Guidant Financial Group Blog

David Nilssen to be Featured on Let's Talk Business Radio Show

Wednesday
Let's Talk Business Host Mitch Schlimer
Guidant CEO & Cofounder David Nilssen will appear on the radio show Let's Talk Business next Tuesday, March 6, at Noon EST.

You can listen live on the Web at this address: http://www.wrek.org/ or, if you're in the Atlanta area, tune in to 91.1 FM.

They'll discuss franchising and Nilssen's book, Making the Jump Into Small Business Ownership.


Follow Guidant Financial on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/company/guidant-financial-group.


Labels: , , , , ,
posted by Guidant Financial Group @ 10:50 AM 0 comments

Graces 5 Daily Deal

Friday
Graces 5, a Washington state Guidant Financial Client, is serving up a great deal today on LivingSocial. Graces 5 delivers delicious cuisine using local sustainable ingredients. Today's offer is $25 for $50 worth of food or drink.

LivingSocial says that "this restaurant in downtown Redmond features a seasonal menu bursting with organic, sustainable ingredients. From the Dungeness crab cakes to the rigatoni with basil pesto to the raw pomegranate cheesecake, each innovative dish is low in sugar; free of gluten, dairy, peanuts, casein, and soy; and packed with palate-pleasing flavors."

Hurry and check this out before it's too late! You can find the deal here.

Follow Guidant Financial on LinkedIn.


Labels: , , ,
posted by Garrett @ Guidant @ 7:59 AM 0 comments

Guidant Featured in Trophies 2 Go Promotional Video

Monday
 
Watch the clip for the Guidant Monday morning staff meeting
where CEO & Cofounder Jeremy Ames presented attorney Gina Alsdorf
with a special award, prior to her departure from the office.



Labels: , , , , , ,
posted by Guidant Financial Group @ 2:30 PM 0 comments

Fueling Business with Creativity

Friday
Many believe the key to surviving in today's economy is a willingness to adapt. With the daily emergence of new technologies, many business owners must be open to new ideas and creative strategies from their employees.

In an article for The Street, Elizabeth Blackwell says that "The business world and society at large are traditionally risk averse, more likely to find flaws with a novel idea than celebrate it."

Blackwell interviews David Owens, a professor of management and director of the Executive Development Institute at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management, for advice on how to encourage an environment of creativity.

"We get excited about new ideas, then the world strikes them down," Owens says. "We end up in organizations that systematically quash creativity."

Owens continues, "Each person within a company must be empowered and encouraged to think creatively. . . The workplace environment must have processes in place that allow for effective sharing and assessing of ideas."

Read the full article here.

Follow Guidant Financial on Facebook.


Labels: , , , , ,
posted by Garrett @ Guidant @ 8:12 AM 0 comments

Picking a Franchise

With all the variety among franchises, it is important to understand each franchise's unique benefits and shortcomings. For many prospective business owners, it's difficult to know what to look for.

Sarah Needleman, in an article for The Wall Street Journal, writes that prospective business owners should ". . . get a copy of a system's disclosure documents before meeting with someone from its sales team."

"Disclosure documents also include a system's franchise agreement, which is an overview of the requirements of the relationship between the franchiser and franchisee."

Taking the time to review these documents, Needleman says, can help outline expectations from the franchisor and for the franchisee.

Read more tips and the full article here.

Follow Guidant Financial on Facebook.


Labels: , , ,
posted by Garrett @ Guidant @ 8:21 AM 0 comments

Helping Veterans Own Their Own Business

Thursday
In a piece earlier this week in Time, Scott Gerber revealed dismal statistics about the unemployment rates of young veterans.

Over 30% of our veterans between the ages of 18 - 24 were unemployed as of October.

Gerber suggests that instead of sending veterans toward a system (i.e. the traditional job market) that doesn't favor their situation, we instead help them start their own businesses.

Our sentiments exactly.

In our partnership with VetFran, as part of the Operation Enduring Opportunity campaign, we have pledged to help fund 500 new veteran-owned businesses by 2014. We also offer a 10% discount on our setup services to vets and are awarding twelve scholarships to veterans (one per month through the end of 2012). Watch our brief video about the commitment here.

In addition, we'll be co-sponsoring the VetFran Pavilion at the International Franchise Association Annual Convention, Feb. 11 - 14 in Orlando. The IFA issued a press release about the focused outreach to veterans during this event.


Follow Guidant Financial on LinkedIn.




Labels: , , , , , ,
posted by Tassoula @ 2:01 PM 0 comments

Building A Brand

Friday
A major hurdle for most small business is getting better brand recognition. In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Michael Michalowicz states that making this leap is crucial.

"As consumers, we are hard-wired to mistrust anything new, but expose us to that same something repeatedly and we will start to trust that it's a product or service worthy of our hard-earned cash."

Michalowicz believes that this can be achieved by focusing on the frequency to which consumers are exposed to a brand.

"Small businesses can achieve frequency by working in tight, concentric circles – showing up many times in just a few places, as opposed to showing up in many places, just a few times."

Read his advice and the full article here.

Check out the profile of Guidant Financial on the inc500 list.



Labels: , , , ,
posted by Garrett @ Guidant @ 8:47 AM 0 comments
Subscribe to Posts [ Atom ]