How To Determine the Best E-Commerce Logistics Solution

Running an ecommerce business is difficult, and many ventures fail because they didn’t have the proper logistics or management solutions in place to run the business smoothly.

It’s not uncommon for ecommerce business owners to be afraid of the unknown: outsourcing your company’s supply chain can seem scary at first. You may be worried that you won’t have enough control, there could be too many unknowns, or that you don’t want to go through the struggle of finding the right logistics company (especially if you have no firsthand experience).

Before you begin your search, consider the benefits of an ecommerce logistics solution.…

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What Exactly does Brexit Mean for UK House Prices?

When the UK voted to leave the European Union in a historic referendum back in June, many business leaders and politicians became concerned at the impact this result would have on the country. Jobs, growth and trade were all discussed. However, one of the main talking points of the debate was how the UK property market would fair.

Brexit

We are almost six months on from the referendum, and the property market is still quite turbulent, so is it possible to accurately predict what is going to happen to the property market as we head into the New Year?

What happened to the property market after the vote?

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6 Text Message Marketing Best Practices

Moving beyond email-only marketing to a multi-channel approach to drive more revenue from existing customers is a powerful strategy for small- to medium-size businesses (SMBs).  In fact, for SMBs, targeted, multi-channel marketing is no longer just a good idea, but a necessity for growth.

Text message marketing

Marketing messages sent by text have become an important component of a multi-channel mix that works. Text messages are one of the most cost-effective, efficient tools for communicating with customers. According to data from thousands of campaigns executed for its hundreds of SMB clients, marketing automation service provider eRelevance Corp. reports 39 percent of lead conversions across digital channels come from text conversations.…

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6 Reasons an M&A Specialist Helps Maximize Your Company’s Sale Value

Congratulations! You took your business from a concept to a company. You identified a problem, assembled a solid team, built a solution, and grew revenue. But now, you have fresh ideas and new plans. You’ve made the decision — it’s time to move on and sell your company.

Mergers and acquisitions

That’s a hard conclusion to reach, but it may be even harder to determine where to go next. After all, your expertise lies in running a business, not selling one. Who do you contact? How do you market your company’s value, not as a product or service, but as an asset? A lot of moving parts go into a successful sale, and each one needs to fall into place perfectly.…

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7 Safe And Effective Tax Deductions That Every SME Should Be Claiming

HMRC collected over £533 billion in taxes during the 2015-16 tax year but we think it’s possible that many SMEs, business owners, and employees are currently paying more tax than they need to. They simply aren’t aware of a number of different tax incentives offered by HMRC that could reduce their tax bill. It’s no surprise that HMRC are not very good at letting people know about these incentives, so we are happy to introduce 7 safe and effective tax deductions that you should consider.

1. Tax free Christmas office party, panto or concert

When a company throws a party for all of its employees and the cost is less than £150 per head then it is a tax and NI-free benefit.…

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4 Essential Tools Every Small Business Should Be Using

Ivan has written a number of great articles on the challenges that small businesses face. I would like to emphasize one of his points – small businesses often struggle with time management. In case you missed his post “How to Ensure Your Business is Effective at Time Management”, here is an excerpt.

Business smartphone

“Good time management within a business comes from the top. If you run a start-up, small company or big business, then you’ll want to review and improve the time management of it. As well as improving your company’s process it should also save you money in the long run.…

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Startup Shortcuts: Smart and Cents-able Ways to Make Your Little Business Look Like a Big Player

Starting a new business takes a lot of time: you have to decide between forming a corporation or an LLC, you have to find the right people to employ, and you have to build a website and/or find a brick-and-mortar building to rent or buy. When you first start, it may seem like it’ll take years before you are noticed by anyone.

Appear bigger

Fortunately, there are things that you can do while you’re still growing to make your business look like a real player. If you do a few things correctly, people will start taking notice of you sooner rather than later and you can claim your market share sooner than you might think.…

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Leveraging Modern Technology: 4 Ways to Boost Efficiency in the Construction Industry

The construction industry is one sector that, seemingly, cannot be derailed by bumps and blows to the global economy. Like all industries, it has faced tough times, but it continues to grow at a very healthy rate. It is estimated that, by the year 2030, the amount being invested in construction infrastructure will have reached $13 trillion.

This is more than double the same figure for 2012 and the jump should provide a clear indication of how fast the industry is moving. Yet, there are challenges ahead. In order to keep up with demand and fulfil the requirements of ever more stringent state legislation, contractors must be able to evolve.…

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How Not to Write a LinkedIn Profile

There is plenty of advice available about how to write a great LinkedIn profile, but not as much about how not to do it. In fact, you can do all the “right” things and still have a useless—or worse, a dreadful—LinkedIn profile. Sometimes even the so-called experts fail the perfect profile test.

If your LinkedIn profile seems lacking somehow, check to see if you’ve fallen in the “what not to do” trap.

Have You Heard the One About…

You’ve probably read that your LinkedIn page needs to stand out. Your business personality has to shine through. Your listing has to be different so it doesn’t look like every other business on LinkedIn.…

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Why User Experience is So Important in Business

Some businesses that don’t fully recognize how critical the user experience is end up facing financial difficulties early on, and can even end up folding if they don’t implement critical changes quickly. Your business can offer consumers everything that they want tangibly, but if the user experience is lacking, they just won’t feel compelled to give you their business. Your customers may not tell you to your face that their experiences with your company isn’t up to par, but they generally give enough context clues for business owners to figure it all out.

Business website users

Sometimes it’s long lines that turn customers off, and in other cases it can be as simple as a clerk that fails to meet every customer with a smile.…

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