Business Strategy For Small Business

1 Do you believe you have what it takes?

We don’t mean personal characteristics — or not just personal characteristics, anyway. Do you believe you have all the skills, energy, money, people, and knowledge to start a business? Founders who carefully identify and evaluate their resources in pursuit of a well-defined goal display “entrepreneurial self-efficacy,” a trait many academics believe to be the best predictor of success. “It’s situationally specific confidence — ‘I strongly believe that I have all the resources I need, and here is what they are,’ ” says J. Robert Baum, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland. “Overconfidence, by contrast, is partially caused by the absence of self-efficacy. ‘Let’s get going. I just know I can do this.’ ”

2 Are you able to let other people down?

A founder may set out in a rowboat, but pretty soon, he is piloting a cabin cruiser with investors and employees on board and their families huddled belowdecks. Risking your own fortunes is easy compared with risking the fortunes of those who believe in you. “These people may not completely understand the business,” says Baum. “They may not understand the level of risk. But they think they’ll be OK because you are so smart. Breaking their dreams is very painful.”
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Sheryl Woodhouse-Keese is the founding artist/owner of Twisted Limb Paperworks in Bloomington, Ind. Her company of artists and designers has been creating invitations, business promotions and holiday cards out of 100 percent recycled paper since 1998.

One of her employees’ favorite benefits of working at Twisted Limb is their vegetable and herb garden.
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Lower business valuations are a by-product of a slow economy, which means if you’re trying to sell your business, it’s best to wait it out. But if you’re planning to transfer your business within the family, such as to a child, now could be a good time, explains Matt Painter, a partner with financial services firm Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain in Brentwood, Tenn.
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There comes a time when every small business has to decide to expand and grow, or stay where they are and keep things simple. For most entrepreneurs, the goal is to grow and expand, and companies that rely on the Web for presence, and even sales, are no different.
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Frugality is top of mind for today’s consumers, who redeemed approximately 2.6 billion manufacturer-distributed coupons in 2008. And, given spending habits in a recession, coupon redemption rates are likely to keep rising. For startup entrepreneurs, this heightened interest in coupons spells opportunity. “Consumers are more sensitive to promotions, and marketers are going to be looking for innovative methods to appeal to them,” says Matthew Tilley, director of marketing at promotions logistics company Inmar. Scarborough Research reports that online coupon usage is up 83 percent since 2005, leading to exponential growth at startups like CouponAlbum.com,  CouponChief.com and  CouponMountain.com.
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