Top 5 Tips

SCORE's top 5 business tips are a quick and easy way to hone your skills. Use the categories below to navigate your way to a better business.

• Effective Business Planning
• Making the Most of Your Business Plan
• Using Colleges and Universities to Help Your Business
• Budgeting
• Building a Sound Business Plan
• Developing Policies for Your Business
• Exit Strategies
• Preparing for Change
• Technology Planning
• Preparing for Growth Spurts

• Electronic Contracts
• Ensuring Your Customers' Privacy
• Improving Your Website
• Marketing Your Website
• Getting Noticed Online
• Getting Closer to Customers with Technology
• Managing Virtual Relationships
• Meeting the Demand for Speed
• Running a Website
• Taking Your Small Business Online
• See Whether Your Website Is Up to Snuff

• Writing a Business Plan for a Loan
• Approaching Your Bank
• Conserving Capital
• Factoring
• Financial Packages
• Being Creative In the Search for Funding
• State and Local Funding
• Vendor Financing

• Building a Senior Management Team
• Employee Performance Reviews
• Helping Employees Take Pride in Their Work
• Hiring Immigrants
• Hiring Quality and Reliable People
• Hiring Smart
• Recruiting Workers in a Tough Labor Market
• Promoting From Within
• Where to Publicize for New Hires
• Where to Go to Gain Referrals

• Hands-On Leadership
• Renewing Yourself as a Leader
• Cultivating Confident Employees
• Effective Leadership
• Exemplary Leadership
• Creating an Innovative Environment
• Empowering Your Employees
• Knowing When You're Getting Stale
• Managing Yourself
• Teaching Employees to "Own" Their Work
• What Employees Want from You as a Leader

• Avoiding Legal Problems
• Policies for Employers to Implement
• Obtaining a Lease
• Advertising Legally
• Consumer Credit Basics
• Developing an Employee Handbook
• Protecting Yourself from Employee Lawsuits
• Patents
• Researching Your Invention or Idea Before You Patent
• Resolving Disputes
• When Military Duty Calls

• Establishing a Presence in Your Community
• Sprucing Up a Tired Image
• Advertising Basics
• Developing a Marketing Plan
• Effective News Releases
• Good Business Signage
• Hiring a Public Relations Firm
• How to Advertise, Cheap!
• Low-Cost Marketing
• Simple Market Research
• Using PR to Your Advantage

• Setting Priorities
• Successful Debt Collections
• Avoiding Conflicts of Interest
• Choosing a Location for Your Business
• Creating an Office Where You Can Work
• Good Vendor Relationships
• Becoming More Efficient
• How to Be Sure You're Adequately Insured
• How to Stop the Work Pile-Up
• Leasing Equipment
• Paying Yourself
• Preparing for Disaster Recovery

• Business-to-Business Selling
• Pleasing Customers
• Building Customer Relationships
• Building Your Referral Business
• Enhancing Sales
• Forecasting the Future
• Finding Your First Customers
• Getting to Know Your Customers
• Great Telephone Customer Service
• Superior Customer Service
• Supporting Your Sales Staff
• Ways to Sell Your Products or Services
• Making Customers Come to You

• Understanding Home-Office Deductions
• How to Start Out Filing Your Taxes Correctly

• Developing Employees
• Educating Outside Salespeople
• Getting the Most Out of Training
• Training on a Budget
• Employee Orientation
• Ethics Training
• What Makes Online Training Valuable
• Where to Find Employee Training