small business posts

By Adam J. Wiederman
Daily Finance


In 2010, Walmart (WMT) vowed to double its sales of locally grown produce by 2015. It was an attempt to both increase the amount of local foods in stores (as part of its environmental and sustainability initiatives) and invigorate local economies by supporting small farmers.

Walmart has already blasted through its goal of selling 9 percent local produce -- 11 percent of the produce in stores now comes from farms near them. Yet despite Walmart's boast that this shift "saved customers over $1 billion on fresh fruits and vegetables," small farmers haven't benefited at all, according to a recent NPR report.

Which raising an interesting question: Is that Walmart's fault, or is it the farmers choosing this path?

The Canadian startup scene is the jewel in the crown of Canada's resilient economy.
Often headed up by a courageous visionary, their crew consists of a small skeletal staff of inspired individuals, who, whether they like it or not, are forced to wear many different hats -- including the boss.

As businesses and most of society increasingly migrate towards mobile devices and cloud computing – the challenge for the small to medium business (SMB) owner is to play the role of educator around the digital dangers that are associated with using mobile devices, such as laptops and smartphones at the workplace. According eMarketer, there will be 10.5 million smartphone users in Canada, and this number is predicted to expand to 16.4 million by 2016.

Whereas large companies like Yahoo can send out an inter-office memo requesting the mobile preference of staff, and, will happily foot the bill to furnish their mobile desires. It may not be economically feasible for a SMB. So, in order to play in and benefit from the emerging mobility game, SMBs encourage employees to bring their own devices (BYOD) to work. For a developer bringing in his or her own keyboard to work it may be considered as a low-risk to a company's security. Conversely, mixed use, personal and professional use of a personal smartphone, tablet or a computer could invite digital dangers. According to a State of Mobility Survey, the average losses associated with mobility during 2011 were $126,000.

Under a BYOD environment, personal devices can contain and provide access to vast amounts of company data; it can be lost or stolen; the data can be compromised; and it's possible the device being used could be a carrier of crippling malware. As such, it's strongly advisable not to permit the use of jail-broken devices.

So, how does a time-strapped and resource-poor SMB owner balance the need for technological efficiencies while protecting company security? One solution is to enlist the help of companies like Symantec, who can act as a great resource of information and data security for SMBs.

We spoke to Andy Singer, director of product marketing at Symantec, a company that provides products and services to help individuals and businesses protect the integrity of their information, about the best practices in workplace mobile security.

Arguably, one of the most interesting developments the internet has brought us is the ability to work remotely. Our offices can be wherever we are, but, even more dramatically, it's now possible to work and collaborate with people you might never have had access to in the past.

The cost savings can be dramatic: Instead of hiring a full-time writer, who will need office space, a telephone, internet access and benefits, a lot of employers outsource their writing tasks to freelancers, like yours truly. In turn, businesses like mine can take advantage of a global pool of talent to do everything from bookkeeping to virtual assistant work, at a fraction of the cost it would normally take to hire someone in person.

Hurray for leveled playing fields!

Summer is the time for holidays, fun and for many of us, its wedding season.

June has traditionally been the chosen month for weddings, but July and August are now just as popular, and according to a recent survey, more people are getting married in the latter half of the year.

Guests need to consider the all-important gift. But is a cocktail shaker and set of martini glasses the right choice for your bestie? Does it feel right to buy your cousin a place setting of fine china when you know she doesn't cook?

Samba Days, an experiential gift website, offers suggestions that won't gather dust on the shelf.

Small business owners know the stats - it takes three to five years to become a profitable company.

There are many factors that can help or hinder a small business, and for those who are slugging away to find their spot in the Canadian economy and develop a customer base, any advantage is a bonus.

With the popularity of Dragon's Den, many small business owners are looking for that fortuitous offer, chance meeting or a lucky break to guide them into the next phase of their business development.

For five budding entrepreneurs, VISA gave them the opportunity: each finalist had 60 seconds in an elevator with four judges, hoping to convince them they had the right stuff to win $10,000 for their existing business.

As a fledgling running her own business, Shawna Page realized that she had a major gap in her knowledge.

Everything she had learned in her career over 20 years was valuable experience but her laundry list of new to her was endless: planning, warehousing, fulfillment, packaging, and regulatory – all of these were essential to the success of femMED.

"I had a very steep learning curve," said Page.

Learning how to get her product on the shelf was trial by fire, learning how to pitch the product, hiring a broker, getting meetings with the right people, creating a website, completing formulations with scientists, hiring a research firm – for Page it never seemed to stop.

Would all this learning be too much or worth the effort for her own business?

The Royals are coming! The Royals are coming!

The newly married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who wowed the two billion of us who watched their nuptials in April, are making their first official visit to Canada.

Starting on June 30th, the Royals will begin their visit in Ottawa, celebrating Canada's birthday on Parliament Hill with thousands of Canadians.

But what's their real charm? Not just their warmth and presence, but the uplifting effect they can have on our economy.

First up: hotels. According to an article on CBC.ca, if you haven't booked a hotel for a visit to Ottawa for Canada Day, you may have to stay outside the city. Even hotels in Kanata, a 25 minute drive from Ottawa, are fully booked.

Increases to the minimum wage in Canada hurt the very people they are supposed to help, according to a new report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), an association for small to medium-sized businesses.

The group argues that provincially regulated increases to minimum wages cause small businesses to either cut jobs, reduce staff hours or postpone new hires. Using their own estimates, they say a 10% increase in minimum wages against all provinces would cost the Canadian economy up to 321,300 jobs.

"At a time when the economy is in slow recovery, the last thing governments should be considering are policies that further hinder job creation," said Marilyn Braun-Pollon, CFIB's Vice President for Saskatchewan and co-author of the report.