Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with business and small

Cool, easy tattoo parlor website template?

Gucky — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:56:47 -0800

What should I use to set up a simple, cool-looking small business site for a non-techy friend? I bought my cousin-in-law 2 domains for Christmas related to his tattoo parlor. (I searched his small business and found that they didn't have a web page and some other business took the most obvious way to spell their URL.)

I've only hand written a webpage in HTML before or grabbed one of Dreamhost's default WordPress themes.

I don't want to become the business's tech support.

I just want to hand him a paper with a URL and a user name and password and there will be an easily update-able web page with the business, address, link to Google directions and blog and/or Twitter feed and a gallery (possibly a Flickr pull in?)

Do I use Google Sites? Is there a theme that is suitable for a pretty tough tattoo crowd that's easy to use?

Do I host it on my own Dreamhost with a WordPress theme? Is there a WordPress theme you'd recommend?

Low effort. Cool enough. Doesn't require a regular outlay of cash or tech effort. Help?

How do I create a RSS feed for my Amazon Web Store?

Aegean — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:44:56 -0800

I'm trying to figure out how to create a XML / RSS feed of my Amazon web store products so I can update to Google Merchant. There doesn't seem to be many functions / plug-ins offered by AWS and their help isn't very helpful. I've done a fair amount of searching and have come up empty handed. Would anyone have an idea how I might go about creating this feed?

CPSIA - Help me get around this legislation so I can be in business again.

jaynedanger — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:35:57 -0800

CPSIA - Help me get around this legislation so I can be in business again. I started a small online business in January this year selling adorable plushies
It was nothing big by any means, but it made me happier than anything. Since January, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has passed this piece of work:

CPSIA Guide

The CPSIA pretty much makes it illegal to sell my little guys. They are definitely deemed children's toys and I do not have the means to have each handmade custom item tested for lead, etc.

I'm hoping to find away AROUND the law without hurting the integrity of my tiny business. Once I become more familiar with running a business, I plan to take on other business ventures, so I want this one to follow the rules and be appropriate despite it's small size.

I'm aware of all the small business help I can get locally, but my work schedule has kept me from pursuing this help for months. Before I completely drop this idea, I was hoping some of you may be able to give me helpful insight. I am open to any ideas. Here are some that I have considered:

1. Raising the price. This would make them more of a "collector's" item. My customer base would not buy these at a higher price, unless I can do some major revamping. Before I took them off the market, they sold for $15-25.

2. Naming them inappropriate things. This takes care of the children part of the equation, but hurts the integrity of my business. Not really excited about this option.

3. Making them out of compliant, natural materials such as organic cotton. This is still a viable, but boring, option.

Small business failure.

eschatfische — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:36:10 -0800

What happens to the owners when a small business fails? Let's say that Mr. X started a small brick & mortar business. He had a reasonable business plan. He had a bit of savings, but also got an SBA loan as well as a bank loan to finance the rest.

Let's say that Mr. X sets up shop. He works hard preparing, he hires employees, he buys materials, he engages a marketer and advertises and markets the business, opens the doors and... customers just don't come. Let's say he gradually lets the staff go. Still few customers. He tries to find another business that will buy the business he set up. No takers. His hand is forced, and he liquidates the assets and closes the doors. Since he doesn't have a job, he can't repay the remainder of the SBA or bank loans.

What happens next to Mr. X? Does Mr. X lose his home, his car? Does he have to declare personal bankrupcy? Can his business be bankrupt without the risk of him losing his personal possessions?

How can someone wishing to start a small business insulate themselves against the risk of failure? Actual anecdotes about starting a small business and failing would be appreciated.

(Note: I don't own a business -- this is all purely hypothetical.)

How to start marketing a dental office.

beingresourceful — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:52:45 -0800

How do I start marketing a dentist? How do I effectively start marketing a dentist?

She has been a dentist for thirty years (many of those years as a professor), and now she has started her own practice.

She can do cosmetic dentistry, but she really likes pediatric/adolescent dentistry. She is also excellent (and I think prefers to work) at what I could call "major" dentistry, requiring going under. Her practice is located inside a hospital -- definitely something most dentists don't offer. She seems to think cosmetic dentistry is over-saturated (but if your idea is good I can convince her otherwise). I think she really likes those dental-insured patients that need extensive work.

I haven't marketed dentists before. How do I get this lady new clients? I want her to make lots of money, so I can ask for and make lots of money. If it's not win-win, I'd rather not take the job.

