Who wants to be a millionaire? A popular game show has asked its audience that question for years. Truthfully, the vast majority of the population would jump at the opportunity to join the elite ranks of the millionaires in this country.

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Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun, while ignoring the crux of the matter: people do not leave jobs; they leave managers.

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More than eight in 10 U.S. small-business owners say they would still become a small-business owner if they had it to do over again. This sentiment has changed little over the past 11 years, which suggests that the difficulties many small businesses experienced during the Great Recession did not cause owners to regret their decision to start a business.

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It is pretty incredible how often you hear managers complaining about their best employees leaving, and they really do have something to complain about—few things are as costly and disruptive as good people walking out the door.

Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun, while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers.

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Owning a cell phone has come to be regarded as a necessity in modern society, and with the great advances that have been made in smart phone technology, most of us rely on our phones to help us in an array of situations. While most smart phone owners are acquainted with the helpfulness of features such as navigation apps and mobile broadband, many people have yet to discover the array of uses they may put their phones to in the event of a true emergency.

10 Things Your Phone Can Do in Emergency Situations

The Kauffman Foundation recently released their Main Street Entrepreneurship Index. And, according to the Foundation, small business activity is growing in 49 of the 50 states in the US and in 38 of the top 40 largest metropolitan areas. Of course this is great news for small business owners all across the country, but it is also great news for everyone else too.

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If you are like most small business owners, you spend a lot of your time researching ways to save money. After all, running a business can quickly break the bank. There are office supplies to buy, employees to pay, and software to purchase and install, among many other things.

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Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that more than 200 million devices (PCs, phones and tablets) were now running Windows 10. Many of those 200 million devices belong to business users, who upgraded to Windows 10 (in many cases for free).

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Years of experience have taught me that running a small business is a challenge, especially when you are providing a service. Your expectations for success may not match your results, because simply providing excellent service within your field is not always enough. When I first started running my business, I naively assumed that because I was a master at my profession, my business would flourish. I failed to realize that my business skills were equally important and some of those lessons took hard tolls on me before I fully understood them.

Luckily, many of the lessons that I learned were due to mistakes that are actually quite easy to avoid. While learning these lessons won’t make you a business genius overnight, they will help you avoid rough spots that many small business owners encounter.

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To trust or not to trust. That is a question small and medium-sized business owners often find themselves asking when it comes to relying on certain brands for day to day business operations and other needs.
Keeping their interests in mind, Alignable, a Boston-based platform for local businesses, has launched the SMB Trust Index. It measures companies based on an assigned Net Promoter Score, submitted by contributors on the Alignable platform.

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As social media use continues to grow, so does the number of marketing opportunities for small businesses. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults now use social networking sites, according to Pew Research, up from just 7 percent in 2005.

Learning how to use a wider range of social media tools can help small businesses target prospective and existing customers on these platforms. Here are four tips to consider:

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Motivation can be hard to come by, especially in the face of challenges or difficult work. When you are thinking about implementing that new idea, or starting that new company or beginning that new regimen -- this is the new year, after all -- it is easy to talk yourself into procrastinating. Or worse, avoiding your goal altogether.

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Small businesses are a crucial part of Orlandos economy, but there's no denying that there are challenges in operating one, especially in the first few years.

In fact, there are more than 28 million small businesses in the United States. According to data from the Small Business Administration, in 2013 about 630,000 small businesses launched, and of those, close to 80 percent still had their doors open in 2014.

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Some people think starting a business will be this great thing to do and then as they move forward with the process quickly learn it is not always rainbows and unicorns.

Sure, it has it perks - you become your own boss, choose your own hours and the clients you would like to work with along with how much to charge them. Then, theres one of my personal favorites - you choose the dress code!

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A strong social network can become an asset for any business. Social media offers every business the opportunity to strengthen relationships with their target audience, creating loyal customers and even brand advocates. Exploiting this potential is no easy feat, but can be done if the medium is used well.

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Brands are often associated with large businesses. However, a brand can be used effectively by small businesses as well to increase their profitability. Branding a new business is just as important as insuring your business and knowing when to hire an employee. Your business will not be maximizing its profitability if you are not building a strong brand.

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In the wake of new rules and new attitudes, HR departments changed the talk about equality in pay, hiring, promotions and retention.

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Joe Spencer has seen plenty of booms and busts in his hometown of Detroit over the years running his small business, Louisiana Creole Gumbo since 1983. He watched as the auto industry imploded and housing collapsed, and he grit his teeth through the subsequent recession.

But these days, things are looking up for his resilient restaurant, famous for its gumbo served five ways. It hit $1.2 million in sales last year, leading him to open a second location.

