Inc. magazine is a great resource for the entrepreneurial souls providing information and advice covering virtually every business and management task, including marketing, sales, finding capital, managing people, and much, much more. They have a website, Inc.com.
Here are excerpts of those two articles written by Meg Cadoux Hirshberg.
Balancing Acts: If Not Now, When?
For entrepreneurs, there's never a right time to buy a house, start a family, have a life. While you are building a business, work-life balance inevitably suffers.
The reality is that when you are entangled in an entrepreneurial life, there's never a right time -- for anything.
There's no right time, because there's no time (and usually no money, either).
An entrepreneurial life becomes all about postponing -- "When we break even…," "When we get that contract…," "When we hire that salesperson…" -- ah, yes, that's when our lives can move ahead.
The fact is that while you are building (and building, and building, and sometimes rebuilding) a business, you are also composing a life.
Theoretically, entrepreneurs control their lives and schedules. But the exact opposite is usually true:
- Entrepreneurs are whipsawed by their businesses.
- There is a constant sense of crisis, and every aspect of running a business demands more time than there are hours in a day.
- If the entrepreneur doesn't build a high wall around his or her personal life, the business is sure to overwhelm it. [More]
Bed and Boardroom
There's nothing like a home-based business for increasing family stress.
The moment you create a business, you step into a twilight zone where the barrier between what is work and what is not starts to break down. The deterioration accelerates for entrepreneurs who work out of their homes. You may start off with a home-based business but soon find yourself with a business where you and your family also happen to live.
Privacy isn't the only issue. In homes shared with companies, living space may be drastically reduced by the demands of workspace and inventory storage. [More]
Have an existing business facing challenging times?
The City of Oakland has opened an assistance center dedicated to small businesses almost 6 months ago. Their goal is to assist regular people start maintain or move your business by providing help navigating the City’s permitting, zoning, business tax and license departments along with business counseling and outreach resources.
Check out the Oakland Business Assistance Center and the latest issue of the Redeveloping Oakland Newsletter which features many of the non-profit organizations that partner with Redevelopment to implement a variety of projects and programs ranging from workforce development to real estate development.
Do you need help, deciding what business you would like to be in? Check out these organizations that provide consulting, workshops, or long-term classes (multi-week curriculum) and other information to help you.
West Oakland Works is another Prescott-Oakland Point business resource.
Also, the first issue of the East Bay Express Small Business Monthly is due out Jan. 27th, as mo a insert in the Express on the last Wednesday of every month.This marks a 2010 launch of the Small Business Monthly focus on local reporting of small business issues in our region covering wide range of topics including advertising opportunities.
Let’s not forget the IRS folks, check out their small business resources, here