Copywriting Woes

ecorrocio — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:44:42 -0800

The A-B-C's of corporate collateral writing: I'm a graphic designer. How do I communicate to my client that willy-nilly editing procedures, and last minute proof-stage rewrites inevitably makes projects run to the last minute? Is there a "standard" procedure for writing/editing? The scenario: Small Company A takes a haphazard approach to writing key copy for brochures and material - a "design it first, then we'll re-do it again and again" methodology. This consistently makes projects run to the very last second, and incurs all kinds of rush charges from printers etc. Plus, it tends to result in disjointed copy.

Small Company B knows how to write/edit. They write copy, circulate, edit, THEN provide it for insertion into the design. The only edits that tend to occur are typos and layout.

How do I turn Company A's approach into Company B's?

Help us rebuild our office Email/management setup.

damiano99 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:38:55 -0800

Small Office/Outlook Filter: I'm part of a small, family-run non-profit organization and we're attempting to drag ourselves, screaming, into the 21st century. Right now the main email is AOL and has been for years. (I know, I know.) We want to transition to a setup that allows us to have our own emails, yet share calendars and tasks. With our setup, what advice can you give on our setup? (more inside) Our office is split. 3 of us are in one city and the 4 is in another. We would like to maintain an address book, calendar and task/to-do setup that can be shared by all of us, while still keeping personal things private. Because of securty, it looks like to forgo Google Apps and go with a hosted Exchange server. We all have decent experience with Outlook and everyone already has 2007 on their machines. The problem with all this is that, 2 of the us (the "bosses") currently share an email on AOL which they monitor together. It can be confusing because our main office email is there and then they also get their personal emails on it, which makes it difficult to separate for each person.

What is the best way to handle that? Should we create one address for the office that is the catchall that we can all access and give them their own personal address? What other options are there and what pitfalls should we be wary of?

How to collect money owed?

r80o — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:21:08 -0800

I own a small tech business and have a few accounts that simply will not pay. The amounts owed range from $500 to $5000. I've tried turning the accounts over to collection agencies, but they don't understand tech so they have ignored the delinquent accounts. Any suggestions on how best to get paid, even partial payment or at least tell me how to file a "charge off".

Free website for small business

sorrenn — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:10:51 -0800

What are the different ways that I can get a free website for my small business?

Hang out the shingle or get more experience first?

Happydaz — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:10:50 -0800

I just graduated from law school on Sunday. I want to open my own law firm and practice criminal law after I pass the Oregon bar. But how can I get up to speed fast enough that I don't give my new clients poor legal services? I've been reading several books on starting your own practice. (Foonberg's 4th edition, How to Start your own Solo Practice and Succeed by Gerald Singer, and Solo by Choice.) But these books all focus on the business side of starting a law practice. Getting clients, running an office, whether you have the right personality to solo, etc. What I want to know is can I realistically become competent enough in criminal law that my clients aren't getting screwed while I learn the ropes?

I would really like to hear from anyone who has started their own law firm in any area of law. Did you start right out of law school or did you work for someone else first? What would you change if you could do it again?

Business broadband

cowmix — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:56:51 -0800

I need broadband for my business that is slightly better than what you can get from normal DSL. What are my options? My new office is located in Rockville, MD (20852) and we need at least 5 mbit upstream as well as 5mbit down stream. What are the options available now for small businesses and specifically where we are located?

Covad and Verizon have not been very helpful in this quest so far.

How do I identify a company that develops online registration/scheduling software?

ewiley28 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:09:11 -0800

How can I identify software for online registration for soccer training sessions? I'm thinking there are some solutions out there that are basically blackbox that can then be tailored to my site, but I haven't been able to turn them up. I don't want to use just something like regonline.com because I have people signing up for each session and there are dozens of different sessions in a week. I've seen a couple of software programs on website that look like they could work, but I wasn't able to find any information on the development of any of these, so I don't know if they are in-house software or if they are some sort of commercially available product.

Ideally, I would like to be able to show initially two months (current and next) when a person signs in with the date clickable if there are spaces available for them to register that day. Then, by clicking on the date, it would show the specific sessions available. There are 8 sessions most days and can be up to 8 individuals in a session, but the software would need to be able to note when 8 had been met and show that session as not available.

