Business

Small business ownership and entrepreneurship are two business terms often regarded as synonymous. Interestingly, there is in fact a huge difference between these two. In summary, small business provides little growth and few opportunities for its owners and employees because it is not really designed for expansion. On the other hand, entrepreneurship always has growth potential, and with fast growth comes more income and more wealth.

More specifically, there are three things that differentiate small business from entrepreneurial venture, and they are innovation, risk and wealth creation. As far as innovation is concerned, it is the backbone of entrepreneurship, giving the enterprise capabilities and resources to create wealth. Entrepreneurs are said to be more innovative, sometimes even added to it, than small business owners who are usually settled with marketing the usual stuff produced from the kitchen, home office or garage.

Entrepreneurship involves more risks. Entrepreneurs take up risks that are unusually high for most if not all small business owners. High risks fuel the passion of entrepreneurship, and when combined with opportunities of huge profits, entrepreneurs take the road less traveled. Increasingly, as more and more entrepreneurs trail the same business idea, the risks become low, opportunities of huge profits diminish, and entrepreneurs would again seek out another venture that presents opportunities for immense and fast wealth creation.

Wealth creation in entrepreneurship is quick and substantive. This difference with small business is perhaps the most obvious. With the lack of growth potential, the wealth creation ability of a small business remains small and limited, if not utterly slow. Entrepreneurial venture, with the substantive risks involved, offers plenty of opportunities to accumulate massive wealth and at great speeds. Income generated from entrepreneurship is significantly larger than what can be generated from small business or what it required to replace employment salary.

Unlike small business that is generally patterned after tried and tested home businesses, entrepreneurship is about new products, new processes, new markets, and new organizations. Entrepreneurs are notorious for locating un-served niche markets, no matter how unprofitable they may seem. Markets under the poverty line are often ignored by business owners, but to entrepreneurs, they are great sources of substantial wealth. By combining innovation, specialization and collaborative effort, the enterprise becomes empowered to produce world-class products made affordable and available to markets in the bottom of the pyramid.

Innovation too is influential enough to create new demand. From this standpoint, there is little need for entrepreneurship to invest heavily on advertising. On the contrary, it is not surprising for products of entrepreneurial venture to gain wide recognition, and their quality and value are enough for customers to spread the word to the rest of the markets thereby providing the enterprise free yet powerful advertising. …

Q: A friend told me that as a woman of Native American descent I might be eligible for a special SBA program that will help me start a small business. He said I could compete for government contracts through this program. Can you tell me what SBA program he's referring to?
– Clara P.

A: Your friend is probably referring to the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8 (a) Business Development (BD) Program. The 8 (a) Program (named after the section of the Small Business Act from which it comes) is an SBA program created to help small disadvantaged businesses better compete in the US marketplace and within the arena of government procurement. The SBA provides business development, technical assistance and other services to the small businesses that are accepted into the 8 (a) program.

The 8 (a) program is reserved for what the SBA calls "socially disadvantaged individuals." Socially disadvantaged individuals are defined as those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias because of their membership in a neglected group.

The SBA has designated the following groups as socially disadvantaged:

· Black Americans

· Hispanic Americans
· Native Americans (Native American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, and Native Hawaiians)
· Certain Asian Pacific Americans
· Other individuals who can prove that they meet the SBA's criteria to be considered socially disadvantaged

One point where your friend is incorrect is that the 8 (a) program is for new companies. The 8 (a) program is primarily for companies that have been in business for a minimum of two years, although that rule may be waived if your company is able to meet some pretty strict management, financial, and performance criteria.

Obtaining 8 (a) status is no guarantee that a company will be successful in obtaining government or other contracts, but it certainly does not hurt. The Small Business Act mandates that all small businesses have the opportunity to provide goods and services to the US government. To help ensure that mandate, the SBA negotiates annual procurement preference goals with every federal agency and reviews each agency's results to make sure the goals were met.

The statutory goals are: 23 percent of all prime contracts go to small businesses; 5 percent of prime and subcontracts for small disadvantaged businesses; 5 percent of prime and subcontracts for women-owned small businesses; 3 percent of prime contracts for HUBZone small businesses; and 3 percent of prime and subcontracts for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

A HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) is a designated area within urban and rural communities that has been given preferential contract award consideration in an effort to stimulate economic development. A company may qualify for HUBZone status if it is owned or controlled by one or more US citizens, has at least 35 percent of employees who live within the designated zone, and has a principal office located there. HUBZones are a whole 'nother topic that we can discuss at another time. Suffice it to say that a company that …

Opportunity does not come to you, you must go to it. It can be found in some very undesirable places. Sometimes it may be hard to recognize but, it is there. With determination and the right motivation, you can find opportunity almost anywhere.

