Business Discussions

Name: Diana Marie Estey Business: Alive Anew Launched: 1998 Located: Wellesley, MA and Mill Valley, CA Diana Marie Estey has long been an outdoor enthusiast and a health and wellness buff, and she’s always relished having the freedom and creativity to do her own thing, too. Years ago, when she was working as an outdoor educator in three different states, Diana started running her own weekend trips on the side. She loved offering clients thoughtfully planned excursions for cross-country skiing, kayaking, yoga and more. Eventually, Diana opened her own business, Alive Anew, offering instruction for individuals and groups in outdoor fitness, yoga, meditation and mindfulness. In addition, Diana began leading weekend retreats in New England and Northern California and longer hiking and yoga retreats in Baja and the mountains of Europe. We spoke with Diana about creating a business based on her love of communing with nature while helping clients build a strong, flexible mind, body and spiri

How to make great medical mobile app? Is it good idea nowadays?

Have you checked the weather forecast today? Depending what product or service you offer, the weather – and, to put it more broadly, the seasons – may be a significant factor in your overall business strategy. Let’s say, for example, that you run a summer camp for kids, a lawn care company, a commercial fishing business or you sell gourmet ice cream from a truck. You know that when the temperature climbs and the sun shines, your business will be booming. You might base most or even all of your annual revenue goals on the income you earn during those critical few months. Maybe you need to hire extra employees during your busy season or plan to ramp up your marketing campaign for that key period of time. For those reasons and more, you need to carefully manage everything from your budget and payroll to your cash flow and operating expenses throughout the entire year to ensure you sail through the high season – and, just as important, stay on track during the ensuing quiet times, too. P

      "It takes money to make money" - Sol Luckman   As an accountant and small business owner, I am all too familiar with this old adage. Any company that accepts checks or credit card payments from their clients knows that it will cost them money, to accept the money they made.  While merchant processing fees are difficult to avoid completely, a little extra knowledge can go a long way and save you a lot of money!   Three Tier vs Interchange Plus   Before selecting a merchant processing company it is important to understand the different fee calculations and how they would impact your business.   Three Tier merchant processing: A large majority of the merchant processing companies, including bank provided merchant services, like to boil down the charges per card into three rate categories   1: Qualified = ATM/DEBIT Card Purchases  2: Mid Qualified = Standard Credit Cards 3: Non-Qualified = Rewa

For me, June is all about open-air markets - the perfect time for local farmers, artists, and artisans to get outside and meet their customers face to face. What does June mean to you and your business? What's your one-word theme for this time of year?   Want to weigh in but not yet a QB Community member? Click HERE to sign up in a flash!   QB Community Home          Talk About Your Business          Find Inspiration     

My first summer job at age 16 was at the mall, at a fudge kiosk where I was required to ask passersby if they would like a free sample. Truth time: It sucked. BUT, in retrospect all that stepping up to senior citizens looping the floor for exercise helped prepare me for a whole lotta cold-calling when I first started working for myself.   As any teen will tell you, summer is the time for self-employment. What was your first summer job, and how did it inform your perception of working for yourself? Did you learn any skills that helped prepare you for your current gig?

  The future of business is happening now. Small business owners who are adopting Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and automation technology today are positioning their business to succeed in the coming years. It’s no surprise that many of our savvy QB Community members are automating (or attempting to automate) some aspect of their business. Here, we’re sharing a roundup of what they’re doing and why.   Automating to speed up production   “Our popsicle production early on involved plastic molds in a freezer overnight. Now we use a high-powered machine that freezes over around 200 pops an hour! And someday we'll hopefully have large-scale popsicle machine equipment that can freeze and package many more pops at a time than we could dream.” -- Alexia Burke, Izza Pops   “The construction industry is an old-school trade so we don’t really automate much, although tools help us make things easier. Of course, smartphones with cameras are a godsend and frequentl

  The fashion industry is constantly changing -- for proof, just check the back of your closet for those once beloved pleated jeans, shorteralls and the blazer with quarterback-worthy shoulder pads. In fashion, it’s not just the styles that are evolving -- the way we shop has fundamentally shifted, too. Today, we can browse and buy without ever leaving our living room and still get our items delivered in time for a last-minute business lunch. Or we can sit back and leave the decisions in the hands of professional stylists we’ve never actually met. No matter the approach to finding fashion, we pretty much all agree we want shopping to be easy, convenient and, in many cases, customized. Let’s take a look at what’s hip for today’s mass consumer fashion industry and what the takeaway could be for the small business owner (SBO). Trend #1: Move over catalog, there’s a new mail-order fashion trend in town Sites like Stitch Fix, Fabletics, Adore Me, Rent the Runway and Trunk Club all

I'll tell you a secret: There was a time not so long ago when I was still sending PDF invoices and keeping printouts in a binder (I know, I know!). There comes a moment in every self-employed life when you realize you can't afford not to invest in the right tools to keep track of your finances. When did you decide you needed a reliable financial management platform? Did you reach a certain milestone in terms of sales, clients, accounts? Or did you just hit a wall?

