3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: August 20
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?
1. Lessons from Oprah's startup. What can small-business owners learn from Oprah Winfrey's struggling OWN network? The first lesson is making sure to give the startup 100% dedication in its first months of launch.
"Little problems easily morph into big, costly ones when the top decision maker isn't on hand to make timely adjustments," says startup educator Susan Schreter on Entrepreneur.com.
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Next, brand consistency matters. When customers don't understand what a startup's product or service really stands for they won't come back and worse, they share their disappointment with friends, the article says.
Be sure to be better than your best in order to capture a lasting audience by being original, innovative and imaginative.
Don't spend extravagantly. "When startups spend money on nice-to-haves before attaining key milestones of financial sustainability, they needlessly increase operating losses, business uncertainty and employee finger-pointing. It's a toxic environment that takes away all the joy of collaborative business-building," Schreter says.
And finally, adversity does not mean failure. Be sure to learn from mistakes and keep moving forward in order to reach the "sweet spot" where the venture can operate sustainably, she adds.
2. "We DID Build It!" President Barack Obama's controversial remark on the campaign trail last month that sparked media and small-business owner backlash has now become the battle cry of some small-business owners showing their discontent with the government, specifically when it comes to taxation and spending. A Business Insider article shares the stories of a few business owners who have strongly reacted to Obama's "If you own a business, you didn't build that," remark.
3. Los Angeles restaurant pays diners to check their tech. Southern California Public Radio tells the story of one Los Angeles-based restaurant that is paying patrons to turn off their mobile devices when they sit down.