Now one thing is on his mind: How Donald Trump stands to impact the economy, and what might that mean for endeavors like his around the country.

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How do you stay on top of the latest trends in your field?

I read a lot of blogs. I stay on top of Google Webmaster Central Blog, Search Engine Land and Moz Blog are ones that I read. I network with colleagues in the field to see what they’re doing, what they’re hearing and learn from them. There are a few SEO and social media marketing meet-ups in town that I attend.

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Companies that can figure out how to take advantage of new technologies for digital retail will outsmart and outpace competitors.

Any company of any size -- whether it is one employee working out of her basement or a multi-national company balancing millions in revenue -- must consider how digitization is affecting business as we know it.

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Paying taxes is unavoidable, yet that does not mean you need to pay more than necessary. You can make smart decisions to minimize your tax burden, without running afoul of the IRS.

For small businesses and entrepreneurs, business structure impacts how you pay taxes, and potentially how much you pay as well. The biggest difference is whether the business is its own entity responsible for paying taxes or whether the business’ profits are passed along to the owners’ individual taxes.

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Digital marketing is a very broad term that includes website design, social media, online advertising, email advertising, SEO and more. This can be extremely confusing to the local business owner simply looking to attract more eyeballs on their site. They are typically too busy running operations to investigate which digital marketing strategies work best for their business.

In an effort to help local business owners such as restauranteurs, dentists, doctors, lawyers and any other service provider, I have put together the digital marketing strategies that all local businesses should adopt in 2017.

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Recently, I was asked to take over an existing project. And, like most people, my first inclination was to feel completely intimidated and overwhelmed.

This assignment -- along with its longstanding processes and its related team members -- was all brand new to me. And, if that wasn't enough to have me breathing into a paper bag, managing this project also required me to branch out and exercise some skills that I had previously left untapped.

My chest gets tight at the very thought. Can you relate? Being asked to take on a new work endeavor is a great thing (hey, you must be doing something right!). But, it can also plant plenty of seeds of self-doubt.

Fortunately, this recent experience opened my eyes to some better, more productive things you can do when you're tasked with a new project -- aside from just panicking.

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Below I have outlined three circumstances that should give you pause about the timing of asking for a raise:

1.You have been out of school for less than a year.
2.Your job has not changed at all.
3.You have not made your company any more money.

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This transformation from hobby to business creates entrepreneurial avenues for people who might not otherwise have chosen this path. There are several types of activities that can be successfully monetized.

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To-do lists should be an invaluable part of any small business owner's day-to-day productivity strategy. They do not just help you monitor your tasks, they help keep you motivated and on track. And they seem self-explanatory: Write down a task. Then do it. But, a to-do list can too easily take a wrong turn and become exhaustive and exhausting. Here are five quick tips to help you get the most from your to-do lists.

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Growing your business is an exciting task. It means customers are receiving your business well and you are bringing in a profit.

But, growing your business can be intimidating. Many things have the potential to go wrong. That’s why you need a plan. When you know what to do and what to avoid, you can avoid stumbling.

Use the following seven dos and do nots to successfully grow your business.


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If you do not have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Remember this one, from, like, kindergarten? Apologies are one thing, but better to just avoid the whole thing altogether. Note: this is not the same thing as ignoring criticism. There are constructive ways of responding, though, that will not send your companys stocks plummeting.

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Overwhelmed leaders cringe at multiplying demands, such as identifying and recruiting talent, envisioning the next iteration of their product, or developing their public-speaking skills. There are only 24 hours in a day, they plead.

True. But there are 168 hours in a week, 730 hours in a month, and 8,760 hours in a year. View time in that way and many of the larger-picture, often open-ended tasks that are crowded out by in-the-moment demands appear more feasible.

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Entrepreneurs start their own businesses or side hustles--which you can do in just a few hours--for a variety of reasons. Some want to be their own boss. Others want to make their living by doing something they love. Others seek the opportunity to make a bigger difference in the lives of others.

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Books can make us smarter, more informed, even more intellectually humble. But one of the most powerful benefits of regular reading is greater empathy. Through words you are transported to another's perspective. You look through their eyes. You understand their pain and their joy.

That can relieve loneliness and make life a whole lot more pleasant, but it's also good for business. Understanding customers and collaborators helps you get more done and be more creative.

So how exactly do books accomplish this magic trick? On Lit Hub recently Tufts University professor of child development and reading expert Maryanne Wolf explained the fascinating neuroscience of exactly what immersion in a good book does to your brain.

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There's a lot of advice out there for the lazy and unmotivated: Take baby steps! Set a timer! Enlist an accountability partner! But what if the best way to tackle lack of motivation is not to give any sort of advice at all, but to ask for it instead?