  All through the month of May we've been focusing on the many ways that recent technological advances have changed the way we do business. Here's what QB Community members had to say on the subject!   Social Media Has Changed the Business Conversation "The days where a brand could craft its message and send it out to the world as being carved in stone are over. [Thanks to social media], the brand at best can state its position and communicate it, but...it now becomes shared with the world -- consumers, prospects, customers -- and they can do with the brand what they wish, to a large extent. The brand is no longer this stoic monolith that stands unchallenged, but rather is an equal voice in a digitally-connected ecosystem and community, no more powerful than any other voice." ~ @TheDotConnector   Everything Is "Instagrammable" "Being a product-based business means I have to think about every aspect of my product, from the container it is housed in, the labels and t

Maybe it was the day you ordered your first batch of business cards. Or the first referral you ever received. If you’re like @LeslieBarber, QB Community Leader and co-founder of Nutrabella, it was first time someone purchased your product who wasn’t a friend or family member.   What was the moment or milestone that made you realize you were running a REAL business? That you became a REAL business owner, entrepreneur?

Name: Nani Waddoups, LPC QB Community member name: @266221 Business: Finding Center, Therapeutic Counseling for Modern Life Location: Portland, OR Launched: 2012 Nani Waddoups has a long and remarkably varied history as an entrepreneur. Although she went to college intending to become a psychologist, after graduation, Nani instead ended up working for herself in the design industry. For more than 20 years, she worked as a self-employed florist, importer, specialty contractor, interior designer, garden designer and house stager --  the list goes on. In 2008, however, Nani realized she’d never forgotten her dream of becoming a professional counselor. At 47, she left her design company partnership to attend graduate school and earn an M.A. in counseling. Nani was ready to start a brand new business – her own private practice -- and help clients through times of transition. We caught up with Nani to find out about the particular challenge of offering care-based services while als

  As a business coach I am often asked for advice on how to find the right business coach. My short answer? It really depends on you. Here are a five tips to find the best business coach for your business. 1. Understand the outcome you would like to have by working with a business coach. Do you want to grow your sales? Become a better leader? Manage fear? All of the above?!? Starting with understanding what will make you feel like coaching has been fruitful is your number one task.   2. Look for a coach that has both business AND coaching skills. If they are only strong on the business side, you will be getting more of a consultant. If they are less strong on business but great at coaching, you will have more of a life coach. I find that my clients have the best outcomes with a combination because the fastest results require strong guidance in both areas. 3. Look for a coach that has clients at least 10x bigger than yours but not more!

  Name: Anna Matuszewski Business: Teenie Banana Disco/Anna Matuszewski Choreography Location: Seattle, WA Launched: 2000; with Macklemore since 2008   From the age of five until 17, Anna Matuszewski (mah-two-SHEV-skee) spent her childhood training for the Olympics in figure skating. When she injured her knee, the door to the Olympics closed. Happily, another opened, this one leading to a career as an independent ice skating coach and choreographer. Eventually, Anna’s passion for dance led her to start a “floor” choreography business with clients like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Nordstrom, AT&T and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.   Since Anna’s parents and her three siblings all own and operate their own businesses, perhaps Anna was always destined to be an entrepreneur. We caught up with her in Seattle in between tour dates to talk about how she’s grown her business over two decades, how she balances single motherhood with worldwide performances and why sh

  Do you remember your first summer job? Maybe you were a camp counsellor or lifeguard at the local pool. Given that you’ve chosen to run your own business, maybe a summer job gave your very first taste of self-employment. Whether you walked dogs, mowed lawns or fixed flat tires for cyclists on the bike path, perhaps running your own summer gig shaped your  entrepreneurial mindset – and helped you get where you are today.   With that in mind, let’s take a look at some summer opportunities for the budding teenage entrepreneurs you might know (or even be related to!). When young people try their hand a running their own business, they experience decision making, earning power, independence, adapting to changing situations – the learning is endless. Perhaps best of all, they get to try on your entrepreneurial shoes for size.   If the budding entrepreneur likes to work outside, consider:   Walking dogs and caring for pets. Doggies, kitties, birds, oh my! Responsi

Have you used these services? Can you recommend some?

Have you ever screwed up so royally that there are simply no words (not the acceptable kind, anyway)? KFC just did, and for all you Rocky fans out there, the company feels like a "Kentucky Fried Idiot" for good reason: This week, a bunch of their U.K. locations kinda sorta ran out of chicken.    Not ideal, right? And that's exactly what KFC's response was, in its full-page ad. "A chicken restaurant without any chicken. It's not ideal. Huge apologies to our customers, especially those who travelled out of their way to find we were closed. And endless thanks to our KFC team members and our franchise partners for working tirelessly to improve the situation. It's been a hell of a week, but we're making progress, and every day more and more fresh chicken is being delivered to our restaurants. Thank you for bearing with us."   The response has been overwhelmingly positive. No excuses or blaming the supply chain. The situation just sucked and KFC owned it.    What's

