Business & Marketing Information
Web Design and Development Resources
The following business resources have track records for helping many web designers and small business entrepreneurs across the globe create better online marketing strategies.
If there is a common thread in most of these business resources, it is that they are people or organizations that teach business owners new ways of thinking.
All to often, when it comes to finances and business, its seems that the subconscious programming people receive as children results in business decisions getting made based upon unquestioned "sacred cow" assumptions or internal rules that have no basis in fact. The resources below help owners take a more realistic view point of business, finance and marketing.
Don't worry, if the tiger is behind Door Number 2, consider these business resources as Door Number 3 with the potential for helping you make that pile of cash.
Business Resource Information |
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| NFIB, "The Voice of Small Business", provides information on starting, running and selling your business; lobbies for small businesses, sends out information newsletters, tax information, and member cost reduction benefits for items such as insurance and office supplies. | |
| A business association that has educational material, lobbies for small businesses and sends information on the latest nonsense from Washington, and member cost reduction benefits for items such as insurance and office supplies. | |
| "Counselors to America's Small Business", SCORE is a resource partner of the SBA that puts together working and retired business executives and owners who want to donate time and expertise as business counselors to assisting small business owners. | |
| The government's agency that provides financial, technical and management assistance to help entrepreneurs start, run, and grow their businesses. A lot of information on the website, but not the best navigation to find it. | |
| The government's resource of links to information on starting, building and...(roll the drums please)...paying taxes for your company. | |
| A magazine dedicated to reporting cutting edge business practices. Classic articles on psychopaths in the business place and how to create change. If you could only have one magazine on a desert island... | |
| A database of resources, "How To" guides and interviews. | |
Business Management & Decision Making Resources |
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| Any of his books - Overcoming Organizational Defenses is good - helps you build an organization that communicates more honestly and at a higher level of trust. Chris shows how just an organization's structure can often lead us to do the things that we rather wouldn't do (no not like "working", more like saying one thing and thinking the opposite). This link is Wikipedia's page, but its a good starting point. | |
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The official TOC website of the organization founded on the work of Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt. His first two books The Goal and It's Not Luck are primers for any business owner. When you see that most businesses fail from fixing the problem that management is comfortable with, instead of fixing the real problem, you find that TOC's information is a real change agent in your thinking. Also focuses on seeing your company as your customers see it. |
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| Bill Dettmer and a group of TOC consultants at the forefront of creating better manufacturing, accounting and business practices. This link is to their papers - hours of good reading. | |
| Justin Roff-Marsh's website for his Sales Process Engineering consultancy. Apply systems thinking to the sales process leads to greater productivity and sales. If you ar a sales manager or small business owner seeking to boost sales, the white papers are definitely worth subscribing to his resource library. | |
| I love this guy! Clarke Ching interviews all the top thinkers in TOC and posts them in his blog. Clarke has built up a great management resource here. | |
| A resource for Dr. Edward de Bono's work on thinking practices for businesses. Different tools like the Six Thinking Hats are based on the finding that for businesses "the need to have clarity of thinking, which will produce the highest quality follow through and action is critical." | |
A Few Small Business Books That Are A Must |
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| Getting beyond the title, this is a great book that makes sense of group dynamics and shows business owners the basic principles that must be met to have a healthy and creative "tribe". After reading it, I found that I could go into businesses and in a few minutes know if the business had a healthy atmosphere or the kind of atmosphere that is bad for you mental and emotional health. For job seekers, a great tool for quickly figuring out which are the best companies to join. | |
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An overview to Theory of Constraints management by Gerald Kendall. In 176 pages, Gerry nails it for busy executives that need the information, but don't have the time for distill all this information from five or six other books. Covers areas of improving sales, supply chain, project management and getting rid of the "silo thinking" that causes departments to be at war over resources to the overall detriment of the company. |
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