Resolutions, Shmezolutions
Personal
New Year’s resolutions can help you work out more or get organized. But we’d
like to take a second to instead recommend a few business goals and ideas to
help you kick off the New Year on the right note. Okay, call them business
resolutions, if you must.
1. Learn from others that
have been there: Sure, lots of
people know about Columbia Sportswear, and the commercials that made its former
president, the uber-gruff Gert Boyle (in her TV spots, anyway) famous. But few
know about her or Columbia’s remarkable small-business-to-giant-killer story,
or that her favorite saying is, “early to bed, early to rise, work like hell
and advertise.” Oh yeah, and did you know that Columbia received an SBA-backed
loan in 1970? Learn more about Gert in this short video, just one part
of BusinessUSA’s extensive library of
online videos and instructional tools.
2. Get some new equipment: Did you know that the General Services Administration (GSA) auctions off surplus government property,
from office furniture to automobiles and industrial machinery? They
even auction off real estate. It’s ideal for small businesses to get started,
or for larger businesses to expand – at far less cost.
4. Win that bid: Did you know that the US government contracts out millions in goods and services every year? Learn more about the ins and outs of how it all works with this course on Government Contracting 101. For those ready to poke around at what kind of opportunities are out there, here’s our government contracting tool for helping you do just that.
5. Shore up your financing: Being cash-starved is no way to head into 2015. Check out the range of government funding grants available to businesses, all the way down to one loan for small agriculture businesses that helps promote the development of biofuels. Learn more about the range of funding options on BusinessUSA. After all, if Gert can do it, so can you.
What do most want to accomplish this year? Tweet using the hashtag #2015bizgoals. We’ll be watching – and we’ll share the best in future newsletters.
|