So, how do I go about identify a product that can be used to provide this type of service? I'm thinking that it's probably something that will need some development/tailoring to make fit my needs, but I'm guessing the company that has developed something like this would be designed to handle that.

What kind of records do most sole proprietors, freelancers and consultants keep?

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:39:33 -0800

What sort of state of organization are the financial records of most sole proprietorships in? I've had a small freelance business for about 15 years. About 3 years ago, I was in a car accident that was 100% not my fault. (The other driver admitted fault and there were witnesses.) I am now in the middle of legal dealings with my insurance company, because of the state of whiplash, the effect on my pregnancy and the effect on my ability to run my business and maximize earnings. (I do have a lawyer.) The insurance company is asking for all my financial records from the past nine years. They want copies of every receipt, invoice, mortgage interest statement, etc.

I've never kept a general ledger or anything like that. I just invoice and pay my expenses and credit cards and stuff like that. I've never been very formal about things, although I am excrutiatingly honest. I don't lie on my taxes. However, there have been situations where I just phoned the mortgage company to get the interest amount for my mortgage for the year (for business use of home), because I figured that if I got audited by the government, I would just phone and get a statement sent out. And, as I mentioned, I don't have cash flow statements or anything like that. And sometimes my receipts are in my name, my husband's name or both our names. But I always put money into our joint account to cover everything, usually lump sums throughout the year.

I had planned to incorporate and set up with an accountant, but, because of the car accident, I am just beginning that process now. Going forward, my records will be more diligent, since I'll be incorporated.

But, I'm wondering...what is the typical state of financial records for most freelance and consulting type businesses? My lawyer seems baffled that I have unaudited records...he's not used to sole proprietors. He seemed surprised that I had been doing my own taxes (for all but 3 of the total years, because, honestly, the accountants never got me any more tax back than I got on my own). For the most part, my business records are my personal income tax records, since the sole proprietorship income tax is part of that. I never saw any point to doing balance sheets and neither did the bookkeepers or accountants. Are other freelancers and consultants in a different situation? (Again, I'll be changing this going forward.)

international custom fees for online orders

ChloeMills — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:49:46 -0800

I have a small online company in the US. Am I responsible for the custom fees other countries charge my buyers? I've sold many shirts to the UK and never had anyone say anything before but now one my customers is asking to be refunded for the custom fees - which seems ridiculously expensive. (If I refund him he'd basically be getting the product at my cost.) I would assume that is the responsible of the customer and part of the extra expense they would get from ordering a shirt from the US - like shipping. Am I wrong? Is there a way to avoid my customers being charged this fee?

I don't want to risk getting myself in trouble by lying on forms. Currently I go through USPS and list the item as an online sale and list the value as the cost the customer pays. Should I instead be listing the value as what I pay for the product? I don't bother with the Tariff numbers on small orders - would doing that help?

If I go through UPS or FED EX would my customers be less likely to get this extra fees?

Has anyone else had this problem? I'd love some advice.

How do I master my small business’ accounting and financials?

battlecj — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:19:04 -0800

How do I master my small business’ accounting and financials? My wife and I own a small retail shop. We do our accounting faithfully in QuickBooks and file most of our tax returns and process our own payroll. According to review by our accountant, we are running our numbers correctly, but what do all these numbers mean? We want to have a better understanding of cash flow, profit and loss, and our balance sheet so we can make better financial decisions. Are there any books or online courses that teach this well? Ideally, any course would have tests so we can really measure how much we are learning. This looks intriguing, but I wanted to see if there were resources out there that are escaping my googlebatics.

Grant for small businesses?

tessalations999 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:56:40 -0800

My dad and mom live in a rural area of Massachusetts. My dad makes wooden bowls and they want to start their own small store in the area selling the bowls. They have no capital, and want to look into a small business grant. They both work extremely hard and make almost minimum wage, and so without the grant could not have the time or money to start the business while also supporting themselves. Do you know of any resources or grants that could help them? Thank you so much for your help.

Resources for growing a home business

acoutu — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:09:18 -0800

What are your best resources for growing an established home-based business? I've got a couple of established home-based businesses. I'd like to do more reading about growing them to the next level. I have an MBA, but that focused more on growing high value ventures. I'm interested in turning small businesses into slightly bigger small businesses. I'm especially interested in the transition from "work in the business" to "working on the business" and from owning all the work to letting go and using leverage to grow the business.

