Whether you work from your home exclusively, or only part of the time, the office in your home has to be tailor-made to suit you. If you are a brilliant scientist like Einstein and rather eccentric, you probably don't give a hoot how your office looks. If you fall into the 99.99% of the populace, like the rest of us, then office organization may be crucial as to how efficiently you can operate. We offer a few options for your consideration, like the late and brilliant Rod Serling used to say.

The good news is that, despite the tight credit environment, there are many alternative and non-bank financing options available to companies that need a cash infusion, whether it’s to beef up working capital or help facilitate growth.

However, the bad news is that business owners often shy away from non-bank financing because they don’t understand it. Most owners simply rely on their banker for financial information and many bankers (not surprisingly) have only limited experience with options beyond those offered by the bank.

Many small businesses make mistakes, and smart entrepreneurs will learn from the mistakes of others. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of some common mistakes that small business owners often make....

1. Knowing It All

With so many scams and rip-offs prevalent on the Internet, I decided to compile a list of small business websites you could actually trust and rely on. In order to compile my list, I surveyed hundreds of small business owners, and asked them which small business services they used, trusted and would recommend to others.

Whichever company received the most votes in each category are the companies you see listed here.

Well, the clock is always ticking in our biz/lives. This time we'd love to draw your attention to an important countdown. You have only 12 days until next Sunday (June 6th) to vote for grant winner, if you haven't already done so.

The five finalists for this ninth Idea Cafe's Small Business Grant have demonstrated determination and commitment to take their business to the next level. Plus, during the competition, they've shown us an inventive business approach which will undeniably inspire others who come to IdeaCafe seeking advice on starting and running a business. That is why we encourage you to support them by casting a vote for one of the finalists who deserves to win $1,000.00 from Idea Cafe.

As businesses come to realize the enormous marketing and sales potential of the World Wide Web, more and more of them are opening up online shops. However, in order to beat the competition and keep your online business alive and kicking, you need to ensure that you employ innovative ideas.

Here are 7 great tips that will help boost your sales:

The weather in Los Angeles is still cool, but it feels like summer is already in full swing. Bikes are always popular in mild, sunny Southern California, but I haven't had a summer in LA that didn't come and go in a flash of events. Races each weekend bring friends to town or take us out of town. There are a few coming up that we are getting ready for once summer really does arrive.

We've all been there. After countless calls, meetings and an endless amount of work, you just can't get the customer to say "yes" and move forward. There can be hundreds of theories and ideas as to why this happens more times than we care to admit. Let's put all the theories aside and get to a solution you can use right now to determine if the customer is serious.

The problem in these types of situations is as a salesperson, you've invested time and effort and the last thing you want to do is quit and walk away. You are thinking, "The prospect could be very close to saying 'yes.'" It's either your pride that doesn't allow you to walk away or it's the fear of having to report to your sales manager that the work you've done with a prospect is not going to materialize into any business.

Brushing up on your marketing tactics is never a bad idea. Whether it is deciding on what new tactics to dive into, or how to make the ones you currently use better, sometimes the best idea is to just take a step back.

Look at your goals
When setting goals there are two things you need to consider--one is how attainable they are, and the second is how you are going to reach them.

As the now preferred deployment model for enterprise applications of all shapes and sizes, there is no doubt why the Software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry is outperforming all other business software sectors. SaaS is a method of deploying software over the Internet for licensed use of an application in an on-demand fashion. While in times past SaaS hardly made sense to embrace, technology advances and recent economic changes have put it back into the fast lanes of the Information Superhighway. Companies want to focus on what they do best. SaaS such as hosted exchange allows them to focus on their core business directives, outsourcing peripheral tasks to companies that do those tasks better or more efficiently than they could do in-house.