OPERATIONS

Working in a home office can be notoriously isolating, but many micro-business owners can’t justify the expense or the commitment required to lease a commercial office space. Recently, a thriving alternative to home offices and coffee shops emerged: co-working.

Natural disasters—like businesses—come in all different shapes and sizes. A big one like Hurricane Katrina decimates a region and destroys almost half of the small businesses it touches. The Red Cross estimates that 40 percent of small businesses never manage to reopen after a major disaster.

Ready for a rebound in 2011? Who isn’t? But if you’re like most micro-business owners, you’re more than a little concerned about how an unsettled economy will affect your sales in 2011.

What are you supposed to do with broken or outdated office equipment? Fortunately, there are an increasing number of eco-friendly ways to dispose of this waste without hurting the environment.

Remember the manual typewriter? Imagine relying on one today to run your micro-business. How much time—and profit—would you have lost if you had clung to that relic?

A showroom retooling can be just the ticket to get shoppers excited about buying. And that’s what you need to move that moribund merchandise sitting on your floor.

There are only so many hours in the day and so much energy that solo operators can spend in their businesses. If they want to grow the enterprise—while keeping their health and sanity—they need to let go and pay someone to handle certain parts of the business.