Category: Advice
Turn off the Lights and Print Less: 25 Ideas for Cutting Your Overhead
The old saying is true: you do have to spend money to make money. But overhead—the cost of running your business—doesn’t have to be through the roof. There are tons of ways to cut down on spending and increase your cash flow. None of these solutions will make or break your bottom line, but little…
Four Growth Strategies To Build Your Business
Growth is important for any small business, but what’s the best way for your business to achieve growth? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Instead, there are several strategies you can employ; the key to success lies in choosing the strategy that best fits your particular business. Focus on a Specific Market Segment If your business has…
How to Make the Most of Your Small Business Facebook Page
Whether you use Facebook as your exclusive digital outreach, or as one piece of your online efforts, a little bit of knowledge goes a long way. Random updates and haphazard sharing aren’t going to gain followers; but with these best practices in place, you can work to gain new customers and increase customer loyalty. Build…
What Small Businesses Can Do To Enhance Their Cybersecurity
Doing business in the digital age means that cybersecurity isn’t something you can ignore. Small businesses are just as vulnerable as large businesses to hackers, data loss, and security breaches. Here are three important ways you can protect your business from an all-too-common hack. Educate Your Employees Informed employees are your most powerful weapon in…
5 Ways To Turn Small Business Supporters into Bigger Sales this Holiday Season
The holidays are fast approaching. Black Friday is almost here, the day when millions of holiday shoppers will stand in line at 4am for deals on flat-screen televisions and the latest smartphone. It can seem intimidating for small businesses and local mom-and-pop shops to stand up to huge department chains with thousands to spend on…
Five Ways to Make the Most of the Holiday Shopping Season
The holidays are rapidly approaching, and as business owners know, that means holiday cheer—and the potential for increased revenues. Many retailers rake in a high proportion of their revenues during the holiday season. But how can you take an already good holiday cash flow to straight-up great? Have the right inventory. Make sure you’re following…
Win $10,000 and a Meeting with Barbara Corcoran
Three lucky winners will each receive $10,000 and a one-on-one meeting with Shark Tank investor and real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran. Have you ever thought about what your small business would do with an extra $10,000—or a what it would be like to personally ask advice of one of the Sharks? To enter, tell us how you…
Want to Start a Franchise? Here’s What You Should Know.
Franchises are a tempting way to get into business ownership. Is this the right path for you? And if it is, how are you supposed to pick one out of the thousands of options? For those completely unfamiliar with the idea, franchises are businesses that trade their name and operating methods to people in exchange…
When Should Small Businesses Decorate for the Holidays?
Walk into any department store, and it’s obvious: the holidays are upon us. The elaborate miniature winter villages, the glamorous plastic Christmas trees, and the reindeer sweaters seem decorate a solid chunk of the store, luring you into holiday splendor. Every year, the ornaments and tinsel seem to go up earlier and earlier. Instead of…
How Two Marine Corps Veterans Teach Leadership to Corporate America
When Marine Corps captains Courtney Lynch and Angie Morgan left military service more than a decade ago for the private sector, they were surprised to find so few employees who understood the concept of leadership. There were leaders around, but “people were not recognizing that they were demonstrating leadership behavior,” explains Morgan. As a result…
Clues That Your State or City Is Welcoming to Small Businesses—and What to Do If It’s Not
When survey results declare certain states or cities welcoming to small business, owners in those regions pat themselves on the back. And rightly so. Scoring high in metrics such as ease of hiring, starting up, or following regulations means that a region is keen to make successful entrepreneurship possible. Your job, as a small business…
How to Start a Veteran-Owned Business
Founding new business is a process that anyone with skills, ideas, a budget, and staying power can decide to do. Fortunately, for military veterans, the process of starting a business will seem quite natural, since your military training and service gives you advantages many entrepreneurs lack. In fact, veterans display more innate entrepreneurial traits than…
Content Marketing: An Interview with Industry Guru Joe Pulizzi
I met Joe Pulizzi shortly after he published his first book, Get Content Get Customers. The company I was with did a two-day workshop with him to develop a content strategy in 2009. This was in the very beginning of what would become a content marketing revolution and eventually lead to the creation of the…
Facebook Page vs. Website: Which Should You Use?
A strong digital presence is key to success in our tech-oriented society. Maintaining a website, however, requires time and money that small business owners don’t always have in great supply. If you’re looking for ways to simplify your online efforts, Facebook’s recent updates might seem pretty appealing. But are they good enough to stand in…
6 Ways to Make Working with an Independent Contractor Successful
For certain tasks and projects at your business, it may make sense to find a contractor to get the job done. Follow these common-sense guidelines to get the most value out of the experience. 1. Use a Contract Every time you work with a contractor, use a written contract that both you (or a representative…