Financial Eyes & Ears

For all of the different kinds of financing a small company can obtain from the S.B.A., the agency has not had a way to nurture fast-growing start-ups since 2004.

If so, is it worth having to collect sales tax from states across the country?

Now that 2011 has passed (and what a wild and crazy year it was!) and 2012 is well under way, it’s time to look at some trends that will shape the upcoming year for small business owners. Taken as a whole, in 2012 you can expect to see a lot of maturing and fine tuning [...]

Use these nine techniques to account for how your customer’s brain could be wired, and seal the deal. Since you’re a reader of Inc., I think it’s safe to assume that you and I have something in common: We both need to sell. You probably have your favorite sales techniques, and heaven knows there are [...]

Turnaround specialist Glen Blickenstaff, in the fourth of five articles, explains how to turn a failing company into a breakout success. This week he explains a simple and flexible management tool to help manage key aspects of your turnaround. Excerpt from an e-mail to my wife during one of my turnarounds. (______ emailed me and [...]

Sometimes the Web services you rely on crash… or get taken down by the feds (sorry, Megaupload.com!). Be ready before it happens to you. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) sparked massive amounts of online protest and left politicians running for cover. And then the feds shut down Megaupload.com, a major file downloading site for [...]

Looking to build strong relationships with your clients? Master their personal styles. At AnswerLab, one of my main missions is to provide amazing service to our customers. Zappos has pioneered the revolution of customer-focused businesses with its message to spread happiness. Countless business books advise us to learn what the customers want and simply give [...]

Co-founder Marc Nager reveals why the Startup Weekend model fosters the most innovative ideas. Startup Weekend is simply an event that challenges teams to start a company in one weekend. It was created by Andrew Hyde in 2007, but was soon bought by Marc Nager, Clint Nelsen, and Franck Nouyrigat, who all saw global potential [...]