There are four main types of insurance for small business owners: general liability, product liability, commercial liability and professional liability. Additionally for small business owners who operate out of their homes it is a good idea to carry home based business insurance. Although business insurance isn’t mandatory by law, it offers peace of mind and security knowing that your business [...]

As a small business maintaining good accounting records is a critical business practice for a number of reasons. These records provide a history of where the business has been, where its assets are currently, and the baseline financial information for where the company can afford to go tomorrow. As a result, for those who understand how to read accounting reports, [...]

An important ingredient in the successful retail or service business is good selling. Without it, many sales are lost–sales that may mean the difference between success and failure. This publication tells how you can train yourself and your employees to become creative sales people.

This guide is designed to help women business owners become more successful by providing them with information about marketing their goods and services to the federal government. It is published by the Office of Women’s Business Ownership of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

An appropriate record-keeping system can determine the survival or failure of a new business. For those already in business, good record-keeping systems can increase the chances of staying in business and the opportunity to earn larger profits. Complete records will keep you in touch with your business’s operations and obligations and help you see problems before they occur. This publication [...]

This publication provides basic information on how to run a successful mail order business. It includes information on selecting, pricing, testing and writing effective advertisements for your products. MAIL ORDER SUCCESSES Almost a hundred years ago, Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald founded Sears, Roebuck and Company, which eventually became a $10 billion corporation. At the same time Aaron Montgomery Ward [...]

Small business and entrepreneurship form an integral part of a healthy national economy. In recent years various factors, such as the impact of privatization and specialization in industry and corporate restructuring and downsizing as influenced by new management theories such as Thomas Peters’ “Liberation Management,” (1) have combined to encourage the emergence of many small and medium-sized companies. At the [...]

“Inventory” to many small business owners is one of the more visible and tangible aspects of doing business. Raw materials, goods in process and finished goods all represent various forms of inventory. Each type represents money tied up until the inventory leaves the company as purchased products. Likewise, merchandise stocks in a retail store contribute to profits only when their [...]

As small business lending decreases in the wake of a poor economy, many small business owners are turning to credit cards, both business and personal to finance operations. Picking a credit card for your business parallels the process for personal cards in many ways. But, no matter how you cut it, doing homework beforehand is key. A dedicated business credit [...]