January
2008
Success Stories
Bob Duggan and son Trey Duggan
Mike Gonzalez and Bob Duggan worked for others in the restaurant industry for over twenty years, and they were ready to have their own business. Over the course of a few months, the SBDC assisted them with determining their legal structure, writing their Business Plan, and with Financial Projections. With their completed Business Plan in hand, along with their equity, they obtained an SBA guaranteed loan. They opened for business last fall.
Business: Burger Palace
Owners:
Mike Gonzalez and
Bob Duggan
Location:
7003 Bell Street
Phone:
806-356-7000
Employs: 8 Full-Time Employee
and 10 Part-Time Employees
Free Workshop
Introduction to
Business Ownership
-
Writing a Business Plan
-
Small Budget Marketing
-
Financing your Business
-
Should you Incorporate?
January 15 6:00 - 8:00 PM
January 22 8:30 - 10:30 AM
January 29 8:30 - 10:30 AM
Call 372-5151 to Reserve your seat
Contact Us
SBDC
701 S Taylor Suite L118
Amarillo, TX 79101
806-372-5151
Affiliations
Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.
WTAMU Small Business Development Center is a member of the
Northwest Texas SBDC Region Network.
Accredited by the Association of Small Business Development Centers
Web 2.0: What it Means to You
If you’re confused about what exactly Web 2.0 is, you’re in good company.
This often-repeated buzzword has many Web site owners
scratching their heads and wondering what the heck Web 2.0 is and whether
their sites need it.
Fear not. Web 2.0 actually is a broad term, closer to a concept encompassing
a whole cluster of new tools and techniques used on Web sites. You didn’t
see them three to five years ago. It’s not a software package you can buy
from Microsoft or build yourself, but rather a catchphrase that denotes your
Web site is keeping current with the trends in marketing and design that
online visitors (mainly the young) find on other Web sites.
The general consensus is that Web 2.0 is at least two relatively unique
groups of tools. The first set is the latest technological tools used in the
programming of your site. Rich Internet applications, such as Flash,
Asynchronous JavaScript (better known as AJAX) and XML are used when
building the navigation, shopping carts and checkout pages of sites.
Video.
The use of broadcast media is another example of the first type of Web 2.0
(technical tools) in action. With the vast increase of people using
broadband to get online, Web site designers have added streaming media (both
video and audio) to enhance customers’ visits.
User-generated
Content. The young have driven the popularity of the second groups
of tools - user-generated content - with much of it found on MySpace and
Facebook. Rather than reading what a company or webmaster has put online,
they read what their peers have produced online, and have an ongoing
dialogue with a community of like visitors. How does this affect a
catalog site? Expect to see greater use of blogs, forums, wikis and customer
reviews online.
Customer
reviews. Dozens of Web sites now include customer reviews on their
product pages. Amazon.com was the first and most popular site to do this,
but now there are many other sites doing it.
As you can see, the Web 2.0 moniker covers a lot of territory. Podcasts,
RSS, PDF downloads, maps, event calendars and even mobile marketing have all
been described as forms of Web 2.0.
Most important is the decision of which of the many new tools out there make
most sense for customers. No Web site is going to employ all the bells and
whistles of “Web 2.0.” Pick the one that best enhances the customer
experience on your site, and it will lead to increased sales at the end of
the day.
Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail
Inadequate front end
planning
Insufficient capital
Inexperienced management
A poor location
Inability to expand to
meet market demands
Mismanagement of
inventory
Low liquidity (too much
capital in fixed assets)
Poor credit practices
Unplanned expansion
Inadequate financial
systems
State
Sales Tax Seminar
Tuesday, January 8th
6 to 8 pm
A representative from the State Comptrollers Office will give a seminar to new tax payers (or returning tax payers who have questions) regarding the requirements and procedures for paying state sales tax. To reserve a seat call 372-5151.
Quote of the Month
Doing what you love is the cornerstone of
having abundance in your life.
Wayne
Dyer
END
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