How to Use Temporary Workers to Grow Your Business

Many small business owners have found that there are benefits to using temporary workers (temps) as opposed to hiring someone full-time.

While temps are a perfect choice for some businesses, others find that it is not a good match.

The Pros

Some of the pros of choosing a temp are that, while the hourly rate is higher than you may pay someone you hire, there are additional costs such as benefits or taxes that you will not have to pay.

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Letting Grow

Christopher Dorris wanted to send more people his message of using sports-derived psychology to enhance business performance by battling the fears and beliefs that hold people back. The problem was that he and Alison Arnold, his partner in the Phoenix training and consulting company Head Games, were the only people he knew who had enough drive and commitment to their approach to open a second office.

"We've come across many who demonstrate interest and are desirous of being involved in an expansion project," says Dorris, 35. "But other elements were missing: sharing the philosophy, and the ability and desire to run your own show."

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Building a Fast-Growth Company

Entrepreneurs don't follow rules--they break them. Rules about tradition, rules about convention, and rules about what can and cannot be done--they all fall before the perseverance and innovation of entrepreneurs.

At least that's the legend. But what about the rules for creating a fast-growing company? Are there certain financial, market or other conditions that must be met for a company to grow rapidly? To find out, we asked experts in small-business growth what they saw as the rules for rapid business expansion. Then we talked to successful fast-growth entrepreneurs for their takes. We found that entrepreneurs do not all take the same paths to fast growth, but they do all believe that rules were made to be broken.

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The ABCs of Growing Smart

When a company first decides to franchise, they'll rapidly learn that this decision is only the first in a series of decisions that'll ultimately affect their success or failure as a franchisor. Even before getting to the crucial issues of fee determination, the questions will fly fast and furious. How fast should I grow? Where should I expand? Should I sell franchises close to my existing company-owned operations? What support should I provide? What will it cost me?

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Stimulus, Schtimulus--Businesses Have Better Things to Worry About

Over the years, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has gained a reputation for being inadequate to its purported task of small business advocacy. But change, perhaps, is in the air.

Yesterday, the Senate committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship unanimously confirmed the nomination of Karen Mills--entrepreneur, venture capitalist, heiress to the Tootsie Roll fortune--to head the ailing agency, which (if the recent funding thrown at it is any indication) the Obama administration expects will play a key role in helping Main Street ride out the recession.

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Branding Mistakes

When it comes to branding there are many important aspects to look at and think of and execute in the best manner possible. But what about the wrong turns in branding that we can learn from? Below is a list of common branding mistakes to avoid in your business.

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How to Rebrand Your Business

Last week, AIG CEO Edward Liddy told Capitol Hill, "I think the AIG name is so thoroughly wounded and disgraced that we're probably going to have to change it." Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) added that AIG now stands for "arrogance, incompetence and greed."

There's an important branding lesson to be learned here--namely, if you've screwed up royally, changing your name and rebranding your business is a good idea. Just make sure you can back up your new name with a better business strategy. In the current crisis, business owners are changing the way they run their businesses. But many after revamping their strategy, forget to translate that into their marketing materials.

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Marketing by Example, Part 6

Here's the new brand--same as the old brand.

It might sound like a crazy way to start off the last blog in a series about the rebranding of a company, but at the end of the day, it was less about how Pete Wiltjer would change his brand and more about how he changed the way he presented it. He's got a new website, complete with new copy, integrated social networking tools and a new logo. But he's still sending the same message, as illustrated by the photo here: "I help you find the right people."

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Obama Bolsters Entrepreneurial Credit

By: Dennis Romero

In a bid to free credit lines aimed at the entrepreneurial sector, President Obama today said the government would increase its guarantees on loans administered by the Small Business Administration. The president also stated that 21 of the largest banks receiving federal bailout money under the Troubled Assets Relief Program will have to check in with the government monthly regarding their small-business lending efforts. "Small businesses are one of the biggest drivers of employment we have," Obama said today. "This is going to be a first step" to help entrepreneurs.

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Community Banks Weathering Crisis

Citigroup's announcement that it made money during the first two months of 2009 is welcome news on Wall Street, which has been a good-news-free zone for weeks on end. And while Citi's CEO said the bank is operating at a profit, which led the Dow to surge 300 points by midday, it's pretty obvious that for the rally to sustain itself, consumer sentiment is going to have to change.

What also needs to change is consumer perception of large banking institutions. People aren't going to easily forget corporate retreats on the taxpayer dime and executive bonuses for executives who oversaw the near collapse of venerable institutions. But what's been bad for big banks has been good for community banks, according to a report from the Independent Community Bankers of America.

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