Business

An excerpt from Writing for the Web by Crawford Kilian

Avoid clichés like the plague. A cliché is a phrase or expression that was once so new and surprising that everyone repeated it. Like an unspoiled tourist destination ruined by too many tourists, the cliché loses its whole reason for existence when everyone uses it...

1. What ignited the spark in you to start your own business?

I say in the book that at a young age I knew I had a problem with authority! It might be the wrong answer, but it is the honest one. I always felt that my opinions and ideas were never taken seriously because of my age, sex and physical appearance. Being an event planner has been a dream since I was 17 and I always knew I would open my own business. Sometimes tragedy, risk and dreams all come together at the same time to create something beautiful – my beautiful was my business, PEAR.

 2. What three pieces of advice wo...

In the construction industry, tradespeople are selling something that can only be envisioned, specified, drawn, planned or verbally communicated. You can't buy a plumbing job off the shelf for your new house. So how does a business owner offering a service make the sale? According to Jack Borden, there are seven important things to consider:...

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The digital revolution has drastically changed where readers buy books, what books they read and in what format they read them. While these changes initially made engaging with and building loyalty among readers a challenge for authors and publishers, the shift online has come to be seen as an enormous marketing opportunity. Digital platforms offer valuable insight into how characters, plot lines and topics are perceived while presenting an opportunity for publishers and authors to directly engage with readers.

The internet offers authors many ways to market and promote a book. Engaging...

Blogs are all over the Web. Many businesses maintain a blog on or separate from their business websites. Some of them are written well and worth reading; some of them are written poorly and a waste of time.

Besides keeping your eye on popular and successful blogs to see what others are succeeding (or perhaps failing) at, I believe there are several main things that any business owner should consider before investing time and money into a blog....

Bankruptcy is an involved process in Canada, and though you don’t lose literally everything at the time of declaring it, it can take months of dealing with a bankruptcy trustee, selling things off, and living on the bare minimum to be in the clear and get that fresh start. If you are considering bankruptcy, there are a few things you should bear in mind before signing everything over to cover your debts.

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A few years ago, baker and entrepreneur Mimi Fix was in the middle of major life changes and in need of a new source of income. She turned to something she was good at that she could do from home: Baking.

Ms. Fix isn’t the only one who has discovered that baking can be a boon when you want to start a business but have barely any start-up capital. It is, and perhaps always has been a business with low barriers to entry including low start-up costs, minimal education requirements, and low overhead if done from home. While many people have sold jams and pies out o...

Social media is an essential tool for many small businesses, according to San Diego-area authors and marketers Holly Berkley and Amanda Walter. It can be underused, overused, or misused in the wrong hands, and learning what to do and how to do it is essential as it can make or break a business.

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