Power in Information: A New “Zillow-Like” Service for Small Businesses (Interview)

Q&A with Doug Llewellyn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Purch, a next-generation digital publishing and marketplace platform that is driving the future of publishing by connecting high-intent buyers and performance-driven marketers in consumer and SMB markets.

Doug Llewelyn, Purch

Doug joined Purch in 2013 and, as President and COO, he is responsible for the company’s two core business units, strategic planning, corporate development activities, and Purch’s business metrics and operational framework. As such, he has overseen the relaunch of Business.com and its new business valuation tool, powered by BizEquity.

How does Purch serve small-to-medium businesses?

Purch is a next-gen digital publishing and marketplace platform with 25 brands across lifestyle, technology, shopping and small-to-medium business categories that help intent-based buyers make purchase decisions.…

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Legal Responsibilities of Your Business: Employment and Injury

As a business owner, you are lucky enough to have all sorts of additional legal responsibilities that are attached to your company. Specifically, within the categories of employee longevity and safety, there are all kinds of sets of knowledge that you should have handy about topics ranging from injury to insurance, and security to record-keeping.

Employee safety

You shouldn’t even start a business until you know how all of those things work. Because the last thing you need is to have some event occur where someone gets hurt, or there is catastrophic damage somewhere, or inspectors come in and find something wrong, and you have to plead ignorance about the whole thing.…

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Running a Boat Fleet: 5 Ways to Spot Marine Diesel Engine Issues Before They Occur

Are you running a business which operational involves boats? If so, I’m sure you’re aware that maintenance is one of the issues you need to address when running a fleet of boats.

Boat sailing

One that often cripple businesses is marine diesel engine problems. The engines are known to cause quite a few headaches to boat owners if not kept in good shape. Fortunately, many of these issues are easy to prevent and fix even with little or no knowledge of how the engines work.

All you need is a small array of tools and spare parts. However, keeping an eye on these issues and making sure they never occur in the first place is an even more effective method.…

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How to Choose The Best Type of Ice Machine for Your Business?

Are you looking for the best type of ice machine for your restaurant, bar, hotel, smoothie bar, or coffee shop? With different types, styles, and sizes of ice makers on the market—it’s hard to know if you are choosing the right one.

Ice machine

We’ve collects some the steps you need to take, and the questions you need to cover, before you buy an ice machine.

Ice Machine Styles and Configurations

First check out the size of the space that you have available to put in your ice machine. Do you have a big kitchen space? Or are you looking for a small machine that can fit under the counter?…

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How to Use Net Promoter Score to Grow Your Small Business

Having an optimal net promoter score (NPS) is great for gauging how your small business is going to grow in the coming months and years. Knowing your NPS score is also essential when it comes time to consider securing funding from banks and other investors to grow your business. After all, if the overall consensus is that your business is highly recommended by past and current customers, it’s definitely poised for growth on some level.

Net Promoter Score

How NPS Works

This is likely going to be one of the easiest business principles you’ll ever learn. NPS is nothing more than the results of a very pointed question given to your customers: “On a scale of 0 – 10, how likely are you to recommend ‘ABC Inc’ to others?”…

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4 Ways Boost Your Service Business

Running a service business can be a challenge. Word of mouth is what most service providers rely on to bring in new customers, but with the right strategy, you can attract new business without having to rely on previous customers.

Service business growth

1. Focus on Branding

Branding is essential for every business, but service providers often ignore this important step. Your business already has a name, but do you have a logo? If so, is that logo consistent and used across all marketing materials?

If not, this should be your first step.

Everything from employee uniforms to company vehicles, your website and even the stationary in your office should be a reflection of your brand.…

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Make a Big Move: Choosing a Moving Company that Suits Your Needs

Moving, no matter how large or small the scale, can be a highly stressful time for everyone involved. There are a wealth of things to consider when you start to plan a move across the country, as you will likely be entirely changing service providers, which is just one of the considerations in your plans.

Moving company

When you are moving a business, the scope of these plans can easily triple, since you will have additional considerations such as customer contact and more.

What do I need to consider when moving my business across the country?

There is a laundry list of plans to be made when moving your business across country.…

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3 Tips to Make a Big Impact Even With a Small Conference

Planning a successful conference is a lot of work. A lot of conferences fail because not enough time and effort wasn’t put into the planning process to ensure the conference’s success. The good news is that you can follow the experience of others to remove most of the hardships that conferences face.

Small business conference

Three tips that can help make your conference a hit, include:

1. Answer One Question: Why?

The question of why must be asked before even the most miniscule of planning can commence. The idea is that there always needs to be a purpose behind a conference. You can’t go into the conference planning process without knowing why.…

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Small Business Accessibility 101

Did you know that 50 million Americans have a disability of some sort? This is 18% of the population. Many of these disabled persons are your very customers – or potential customers. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) took effect in March 2011 and sets standards for disabled accessibility.

The ADA requires “reasonable accommodations” by law in both the private and public sector.

Many small businesses don’t know the actual definition of an employer under the ADA. The ADA defines an employer as someone who:

  • Employs 15 or more full-time employees every business day
  • Employs the above for 20 or more weeks per year
  • Engages in a commerce industry

If your business doesn’t meet this criterion, you won’t need to follow Title I of the law.…

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Best Meeting Schedulers for Your Next Meeting

Every day, we use lots of tools to enhance our productiveness, plan duties, speed up work, and review our data. It’s all about improving as many areas of our workflow as possible, getting more done in a short time period.

Appointment scheduler app

Organizing a meeting time shouldn’t be tough. Luckily, there are lots of online meeting scheduler tools available—each with benefits and drawbacks— and even though some work with a variety of calendar applications, others are barely targeted to just one or two.

Below are the best on the go meeting scheduler tools for professionals and businesses.

Agendize

Agendize app

Agendize provides an integrated suite of apps that help businesses generate higher quality leads, improve business efficiency, and maximize customer engagement.…

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