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Tax season can be stressful for anyone, but given a number of changes made in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), as well as ongoing legislative changes, the 2018 tax year stands to be especially difficult for small business owners to navigate. However, by making a few smart moves now and being mindful of strategies that will allow you to to capitalize on existing tax benefits, you can close out the year with the peace of mind that you made the best tax moves for your business.

In order to set yourself and your business up for success, know the current tax law and take advantage of what changes are coming and going.

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Despite recent stock market turmoil, everywhere you looked this year someone was heralding the strength of the economy, which grew at 3.5 percent in the third quarter. However, not all economic growth favors small businesses, and some even detracts from it. The Inc. Entrepreneurship Index, which measures the quarterly health of the U.S. startup economy, currently sits at 83 out of 100 for the third quarter of 2018. This is down two points from the second quarter and a full nine points from the first quarter of 2017, when our Index peaked. Our indicator sees one factor in particular still dragging like an anchor on the startup economy: job growth.

Even though overall economic conditions have been largely favorable, small businesses have hit a growth ceiling as larger companies--bolstered by generally strong market conditions, favorable tax policies, support from local governments, and easing federal regulations--have been gobbling up talent. This is why, for the past year, the Index has shown a startup economy that is strong but slowing.

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Estimating the cost to build a website is like asking how much it costs to construct a building. The obvious answer is, It depends on what you want to do with the building.

For small businesses, the answer depends on the main purpose of your website: Is your website solely for marketing purposes? Or do you plan to sell goods and services on it? While one site can certainly do both, its main purpose should guide your selection as to which hosting platform and design software are best suited for your business.

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The standards for small business success have unquestionably gone up. Todays small businesses must do a lot more to stay competitive than their predecessors. Myriad businesses, however, take this notion a bit too far. Once they discover yet another resource or strategy with the potential to elevate their success, they jump all over it. This is partially due to the many online articles urging business leaders to devote more effort to virtually every element of their businesses.

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Here are three popular things that are actually not mandatory for all small businesses:

1. Aggressive Marketing

It is easy to go overboard with marketing. With so many tools available, your gut instinct is to try anything with the slightest potential. Even if you stand to lose money, you want the assurance of knowing you are doing everything you can to gain the interest of your target audience. And it is difficult to ignore a marketing tool that has worked marvelously for other small businesses. If they had to do it all over again, these businesses would likely spend 10% of their time developing their products or services and 90% marketing them.

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Surprising new research from NYU and the Wharton School shows that entrepreneurs who start a business on their own are likelier to succeed than those who do so with one or more partners.

That's pretty much the opposite of what most aspiring founders would guess. After all, you can't be good at everything. You might be a marketing expert but not know how to manage cash flow. Or you might good at building great products but bad at setting prices for them. So you team up with someone who's strong in the areas where you're weak, and you start the business together.

This reasoning seems logical, and it is how most people--even experts--see entrepreneurship. In fact, it is such an ingrained belief that VCs and other investors routinely choose to fund companies founded by teams rather than those with a solo founder.

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Your 6-Step Guide to Successful Project Management

1. Define your goal and get buy-in from all project team members.

As you do this, you will want to determine each team member’s role and responsibilities. In this step, also consider how the project will affect your company and how you’ll measure the projects impact.

2. Determine the project deliverables.

What key tasks do team members need to accomplish to move the project along the path to completion? You will also need to identify which deliverables depend on other deliverables, so you can establish a timeline that puts tasks in a logical order.

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If you own or are employed by a small business—and are among the approximately 38 million people in the U.S. with no access to a retirement plan at work—you may be interested in a new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule set to take effect Sept. 30, 2019.

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One thing brands should never do.

But it leads to something no brand should ever do: You should never assume that your customers feel the same way about your brand that you do. Your brand is how other people feel about your company, not how you feel about it.

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Eleni Gianopulos spent more than 15 years selling her handmade sugar cookies to a famous gourmet grocery chain. Then Dean & DeLuca stopped paying its bills. By January 2018, Gianopulos, founder and owner of New York City-based bakery Elenis Cookies, realized that she might never be paid for $86,000 worth of 2017 custom holiday orders.

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A lot of small businesses appear to be doing just that though. In fact, the National Federation of Independent Businesses found that tax compliance costs are 67 percent higher for small businesses than larger ones.  They add up to $18-$19 billion per year across the U.S small business environment.

With the complexity of filing taxes quickly each year, many small business owners miss deductions that can help lower their tax burden.

