Running & Growing Your Business

We'll Sell It!

With dynamic leadership, explosive growth, and a savvy business…

Keep Customer Satisfied

The latest management theories all support one basic conclusion…

Fighting Sale

Tips to help you prospect more effectively.

Perfect Partners

It takes careful planning to create the kind of good partnerships that make for great business.

In Search of Lost Time

These tips for better time management will boost profits at almost any business.

Far-Flung Business Operations

New technologies and creative management strategies make decentralized operations increasingly feasible for small business.

Finishing Strong

Executing your plans effectively is just as important as conceiving them in the first place.

You and your colleagues have invested untold amounts of time, energy and capital into your business. You want to protect it from potential threats- ranging from burglars to computer viruses to fire. Security is especially critical for small companies.

Keep Them Smiling

Happy employees and satisfied customers are two of the invaluable benefits of an effective incentive and recognition program.

Do you have an End Game

Whether you're planning to sell your business or pass it along, thoughtful strategy now will pay dividends later.

Special Delivery, Hug Your Customers

Clothing retailer Mitchells/Richards uses personalized direct mail to retain customers and keep them feeling appreciated.

Is Internet Phone Service for you?

Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services have grown up, and more small businesses are taking notice.

Get Out of the Office

It's a typical day at your small business: You have ringing phones to answer, appointments to juggle, and emergencies to address. That daily routine can drain your time and energy-and leave you with little opportunity to consider bigger issues such as your firm's long-term plans or the cohesiveness of your staff.

Paperwork

Before you drown in a sea of paper, consider streamlining your operations by scanning, shredding, or both.

Special Delivery, To Stand Out, You have to Stick Out

Let the United States Post Office help you put more 'Wow!' into your mailed advertising.

Net Success

Small businesses are ringing up Internet sales. Have you launched your Web site.

Brand Aid

Even Starbucks started small. A strong brand identity is essential for success, no matter what size your business.

Soft Serve

After several false starts, Microsoft, IBM and other technology firms are finally delivering software for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Special Delivery, Transactional mail is effective.

Transactional mail might be considered very last century, but guess what? It's effective.

Step Right Up

Promoting your business can be as tricky as launching one. But our experts, including business consultants and entrepreneurs alike, have strong words about how you can make your special promotions work. Here are six big ideas that shine.

Risky Business

Business is all about risk, but how much of a gambler should you be these days? We asked experts and entrepreneurs for their take on rolling the dice-and winning..

Smart Connections

Staying in touch with your customers, vendors and employees is getting easier-especially via the Web, wireless devices and your trusty cell phone.

Future Tense

To help you through these unsettled economic times, here's a peek at what experts in management, sales and marketing, finance and information technology see as they gaze into their crystal balls.

Crunch Time

Sure, crazed is your middle name-it goes with owning a business. But if you're like many entrepreneurs, you desperately need to get more organized. Learn how to stretch 24 hours into productive (i.e., more profitable) time without hiring new staff or losing your competitive edge.

The Success Factor

You know where your company has been. Any idea where it's going next month or the rest of 2003? Benchmarking, which sounds about as much fun as a weekend of tax preparation, isn't all that painful. And it can help your company grow faster than ever before.

Dirty Deeds

These days, theft and fraud know no bounds-even in companies with small staffs. If you think your business is immune, think again. We give you a primer on how to protect your business from the devastating impact of felony. Even on the Internet.

Breaking Away

Admit it. You need a vacation. But the idea of leaving the office behind makes your head pound. That's why hundreds of vacation spots worldwide have reinvented the getaway-creating venues where you can stay connected to the office and still have the time of your life.

Who Are You?

Whether you've been in business for 20 years or 20 days, taking inventory of your business personality is the first - and most crucial - step toward maintaining or establishing a successful business.

Where's Bernie?

It's three in the morning, and you have a proposal due in less than 24 hours. Then things get interesting: your office computers crash. Whom do you call? A primer on hiring companies to set up, maintain and, yes, fix your company's computer network.