Books, magazines, articles, websites, case studies, anecdotal advice -- anything is good. I should emphasize that these businesses are already established, so I'm not looking for help in starting a business. Thanks!

New bank!

cowmix — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:34:08 -0800

Which bank for a small business. I am looking for a bank account for a small (professional services) business in Arizona..

Looking for that magical mix:

1. Best online services (I try to do all my banking online).
2. Lowest fees.
3. stable

I suspect my current bank is about to go under..

Need to find a good survey on small business owner's IT concerns?

jacobean — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:02:11 -0800

I need to find a survey on the biggest concerns small business people have when it comes to I.T?
I thought this would be easy but its not - because so many hardware and software manufacturers have done so many "white papers" and "surveys" I am finding it hard to find an un-biased report / survey that is not sponsored.

Survey (preferably quantitative) / report should address the biggest concerns or issues that a small business owner has vis-a-vis daily computing.

Any links, articles, recommendations etc., appreciated.

Looking for a small business wireless router recommendation

baggers — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:11:45 -0800

Our cheapo Linksys just gave up the ghost, so I am looking for a new wireless router for my company . Any recommendations? Our list of requirements are as follows:

- 802.11b/g (no a required)
- Must be able to support 30-40 people
- Must have auto ISP failover that works with our fractional T1 and a backup cable modem connection. If it can do failover to an EVDO connection as well, that's a plus.
- Incoming VPN server
- Easy to administer (I don't have the time or the energy to build and run a linux system to do this, and I'm not always available to fix things)
- Must love dogs

Anybody care to make any recommendations based on what they use?

Starting up a small press publishing company.

survivorman — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:31:42 -0800

I'd like to learn the nitty-gritty of starting a small press publishing outfit. Please recommend any (free) resources or howtos that would let me know what's involved with such an operation. I would also be involved the book design, if that's what you were wondering. Thanks.

Help me tackle my website hosting dilemma

anthropomorphic — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:19:41 -0800

What sort of hosting should I look for for a website for an independent (one man) lawsuit mediation business? I've got registered domain names, and now i need hosting. I need email, a calendar application (lets clients pick dates subject to manual confirmation by the mediator), an application that will generate pdfs from client-input information, and a payment application. He's also going to automatically generate some sort of economic analysis graph from info the client puts in. The script is not written yet and I have no idea what language it will use. He doesn't either. As for me ... I've got a firm hand on html and css, several computer science classes (C++, Javascript, some lisp), but no direct knowledge of php. And I'm stumped. Help me, hive mind!

Have you used RentACoder.com?

worker_bee — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:59:39 -0800

Looking for experiences (good and bad) that anyone has had with a service called "RentACoder.com" or any recommendations for a similar service. We found this site by accident and it looks like something that is tailor-made for a small business like us that is looking for someone to design a fairly simple desktop application and later have the same app. delivered over the web. Basically you put the project requirements up for viewing and developers around the world bid on the work based on their quals. and knowledge. You can then compare their credentials and award the "contract" to the person that you think is the best fit. It looks like a very good service as they offer things like escrow, arbitration etc. so I think it may be just what we need to get this job done at the best possible price.

I would just like to hear from anyone that might have used it in the past and get their opinions, or if anyone knows of similar services that they have used we would appreciate a few suggestions of other services to look at.

If you were me, who would you be?

notjustfoxybrown — Mon, 21 May 2007 20:45:18 -0800

Add up all these career skills. What small business do you get? Just wondering what small business I might start with the following skills:

1) More than 10 years as a journalist...both print reporter and copy editor at several large metropolitan dailies.

2) A law degree (but no license) which lead me to the following jobs: state legislative aide where I drafted legislation, wrote speeches and talking points, met with constituents and handled media relations. I also spoke often to constituent groups about relevant issues in the state.

3) I taught business law to community college students.

4) I did PR and government relations for a community-based foster care agency.

5) I pretended to work in county government as an economic development specialst (It involved, as far as I could tell, no actual work.)

Please find a business I might start.

Thanks.

The Server is Dead. Long Live the Server

mrbugsentry — Wed, 02 May 2007 08:33:53 -0800

Our Small Business Server 2003 is dead. We are recreating the server from scratch. We have two surviving secondary Domain Controllers, so the domain lives on, we just need to know what to do next. We can add a SBS server to an existing domain. But should we first delete the old, dead server from the domain? Will SBS refuse to join a domain with another SBS server in it even if that SBS box is not running anymore?