Small Business

Filing on inventions that aren’t marketable just helps enrich the Patent and Trademark Office. March 5, 2020 6 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Getting a patent issued typically costs at least $10,000 and can easily cost upwards of $20,000. Most inventors who patent their inventions hope to get their money back after their invention begins selling in the marketplace. In reality, it rarely works like that. A very high percentage of patents never recoup their filing costs. Put more bluntly: They never generate any income, let alone what it cost to get the patent in…

India has been facing a broad-based slowdown in economic growth. Private consumption in the first half of FY20 grew at a meagre 4 per cent on year-on-year basis, compared to over 8 per cent in FY17. While this is worrying, the situation has been further exacerbated by the growth in investments being projected at a meagre 1 per cent in the current year—a significant low since FY03. All eyes are now turned to the Union Budget, hoping for a much-needed fiscal nudge that can revive the Indian economy and correct its growth trajectory. Tweak tax slabs:…

The OPEC+ alliance’s dramatic failure to reach an output deal is most obviously being felt in oil futures, which plunged the most since 2008 in London. A look at the less-conspicuous corners of the market reveal the scale of the impact. The potential collapse of the group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia is the latest blow to a market that was already dragged down by fears over the economic damage from the spread of the coronavirus. Global benchmark Brent crude, which was already down 24{bce2ac57dae147ae13b811f47f24d80c66c6ab504b39dda4a9b6e8ac93725942} through March 5, dropped 9.4{bce2ac57dae147ae13b811f47f24d80c66c6ab504b39dda4a9b6e8ac93725942} on Friday after the talks…

The global leader in stock photography and design assets can help expand your brand reach. March 6, 2020 2 min readDisclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. Making your brand and content stand out online is more difficult than ever. While more people are online, so are more brands and companies, making it hard to cut through the noise to connect with audiences. If there’s one thing that can…

Management studies are a valuable source of insight for business leaders. But as many more studies are conducted and academics feel increasing pressure to publish, business leaders need to be cautious about the rigor and validity of the findings that they adopt and put to work. A short list of questions can help them choose wisely.…

The gold to silver ratio, which indicates the relative strengths of both the metals, is testing three-decade high. At present, the gold to silver ratio is 96.5, not seen since 1991. The ratio rises when silver underperforms gold. Historical data shows that whenever this ratio rises to very high levels, it never sustains and falls. This ratio suggests how many ounces of silver can be bought with one ounce of gold. In India too, like their global peers, traders use the ratio. When they expect the ratio to rise, they buy gold and sell silver. …

Ensure you’re squeezing value out of every dollar spent. March 5, 2020 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Marketing and advertising budgets vary widely across organizations. An often-cited statistic from the U.S. Small Business Association suggests spending about 8 percent of gross revenue on marketing if you make under $5 million annually and your net profit parks at 10 to 15 percent. However, a 2016 survey of 168 Chief Marketing Officers found that firms spent a median of 10 percent of their budget on marketing, but some spent as much as 40 percent. For every…

An Irdai panel has suggested introduction of daily premium payment policies to deepen insurance penetration in low-income groups. The committee on ‘micro-insurance’ also said the product benefits need to be simple so that they can be easily understood by customers. It should be clearly spelt out in terms of gives and gets for the customer — that is, what the customer gives and what s/he gets, the panel said in its report. Micro-insurance is specifically intended for the protection of low-income people, with affordable insurance products to help them cope with and recover from financial losses. …