Rhinehold Business Blog: March 2017

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

7 Incubators That Can Help Your Startup

The idea for early-stage companies to share facilities in a business incubator became popular in the late 1970s. In 1980, approximately 12 business incubators were operating in the United States. These incubators offered startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses the support, expertise and tools necessary to succeed in increasingly competitive markets. They're also driving high return on investment doing so.

A popular Connecticut study entitled Business Incubation: A Key ingredient to Economic Growth and Recovery, argued business incubators as a “best value” in economic development, based on low program costs and a high return on investment to communities. The ROI of public investment was calculated at $4.96 for every $1 of public operating subsidy.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Is This The Year That You Start Your Business?

Are you ready to turn your ideas and aspirations into business success? To make it as an entrepreneur, you not only need a great concept, but you also need courage, energy and determination. To help you decide whether you’ve got what it takes, take the quiz below. I developed these questions so prospective business owners can decide whether it's time to launch.

Answer each question in writing as completely as possible. Your responses will allow you to evaluate your motives, goals, skills and experience, and can even be used as the basis for your initial business plan. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. The objective is to help you find a path to fulfill your dreams.

Your small business should be using Twitter because

Everyone else is doing itThe guy who runs the convenience store down the street. The landscape architect. The shoe store owner. And lots of big companies, such as Dell, HP, AT&T and Microsoft. In fact 74% of 2013 Inc 500 companies use Twitter and 377 of the 2013 Fortune 500 companies have a corporate Twitter account ((Twitter Stats for Businesses).
Twitter is good optics.Using Twitter is evidence that your small business is participating in social media and obviously a "with-it" kind of outfit that people might be interested in doing business with. It's just not enough to have a website anymore.
Twitter is a fast way to get the message out.Assuming your potential and existing customers are on Twitter, you can instantly let them know your news, whether it's an announcement or a new product, a special deal, or an upcoming event they may be interested in. And now that businesses can advertise on Twitter, it's even easier to reach the potential customers you want to reach.
Twitter will help you stay on top of your industry and/or market segment.Twitter lets you hear what other people are saying. Using Twitter Search you can find out what people are saying about a particular topic, enabling you to keep your ear to the ground about your company and the competition.
Twitter will help you refine your brand.By participating in Twitter (that is, using it to communicate with others, rather than just spamming product announcements) you can present and develop the kind of image that attracts your potential customers, and refine your brand. (Remember; communication is a two-way thing.)
Twitter is a great networking tool.Being on Twitter will give you opportunities to meet and talk to oodles of people, some of whom you would never get the chance to talk to otherwise. And some of those people might be the very business contacts you've been seeking, people you want to start projects with, source product from or even hire.
And the most important reason your small business should use Twitter – because Twitter lets you engage your customers.Posting information about your products and/or services is the obvious use. But Twitter also gives you another channel for listening to and finding out about your customers – what they like or dislike about your company, how they feel about your brand, what suggestions they have for improvement, what their favourite products are and why... all kinds of nuggets that you can use to make your business more successful.