All Entries in the "Basics" Category
8 Keys to Re-energizing Your Business
It’s a tough world out there. Customers are demanding more. Competition is keen – sometimes from unexpected places. Your business must work harder and smarter to improve profits. And on top of it all, there always seem to be new taxes and regulations to deal with. Sometimes however (not that this includes you, of course), [...]
How to Hire Teens While Staying Sane and Legal
Soon, teenagers by the millions will be seeking summer jobs – the vast majority at small businesses coast to coast. An estimated 18 million U.S. teens will work this year, one of the highest totals in the developed world. Speaking as a parent of teens, this is a good thing. But in its song Teenagers, the [...]
Why Marketing Metrics Matter to Your Business
When it comes to measuring marketing success, many business owners (and professional marketers) prefer to think that results are more magic than math. But that’s just not so. The digital era – with it’s easy (relatively) access to analytics – has introduced a whole new way of thinking. Using real data, business owners can now [...]
5 Free or Frugal Business PR Tools
Business owners and startup entrepreneurs are always searching for low-cost and no-cost ways to promote their businesses and get their name in front of potential customers. PR is a perfect way for most businesses to get attention and attract new customers. Nothing brings people to your door (website, Facebook page, etc.) like PR. Most businesses [...]
8 Essentials of Successful Discounting
These days, if you aren’t offering a discount of some kind (or at least the appearance of one), you might not be selling much of anything. Pervasive discounting by businesses both big and small has caused buyers to demand deals on anything and everything. In the midst of all this, how can business owners and [...]
10 Things Wrong With Your Website
In this age of social media and digital everything, you can’t afford to be a website weakling. If your competition has a killer online presence, and you don’t, you lose. Today’s consumers look online more than ever before. Even business owners who think they don’t really need a “best in class” website are missing more [...]
13 Business Resolutions for 2013
Here they are, along with some of our best tips and strategies to help you pull each one off: Resolution #1: Fix my website! Here are 10 things that are probably wrong with your site, and how to fix them: 10 Things Wrong With Your Website Resolution#2: Improve our customer service! Here’s how: 8 Ways to [...]
The 10 Bookkeeping Basics You Can’t Ignore
Millions of business owners and startup entrepreneurs are masters at creating great products and services, building awesome teams and winning over customers. Many of them, however, would probably flunk basic bookkeeping. But if you don’t understand the different types of “accounts” your bookkeeper uses to organize your finances, measuring the success (or failure) of your [...]
The Right Way to Retweet
Let’s start with two key assumptions: 1) Twitter is a great way to build business so you should be using it, and; 2) Part of doing so is retweeting other people’s tweets that you think are worth sharing. But while most people simply use Twitter’s built-in RT function (one of the basic engagement options offered [...]
9 Steps to Lead Nurturing Success
If your business is spending precious ad and marketing dollars to generate leads, and you have prospects calling or clicking as hoped, great! But what now? Leads must convert to sales – either now or in the future – before they can benefit your bottom line. How and when you respond to leads is critical [...]
