Greater Phoenix SCORE Blog

The motivation to start your own business may hit you suddenly, like lightning. It may burn inside of you for a time before you pounce on an opportunity. One thing that all small businesses have in common starting out is that each one starts with an idea.

No matter what business you’re in, there are one thing that you can’t deny – it’s all about the customer. Without customers, you have no business. Here are 5 simple tools – some of them that we either take for granted or unwillingly ignore – that if diligently practiced, should make your business pop!

When you hire someone to do work for you, you are entering in a contract of trust. You trust that the person or company that you’re hiring will do what they say they will do. And before you hired them, you did your research. You checked online reviews, you asked friends or family for a referral. (I don’t know about you, but I would only recommend someone whom I know and trust that they are reliable, and will do what they promise they will do.) How do you build that trust if you’re just starting out?

Using content marketing to build an audience and to keep an audience has to work together. People are not going to follow you on social media if you’re not providing great content that interests them.

Personal branding means being known as the expert. Here are some ways you can become an influencer.

Credit card processing is an unregulated industry. It is electronically based with no short cuts. Pricing is the biggest area of misinformation.

In tech support, we love information. And we want to get our hands on as much of it as we can. Here’s why: The more information you’re able to provide us, the easier it is to quickly and efficiently solve your problem. Narrowing down the issue is always the hardest part. Once you discover the specific problem, the actual fix is easy.

It is true that security rarely actually adds anything to the bottom line of your company. There is usually nothing tangible to point at and say “We added X amount of $ to the company bottom line and thereby saved you that money". But on the other hand, you should contact your insurance company and see how much they can save you by hiring security officers or a patrol of your facility.

Have you begun to wonder if your business is ready to expand? It’s a tough question to answer. Even if all indicators point toward making this move, you don’t want to jump the gun. This is a big decision that will impact you and your company in a number of ways.

Marshall Goldsmith has devised a free strategy that will help you get better at almost anything. In this Inc. Live video, he explains what you need to know about behavioral change.

In this blog, Roger Robinson, Ph.D. lays out several essential characteristics of what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Personal ethics is key.

Greatest Phoenix SCORE helps veterans to start and grow their businesses. This blog is a good introduction to collaboration between SCORE and Southwest Veterans Chamber of Commerce