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Tips for Using Colleges & Universities to Help Your Business

1. Volunteer your company to be a business school case study. You’ll learn much about your company in the process and get good ideas for the future.



2. Obtain management and technical assistance from one of more than 50 Small Business Development Centers. Check the U.S. Small Business Administration web site at www.sba.gov for locations.



3. Participate in special programs. Many colleges and universities sponsor venture capital forums, entrepreneurship centers and family business programs.



4. Work with the business school to offer internships to graduate students.



5. Find out what expertise is on a business school’s staff. You may find just the right person to hire as a consultant or serve on your board.

Tips for Making the Most of Your Business Plan

1. Take the long view and do long-term planning. Map out where you want to be five years from now and how you plan to get there.



2. Write the plan yourself. You will learn more about your business by doing so.



3. Think of your plan as a living document. Review it regularly to make sure you are on track or to adjust it to market changes.



4. Share the plan with others who can help you get where you want to go—such as lenders, key employees and advisors.



5. Understand that you might pay a price in the short run to obtain long-term business growth and health.

Tips for Developing Policies for Your Business

1. Think ahead. Establish policies before you need them. Doing so helps avert crises and awkward situations, and helps solve problems before they arise.



2. Determine what policies you need. Some you’ll want early in your business include a mission statement, as well as compensation, performance evaluation and employee policies.



3. Get input from key employees, as well as from members of your advisory board, your board of directors, and/or your professional advisors and consultants.



4. Communicate policies to everyone in your business.



5. Review policies on a regular basis—once a year, for example—and revise them as necessary.

Tips on Preparing for Change

1. Examine your corporate culture to discover any impediments to change. Some traditions and practices may need to be revamped to meet new needs.



2. Keep talking about change so that employees think in terms of change and help make it happen.



3. Make expectations clear. Key employees should know that embracing change is part of their responsibility.



4. Monitor company procedures and systems to be sure they support change.



5. Plan far ahead for the biggest change of all: your retirement or exit from the company. Develop new leadership.

Tips to Help You Prepare for Growth Spurts

1. Get outside help. Growth is tricky and stressful, so smart business owners rely on outside assistance—such as consultants or SCORE volunteers—to get them through it.



2. Hire ahead of the need. If you’re growing fast, add a chief operating officer and/or chief financial officer—even if only on a part-time or consulting basis.



3. Change your own role. Stop "doing everything yourself." Delegate day-to-day operations to others and become the leader, the strategic thinker and the planner—in other words, the CEO.



4. Weed out customers that don’t contribute sufficiently to your bottom line. Let go of those who distract you from your goal—for example, because they are outside the area in which you want to work or take too much of your time.



5. Have reserve capital to weather growth’s inevitable bumps. Reserves don’t have to be all cash—they can be excellent receivables or something else that can be turned into cash quickly.

Tips on Electronic Contracts

1. Take note: federal law now makes electronic contracts and electronic signatures as legal and enforceable as those on paper.

2. Consider what advantages e-contracts might have for your business. Some companies will be able to conduct their business entirely on line, often with great savings.

3. Be aware that if you start using e-contracts, you have to let customers know whether paper contracts are available and what fees might apply for the paper agreements.

4. Proceed with caution. The law does not define what an electronic signature is, and e-signature technology is still evolving.

5. For more information: the American Bar Association, a site that specializes in legal issues.

Tips for Marketing Your Web Site

1. Think strategically. Your Web site should be a part of your overall marketing plan.



2. Choose a Web site address (URL) that’s intuitive and easy to remember. Your company’s name (if it’s short) or the name of your main product might work well.



3. Put your Web address on all your printed material, including business cards, letterhead, press releases and invoices. Include it in all your advertising.



4. Don’t forget offline media and traditional publicity techniques. Send news releases promoting your site to newspapers, broadcasters, and magazines.



5. Speak at conferences and trade shows, and write informative articles for trade publications. When you do, mention your Web address.

Tips for Getting Noticed Online

1. Get your Web site listed on major search engines, such as Google or Yahoo! Two sites, Search Engine Watch at www.searchenginewatch.com and the Web Marketing Info Center at www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket, offer guidance.



2. Join a “banner exchange,” and trade advertising banners with other Web sites. Look under “banner exchange” on search engines.



3. Visit sites similar to or related to yours and offer to exchange links with them.



4. Write useful articles for other sites and include your Web address.



5. Get more online marketing help from such sites as www.zdnet.com/eweek/, workz.com and www.bcentral.com.