to the deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and […]
