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The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
Managing cash flow can be tricky, but building strong relationships with everyone involved in your business can make that task easier. The Founder of the Louis J. Grasmick Lumber Co. has discovered that managing revenue becomes easier when you have a loyal customer base and carefully selected accounts. He shares his view on creating revenue through emphasizing the importantce of strong relationships.
Knowing how to work the system gives you control over one of the most important issues concerning your business: the ability to handle your cash. Whether you're black or white, whether you're running a freshly funded business or a proven establishment, cash flow matters. The publisher of Black Enterprise shares what he's learned about diligent cash-flow management during three decades in the magazine business.
A leading African-American entrepreneur exposes that things have changed for entrepreneurship in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The tragedy is hurting large companies (on whose boards he sits), which in turn is having a ripple effect on the smallest entrepreneurial shop, he writes.
Earl Graves, the founder and publisher of Black Enterprise Magazine, offers statistical evidence and his own business experience to explain businesses lose out when they dismiss the fact that the African-American consumer is most interested in a product or service's business value, not it's perceived social value. The incorrect assumptions about the African-American market that many businesses make can be corrected through, as Graves has discovered, with persistence and careful explanations of the overwhelmingly positive qualities of the African-American consumer.
Even with trained and certified internal quality-improvement leaders, or "belts," Six Sigma efforts can fail because management does not understand the support they need. Such ignorance can mean that Six Sigma quality projects don't match company strategy, receive the right resources or financial support, or benefit from regular reviews by managers who can resolve such issues. Entrepreneurs thinking about implementing a Lean Manufacturing-oriented process need to have a full appreciation not only for the returns but also for the investments required, especially their own time and energy and that of their top team".
Entrepreneurs are apt to happen upon found money by more skillfully
Don Grimm spreads his giving back around through nonprofit and for-profit boards to tech transfer and angel investing.
Recognizing the needs of technology start-ups, Bob Guller started an organization that provides space and support.
A business plan isn't as useful for raising financing as the prevailing entrepreneurial wisdom holds, argues the founder of an Internet marketing concern. Instead, focus on building the business and the money will follow.
When cash flow turned positive and profits started coming in, the co-founder of an Internet start-up sought his advisory board's approval for new expenses. What he got was a barrage of questions: "Where are next year's projections? What's your mission statement?" As the business grew, the board made sure it stayed on track financially, raising prices as well as morale. And when the company was acquired, everybody cashed in.
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