SmallBusinessExecutiveInforming, Inspiring and Connecting Businesses
Why companies want customer complaints — and how to handle them
By John Tschohl Guest columnist No matter how good you are at what you do, what business you’re in or where it’s located, you will at some point find yourself facing an irate customer. Maybe a product was flawed, a delivery was late or a charge was inaccurate. How you deal with that customer [...]
How to break through business malaise
By Suzanne Ross Guest columnist It’s not news that people are tired of being marketed and sold to in the traditional manner. Yet the malaise threatens organizations from demonstrating their real customer and industry value. As companies build their market leadership, the aim should be to arm teams with what’s of most value to customers [...]
How to protect your domain name from adult entertainment competitors
By Michael R. Graham Guest columnist A new “dot-xxx” top-level domain name registry is being rolled out for the use of the adult entertainment industry. Trademark owners concerned that their trademarks may be used as a second-level domain name in this registry (e.g., yourmark.xxx) can take steps to block the registration of such domain names [...]
Want funding? Think sustainability
– The business case for environmental sustainability is accelerating. Aside from appealing to environmentally conscious customers, going green can prepare a company for investment capital or an initial public offering, according to new research from PricewaterhouseCoopers. “When a company is raising capital for the first time, they’re really in the spotlight in terms of what [...]
At Care Team Connect, government regulation furthers entrepreneurial concept
By Ann Meyer – Leave it to entrepreneurs to create solutions to problem areas the government has stepped in to regulate. For Ben Albert, co-founder and chief executive at Evanston-based Care Team Connect, professional expertise in health systems coupled with personal experience helping to coordinate medical care for his grandfather from a distance spawned a [...]
SingleHop named Chicago’s fastest-growing firm by Inc. magazine
Chicago-based SingleHop Inc. is the fastest-growing Chicago-area business with three-year sales growth of 7,305 percent, according to Inc. magazine, which ranked the company No. 25 on its 2011 Inc. 500 list of fast-growing firms. SingleHop, a provider of dedicated servers and web hosting, was the top-ranked web hosting company on the list and the second-fastest growing IT services [...]
Deal site drawbacks spawn new startups
By Ann Meyer Count Chicago entrepreneur Kris Petersen among those who have lost money on Groupon and LivingSocial vouchers by not redeeming them before they expired. The example that stands out, Petersen said, was his purchase of four Groupons for Segway tours that he planned to use with friends. “I threw $160 out the window by [...]
Illinois funding gap sends startups out of state for capital
By Ann Meyer – Story updated at 10 a.m. Tuesday. When Jabber Jury officially goes live with its online programming, it will be largely due to out-of-state venture capital that funded the Chicago startup. The company had little more than a concept to show investors last November when it attracted $1.2 million from Everett Palmer, [...]
GrubHub nabs more growth capital
Watch for online restaurant delivery service GrubHub to continue adding jobs, now that it has raised $11 million in a new round of venture capital from Benchmark Capital in Menlo Park, Calif. The new funding, which brings to about $14 million the total investment capital GrubHub has raised, will allow the company to expand to new [...]
