The 4th quarter is very busy and it is never too early to begin thinking about and documenting what must get done.

There is only one fourth quarter in every business year, so work hard now to make it your best!

The planning and organizing of your grand opening are well worth the effort.

Download the minutes from the October 2015 HBA Meeting.

In an age of global markets and capitalism, it’s far too easy for small businesses to struggle and fail, even if they have superior products and services.

Download the minutes from the September 2015 HBA Meeting.

Download the minutes from the August 2015 HBA Meeting.

This year's line up for Movies in the Park promises to be a hit with several movies for you and your family to enjoy.  Come out and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Buck Creek Amphitheater and enjoy a movie and concessions with your neighbors!

MOVIE SCHEDULE

School is out for the summer and families are looking to spend more time together and what better way to do that than going to see a movie as a family.

This summer, the Movies in the Park series returns to the Helena Amphitheater as eight movies are planned to be shown for families and children of all ages to enjoy.

Choosing a bank for your business involves more than opening a new account at your personal bank or picking the branch office nearest your company. You need to understand what services you require and how much they cost. Ideally you’ll find a banker who will take the time to walk you through how to solve a problem, so you can go back to running your business. Still, some business owners may spend more time shopping for a $300 laser printer than they would shopping for a bank.

Here are a few issues to keep in mind when you look for a banker:

The annual meeting of the general membership of the Helena Business Association was held on Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 8 a.m. at Frankie's Market Cafe in Helena, Alabama. A total of 27 members and guests were in attendance. The following activities took place: 

David Schlueter (left) and Henry Neff (second from left) were honored for their years of service on the HBA's board of directors by Mayor Mark Hall (second from right) and HBA President Bob Van Loan (right) at today's monthly meeting. David and Henry have been instrumental in the revitalization of the HBA. Thank you, gentlemen!

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or business-to-business. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does “branding” mean? How does it affect a small business like yours?

Communication in the Internet Century usually means using email, and email, despite being remarkably useful and powerful, often inspires momentous dread in otherwise optimistic, happy humans. Google executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt and former Senior Vice President of Products Jonathan Rosenberg share nine insightful rules for emailing (or gmailing!) like a professional. Here are their personal rules for mitigating that sense of foreboding:

Not all the tips your friends, family, and peers offer you about running your budding enterprise are created equal. With this issue in mind, we asked The Experts: What’s the worst advice about running a business you’ve ever received?

This discussion relates to the latest Small Business Report and formed the basis of a discussion on The Experts blog in August 2014.

In the summer of 1969, one week after we put our first man on the moon, I was born to a single mother in a trailer located where the Helena Post Office is now. I can remember Helena being nothing more than a “drive-through” town; The only reason why you came to Helena back then was to go to Bessemer or Cherokee Beach. Back then, Helena School was 1st through 9th grade, and each grade had only one teacher. We’ve come a long way since then.

If you want potential customers to get a 360-degree, panoramic view of your brick-and-mortar business when they click on any of your listings in Google, its new Business Photos campaign makes its listings for business more interactive. To that end, the search giant is pairing its own certified “Trusted Photographers” with businesses that want to show off their interiors to the public.

I don’t know about you, but I receive more than 100 emails a day. Some are junk emails (discard); some have value (read); some are business related (definite read); some might have value but are so poorly written that I usually delete them. I thought it might be time to provide some basic email etiquette guidelines in the form of 7 dos and 7 don’ts.

With the day-to-day demands of running their businesses, most owners put off getting a valuation until a sale is imminent. But some are starting to treat the act of valuing their business as an integral part of running it. Everyone likes to think they’re building something that they can sell someday, but unless you focus on it, you don’t know if you really are.