Talkroute Blog Year in Review: Top Posts of 2016

We’ve laughed, we’ve cried… not really—this isn’t that kind of blog. We have covered a lot of ground though, exploring everything from market research, to optimizing your phone system. Over the past year, the goal was to focus our content on understanding how a virtual phone system works, what is involved with porting a phone number, and as always, providing support for startups and small businesses of all kinds. Here are the greatest hits of what we covered over the past year: The Market Research Process: A Fresh Perspective Your goal should be to uncover specific data that will truly help you establish whether your market is large enough to sustain your business, and the only way to do it is by learning as much as possible about the people who populate your market. Keep reading 4 Simple Steps to Reducing Your Carbon Footprint This is where “going green” moves …

Promoting Your Business as Family Can Boost Sales

Many businesses could attract a great many more customers than they are, simply by telling their story. You may not think that your story matters much to customers, but in fact it can be just the element that causes them to choose you over your competitors. You can use points like how long your company has existed, positive things that other customers have said about you, and whether or not you are a family-run business, to sway new customers in your favor. What is considered a “family business”? Just as if you were building your résumé for a new employer, you can organize the facts in such a way that it portrays your business in a more attractive light, without ever telling untruths. Businesses have long understood that customers like to hear that they are a “family-owned & operated” company; and first of all, if your business is indeed exclusively …

3 Exceptional Stories of Small Business Success

There are thousands of new small businesses opening every day, and though it’s remarkable enough to start any new business, there are some that innovate beyond what is expected. The following are 3 outstanding stories of small businesses that adapted to the demands of the market, pushed through challenging economic times, and excelled despite their circumstances. Artistic Finishes, Inc. Our recent recession put strain on many industries, and the home construction industry was among those hit the hardest. One scrappy small business based out of Roseville, MN became a much larger business when they discovered that home builders had a need for pre-finished hardwood flooring. Builders were previously forced to go through two companies—one for the material, and one for the finish. Then the flooring fabricators were forced to retool and rethink their business when the housing bubble popped. Crippled by the crash, Artistic’s revenues were cut in half, from …

Shared Office Space

In a Shared Office Space, Get Your Own Phone Bill

    For most individuals and businesses, one thing you don’t usually worry about is getting the phone bill from your service provider. This is typically not an issue because they can furnish a bill for any phone number you own upon request, at any time. In most cases, you are the account holder, which means that the provider has no problem giving you a bill or CSR (Customer Service Report) for your number whenever you need it; however, there is an exception that makes obtaining your phone bill an unexpected challenge.   The Shared Office Space There is at least one case in which you will have a really hard time getting your phone bill, and that is when, though you are the one using your phone number, you are not the account holder for this number.   This happens when your business operates out of a shared office …

Why Small Businesses Fail and How to Prevent It

We hear the statistics all the time: “Thousands of new businesses open every day; half of all businesses tank after 5 years,” and so on. So why is the outlook for new business owners so dismal? You could have an extensive, very semantic conversation about why businesses just can’t seem to make it over the hump and stay open for the long haul. There have to be some basic, overarching deficiencies that cause them to fail so quickly, right? Businesses go under for a variety of reasons, but in this post, we will attempt to pin down the thought processes of new business owners and the decisions they make to sabotage their own success. Failure to anticipate unexpected losses. It’s important to be very mindful of the position you are in during the crucial first couple of years of a new business. Like a nascent organism waking up in the …

10 of the Most Awful Yet Delightful Business Names

    When it comes time to give your business a name, you can actually have a lot of fun coming up with a great one, but don’t have too much fun. If you don’t pay attention to how it may look or sound to others, you could end up stuck with a name for your business that is memorable, but in the worst way. The following is a list of some of the worst company names ever conceived, while at the same time, they may be total genius.   10. Boring Business Systems Named after one of its original executives, Allan D. Boring, this company is unashamed of its Boring namesake. In fact, they embrace it, explaining to outsiders that there is “nothing boring” about their features and services. (WorldWideInterweb)   9. Frying Nemo Going strong to this day, Frying Nemo is a fish & chips restaurant serving the …

16 New Year’s Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

We’re headed into another new year that promises to be very interesting, at the very least. Below, you will find 16 New Year’s resolutions that are perfect for entrepreneurs, from cleaning out the office, to updating your company website. Start the year off right, and take one of these resolutions, to improve your quality of life and bring your business to the next level. 1. Start setting reasonable deadlines, and meet them consistently. One of the most common mistakes business owners make is giving customers and colleagues unrealistic completion dates that just don’t allow for enough time to finish the project. Most people will be happy to wait a little longer for something to be finished, if you consistently deliver by the time you promised, rather than giving them an earlier deadline that you end up blowing past. 2. Meet with your accountant. First of all, if you don’t have …

If You Can’t Execute Your Idea, It’s Not a Business

One of the greatest stumbling blocks for entrepreneurs is turning an idea for a business, into actual production. There are an untold number of businesses that never get off the ground because the founder cannot execute his or her idea. The purpose of this article is to show you how to keep your business from becoming a statistic, before it ever gets started. Planning and Doing When you see a need for a product or service and think you can fulfill that need, it looks easy at first glance, but of course the truth is that once you put yourself in the position of creating a business, it becomes more complex. There are a variety of things of which you need to have knowledge, as well as certain skill sets, before you can start producing and bringing in revenue, and that is the point: Having a great business idea and …

How to Run Multiple Businesses from a Single Phone

When you’re not familiar with virtual phone systems, the idea of running more than one business from a single phone might seem like a really bad idea, if it’s even possible at all. But it is more than possible; it actually works excellently if you have a virtual phone system like Talkroute. What you’ll see in this post is a breakdown of the steps you can take for exactly how to set it up in a very short amount of time, with an explanation of the features that you will have at your disposal. Open a Talkroute Account To get started, just go to talkroute.com/sign-up and sign up for a new account. Don’t worry; there is a free trial period, so you don’t have to commit right away. If you do decide to take advantage of the trial, then you can select a temporary, working phone number which you can …

8 Barriers to Entry Every Startup Should Know

It’s not easy to open a business in a competitive field. In fact, if it is too easy, you should question whether it’s worthwhile, in the first place, because you may end up in an overcrowded space. The things that stop competitors from entering an industry are the things that let the established businesses keep their piece of the pie. Every startup should be aware that they will probably face barriers to entry, and these are 8 of them. 1. Startup Capital You always have some startup cost, but many industries necessitate extensive capital, including, but not limited to, infrastructure, equipment, permits & licenses, or a minimum number of employees. It is important to anticipate potential additional costs to open your business, before you get started. 2. Technical Knowledge Base Some businesses cannot easily break into an industry because of the high level of technical knowledge that it demands. Take …