Business Beware Blog: Giving Your Business a Voice

The Stories Of How Small Family Businesses Started And Run Their Business Day To Day

It’s obvious what we’re passionate about…small business. Not only because we run and own small businesses ourselves but because of the stories of how and why they started, how they stay afloat during the hard times, how families manage to work together and basically everything that goes with running a business. With our show, we’re going to tell THEIR stories.

We can relate to being in a family business because it’s what we do everyday. It’s not easy but at the same time it has a lot of pros as well. We can’t wait to share stories we have already documented with you here very soon.

Have a small business or work with family and want to tell us about it? We want to hear it! Email Ashley ashley(at)businessbewareshow.com and fill us in on who you are and what you do. Also learn other ways to be on the show right here.

Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?

I’m sure that at some point you have asked yourself these questions before whether you’re a business owner or work inside the cubicle. Do I have what it takes? Will I succeed? Will I fail? How much time goes into it?

We have people ask this all the time so we decided to chat a little bit about it right here. Starting your own business can be exciting and rewarding but at the same time it can be mind boggling and scary. There is always a little bit of fear in the unknown, risk taking adventures and well basically anything new. Being an entrepreneur does come with some very nice advantages such as being your own boss, making your own schedule and doing something you enjoy rather than the same old thing from day to day.

Here’s what you should think about if you’re trying to figure out if entrepreneurship is for you:

• Are you creative?
• Are you a hard worker and self motivated?
• Are you driven and work well independently?
• Are you good at problem solving?
• Do you like to learn and achieve goals?
• Are you good at organization and staying on tasks?

These may sound simple but it’s what you have to consider before you just jump right into your new venture as an entrepreneur. So many people dream about being their own boss and think their idea is just pure gold that they don’t think about how much work it truly is to be an entrepreneur. For example, you do get to make your own schedule but with that comes staying on task and being disciplined while also working sometimes until late at night and on the weekends to get ahead of the game.

Businesses are also built on ideas, good ideas. You can’t just open another pet grooming place and think people will come. As much as I love the movie “Field of Dreams” and the infamous quote “If you build it, they will come” that just doesn’t happen in business. You have to get creative. What makes your pet grooming place different? Why should they come to your place over the others? You usually only get one shot with customers so you have to make it worth their time and memorable.

First off, do your homework. Research and then sit back and think about how you can make your idea a reality where you can become your own boss. And if you feel comfortable about the above thoughts then go for it. Nobody is standing in your way except for you but YOU have to make it happen.

If it’s not for you then get another coffee cup to put at your cubicle that says “I want to be an entrepreneur but until I get over my fear I’m stuck here.”

When Customers Rant About Your Business On Social Media

This is not new to anyone out there or it may be who knows. Customers (not all) seem to rant about bad experiences they have with businesses. I mean it is somewhat understandable if you had a seriously bad run in with a business and things were misunderstood and they didn’t give you the time of day etc. But who we are really talking about are the ones that complain about anything and everything because they can or because they want something for free.

We talk on our show about how if you do a search on Google or Twitter for “customer service” or “bad customer” the only thing that ever seems to pull up is “bad customer service.” It blows our minds every time too because this is all you see and hear from people. For kicks here is a recent timeline of search.twitter at 10 am this morning with the search word “customer service.” read more

Our Favorite Mobile Apps For Business

If you don’t have a smart phone you apparently are not cool…kidding. But seriuosly everyone seems to have the big screen display or iphone these days. Just the other day we were at the Rays spring training game and as Manny Ramirez walked up to bat everyone whipped out their big flashy phones to video or take a photo of the guy. It’s crazy. We are smartphone guilty here too though. read more

Business Owners Taking A Stand

Our friends at Base6 Films did this for us. They do some amazing videos so if you need anything done for your business, organization etc. check them out.

When Using Free Wifi Is Over The Line

We had a question come in the other day to the show that talked about a coffee shop owner who has some customers that stop in everyday for hours at a time and use their store wifi but never pay for a cup of coffee.  He asked us if he should ask them to leave or just keep putting up with it.

It’s no surprise that this happens when you put up “free” wifi it’s like a blinking Vegas sign to people. In their minds they expect to use it as long as they want and you as the business owner cannot tell them when to stop. read more

How to Collect From Slow and Non-Paying Customers

How many articles have you read on this topic on the internet or been given tips on how to collect from slow or non-paying customers? Yeah, we understand and that’s why we do something about it here at Business Beware rather than just give you tips about it.

If you don’t know about our “beware letter” you might want to learn more here. It’s a way to collect from your customer stating you don’t want to file a complaint against them but just want to simply collect the money that’s owed to you. And when you do collect the money you keep it all, you don’t pay in a percentage like you would a collection agency. read more

The Ultimate Father/Daughter Duo Business Show

They’re back…

Learn more at BusinessBewareShow.com

Good Customers Having a Bad Day

We had a viewer write in to our show:

“I caught your show the other day and I didn’t understand what the difference was between a bad customer and a CustoMonster. Could you explain?”   -James White – Buffalo, NY read more

What to do with a bad customer…

We came across an article written by Sean McPheat, author of “The Sales Person’s Crisis,” and we agreed with him so much that we thought it should be recognized. 

read more