Bush Industries is a small family company that was started in 1959, and has grown into an international contender in the ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture market; with headquarters in North America and Europe. Though they have a variety of furniture lines, besides home furniture, one of their best known segments is Bush office furniture.

Bush has received many awards over the last dozen years, including among others: One of the 200 Best Small Companies in America by Forbes Magazine for 1996/1997, President’s “E” Award of Excellence in Exporting by the Secretary of Commerce on behalf of the President of the United States of America in 1997, and Pinnacle Design Achievement Award by the American Society of Furniture Designers in the Home Office category in 1997 and a finalist in 1998, 1999, and 2000 and won the Home Entertainment Category in 2004. Many of these design awards they have won with good reason and it is easily seen in their business furniture.

A couple of years ago, Bush office furniture came out with a new line of business furniture that reflects why they are an industry leader. It is called “Office in an Hour” which is streamlined business furniture with a target market of small businesses with 10 - 99 employees. Many businesses this size are growing and busy and do not have a lot of time to adjust their office as they expand. Here are four advantages to “Office in an Hour.”

1. It comes in a couple of different configurations: straight workstation, L-shaped and U-shaped workstations. So you can choose a style that will work best for what your business needs. There are then additional pieces that can be added as needed: such as a reception gallery shelf or a storage and accessory kit that includes a lockable 3-drawer file cabinet on casters that fits under any of the desks, a hutch for storage and a pencil and paper holder.
2. The Bush office furniture “Office in an Hour” is looks good and is well made. It is manufactured out of quality, imported MDF with a scratch resistant and durable melamine surface in a beautiful cherry finish. All pieces have metal supports and adjustable legs for uneven surfaces. The panels are cushioned and also metal framed. The line fully meets ANSI/BIFMA standards. Plus, they were designed with input from small business owners and procurement agents to make sure this business line had the features most needed and wanted.
3. They are affordable with a price point for a small office on a budget. Buy what you need now, and as your business grows, you can easily add additional workstations. The back wall of one station forms the third wall of the previous one.
4. As the name indicates, each unit really can be assembled in an hour. This is easily accomplished for a couple of different reasons. First, it ships already partially assembled (accessory cabinet and hutch ship full assembled), with some hardware already pre-installed. Also, Bush office furniture packages each unit in an easy to open carton with all components packed in the order of assembly.

I have seen the Bush office furniture “Office in an Hour” series set up in a small and growing business. It is very nice looking, very easy to assemble and can easily be added to as your business grows. If you are looking to furnish a small office, this is one line by Bush office furniture that you should seriously consider.

MJ is a freelance writer for Clickshops, Inc. where you can find a great selection of Bush office furniture for your small business at www.businessofficefurniture.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/4-benefits-of-office-in-an-hour-by-bush-office-furniture-1647380.html

Around 80% of startups close down within their first year of operation. While some of these go down simply because of part time involvement of the founders, lack of persistence and fizzling out of passion, a large percentage go down during their transition from a Startup(Micro) phase to a Small Business phase. A business can aim for the long term only when the owners have vision and concentrate on building a value system based on THRILL – Trust, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Loyalty and Love. Since most of these are subjective, many businesses don’t believe in writing them down or have policies to define the role of THRILL in their company. But a closer look at each of these factors tells us how important it is for each one of these to be a part of your day to day business activities if you are seriously looking at building a company that grows consistently.

Trust:
If your customers don’t trust you, they are going to buy from someone else – no matter how good you think you are. If your employees don’t trust you, they are going to treat your customers badly. If your vendors don’t trust you, they are not going to extend any credit to you. So trust is a factor that forms the basic foundation pillar of pretty much everything that is your business. So how does this trust develop?

Honesty:
If you , the owner of the business, think that you are going to get away with treating people with anything that is not totally honest, you will just be fooling yourself. Not being honest is sooner or later going to land you as the owner in the shoes of someone like Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers, Ken Lay of Enron or Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers. If you don’t do what you said you will, you are going to shake up the integrity of the business. Sooner or later, your employees are going to follow suit and it is going to lead to nothing but degradation of the culture within the company. Honesty and fearlessness go hand in hand. A simple example of this is telling your client that you have not clearly understood the exact requirements for the second time in a row instead of feeling embarrassed to ask again and working with half an understanding. Or not letting your customer know that you are not going to be able to deliver in time. Committing fake product features. Sometimes, this may lead to some short term profit, but it is going to cost you heavily in the long term. Dishonest behavior is almost always going to create a communication gap, reduce trust and boost corruption Being diplomatic may seem to be a simpler affair most of the times, but it is honesty and straight forward attitude that’s going to hold the company together in the long run.

