From the Get-Go: Cloud Storage Smarts for Startups

Businesses could save a lot of time and money if they just used cloud computing right from the start. But, they don’t. Fortunately, this gives you an opportunity to get in and get ahead of your competition.

Here’s how.

Cloud storage service for business

Search For Providers

This is probably the hardest part of the whole thing. Searching for providers involves laying out a plan for what you want, how much you’re willing to spend, and then mapping out your usage.

You should plan on contacting at least 10 service providers. Spend some time interviewing them both on the phone and through their ticket support system, if possible.…

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Closing a Business: Top Tips for Taking Your Open Sign Down

It’s time. You’re happy, but at the same time you’re sad. Your business is ready to be shut down. Maybe you’re hanging your hat up for good. Maybe you’ve decided to move on to something else.

Whatever the case may be, there are specific steps you need to take before you can close the doors for good.

Closed sign

Vote On It

The first thing you need to do is vote on the closure of your business. Even if you’re a one man show, the state continues to recognize the business as an ongoing legal entity until the corporation is formally dissolved.…

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3 Tips to Make your e-Commerce Business Rock

What are those mysterious success factors that will raise your business initiatives straight up to heaven? The products you offer? Sure. The best quality/price ratio? Of course. Outstanding customer loyalty program? It also matters. However, will it work for you properly if you website looks as if it was created by a 13-year-old in the early 2000s? Probably not.

Online shopping

Tip 1. Gorgeous website: make it or break it!

Your website is the #1 key to success. And here’re some crucial parameters you’d better keep in mind:

The simpler the better

Whoever persuades you that it’s a good idea to add the maximum number of photos, banners and ads, popping up every single minute form different corners of your website, can be officially considered your enemy.…

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How Offline Marketing Can (Still) Help Small Businesses

Despite the rise of the digital world and the tech sphere, businesses should not discount offline marketing as a great way to get themselves noticed. According to ecoconsultancy.com, 40% of consumers make buying decisions after being influenced offline.

If you’re a growing business, you can’t afford to miss out. However, offline marketing can be more expensive than online methods like social media – so how can a small business make maximum gains without a costly budget?

Be careful with ads

One of the first things people think of when it comes to offline marketing are advertisements. Whether they’re in print publications or broadcast, you need to be careful with ads.…

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Q&A with Chad Constant, Director of Business Client Marketing at Intel on the Launch of Intel Small Business Advantage (Intel SBA)

Small business owners need all the resources they need so that they can have a sustainable business growth.  One of the latest ones is Intel Small Business Advantage (Intel SBA).

What does the solution entail, and how does it help small business owners in keeping their IT secure – and more? Chad Constant, Intel’s Director of Business Client Marketing explains it all in an exclusive SMB CEO interview.

Chad Constant, Director of Business Client Marketing at Intel

Ivan Widjaya (Q): Hi, Chad. Please kindly introduce yourself to our reader.

Chad Constant (A): Thank you Ivan, my name is Chad Constant, and I am the director of Business Client Marketing at Intel.…

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Ways to Keep Your Momentum Going as an Entrepreneur

The life of an entrepreneur can be very arduous, but also thrilling. An entrepreneur sees everything as an opportunity to create capital. Not every idea an entrepreneur has will be the motherload of ideas, but the defining characteristic of an entrepreneur is tenacity and the utter resistance to give up.

Determined entrepreneur on the phone

You must try, try again, and work through those one thousand ways how not to make a lightbulb as Thomas Edison did. It only takes one bright idea to illuminate the world and change it for the better, forever. It can be a challenge to keep going, however. Life is full of rejection and it’s not always easy to push through a wall of endless no’s.…

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4 Advantages of Getting a Secured Personal Loan to Fund Business

Thinking about starting a business? Making the shift from being just an employee to an employer requires a lot of guts, dedication, and most of all money. Few can afford starting a business from their own savings, as starting one requires lots of cash to buy properties, equipment, supplies, and to hire employees.

Secured personal loan

But with the wide availability of loans, starting your dream business is made easier today. Unfortunately, with loans comes the expense of paying an interest. Now, no one would offer you loans without giving it an interest, but you may be able to get the lowest rate with the help of secured personal loans.…

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Identifying and Removing Major Roadblocks in SMB Growth

Thousands of small business enterprises are being founded and closed every day in this modern era of startup. This makes almost every niche highly competitive and company growth needs to be fast and continuous, since even the smallest oscillations and breakdowns can cause major loss of customer trust.

Business growth

In this article I’ve reviewed some of the most common problems small business entrepreneurs face during their road to success.

1. Problem: Not having enough funds

This is a very common problem that affects many small businesses. In most cases good idea and hard work are not enough to turn innovative startup into a multi-million dollar business.…

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Small to Medium Sized Enterprises need Culture

Small to medium sized enterprises (SME) have long been noted as important economic engines of many countries and account for approximately half of GDP in the United States, yet this sector has continued to have mixed success and failure with such businesses having less than 50% chance of surviving five years! Despite this challenge most efforts to identify what leads to small firm success has been personal opinions or conjecture.

Great company culture

To gain a deeper real world understanding of what successful small businesses do to succeed I interviewed 29 owners and senior leaders of profitable and growing small firms that had been in business at least five years.…

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The 3 KPIs Every Successful Digital Marketer is Tracking in 2016

If we were to take a poll in small business marketing departments throughout the country, we’d likely discover that very few are effectively and accurately tracking success. Would you count yourself among this cohort? If you aren’t using the right KPIs, then the answer is yes.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Why KPIs Matter

How do you really know if your business is performing well in terms of marketing success? If you’re like many business owners, you probably don’t. Most have very little insight into how different marketing strategies and efforts are doing and whether or not they’re producing positive results.

This is where KPIs – or key performance indicators – come into play.…

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