Small Business Development

With over $500 million a year in sales, the Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. But beginning in the 1980s, the Bassett company suffered from an influx of cheap Chinese furniture as the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately was forced to send its production offshore to Asia. Only one man fought back. That man is John Bassett III, a descendant of the Bassetts who is now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of over $90 million.

The recent pandemic has decimated many small retail businesses, especially in the clothing sector. While big box stores pivoted to online sales, local "mom and pop" shops were left without a roadmap, and many closed their doors permanently. One store in Pikesville, Maryland managed to survive and thrive by using an unorthodox approach: the Poshmark reseller app, and a guy who knows nothing about clothes (hint: the author of this book). Outlandish but true.

In the world of entrepreneurship, hustling and grinding will earn you a badge of honor. In the Kingdom of God, it is an inferior substitute for working by the infinite power of God's grace. For the past five years, Christ-centered entrepreneurs have turned to this celebrated guide to grow in the Biblical truth of God’s empowering grace in business.

Business models aren’t one-size-fits-all—it's about finding the one that aligns with your personality, resources, and goals. Along the journey, you will need to adopt a positive and determined attitude and reset your mindset.

Have you ever wondered what separates people who think bigger from people who set their bars low? What makes one person accept low standards and another person constantly raise them? What drives a person who's optimizing every single aspect of her life, and what causes another person to maintain the status quo? I found this topic so fascinating, I decided to find out the answer for myself and write a book about it.

When pioneering business journalist and Inc. magazine editor at large Bo Burlingham wrote Small Giants, it became an instant classic for its original take on a common business problem - how to handle the pressure to grow. Now Burlingham is back to tackle an even more common problem - how to exit your company well. Sooner or later, all entrepreneurs leave their businesses and all businesses get sold, given away, or liquidated.

Did you know that if you clean just 2 houses a day/5 days a week, you could make $3,700- $5,000 a month? Don’t believe me? Let’s do the math. The average house cleaning price today is between $90 to $150. Let’s go with the average of the two $120. Now 2 houses a day means $240 a day X 5 days a week = $1,200 weekly X 4.2 (weeks in a month) = $5,040! Simple. Average commercial (office/retail) cleaning price is between $220 to $450 X 2 a day = $440 to $900 a day!

So many board members - especially of small nonprofits - want to support a nonprofit and readily accept the invitation to join the board. It's only then that they discover they are in over their heads, with no idea of their expectations and responsibilities. The Little Book of Boards is here to throw that drowning board member a rope.

Not confident with your negotiating skills? This book will cure you! A must-have for any small business owner, The Pocket Small Business Owner’s Guide to Negotiating is full of helpful tips and strategies for getting what you want without alienating your clients and suppliers. You will learn to analyze your wants, needs, advantages, and disadvantages going in, maintain your resolve, and see the negotiation through to a successful end. Topics include position bargaining, contracts, purchases, conflict resolution, and more.

Unlock the power of artificial intelligence and future-proof your small business with this comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide! A Complete Beginner’s Guide to AI and Small Business is your all-in-one manual for understanding how AI works, what it means for entrepreneurs, and how to use it to grow, streamline, and scale your business—without needing to be a tech expert. Whether you're a solo entrepreneur, a local shop owner, or running an online business, this book shows you exactly how to use AI to save time, reduce costs, increase efficiency, and make smarter decisions.

Is your business struggling? Equip yourself with proven financial strategies for growth and success. Fear not the daunting statistics: 20% of new businesses fold within two years, 45% within five, and a staggering 65% within a decade. However, 25% thrive beyond 15 years. What sets them apart? The answer often lies in mastering financial management, the hidden driver of long-term success. This book is your guide to joining that triumphant 25%, arming you with practical financial skills to propel your entrepreneurial journey from surviving to thriving.

Based on the success story of a small Seattle coffee shop, this little book is a tasty brew of sound principles and instructive anecdotes. As the coffee shop owner looks for ways to retain his customer base, a consultant helps him focus on what really matters. Authors Yerkes and Decker, renowned for their consulting and business savvy, have done their homework and turned Beans into "a business fable taken from real life".

Congratulations on deciding to start a business! Everything is going great. You're motivated, you've got an idea (or maybe not!), you've seen and read enough people starting their own small businesses, and you know you can do it, too. But there's one small problem: You've never actually started a small business before! Don't worry. It's not as difficult as it seems once you know the steps you need to take.

How do you cut through the noise, commotion, and bad information that is right now cluttering up your customers' digital space? Epic Content Marketing. One of the world's leading experts on content marketing, Joe Pulizzi explains how to draw prospects and customers in by creating information and content they actually want to engage with. No longer can we interrupt our customers with mediocre content (and sales messages) our customers don't care about. Epic Content Marketing takes you step by step through the process of developing stories that inform and entertain and compel customers to act - without actually telling them to.

Si siempre ha querido iniciar su propio negocio, pero no sabe por dónde comenzar y cómo hacerlo con éxito, entonces siga leyendo.... ¿Está cansado de no poder tener el modelo de negocio adecuado? ¿Ha probado un sinfín de soluciones, pero nada parece funcionar durante más de unas pocas semanas? ¿Quiere por fin decir adiós a correr riesgos sin cuidado y descubrir algo que le funcione? Si es así, ha venido al lugar adecuado.

Kym Gold's mantra - "never settle for a no, always look for a yes" - is what led her to co-create True Religion Brand Jeans, a major retail clothing company that she sold for close to a billion dollars in 2013. In Gold Standard, she finally gives her side of the story of how the once fledgling jeans company that nobody wanted,went on to become a giant, revolutionizing player in the fashion industry.

Master the art of public speaking with a mind- and content-based approach to success.

Sales is a skill anyone can learn and master - and introverts are especially good at it once they learn how to leverage their natural strengths. Introverts aren't comfortable with traditional tactics like aggressively pushing a product or talking over a customer's objections. That's the beauty of The Introvert's Edge: it doesn't focus on the sale itself but on a sales system that helps introverts feel sincere instead of sales-y.

Applying the Business Model Canvas: A Practical Guide for Small Businesses is a book that was written for the entrepreneur trying to come up with a workable new business model. It teaches entrepreneurs using the Socratic Method of asking and answering questions to complete each of the 13 building blocks of the Business Model Canvas and the Value Proposition Model. Through this process, the listener will be able to turn abstract ideas into a practical business model in no time.

It's a rainy day in Seattle, and on the third floor of First Guarantee Financial, people have stopped believing they can make a difference. To new manager Mary Jane Ramirez, the challenge of bringing life back to her unenthusiastic and unmotivated team seems impossible, until she discovers an incredibly successful workplace down the street where the employees are so alive and passionate that people stop just to watch them work!