A very important step in recognizing opportunity, is to put together a plan. Think about what you would like to accomplish. Do you want to satisfy immediate, or fulfill your life's dream? Write your plan down on paper, so that it can be easily referred back to. Also, a written plan will help you to stay encouraged when the trials of everyday life cause you to become sidetracked.

After you have written your plan, you should list some goals that you will need to achieve in order to accomplish your plan. As you progress in accomplishing your goals, your will begin to recognize opportunity, as it presents itself.

A good way to recognize opportunity, is to think about the dream that you have for your life. What do you want to accomplish in your life? Maybe you want to become famous, become an actor. Maybe you want to work for the government. Your dream might be to one day fly the space shuttle. Why not? If you can dream, it you can live it.

Another great way to recognize opportunity, is to pattern yourself after people who have gone before. Those who have had similar interests, and have been successful in them. Study their successes and their trials. learn from them. A lot of these people have written memoirs for people for people to follow after, to give advise to those people who want to build on the successes that they have realized in their lifetime.

Perhaps you have a dream to someday operate your own business. At present you are working a tedious 9-5 job. You are tired of the boss breathing down your neck. Tired of fighting rush hour traffic, and spending most of your free time driving back and forth to work. Your stress level would be greatly reduced, if you could work from home, instead.

Well, why not? If your boss can run his own business, than why can not you, right? In which case, your plan would be to quit your dead-end job and become a business owner. To become self-employed. Your goals for this plan would be to begin at a part-time and to transition from your regular job into your own business. You will need to get your business up and running to a level that will provide sufficient income to support your family, as well as providing capital to operate your business. Once these goals have been achieved, you will finally be able to leave the rush hour traffic behind.

However, as you begin to implement your plan, you may want to be careful and not become rude to your boss. He might be impressed with your initiative to strike out on your own, and offer you tips on …

Today's businesses have the advantage of using convenient online postage for their shipping and mailing needs. No longer is it necessary to make time-consuming trips to the post office to mail packages. With online shipping, all you have to do is weight your packages, then purchase and print the appropriate postage using your own computer and printer.

There are a few different online companies that sell postage that you can print from your computer. To determine which postage service best fits your business needs you will likely want to take some time, and evaluate each one. Each of these postage service companies has been approved to provide online postage by the United States Postal Service.

• Stamps.com: This postage service has been around soon since online postage became available. With Stamps.com you can print USPS approved shipping labels right from your computer. You can try Stamps.com with a free one-month trial, but you should be aware that a monthly service fee is applicable after your free trial has ended. When you sign up for Stamps.com they will send you a free digital scale, which means that you will not have to buy one in order to calculate the shipping weight of your packages.
• Pitney Bowes Inc: This was one of the first postage service companies to offer an online postage solution. One of the largest advantages to using Pitney Bowes Inc is that they offer free USPS carrier pickup in conjunction with your local post office. Many businesses prefer Pitney Bowes because of their 60-day free trial, along with the option of using an integrated USB scale that enables you to automatically calculate postage rates.
• Endicia: This online postage service offers a 30-day free trial, with the option of continuing service for a monthly membership free. Some of the unique advantages of Endicia include printable shipping labels, as well as the ability to hide postage rates because it is imbedded in a barcode on the shipping label.
• eBay: The online postage service offered by eBay is especially popular with eBay auction sellers. With this service, you can purchase your postage and pay for it with your Paypal account. A clear advantage to the eBay postage service is that it does not require you to have USPS account. You also do not need to worry about pre-funding, or installing any software onto your home or office computer. Users can print most all types of postage without the need of paying a monthly membership. If you are an eBay seller, this is the perfect solution to your shipping needs.
• Click-N-Ship: This is the United States Postal Services own version of online postage. You do not need a membership to use this service, and you have the ability to purchase and print Express and Priority Mail, Global Express and Global Priority Mail, and Global Express Guaranteed. When you purchase priority mail postage with Click-N-Ship, your delivery confirmation is free.

All of these services have the advantage of offering a convenient, time saving solution to …