Business Horoscopes: February 2010
Running a small business takes a gift for anticipation, if not clairvoyance. To help you predict the changes that will affect your business and your industry... Read more
Business Planning
Recent Business Planning Articles
Managing: Planning Now for an Economic Rebound
How companies can plan for a big comeback once the recession is over Read more
Middle America Coming Out of the Recession?
Of the 20 strongest metro areas in the United States, 14 lie between the Mississippi River and New Mexico. Read more
Managing: How to Work More Like a Start-Up
Rekindle that startup spirit with agile development Read more
Why a CEO Needs to Have a Plan B
For nearly three decades, in good times and bad, Jack Stack has run his company, SRC, as though disaster could strike at any moment. Now, with the economy cr... Read more
Drilling Down
Want to conduct your own military-style AARs? Signet Research & Consulting suggests asking a few key questions. Read more
Welcome to No Man's Land
Your organization can't keep pace with demand. Banks won't lend to you. Longtime staffers need to be replaced. Here's how to cope. Read more
Gary Erickson on Balancing Sustainability and Other Business Objectives
Clif Bar's founder talks about balancing sustainability and effectiveness Read more
The Five Fundamentals of Business Survival
How can you make it through the rough patch that even the most successful companies eventually hit? Start preparing while the good times are still rolling. Read more
Surviving Katrina: How We Did It
Hurricane Katrina dealt a near-fatal blow to thousands of businesses. One year later, determined entrepreneurs across the Gulf Coast are staging a comeback. Read more
Is There a Future for Small Retailing?
Writing a regular column, I'm always looking for ideas. Many come from my clients, indirectly, for their questions and concerns are the questions and conc... Read more
How to Spot Trouble in Your Financials
Diagnose what's wrong with your company by zeroing in on your financials. Read more
More Bang for the IT Buck
Corporate buyers of IT goods haven't had it so good in a long time. Technology vendors, feeling the pinch after two years of sluggish sales, are discounti... Read more
War Stories
As writer Joan Raymond points out in the June 2003 feature " Enduring Lessons from a Short WarRead more
To Pay or Not to Pay: Business Weighs the Cost of Terrorism Coverage
Confronted with high premiums and their own skepticism about whether such coverage is necessary, many managers are deciding against terrorism insurance. Read more
Calculated Risk
In the May 2003 article, " How to Take Risk in a Time of Anxiety ," senior writer Leigh Buchan... Read more
Projecting Outcomes with Probability Modeling
Plans based on averages are wrong, on average. So says "the flaw of averages," as coined by Sam. L. Savage, a consulting professor in the Department of Ma... Read more
Decision Making with Decision Trees
Every business owner must make decisions in the face of uncertainty, and live with the consequences. But decision-making doesn't have to be done in the da... Read more
Getting IT Spending Right This Time
By Diana Farrell, Terra Terwilliger, and Allen P. Webb Who can blame business technology executives if half a decade of overspendi... Read more
How Business Can Prepare for War
Hit by both the threat of war in Iraq and a lingering economic slowdown, companies in many areas of the world are reining in investments and postponing th... Read more
Crisis Management Guide
Is your business prepared for the worst? Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we set out to provide entrepreneurs with information to he... Read more
Disaster Recovery Planning 101
Ann Machado has spent a lot of time preparing for disasters. As CEO of Creative Staffing, a temporary employee agency based in hurricane-prone Miami, she ... Read more
Agenda Lifesavers, Big and Little
So you have a boardroom with important, high-net-worth people, who can only devote a limited amount of time to contributing to the success of your company... Read more
What do you think the most important trend affecting small business will be?
Running a One Person Business and Starting a Business mentors Paul & Sarah Edwards respond to the following questions: What do... Read more
Living Business Plans Help Businesses Flow with Future
Sudden, unanticipated changes in your market can have a drastic impact on your business. But you can thwart catastrophe by building flexibility into your bu... Read more
A Simple Approach to Sales Forecasting
How do you forecast sales accurately? The trick is to break the sales down into manageable parts. Read more
The Complete Franchise Business Plan
What's the big difference between a traditional start-up business plan and a start-up franchise plan? Essentially, the latter must combine compone... Read more
Boosting Performance with Critical Numbers
Learn how to figure out your company's critical numbers -- and how to use them to build a stronger company. Read more
Preventing Sexual Harrassment
What Every Manager Needs To Know About Sexual Harassment by Darlene Orlov and Michael T. Roumell AMACOM, 217 pages, $24.95 E... Read more
Successful Succession
One test of a great team is how well it functions after its leader steps aside. A good succession plan can eliminate many problems, but drawing up and fol... Read more
Strategies for Reducing Your Environmental Liability
Today, a comprehensive web of environmental laws regulate the use, disposal and remediation of hazardous materials. This regulatory scheme includes federa... Read more
Strategic Planning 101
Unfortunately, strategic planning gets a bad rap at a lot of companies because it' s perceived as a useless exercise. But at many innovative, well-managed... Read more
Want Better Performance? Try Better Planning
When done effectively, strategic planning is among the most potent competitive weapons a company can have. Planning helps everyone better understand the d... Read more
A Passion for Forecasting
Generating an accurate annual sales forecast will save you from wreaking havoc in your company next year. Read more
How Often Should I Track Key Numbers?
Daily, argues Ron Friedman, CEO of Stonefield Josephson Inc., an accounting firm in Santa Monica, Calif. "Every morning by 9:30, I receive a printed repor... Read more
