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Like
Science Fiction? DISC
is Stu's first full length novel. Available now in both hard cover and soft cover at Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnesandnoble.com
and at your local bookstore. For a complete description visit the publisher's website at: https://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=15505 To request a personally autographed copy contact
Stu at: DiscTheNovel@aol.com INTERESTING NEWS NOTE! STU RECENTLY SIGNED WITH PARADISE PRODUCTIONS
IN MARYLAND FOR MOVIE RIGHTS TO DISC! TO CELEBRATE
WE ARE GIVING AWAY THE E-BOOK VERSION (THAT'S FREE, NO CHARGE, GRATIS!) FOR A SHORT TIME. YOU CAN NOW DOWNLOAD THE
ENITRE FULL-LENGTH NOVEL BY CLICKING ON THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! Small Business Related Columns Stu has been a monthly columnist for the Richmond
(Virginia) Times-Dispatch since 2003. His column, Talking Business, is specific to
Small Business related issues and content, and has been quoted from the West Coast to Florida. Those columns
(and more) are are now available for use by weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly publications and educational institutions.
Column size varies from 500 to 700 words. Editors interested in future syndicated columns on an ongoing basis (with protected
territories) should contact the SMN Consulting Group 804-730-9125 Titles and partial content of selected columns are below.
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Elements of Small Business Success Succeeding in business isn’t really all that difficult if you follow a few short “rules of
the road”. Simply put, to succeed in business you have to do one of three things that are superior to what the competition
offers: You have to do something better, do something cheaper, or do something
faster. Or, do a combination of the above. The hard part in following that advice
is that you have to make a profit at the same time. That is
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Why Small Businesses
Fail America is a nation of Entrepreneurs. The ability and right to start a small business
has been a tradition since the inception of our country. Small business has sustained our strength through numerous wars over
the last several hundred years, and has allowed our country to prosper during periods of peace. The vision of self-sufficiency, independence, and personal pride that has bred entrepreneurs to go on to
become successful business people is truly part of the
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Business
Lessons from Football? Your Team Depends on It. In the world of small business, a business owner is much like the coach of a major football
team. He is the expert in his field, experienced the industry. He assembles the best talent available with the resources available.
He plans the moves of the company, and arranges that talent within so that it best benefits the company as a whole. He tries
to build a team. Yet many times that team fails to function as it should. To learn why that sometimes happens, we might take
a lesson or two from football.
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Persistence
is Key to Success Building
a successful business is a lot like running in a race. When you start you are full of energy and can easily envision reaching
your goal, be it one mile or ten. Once the run begins the real work starts…your body loses strength; you become fatigued;
you begin to lose focus. The farther you go, the harder it is to continue. You question why you are doing this and whether
you can actually finish. For many, the very hardest part is just before they can actually see the goal, the finish line, and
the end point of their run. Many simply give up at this point, however if they had lasted just that little bit longer –
and come within visual distance of their ending point – they might have found that extra inspiration that would have
enabled them to finish the run. Instead they give up, they
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Employee or Independent Contractor? Beware mistakes. Perhaps one of the most misunderstood areas in employment law for a majority of small business owners
is the determination of whether a person is an employee or an independent contractor.
It is also one of the most abused areas, and as such is can be a focus area for the IRS. As such, business owners should
pay special attention to properly classifying the person performing the work. If the person is improperly classified, the
penalties can be extremely harsh. The temptation is there to purposely identify the individual as an independent contractor - the savings to a small business owner can be substantial. Simply by calling a person an independent
contractor and paying a standard hourly rate, the employer can avoid going through the hiring process and then paying the
employer’s matching share of
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Take Time to Recharge Your Mind It’s no secret that most really successful entrepreneurs are workaholics.