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Insiders say the ability to appeal to the emotional side of the SBO will become more important, as so-called Millennials – those born between the years 1980-2000 – are the fastest-growing segment of SBOs and may be more inclined to own a small business than members of older age groups. A study released in 2017 found, among other favorable statistics, that Millennials have more experience with small business and greater desire to start businesses than previous generations.

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Social distancing amid COVID-19 has forced millions of businesses to set up remote workstations that rely solely on Web applications and services (SaaS) to conduct business operations.  According to a new survey by the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI), the virtual workplace has increased cybersecurity concerns for small business owners, as most of them have not implemented remote working policies to address cybersecurity threats.

The survey, which included 412 small business owners, revealed that while most small business owners are concerned about cyberattacks, many  lack the resources to invest in necessary security measures – and  half of them are worried that remote work will lead to more cyberattacks. It revealed that only 40% of small businesses have implemented a cybersecurity policy. Around 40% of businesses stated that economic uncertainty prevents them from making security investments. While 46% have offered training to help their employees stay secure while working remotely.

Nearly 51% of business owners surveyed said they provided employees with technologies to improve cybersecurity for remote work. And 55% of them said they believe federal and state governments should provide funding for cybersecurity products and services.

Seventeen-year-old Avi Schiffmann is an entrepreneur. But he is a different kind of entrepreneur. He’s not in it for the profits, fame and continued growth opportunities. At least, not right now.

Schiffmann, a high school teenager who lives in Washington State, has attracted worldwide attention through his amazing Survival Rate Calculator website, which tracks critical information related to the coronavirus outbreak. Since launching the site during the early stages of the pandemic, Schiffmann's web crawlers have been configured to pull in, parse and process real time data from the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and other governmental websites and convert that data to show infections, deaths, recoveries and rates of change for all countries around the world. The site breaks down infections on user-friendly maps, provides health information and also attempts to calculate a survival rate of someone who contracts COVID-19, based on user-submitted health data of age, gender and other health factors.

Is the site popular? You bet. According to a profile of Schiffmann on Business Insider, the site attracts about 30 million visitors a day and 700 million total so far.

Social distancing. Telemedicine. Self-quarantine. These are all words that at the start of 2020 weren't part of our vocabulary, but several months into the new decade we are all hearing and using them daily. There is no denying that the coronavirus outbreak has dramatically changed just about every facet of just about every person’s life around the world.

From a business perspective, the stock market saw its largest one day loss and largest one day gain in history. The U.S. saw the largest job-loss report ever. We are in uncharted waters, and how long we will remain in them remains uncertain. However, there is one thing that we all know, and that is that this outbreak will change the lives of everyone for years or decades to come. Nearly 20 years after 9-11, enhanced airport security, no-fly lists and counterterrorism efforts are still the norm. The same will be true of the COVID-19 aftermath. Is your business ready for the five largest macro trends we are about to see?

1. The rise of enhanced websites and digital tools
2. Cybersecurity concerns take center stage
3. An increase in virtual meetings
4. Increased control in expenses
5. Even more remote employees

Traditional tax planning is transactional and, honestly, not nearly as beneficial as one might think. You ask your taxes preparer questions and figure out what to do in the spur of the moment. Creating a long-term plan of action for your taxes is how to create real savings, but it takes months to create an effective plan. Now is the time for business owners and investors to be planning to reap the rewards for the rest of 2020 and into 2021.

Analyze income
Many accountants suggest pushing income to a later year. There are a few different factors to consider when deciding whether to do this. First, is your income so low you lose deductions? Many personal deductions don’t carry over to the next year. Rather than taking deductions now, you may want to accelerate your income to make use of all your deductions. Another factor to consider is the next year’s tax rates. There’s a real chance that income tax rates could increase in 2021, so the best plan would be to accelerate your income into 2020 to avoid paying at a higher rate.

The length of time that a cell phone battery lasts depends on a variety of things. Battery life can be influenced by the type of the cell phone, the type battery, the age of the battery, the applications being used on the phone, even the temperature where the phone is stored and used can impact battery life.

How Long Do Cell Phone Batteries Last?

This week the Wall Street Journal reported that nearly 300 companies that had received loans through the Paycheck Protection Program had filed for bankruptcy. The very next day, the Journal highlighted Americans using the Covid-19 pandemic to take their first steps on the entrepreneurial journey.

Existing small businesses continue to struggle. New entrepreneurs are seeking opportunities. That is what the data appears to be saying about the state of small business and entrepreneurship amidst the third Covid-19 wave.

Small Businesses Suffering, See Rough Road Ahead

In early November, Goldman Sachs surveyed nearly 900 small businesses. They found that four in 10 had laid off employees or cut compensation. If further government relief were not forthcoming, another 38% said they would need to do the same. Half of small business owners had stopped paying themselves.