Professionalisms
Why Training Courses Are Vital for Business Owners, Not Just Employees
You might have read information about the benefits of offering training to your employees. But business owners and directors need to undergo training too, perhaps even before they reach the point of hiring staff.
The 12 Types of Bosses And How To Deal With Them
There are 12 types of bosses, each with a different management style, says Geoffrey James, author of "Business Without the Bullsh*t: 49 Secrets and Shortcuts You Need to Know". And the way you deal with them is also different.
How To Make it In Mobile: New Customer Experience Research & Trends For 2015
Mobile is opening the door for designing new experiences that compliment a brand’s physical presence. According to Comrade’s User Experience Research Report findings, here are six top mobile tips and customer experience trends that companies should look out for and implement in the year ahead.
Quality, Not Quantity: 7 Tried-And-True Tools For Building Strong Customer Relationships
Advanced technology, social media, CRM software, and other tools are changing the way companies market their brand and products. While these new techniques bring their own benefits, says Gareth Cartman of Clever Little Design, there are benefits from so-called old-school approaches that still help businesses create a better connection with their customers.
Risky Business: Reasons Learning On-The-Go Doesn’t Work For Successful Startups
For most small businesses, employees do on-the-job training, but that can spell disaster for startups that need to get workers out there in a hurry, says Bruce Richards, full time trainer at Best STL.
Real Time Bidding In The European Market
Real Time Bidding (RTB) focuses on the auctioning of ad space on a per-impression basis, with the auctioning process being completed before the page is loaded, meaning the user never sees the process taking place.
Is The Customer The Most Important Person In Your Call Centre?
The Internet has given the public such power with review sites and an explosion of choice, that now your customers should be the most important people in your contact centre and your staff should do everything to make them happy, says Nichola Ansbro, Contact Centre Manager, officekitten.co.uk.
What Makes A Successful Franchisee?
Over the past decade, franchising has become a much more attractive option for young talent looking to rapidly create and grow their own businesses. But before candidates can decide if franchising is the right move for them, they must understand the skill set required to successfully run a franchise.
Coping With Late Payment – Managing Asia’s Slow Payers
In an economy where 50 per cent of exports are traded on an open account (i.e. credit terms), a rise in daily sales outstanding, or DSO, affects the cash flows of local businesses. Unfortunately, some customers often pay late. Anthony Coundouris, trade finance evangelist for ApexPeak shares a few measures suppliers can take to both improve DSO and reduce uncollectable receivables.
Holiday Marketing – Plan For Your Best Year Ever
Do your holiday marketing not only to get the sale, but more to really connect with your clients and potential clients. Diana Ennen offers some tips to master your holiday marketing.
How To Market Your Food Product Effectively
by Emily Smith, professional market analyst and writer for The Label Company
Making your product stand out of the crowd is quite challenging. The challenge is more when...
5 Ways Small Business Owners Can Improve Their Agility In The New Year
The New Year brings new events that may positively or negatively affect your business. Known events are possible to plan for in advance. Taffy Williams, author of "Think Agile: How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt in Order to Succeed" shares some agile activities may help you be more prepared in the New Year.
Are Your Customer Service Scripts Naughty Or Nice? Five Quick Responses To Customer Complaints.
The last thing a stressed, dissatisfied customer wants to hear you say is:"You're wrong." Ron Kaufman, author of ”Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet“, offers a few quick scripts to use when responding to customer complaints.
Cash Flow Matters: Accounts Receivable Financing Fuels New Model Of Working Capital
When it comes to cash flow your start-up needs are typically in direct opposition of your customers, as each entity works to manage its own working capital requirements. It’s this battle to control the stop and go nature of start-up cash flow that is driving growth in accounts receivable financing, also known as factoring, says Jeff Bell, senior vice president of eCapital.
Improving Your Sales Reps’ Performance
In order to increase conversion numbers and boost the bottom line, sales reps need to accomplish the following tasks in the first quarter: reduce response rate, increase lead follow up, learn how to sell themselves first, personalize, says John McGee.
Why Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Is A Thing Of The Past And What You Should...