That same passion that allowed the launch of the business is often a carryover from a similar interest that actually inspired
the business to begin with, be it a hobby, skill, or other area of interest that the business owner enjoyed. Because of that,
running the business doesn’t seem like work at first. He or she is doing something they love to do while building a
venture around it that – hopefully – will not only provide an income but build equity for later years. Sixty or
seventy hours a week is not unusual for a new business owner. An entrepreneur justifies this by believing that eventually
the fruits of the labor will pay off and that he or she will have more time as the business matures. But as the business builds,
there is more and more to be done. Weeks turn into months, and months turn into
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Too Much, Too Quickly Can Doom a Business You’ve probably read about a company that was started
on a shoestring and quickly soared. An Entrepreneur with a great idea - which
just happens to be at the right time and the right place - starts out on his own part-time, implementing that idea with long
hours, hard work, and boot-strapping his credit cards to get the company off the ground. A year or two later the company has
thirty or so employees, has expanded to new facilities or perhaps added several new locations. A typical American success
story, the press gets wind of it and the company makes the news big-time, the added media coverage increasing sales even more
- beyond the owner’s wildest dreams. With orders rolling in as fast as they can be written, and employees working overtime
to keep them filled, the owner feels he has finally made it. What could possibly go wrong? Two years later the company files for bankruptcy.
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Growing
Your Small Business Here’s a simple question: How do you project your sales forecasts? If you are like most small business owners,
you simply guess. Gotcha, didn’t I!
It is a fact is that most entrepreneurs
have never taken the time to learn how increases in revenues are properly projected using research and analysis. Instead,
they just guess. And what happens when that guess turns out wrong? That may just
be why the failure rate of new businesses has historically been high. When people guess, sometimes they are right –
but usually they are wrong. Projecting
increases in revenues is not rocket science, but it does take a bit of research and then putting that data to work. If this
interests you, let’s take a crash course
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Is the
Customer Always Right? “The
customer is always right.” Most involved with the business world have had
that phrase drilled into them throughout their careers. But is it true? Should
it be an integral part of the “road map” to business success? In my opinion, no. The customer is NOT always right. Here’s
why… The phrase is usually credited as originating
from Marshall Field’s department store located in Chicago
in the early 20th century. It was originally referred to as “The Field Rule” by various publications
of the era. Field, however, didn’t intend the phrase to be taken as meaning the customer is never wrong -- they often
are and he was very aware of that – but rather to instill within employees the ability to make the customer believe he is
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Marketing through Cross-Promotions One of the simplest and least expensive ways to market a small business is also one of the most effective…yet
most entrepreneurs frequently overlook the opportunity. They shouldn’t.
A little imagination, a computer with a good printer, and a copy machine - coupled with another business willing to partner
with you - can substantially increase first-time customer traffic through the doors of both businesses at surprisingly small
cost. Welcome to the realm of cross-promotions. Marketing by cross-promoting businesses is not a new idea; in fact it is used
on a regular basis by some of the biggest names in business. Been in a major fast-food chain store within the last ten years? You may have noticed large display placards promoting the latest movie, or a theme-related
toy in a child’s meal box. Go to the movie theater to see that movie and
bingo…there is that same fast food chain either advertising “up front” or pictured frequently in the background
of the movie sets. The idea is simple…persuade the persons in the restaurant to go see the movie,
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Ineffective E-mail policy can cost your business
money The
advent of E-mail has created a revolution in both the world of business and our personal lives, much to the disdain of our
postal service that can’t (yet) charge for the lost revenues they enjoyed when we used “snail mail” exclusively
for the same communications. What
used to take days – or in the case of international mail, weeks – is now accomplished with the click of a button
and can be read within minutes. Even
better, it’s free. The savings to many businesses that rely on large quantity
mailings can be substantial. So
aside from the SPAM issue we all deal with daily, what could be the downside to such a great tool? In a word: overuse. Have you ever received an email from a co-worker two cubes down?
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Want to read Stu's Science Fiction Novel DISC?
Click on the link below to download the entire novel...all 314 pages! Requires Adobe Reader.
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