Business Strategy
now browsing by tag
Small Business and the U.S. Economy: November 2012
Small businesses are experiencing slower sales growth, and most business owners have a pessimistic outlook of the economy. This is according to a recent survey carried out by PNC Financial Services Group Inc. The survey, which sampled about 1700 small business owners, shows that only 23% of them plan to hire new employees in the coming 6 months.
The percentage represents an increase of 3% compared to 2011, but a decline by 5% from the numbers in spring. The number of respondents who think the national economy will become worse increased by 14%.
The majority of respondents were concerned about the impact of the elections on their business. President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney addressed the concerns of small business owners during their campaigns. The two leaders debated on small business issues and both of them supported cutting taxes. What was clear is that both Obama and Romney recognized the importance of small businesses in the economy and vowed to pursue initiatives that would spur their growth.
Back to employment matters, the job market has been showing modest gains. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy has created an average of 173,000 jobs a month. In October, more than 170,000 new jobs were added. However, the rate of unemployment rose from 7.8% in September to reach 7.9% in October.
With the Obama administration back in office, it remains to be seen how the business environment for will be like. The major concern of most of the respondents surveyed is sales. According to Sageworks, the sales volume from SMBs is growing but at a decreasing pace. Another concern of most SMBs is access to capital. While not many small businesses are looking for financing, those that need the funds find it difficult to get them.
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, which provides business owners with virtual office services to help them save money and grow their business. Virtual Offices include a prestigious business address in myriad U.S. cities, Virtual Phone Services, courier services and more. Google +
- Web |
- More Posts (21)
Deciding Price Strategy For Your Product or Service
As an entrepreneur, first thing you need to decide is your price strategy. Fixing right price for your product or service is major aspect of a marketing program. Considering some basic factors may help you in taking right decision in this direction.
- How do you plan to position your product in the market” If you are planning to market your products through a discount store, you will try to keep your prices lower than your competitors. On the other hand, if your product is an exclusive luxury item, keeping low price tag might hurt your image. The pricing must be consistent with the positioning. People strongly emphasize to the idea that you get what you pay for.
- Do some market research to find out acceptability of your product at a particular price. Work out demand curve at various prices to assess the best price for your product or service.
- Calculate the fixed and variable costs of your product or service. Ensure that your gross margin (price minus cost of goods) sufficiently covers your fixed overhead to get you acceptable profit margin. Many entrepreneurs under-estimate this aspect which gets them into trouble.
- There are other areas to be examined before you decide pricing your product or service. To get detailed information on this topic visit:
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/salesmarketing/a/pricingstrategy.htm
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Resolving Workplace Conflicts
The post by United Virtual — virtual office explains ways for better output and avoiding workplace conflicts
People dream of a perfect workplace where they can give their best output. Unfortunately, a perfect workplace does not exist. In every business house, some conflicts keep arising among team-mates. Job distribution, work-schedule, compensation package, increment system, personality clash, there may be many reasons to create a conflict at the workplace. There is not a single place where every person takes full responsibility of his actions and people dont blame someone else for a mistake.
Conflicts at workplace start when someones emotions are hurt or when someone feels insulted or betrayed. For a healthy working environment, such conflicts need to be tactfully resolved before they start affecting the interests of the organization.
If you want to get some useful guidelines how to resolve workplace conflicts, visit http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/2009/05/curbing-conflict.html
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +
Produce Best Results With a Dynamic Work Team
Entrepreneurship has a different perspective in modern business world. Human relation plays key role in success of any enterprise. A well organized work force of skilled and professional personnel can definitely take your business to new heights. This is most competitive phase of global economy and only those, who can produce best result, will succeed in achieving business goals.
Recruiting a result oriented team and developing them to meet the modern market challenges is a crucial issue before H R Teams of big business houses world-wide.
You can get some useful tips on how to use Internet to find and hire the best employees. Are you planning to hire the best employees by using social networking, blogging and other internet tools? Visit
http://www.entrepreneur.com/101peopleproblems/index.html
About Jim Jacques
Jim Jacques is the President of United Virtual Office, a leading nationwide provider of virtual offices for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. A virtual office includes an address at a prestigious business location in the US, live virtual receptionist, courier services and more. Google +