  We all know business in the internet age is rapidly evolving, and perhaps this is no more apparent than in the food industry. (The clothing industry, too, is undergoing huge changes and shifts.) Hungry customers want convenience, speed and quality when mealtime rolls around. Smartphones have caused seismic shifts in the restaurant world, and one one of the biggest is customers’ desire to enjoy restaurant-quality food at home -- either via delivery of a meal prep-kit or via courier service from a local restaurant. When diners do go out to eat, it’s overwhelmingly to patronize a “fast casual” establishments -- think Chipotle, Panera Bread or Smashburger -- that offer higher quality ingredients than fast food chains but skip the table service. These days, transparency is also a deciding factor for dinner: Diners want to know where the ingredients came from and who prepared the food (if they can see the kitchen staff at work, so much the better). We’re exploring these culinary-ind

  As a business owner, you not only need to understand your customer, the market and how to sell your product or service, you also have to learn a whole new language of business terms. Here are 22 key financial terms you’ll come across often while running your business.   We’ve defined them in detail below, and we’ve made a handy-dandy guide to help you remember on the fly! Accounts receivable: Quite simply, this is what you are owed. The work was done, you sent an invoice and now you’re awaiting the payment. On your balance sheet (see below), you include “accounts receivable” in the assets column.   Assets: The things your business owns. Tangible assets include computers, furniture, office supplies and your inventory. Intangible assets are any trademarks or copyrights you own. Both types of assets are part of your business’s total value.   Balance sheet: A key document for any business owner, this is a round up of the financial big three: assets (cash on hand,

Name: Megan Corazza, Owner & Operator/Skipper Business: Commercial fishing aboard the 52-foot F/V Centurion Location: Prince William Sound, Alaska Launched: 2000 Captain Megan Corazza grew up commercial fishing with her parents out of their home port of Homer, Alaska. From a young age she learned firsthand about the high stakes and unpredictability of the fishing business, and she swore she’d never go down that path herself. In fact, she was on track to be a doctor when the fishing business beckoned her, and she decided to follow in her family’s footsteps. Today, Megan has owned her own commercial fishing operation for nearly 20 years. Each summer in the Land of the Midnight Sun Megan, along with her crew and her sons, catch millions of salmon to sell to canneries. The days are long and sleep is short, but this seasonal business allows Megan to pursue her other passions -- motherhood, writing and skiing -- during other eight months of the year. We caught up with Megan just before

We are a property management company with several commercial/residential properties.  Each property has it's own bank account.  How can I set up a coa for each property?

What’s your initial reaction to this question? And what does that say about you and your focus as a business?

  Every entrepreneur dreams of having a steady stream of loyal, repeat customers and clients. To make that dream a reality, it’s helpful for small business owners to stay in lock-step with customers’ ever-shifting preferences and priorities. A key example from the current consumer landscape? The increasing demand for businesses and brands to be authentic in what they say, do and sell.   (Re)define authenticity According to recent global research, “authenticity” in business boils down to three key questions.   Is your business reliable? If it is, you deliver on promises about your products and services, giving consumers exactly what they expect at a consistently high quality. Is your business respectful? R-E-S-P-E-C-T starts with the understanding that customers and clients are individuals who deserve thoughtful and attentive interactions. As a business owner, you make every effort to protect consumers’ privacy and data (by the way, this priority emerges across al

Here in QB Community, we love learning from business coach Julie Gordon White. If you’ve spent any time with Julie, you’ll know one of her (many) superpowers is her ability to turn thoughts and ideas into actionable, step-by-step systems. Today we’re sharing one of Julie’s favorite systems, which stemmed from her own desire to start every day feeling positive and productive. Problem was, like so many busy entrepreneurs, Julie could never quite get around to writing in a gratitude journal or doing the other things she thought defined an effective “morning ritual.” So, in typical Julie fashion, she came up with her own system for setting up each day for success. She calls it the G.I.V.E Morning Ritual – and it’s as powerful as it is simple. All you need is a few focused minutes at the start of your day -- maybe you’re lying in bed, in the shower or out walking the dog – and the desire to get every morning off to a fantastic start. Julie’s G.I.V.E Morning Ritual Go through the acronym t

Name: Doug Tarr Business: MVCode Location: Five code clubs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area Founded: October 2013 Doug Tarr was a seasoned software developer who had spent many years working at startups and large companies, as well as co-founding a tech startup in Seattle called PayScale. After moving with his family to Mill Valley, CA, Doug was approached by some fellow parents who wondered if he’d be willing to teach their kids to code. Doug agreed, so he invited a dozen 4th graders to squeeze into his living room for a weekly coding session. Word spread about how much the kids were learning and how much they were enjoying it, too. Eventually, Doug decided to move his unofficial club into an official downtown location. Now MVCode had a name, an address and a mission: to create a sustainable, local community business that teaches 1st through 10th graders to master the basics -- and beyond -- of coding.   Doug, what was the tipping point that inspired you to work for yo