I Will Keep My Day Job - For Now

Successful entrepreneurs who risked all their money (and sometimes their family's money) to pursue dreams that others considered foolish get lots of press. Their stories are exciting and inspirational but they are also misleading. These risk-taking entrepreneurs are actually the exception. Most business builders succeed by taking a far more conservative approach.
Some examples are: Ben and Jerry. The two budding moguls started by selling their ice cream in a converted Vermont gas station. Only after two years in business did they expand into wholesaling their products to local stores. Google was a side project of two Stanford grad students. Dell Computer was started in a University of Texas dorm room for just $1,000.

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Is Your Pricing Hurting You?

One of the key mistakes that starting entrepreneurs usually do is not pricing their services properly. This is usually a problem that results from not knowing your target market or not understanding your clients' needs. Most entrepreneurs are too humble in pricing their services. I have rarely met a starting entrepreneur who is inclined to charge high prices for his services.
Starting entrepreneurs would typically look at experienced business people and the prices they are charging and conclude that they must charge below those people because they are less experienced and less known in their fields. That is not the right way you should approach prices. Your prices should be based on the VALUE of what you offer your clients not on your insecurities. If what you offer is very valuable to clients, how much others are currently charging for their products is really irrelevant.

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What Are the Ways to Conduct B2B Market Research?

Market research is an important business tool no matter whether you wish to entertain business customers or direct consumers. Carrying out research in b2c and b2b arenas basically follow the similar rules. However, there are some significant differences that do exist. You must know that b2b customers are less than b2c consumers and it is important to leverage less but valuable b2b customers.
Moreover, b2b transactions represent larger sale volumes than b2c transactions. The most important objective should be to gain a competitive edge in your b2b niche. For this, you must conduct b2b market research in the most effective manner. Here are some useful ways and tips that will help you in this direction.

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Small Business Branding - Strategy and Tips

When it comes to brand strategy there are many aspects that you need to consider. Let's talk about three that can make a big difference for your business. The first is developing a logo that your customers will remember, the second is developing a tagline that people will remember, and the third is creating a positive business image that people can associate with your logo and tagline. Let's take a look at a few branding tips to help you in your small business branding endeavor.
As we all know, small business branding helps you to make your business memorable to the public. A large part of making your business memorable is creating a company name that appropriately represents your business. Chances are, if you already have a business, you already have a name. So your next step in your brand strategy is to create a memorable logo to go with that name. Your logo will be a graphic image that represents your company. When people see this logo, they will think of you. Let's take a look at some tips to help you create a perfect logo.

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