5 Small Businesses Hit Hard by Hacking

When you think of hacking, you never think it’s something that can happen to you. Hacking sounds too much like a distant headline or a plot line from a show like “Robot.” However, contrary to what you might think, small businesses and startups are actually the ideal target for hackers.

Small business hacker

According to the United States National Security Alliance, 60% of small businesses that fall victim to an online attack are out of business within six months. On average, those small businesses have to pay $690,000 just to clean up a post-hack mess.

Small business website security is often ignored. It’s not uncommon for these companies to focus more on revenue than getting the right protection, especially when running a business with the “it could never happen to me” or “I have nothing valuable to steal” mentality.…

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4 Benefits of Exchanging Old Office Furniture With The New Ones

Buying new furniture is always a thing of interest for all of us. Be it in the office or your personal space, there will be times that you will need to buy new furniture. We may buy new ones when the space you are working or living is changed. Or, you may think that it’s time to redesign your space.

Office furniture

Here are a few benefits while selling used furniture and buying new ones.

1. Office remodeling

When you want to remodel your office, the best thing you can do is selling or exchanging old furniture. You can get your office space updated with the changing trends in the furniture and office design market.…

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What is the Best Email Marketing Strategy for 2018?

You’ve finally done it. Made a list, checked it twice, and now you want to start sending emails to your (hopefully) loyal subscribers. Ah, life is great and your business is surely set to explode with increased sales. As they say “It’s all in the list!”

Email marketing

But, do you really know what you’re doing? Are you armed with the knowledge needed to successfully send out useful emails to your list without getting spam-boxed and/or unsubscribed? This is perhaps the biggest hurdle you’ll always have to overcome throughout all the mailings you send.

Then there’s the marketing side of things — getting the sale, convincing them to buy again, all the while building a bulletproof brand.…

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How Reverse Logistics Can Increase Customer Satisfaction

The term ‘reverse logistics’ has been in e-Commerce for a while. Reverse logistics refers to the process by which goods are moved to a particular area from their final destination in the sales cycle for maximum value.

In the digitized business environment, sophisticated purchase mechanisms dominate the e-Commerce world. The systems for the exchange and return of goods have been upgraded in recent years, ensuring maximum satisfaction for users. Reverse logistics strategies include restocking, managing damaged merchandise and seasonal inventory, recycling products, asset recovery, and other measures.

A source reveals that buyers in the US return holiday gifts worth $13.2 billion to retailers.…

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When do You Need to Hire a Virtual Receptionist?

Call handling is an important factor in the success of pretty much every business out there. When calls get missed, or a busy employee rushes a client off the phone, your reputation and revenues always suffer. Handling menial calls when you should be focusing on other aspects of the business also inhibits growth, making the need for a receptionist to handle calls essential to success.

Virtual receptionist

Virtual receptionists are fast becoming a popular option, particularly for virtual-based businesses, but also brick-and-mortars who don’t have the office space or budget to allocate space and resources for a non-virtual employee.

The business is getting call volumes you and your staff can’t handle

It should be obvious that when call volumes are spiraling out of control and you and your staff can’t effectively handle each call coming in, you need to hire someone to help take care of things.…

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Why Virtual Phone Number is a Must-Have for an Online Business

The idea of a business phone number without any physical lines attached to it is a relative new one. In days gone by, a business would have to pay their local landline provider a premium for access to unlimited long distance, and shell out thousands in initial costs for multi-line phones, IVR equipment and software, and other physical infrastructure needed to answer incoming calls.

Using a virtual phone number

Now, everything can be done on the Internet, using a virtual phone number that routes calls to whatever device you want to use when calls come in, to any member of your team that’s available to take the call.…

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Assertiveness is Key for a Successful Sales Representative

Picture in your mind a highly effective sales candidate; it could be one presently working with you at your company who is finding consistent success, or one you imagine could fill an open position. Chances are that assertiveness is among their top qualities.

Sales representative

A good amount of assertiveness implies a secure sense of self while in the role or position; the candidate recognizes which prospects to give energy to, has an understanding of urgency on a call, but also knows when to pull back and when to give potential clients some breathing room.

To know when and how to put just the right amount of pressure also requires employees to have a highly developed sense of awareness.…

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5 Reasons Your Startup Can’t Survive Without Solid Leadership

If you asked 10 random entrepreneurs why they decided to go into business for themselves, you’d likely hear at least 3 common answers from each:

  1. The freedom of not working for someone else.
  2. The adventure of building something from the ground up.
  3. Being in ultimate control of their income level.

Whatever your reason, be it one of those mentioned above, or something completely different, you need to bear in mind that no company can survive or thrive without a solid leader at its helm.

Effective leadership

Here are 5 good reasons your company can’t survive without effective leadership:

1. Leadership establishes and maintains order

When it comes to the human condition, there’s no more scary a scenario than bringing together lots of people from multiple different backgrounds.…

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Things Every First-Time Ecommerce Vendor Should Consider

Starting your own ecommerce store can be an intimidating process. There are so many things to consider, venders often don’t know where to begin. Luckily, many people have already found success in the ecommerce space, which means there are some behaviors that are typical of a winning store. Here are a few things every first-time ecommerce vendor should consider before accepting any orders.

Ecommerce marketing tips

SEO Will Help You Make More Sales

If you’re new to the world of ecommerce, it’s possible you’re new to the world of search engine optimization (SEO) as well. SEO helps businesses attract more customers by influencing search results.…

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3 Tips – Based on Research – to Skyrocket Form Conversions

You’ve done everything correctly: built a beautiful website, added contact forms and marketed your business. Leads are pouring in, but for some reason, they never convert. Your business is suffering, and the problem may be a simple one.

Your contact form isn’t optimized for success.

Form conversion rate optimization

I have seen long contact forms spanning 30 fields before, and the first thing I thought was: “no one is going to take the time to fill out this form.”

And this leads to our first tip:

1. Limit Your Fields

If no one is going to fill out a long form, what is the ideal number of fields then?…

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