In order to know how healthy your financial position of a business is, the owner has to make use of various business tools. Business benchmarking, Ratio Analysis and Financial intelligence are some of the most popular business tools. I agree that a more thorough knowledge of financial statements and financial ratios would put many on a much more solid footing.

I agree to your view that small business is an important source of job growth. Small businesses account for a large majority of jobs in start-ups, a key source of innovation and economic growth. To keep a business lean, you should set and measure inventory targets. You should keep in touch with customers. Understand how their business is being affected and look for ways you can help. Lasting relationships are built in hard times. One should also make use of various business tools like business benchmarking, scorecards, etc. I have gone through a site which, according to me, is quite helpful for an organization to run efficiently. Check out this url - http://www.fintel.us/

I agree. Small - or micro-businesses, are getting smarter. I see some good tips here, from keeping the marketing ball rolling to having a complete Marketing Mix in place. Unfortunately, too many businesses are getting the message too late. ! recently wrote an article on how many companies can avoid the mess they're in now (http://www.asylumdesign.com/pages/articles.html).

We're still not sure where social media fits in all this, but it's allowing many business owners to feel connected and that's at least having a positive psychological effect.

Jim Shanman
www.asylumdesign.com

I found your article on the top 10 cities entertaining LOL ! Evidently you don't live here in Vegas ! I owned a award winning commercial bakery that supplies the Casino's here in Vegas.
In between the short pays and skipped invoices,and the forced 10 % discount on payments, the Casino's practically have a gun too your head.
I spoke too a liquidator and he told me 11 restaurants are closing a week here in Vegas. !
Owners of many business will give you the keys to their place with no money down and beg you too take over their over inflated leases !!! The city is number one in the country in home foreclosures ! The next big crash will be in the commercial realestate market ! So what is your criteria for picking Vegas as your #5 selection ??

Small businesses are crucial to our local communities and our overall economy.

Small businesses (SMBs) are an important source of job growth. Small businesses account for a large majority of jobs in start-ups, a key source of innovation and economic growth.

Here are my thoughts and comments on how a small business owner can prepare and manage a small business in todays economy —stay lean, talk to your customers, and don't stop hiring and marketing

To keep your company lean, you should set and measure inventory targets and keep in daily or weekly communication with your sales and operations staffs. You may also want to weed out unprofitable customers (real this article on BusinessWeek.com for more details: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_44/b4056431.htm ). Every company has customers that cost more than they add to the bottom line. Identify them, evaluate how to make them profitable customers, and if that's not possible, politely hand them to your competition.

To keep from losing business, keep in close touch with your customers. Show that you care. Understand how their business is being affected and look for ways you can help. Lasting relationships are built in hard times. And look for new market opportunities, recognizing that when the business climate changes, customer needs will change as well. That may mean new markets will open up for you.

Develop strategies to land more customers. I counsel my small business clients that if they want to make their companies grow they will have to steal customers from their competitors, period. The pie is shrinking. For the auto repair shops, cars are more reliable and need less frequent service. In the restaurant world there's been overbuilding and the average number of meals eaten out has declined for the first time in a number of years. The successful small business is going to have to win a bigger share of that shrinking pie.

The way to do that, particularly for small businesses, is to use effective lead generation and online marketing solutions such as Tradeseam (http://www.tradeseam.com/smallbusiness/leads/small-business-leads ) to connect with new customers, partners and suppliers and create a positive experience. Make sure you give every customer the best experience you can. That means clean restrooms, courteous staff, eye contact, handshakes. You've got to do this better than the other people out there. Another good option for local businesses is community involvement. Join a online small business community or the Chamber of Commerce. Sponsor a Little League team. Let the Girl Scouts do a car wash in your parking lot. This is part of bonding with your community and becoming an established part of it.

Yes, there are several tools are available to know the bench marking of business. I have seen something on www.fintel.us

Being in business, there are different tools for Industry Metrics and business analysing. Fintel.us is providing such tools.

www.fintel.us

It's interesting to note that three such simple concepts can have such a strong return on your start-up small business (and have the results to back it up). We're in quite the interesting time to have people decide to start their small business, but also have some new tools that weren't present in previous economic hardships. Food for thought.

Kindest Thanks,

Ellisa Brenneman
www.ethosmentor.com
www.ethosadvisor.com

This is terrific news. It's nice to hear something positive. I just started my business last fall, and while it's far from paying my bills yet, I do hope to hire a part-time employee in 2010.

Mehrasax - www.navare.etsy.com

"A Good Website" won't do much without a strong marketing plan for the website to drive clients. Truly, a good website with no technique on driving interested traffic is as effective as a good resume that you keep in your drawer.

I think the most cost effective way of driving traffic for small businesses is through a Pay Per Call program where clients only pay for client calls without the huge "marketing campaign" costs.

Pay per call will be huge this year in bringing a lot of smaller businesses on par with competing with the big guys.

Rohan
Principal of ittygrow.com

Yes, in my personal experience - I see there are lots of online tools like social media sites, blogs, and communities where ideas are flowing around and entrepreneurs share their experiences which really help an individual to promote his business by one or another ways which is free & needs time. Patience and continuous efforts is required for any online business

www.host.co.in

While I'm hearing mentions of a turnaround on the horizon (housing, car sales, etc.), I'm seeing two indications that things may actually get worse.

First, Since January 1, I'm getting more and more calls each month for organizational restructuring / turnaround assistance. June was at an all time high. Things seem to be catching up with companies that thought the recession would end this summer.

Second, and I'm sure related to the first, is that I've personally heard of four CEO's in the past six weeks say that the "rainy day fund" that each of them was using to survive the recession was close to being depleted.

I hope the recovery is on the horizon, but I'm not sure it will be a robust recovery.

Jim

The online tools available for entrepreneurs continue to grow. The challenge is to conjure up enough time and creativity to successfully promote your business online. That's where an online marketing agency can provide a lot of value and show measurable results.

www.albumcreative.com