ArcaMax

As a small business owner or entrepreneur, who are you going to vote for in November?

Right now, it's impossible to tell exactly where the candidates stand on issues that small businesses care about because, quite frankly, they aren't paying attention to them. Oh, yes, whenever a reporter or debate moderator utters the phrase "small business,...Read more

If you have spent years building a successful business on your website and social media pages, sooner or later you will think about selling it. But selling a web-based business is different -- a lot different -- than selling a brick-and-mortar business.

To illustrate how the process works, I'm going to bring back a childhood memory. Do you ...Read more

"I have been laid off for over a year now and have decided it's time to start a business of my own.

I recently came across business brokers who specialize in buying and selling web-based businesses. They represent companies and individuals who have built traffic on a website. You buy the domain name and the web content and continue growing ...Read more

If you go to your local bookstore (they still exist, don't they?) or search for "entrepreneur" or "small business" on Amazon, you will find thousands of books and e-books on how to start a business.

To paraphrase the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, of making many startup success books there is no end, including -- truth be told -- a ...Read more

As a professional speaker, I spend a lot of time in airports. But lately I've been spending too much time in airports.

Because my clients are (How do I say this gracefully?) cost conscious, they usually request that I fly coach on the cheapest airline I can find, which means that most of the time I find myself on one particular airline (which...Read more

Sometimes, inspiration for this column comes from the most unusual places.

Each year my summer beach reading has a theme. This year it's classic science fiction -- the works of the pioneers Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, William Gibson, Frank Herbert, Orson Scott Card and a guy named Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), ...Read more

"Hello, sir, I am a permanent resident of Slovenia, and I have been a loyal follower of your column and YouTube channel. I want to set up a web-based service business, but I will need to set up a U.S. company and address for payments and correspondence. What is the best way to do this legally?"

Setting up a business in the U.S. requires ...Read more

The future of eBay Inc. is becoming a little clearer.

I was privileged to attend and speak at last week's eBay OPEN conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, which attracted several hundred sellers from around the country, despite the summer heat. (One reason it's smart to host a conference in Vegas in July: The audience won't wander off into 120-...Read more

Slowly but surely, eBay is making a big comeback.

I am privileged to be giving a talk at next week's eBay OPEN conference in Las Vegas on some of the legal and tax issues involved in sourcing the merchandise that you will sell on eBay.

Here are some highlights from my talk.

You must source your merchandise legally: A thief cannot pass good ...Read more

Q: I was let go from a position with a high-technology company earlier this spring.

For the past couple of years, on and off, I have helped an entrepreneur in another state build a high-technology consulting business. He has offered to sell the business to me for a ridiculously small amount of money, and I'm thinking this may well be my ...Read more

For the past couple of years, I have taught an online course on entrepreneurship and small business management for a local university. The course, offered only to MBA students in their final year, carries a pretty demanding workload. Students have to read an 800-page textbook, take a midterm exam (four essay questions) and prepare a business ...Read more

Sometimes great business advice comes from the most unlikely source.

Now that summer's here it's time to think about beach reading. I'm not a big fiction reader, but one novelist I always keep track of is Dave Eggers. If you haven't read any Dave Eggers you need to. He makes extremely poignant observations of current world events, and while I...Read more