Respect:
To a certain extent, honest behavior can be embedded into the business through policies – but respect is one factor that is born within the organization and must seep through from the owners to the management and finally to the employees. You cannot treat your employees rudely and expect them to be sweet and caring to your customers. In your absence, your employees are going to treat customers just the way you treat them. You are going to command respect only if you give respect. And a culture of respect is born only when the owners lead with example. If you come across a company where the employees are frowning all the time, check their immediate bosses or the owners, most often than not, that’s where the root of the problem is going to be. Dedication and passion come from people who feel good about themselves and have a high level of self respect which comes from being treated with respect all the time. This also applies to the quality of the product/service you deliver. If the employees observe that you are sloppy and not worried about the quality of the final delivered product, they are going to nurture the same attitude.

Innovation:
Innovation is basically trying the same thing in a different and more efficient way for better results and a higher level of excellence. Anyone who says that this is the best way to do something and there is no need to look for alternatives, is giving an open invitation to competitors to come and screw their business. Change is essential because companies who don’t adopt change are going to be stagnant and are bound to be hit by competition. If you, as the owner are not prepared to adopt change and do not encourage people to go through some apparently unpleasant changes for the future of the company, you are just going to keep digging into unsuccessful rut for years. The entire American car industry had to learn this lesson of innovation the hard way when Japanese car makers started taking them apart. Businesses that show the willingness to embrace change during difficult times are the ones who are vibrant and show sustained growth. It is companies who are continuously finding better ways to market, manage HR, log in accounts, handle cash flow, and are striving hard to consistently achieve excellence in every aspect, who come through sailing smoothly through thick and thin. And for those who don’t believe in measuring and improving continuously, sooner or later, they are sure to go out of business or just stay a mediocre business that keeps dragging along for years.

Loyalty :
Loyalty is an automatic effect of the points discussed above and is the cause for amazing level of faith, increase in productivity and gain in competitive advantage. Loyalty within the company is going to lead to high levels of morale which naturally results in low absenteeism, higher levels of dedication and smoothening out of day to day operations. A growing business means that the owner has to move out of the day to day operations and concentrate on the business rather than stay in the business. Responsibilities can be easily delegated if the level of loyalty in the organization is high. Any owner caught up in the daily activities is just going to find himself doing a mundane job and not running a business. And unless loyalty is developed within the company, delegation is always going to be a tough task.

Love:
If we have a look at the most influential business leaders like Sam Walton of Walmart, Richard Branson of Virgin, Dhirubhai Ambani of Reliance Industries, Steve Jobs of Apple Inc (after his return to Apple), Narayan Murthy of Infosys etc., one thing that we observe is their ability to lead with love. They command so much love that there are people whom they have inspired to sacrifice their whole life for their mentor’s ideals. A more precise way to look at this is to look at so many smart people who don’t step ahead as influential leaders. You can be exceedingly smart, but unless the smartness is backed with the instinct of doing something good, you are going to be just momentarily impressive to people. Crude smartness starts to stink after a while unless it is backed with the willingness to do some good. And this is good for anyone who is running a company with 5 employees or 5Mn employees.

Anyone approaching employees, customers and vendors with anything that is less than the 6 points of THRILL is not looking forward to a long term relationship with either one of them. Try judging businesses on the scale of THRILL and you will find that the ones who score high are the ones who have the ability to achieve excellence and sustained growth and more importantly, higher levels of overall happiness throughout the business. After all, isn’t happiness what we all are seeking!

Rahul is the managing partner at Ensemble Consultants Inc – a web2.0, CRM and BPM software development company based in Illinois, with their main development center in Pune,India. Interests include Indian politics, world economy , travel & business and mocking on current affairs. Currently based in Melbourne and establishing base for 2 of our products : EC24×7.com – end to end web solutions for SMB’s and Surecents.com – custom CRM for small businesses.
He writes on 2 blogs :rahulrane.wordpress.com - for business and web2.0 &
www.arerelax.blogspot.com - for politics and economy.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/only-businesses-that-thrill-win-in-the-long-term-1644363.html

The improvement of Information Communication Technology (ICT) is very fast now days, especially Internet. People can use Internet whenever they wish, 24 hours a day, seven days a week without stopping. People around the world enjoy using Internet, including people in Indonesia . We can access a lot of information and data from Internet. People can learn and find every think easily from search engine, as Google, MSN, yahoo and others. But people in Indonesia are not as lucky as others people in the world. Indonesia has Digital Divide problem, especially for rural people, because of lack infrastructure, high cost internet access and human resources problem.

