Use December to set your business up for next year. Jeff Zbar joins Jim Blasingame to discuss the cycle of business during the holidays, and how non-retailers can deal with the natural slowdown of business in December.

What could you learn from a business plan competition? Doug Campbell joins Jim Blasingame to report on how start-up business plan competitions work and why you should consider participating.

There are four forces that are future constants. Cecily Sommers joins Jim Blasingame to reveal the four constants that small businesses can use as a framework for forecasting what the future will look like for your business.

Constant innovation is key to survival. Jeff Zbar joins Jim Blasingame to talk about why the pace of the marketplace prohibits small businesses from resting on their innovation laurels.

Planning assumptions and milestones must be established. Tim Berry joins Jim Blasingame to reveal two more planning steps: establishing and recording assumptions for projections and identifying execution milestones.

Are you comparing your plans to actual performance? Tim Berry joins Jim Blasingame to reveal a critical planning step is to have a scheduled review of your plans against what actually happened.

There is still time to lower your tax bill this year. Barbara Weltman joins Jim Blasingame to remind small businesses that they can still lower their tax bill by making year-end equipment purchases and expensing it this year.

How has failure to resolve the impending Taxmageddon already impacted small businesses? Barbara Weltman joins Jim Blasingame to report on tax planning challenges of small businesses because they still don't know how to determine their tax bill.

Do you think of customers strategically? Steve Martin joins Jim Blasingame to talk about how to grow your business by picking customers that will contribute to your profit and growth strategy.

Want to go beyond the obvious advantages of business ownership? Jim Blasingame reveals one of the stealth benefits of business ownership, whichis to personally own the real estate in which your business operates.