Help! I’m not sure why customers are not coming to me. I’m on social media, I have a website and I’m out at events. Any advice?

OK, after hearing more about your situation, I believe I can shed some light to help you. Just as I advise other business owners, customers are not going to knock your door down just because you are now open for business. If you want to acquire and retain customers, you need to make sure they can reach you easily. Otherwise, if they cannot find you, then you are leaving money on the table. Consider these tips to help you stop hiding from your customers.
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So, let’s clarify what I mean about hiding from your customers. If we are not providing a wide variety of ways for our customers to reach out, then in essence, we are hiding. Before we begin, I will need you to have access to all the ways you reach out to customers and how you think customers are reaching out to you. The three common ways I believe customers will reach out to you are: Read more...

​Whether you have a great idea you want to launch, or a business you’re running that you want to grow, Builders Program™ gives you all the business tools you need to take your business to the next level, in one place.

​Monthly updates on the impact that the Entrepreneurial Development and Assistance Center at Morgan State University is having on the community.

 ​Lifelong learning is needed for everyone, especially for entrepreneurs. Some people like turning the pages of a physical book or going to a physical location to learn a new skill or refine a current one. While this is not something you have time for, there are other options. However, keep in mind that regardless of how you learn, you still will need to dedicate time (and in some cases money) to acquire the new information and determine how and when to use it.
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Consider these tips to learning with a touch of a button:

Books are a good way to garner tips, strategies and new skills for entrepreneurs. So, imagine if you had someone reading the book to you or you had a cheat sheet on the key points from a book. If you are looking to learn tips and strategies from business books, here are some tools to use:

• Audible.com (audio, entire book)
• Audiobooksnow.com (audio, entire book)
• Summary.com (documents you can download, audio, webinars)
• Blinkist.com (audio or text, key points from book)
• Various podcasts on iTunes or Google Play (audio)

Read more...

Omar S. Muhammad

My business partner and I started a business over five years ago. We both have agreed that we have come to the end of the road of our partnership. What advice do you have regarding ending a business?

First things first: I am not a lawyer. You will want to seek legal assistance in resolving any legal disputes and entity dissolution. The following tips that I will share are for informational purposes only.
Now that the legal language is out of the way, consider these tips to dissolve your entity:
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Attempt reconciliation. Sometimes business owners need a third party to intervene so that the parties can hear each other. I’ve worked with entrepreneurs who engaged the help of a meditator to resolve complicated issues between business partners. To locate a mediator near you, check out mediate.com/businessmediators or your local area bar association at http://bit.ly/barassoc. If you and your business partner do not feel that’s a possibility, then other measures are needed. Keep reading.