Town people with enough education can access information easily compare with rural people with limited education, so that impact to economy improvement in their life. Town people tend to have better economy than rural people.

Indonesia Government is sure that Information Communication Technology(ICT) can help their people from poverty and gain better economy. The Government said that people can improve their talent and skill through getting much information and access many opportunities.

The Indonesia Government has been creating Master Plan and doing every think for recovery the Digital Divide problem, as building and improving Palapa Ring, making regulation, decrease cost Internet access through policy, Ringing Village, Internet go to village, Internet go to School, Sub District on line program and Government e services.

Although the user of Internet in Indonesia have not been booming yet, but it must improve for the future. See the data of the Internet user in Indonesia , 25 millions ( 10,5 % population ), with dominant user from teenager ( age between 15 – 19 years old ). They always use services as, email 59 %, search networking 58 %, source from Department of Communication and Information Indonesia )

Indonesia dreaming to build and improving Cyber City , have to solve the Digital Divide problem. Solving the problem is not only search engine 56 %, news on line 49 %, blog 36 %, on line game 35 %. ( Data Government responsibility only, but the private sector and stage holders participation is important also. The Regencies and Municipality also take a part in this problem, as creating mobile car with Internet facility visits rural village, building ICT with people participation, free hot spot, Telecenter in rural village and others.

Government is sure through many breakthrough can make rural people getting education, skill and talent.

Others business sectors that can help to overcome this problem is Internet Café. Internet Café is improvement business for internet access business for people. The business usually build in town, near to campus, school and others facility business. New beginners in internet Café business are afraid to build the business in rural area, cause of lack infrastructure and lack of customers, but there are few considerations that the new beginners must not be afraid to start the Internet café business in rural area,

There are Pre Elementary school , Elementary school, Junior high school and Senior high School had been built by Government and Private sector. They need a lot of content from Internet for their study, including their Teachers. They are new potential customers.

The implementation of e Government tend to be better. There are many public services to implement on line, as Public Complain on line, Identity card register on line, License business register on line and others e government services.

The improvement of Industry Center for Small Medium Enterprises in rural area. They begin to know how to make promotion on the net.

The new Internet Café business, better combine with others similar business, printer services, typing computer services, training computer, and photo copy. To avoid failure business when the Internet Customers seldom come.

Give free training to people in order to get the new customers. Impossible the people come to Internet Café without knowing what the Internet is ? Trying to work together with Sub District Government or Women organization for free training. They are potential customers future.

Join the Internet Business Cafe Association in your area. Give suggestion to Association in order to work together with Government. So Government can campaign to people about the advantage and un advantage using internet.

Knowing culture in the village is better than nothing. Try to make commitment, not give porno video service and block all porno sites in order to make good image to rural people. Creating the good image that Internet can change their quality of life.

What is the link between Internet Café and Cyber City ? As if there is no link at all, but the entrepreneur of Internet café as private sector have much contribution for people around the Internet café, to change and improve the quality of people live, as talent, skill, human resource.

Erny Setyawati
is freelance on line writer and the writer of Bali Global Market Ezine,
http://www.baliglobalmarket.com. She is interested in writing article about
tourism, business on line, affiliate program, cooking recipes and handy craft
and every think in life. She suggests visiting her tourism website before making
decision to travel around the world. Please click free here : http://www.baliglobalmarket.com/goaround.htm
If you have problems to write article or sales letter for your business promotion,
contact her at erny@baliglobalmarket.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/the-functions-of-internet-caf-for-building-cyber-city-1637984.html

Ensuring you have adequate security at work is incredibly important, both from a business perspective, and as a moral obligation for employers. This is the case for many reasons – to protect your staff (and possibly customers), to protect your business and its assets, to improve productivity and to prevent crimes of all kinds. Whether it’s a digital lock system then or a surveillance solution from Bosch security systems, you should have one or several security measures in place.

