Startup BizCast

Here’s this week’s roundup of recommended reading for small business owners!

7 Reasons You Should Have a Business Blog
BT Broadband office

RSS and Newsreader tutorial: Part 1, What is a Newsreader?
Pajama Market

Tips on Safeguarding Your Online Reputation
WSJ.com / Startup Journal

I’m trying out a new stats system that will hopefully allow me to more accurately track listeners. It’s called Podtrac. It was recommended to me by some other podcasters. It not only provides me more accurate statistics than I’m getting now, they also have a pretty nice podcast player. If you click on the “listen now” button in the sidebar of the website, a window pops up that will allow you to listen to any episode of the podcast while you keep surfing. I’ve been looking for a player like this that I like. Try it out!

This is the first in what will be a series of roundups of small business blogs around the web. Look for this about once a week. Below is some recommended reading for small business owners, or potential small business owners.

Another Reason to Quit your Job
From Self Employed Blog: Blogger Eartha is a great source of information about freelancing, consulting, and small business ownership.
10 Ways to Eliminate Distractions
From Freelance Switch: Some great tips on how to work more efficiently. Freelance Switch is more of a freelancer/contractor website, but there’s a very thin (almost inperceivable) line between freelancer and small business owner.
How To Make Yourself Look Big
From Youngentrepreneur: Some tips on how to make your business “look big”. Great tips, but be careful not to go overboard
Are You LinkedIn? (Networking Online)
From The Small Business Blog: Comments on the business social networking site LinkedIn. I’m a member and it’s a great way to connect with new people or to help stay connected with casual contacts.
How To Protect Your Domain Name
From search engine land: Some key advice for any business owner who is planning to have someone build a website for them — make sure you register the domain name yourself!

Don’t miss a single episode: RSS – iTunes – Blubrry – Podcast Pickle

SHOW NOTES:

In episode 2 of Startup BizCast, a podcast with small business advice from small business owners, we’re talking about the time we all look forward to. It’s the time when we can travel, or play a lot of golf, or … well … do whatever we want. I’m talking of course about retirement. As small business owners, we need to plan extremely carefully for the time when we exit the workforce. Many of us are hoping that we can pass our business down to the next generation, or that the sale of our business will fund our retirement. Making these plans is called an exit strategy.

In this episode I interview Jay Cowan, co-founder of RiverCross Partners, a Richmond, Virginia-based firm that works with owners of small and medium-sized businesses to develop exit strategies. Jay talks about how to devise your exit strategy, explains how to plan with different types of businesses, and gives an outstanding example of what happens when you fail to plan.

If you’re in the Central Virginia area, check out RiverCross Partners’ exit strategies workshops.

We’d love to hear your feedback on this episode and future ones. The best way is to leave a voicemail by calling (206) 984-0860. Of course, you can also leave a comment on this blog.

Be sure to catch the next episode of Startup BizCast. We’ll be talking to Joe Slay, President of SLAY Public Relations. Joe is a veteran of the communications business and an inductee in the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame.

Tags: business podcasts, exit strategy, podcasts, small business

business podcasts, exit strategy, podcasts, small business

 

 Startup BizCast Episode 2 [12:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted in: Podcast Episodes by Steve Mullen
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Episode 2 of Startup BizCast, a podcast with small business advice for owners (and potential owners!) of small businesses, is on the way! Production is wrapping up this weekend, and the episode should be available in the first couple of days of next week.

The episode features an interview with Jay Cowan from RiverCross Partners, a company that specializes in helping companies develop exit strategies for small business owners. An exit strategy is a plan for what will happen to your business when you can’t or no longer want to work. If you own a business, you *need* to have an exit strategy, so don’t miss this episode!

Startup BizCast is a podcast that gives small business advice for (and from) current and potential small business owners. So, what exactly is a small business? The best place I know to look for a definition is the Small Business Administration (SBA), a federal agency in the US. Here’s an excerpt from their website:

When the U.S. Congress first established SBA, the fundamental question was just what numerical definition should SBA use to define small businesses, industry by industry, to determine what businesses were eligible for SBA’s programs. Over the years SBA has established and revised numerical definitions for all for-profit industries, and this numerical definition is called a “size standard.” It is almost always stated either as the number of employees or average annual receipts of a business concern.

Here are just some of the highlights of a list of criteria that companies can meet to become eligible for SBA programs:

My two small businesses have no trouble meeting any of those requirements!