The passing of the Affordable Care Act made it official: The era of group health insurance is over. And whether you’re an employer, employee, insurance broker, or some other type of trusted adviser, it’s time to leverage the huge opportunities that come with this new reality. Authors Paul Zane Pilzer and Rick Lindquist explain what you should do right now.
10 Tips for Effectively Handling Customer Complaints During The Holiday Rush
The holiday shopping season is a veritable minefield of potential customer complaints. Ron Kaufman offers advice on how to handle those complaints so that your unhappy customers become customers for life.
How To Prepare Your Business For Black Friday
Carla Freberg, Sales Manager at Vendor Services Group of Balboa Capital shares some real-world strategies to make the busiest shopping day of the year a huge success.
Primary Problems with Enforcing Non-Compete Agreements
Just because an employee has signed a non-compete agreement does not make the agreement valid under the law, says Yasir Billoo of Golden & Grimes LLP. Beware of these issues before you require an employee to sign an agreement that may turn out to be unenforceable later.
The Learning Curve: Your Company’s Only Sustainable Competitive Advantage And How To Develop It
Old-school competitive advantages that depend on all-knowing leaders and better mousetraps are dead. In today’s competitive, rapidly evolving global marketplace, says Professor Edward D. Hess, the only way to develop and sustain a competitive advantage is to create a “learning organization.” Here, Hess explains what that means and shares four key points to keep in mind as your company makes the transition.
Three Ghoulish Blunders SMBs Make Applying For SBA Funding
Despite their attractiveness, acquiring an SBA loan can be a trick not a treat, especially for business owners that aren’t organized or don’t pay attention to the fine print. Evan Singer, General Manager for SmartBiz, shares three frequent bogeymen that can trip up a small business that wants an SBA loan.
7 Reasons Businesses Need Expert Online Visibility
SMB brands are damaging their own success by not having an online presence. Because just having a website is not enough, Russell Wallace, founder and CEO of 29 Prime, Inc. shares 7 reasons why such presence is a must.
Five Sales Tips For Entrepreneurs To Close More Deals
It is critically important to overcome fears of rejection and embrace a positive attitude toward selling if you want real success. Here are five key sales tips for entrepreneurs as shared by Martin Limbeck, "NO is Short for Next Opportunity: How Top Sales Professionals Think".
Best Practices For Merry Marketing Campaigns
As the holiday season draws near, companies must use their website and email to their advantage to ensure that consumers have their brand in mind this holiday season, says Nikole Haiar, Director, Marketing Campaigns & Programs at Hostway Services, Inc.
4 Marketing Tips Every Startup Should Ignore
The Web is laden with marketing advice, and it's not always easy to decipher which of it is the real deal and which of it is from people that have no idea what they’re talking about.
To help you sort it out, Mark Ditteaux is the President and COO of Mark-it-Smart, Inc. shares a collection of some of the worst marketing advice on the Web. Don't listen to it.
Three Common Expense Tracking Mistakes
It seems like tax time is fraught with last minute scrambling to gather business records for those who claim business deductions. William Olsen, CPA, Co-founder and VP of Product Development at Deductr highlights three common errors in expense tracking will help you prepare better and have less tax time stress.
Ways To Give Your Website An Additional Competitive Edge
It is vital now more than any other year to ensure that the main website for your business stands out for the crowd. Here are just a few features which can be added to your professional website to give it that unique edge, provided by Chloe Hashemi, marketing consultant for film and video production company LAMBDA Films.
Test Drive Project Management Software To Know Its True Value For Your Business
How do you choose project management software which best suits your needs? Sharon Thomson, Business Manager at ProofHub gives some reasons why you should get a demo session.
How to Communicate Appreciation on a Tight Budget
Why is feeling appreciated so important in a work setting? Because each of us wants to know that what we are doing matters. Paul White, Ph.D., author of "The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People" offers a few ways to communicate appreciation and encouragement to colleagues in ways that don’t require a lot of money.
Essential Steps To Consider Before Launching An Online Store
Ready to dive into the world of ecommerce and set up a state-of-the-art web store? Woodgate, PR and marketing manager at Simtech outlines all hidden pitfalls online business owners should be aware of and the most essential steps to take before launching an ecommerce project.