First of all you should focus on a good lock for your business premises. For small shops and restaurants a cylinder lock will be a good route to go down and these have many benefits over other mechanical locks such as the lever lock. One of these advantages is that a cylinder lock has more possible permeations than other mechanical locks, which makes it harder to break in to; the other is that they are easy and fairly easy to replace. Therefore should your workplace be robbed or a key go missing, you can fairly easily have the locks replaced.

For larger businesses however, digital locks have many more advantages and with lots of staff members will pay for the initial investment. These will be impossible to pick or open with a skeleton key (though they can be hacked) and can be operated or modified remotely to allow you to either let people in from an upstairs office, or change a code or security settings. With digital locks that utilise either pin codes or biometric data (such as finger prints), you will have the large advantage of not needing to give each employee a key and never needing to change the locks which can save a lot of money.

Another option in terms of locking mechanisms is to get a gate or shutter that can cover the front of your building. This is particularly useful for businesses with a ‘store front’ that looks out onto the street as it can help prevent accidental damage or vandalism by providing a barrier between the street and the windows and doors.

The next line of defence however is CCTV. A CCTV camera (good makes include Hikvision DVR and those from Bosch Security Systems or Samsung Techwin) will help you to monitor and record everything that happens within your premises which can help to dissuade crime or theft, but also act as evidence to aid in a police investigation or a court case should a crime occur and help improve your chances of getting what was stolen back. Look for a digital camera such as Hikvision DVR which is far superior to analogue models for larger businesses allowing for more ‘tracks’ to be recorded and enabling you to alter factors such as resolution and frame rate. Also ensure that your camera conforms to the ONVIF global standard to guarantee quality. Those models mentioned above, such as Samsung Techwin, should guarantee a certain amount of quality on their own. With all these systems and measures in place you can then hope that you will dissuade anyone from acts of crime directed towards your business or clients and rest assured you did everything in your power to prevent them.

Author is a security expert and recommends Samsung Techwin and Hikvision DVR for office security.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/security-at-work-1632987.html

The number one reason that businesses fail is under capitalization. The way you build your business capital is very important but normally all small businesses require some capital to get started. Depending on the business, you may only need the capital for a short period of time to develop an inventory or pay salaries. Other businesses may require facilities and equipment purchases in addition to some operating capital to cover business expenses until sales and revenues can support the business. Here are 7 sources of capital you can use to get your business on the right track:   

    - Personal Capital. This is the source of capital that entrepreneurs turn to first because it’s the most easy to use. It’s the cash on hand, bank accounts, stock, and other sources of personal wealth that you can tap into for your business.   

    - Your Home. A home equity line of credit will allow you to transfer the equity in your home to equity in your business. The difference between the value of your home and what you owe could be enough to cover your business start up expenses for a year.   

    - Bank CD. Do you have a CD in the bank that isn’t matured yet? Instead of taking the penalty for early cash out, consider borrowing the money back, securing it with the CD.   

    - Retirement Accounts. You can borrow money from yourself because it’s easy money to tap into, and some of the interest that you pay goes into your retirement account.   

    - Friends and Family. Try to avoid this source of capital because of the potential relationship troubles if the business fails. Your decision to borrow from friends and family is a personal one, but it is often the easiest way to obtain investment capital.   

    - Commercial Banks. When funding your business, commercial banks provide the greatest flexibility for types of loans. They will want to see your business plan, and usually six months to a year of track record.   

    - Small Business Administration - Also known as SBA, is an independent government agency formed in 1953 to help small businesses. They provides loan guarantees, participates with bank loans, and makes a limited number of direct loans.   

I think the biggest problem that business owners have is that they are perfectionists. They have started a business doing something that they are good at but it is difficult to get staff that can duplicate what you do. Therefore many business owners tire out and after a period of time they are burned out because they try to do everything themselves.   

There are so many sources of capital out there to get your business started but I hope you get the point with the few that is mentioned. As a business owner and you’re borrowing money at the start of your business, you must be careful of what you’re trying to accomplish because if its not thought out properly this can cause a strain on cash flows and income in order to make debt payments.

Trying to find a home business that really works? Tired of looking at the wrong places? Well, if you get with an opportunity that can solve Real World Solutions, you will realize there is a positive way to start on the right path to Financial Freedom. To find out more, check out both links.

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