3 Unique Tips for Growing Your Business Beyond 2014

In order to keep profits flowing and to take advantage of expansion opportunities, a business owner or CEO needs to take a big leaping step into the Information Age.

Strategizing for the future

A new era where everyone – rich, middle income, the less fortunate – all have access to way more choices than they did 10 years ago. More choices about how much they pay for a given product, choices about what sources they should trust to make buying decisions, and more access to see what other real people are saying about your product or service.

They don’t have to settle for something that’s just “so-so” or which “sort of” meets their needs because of the limited access to different markets like in the pre-Internet era.…

Continue reading →

How to Attract and Retain the Best Talent in 2014

Back in 1997, McKinsey wrote the ‘War on talent’. They observed and predicted that hiring and keeping the best people was the biggest challenge for business. But, since 2008 and the (almost) global recession, the war seems to have been more easily fought. The balance of power shifted. Suddenly, employers had the upper hand and they had a choice of candidates who would work under pretty much any conditions.

Attracting and retaining top talents

Six years later, in 2014, the pendulum is swinging back in favour of the employee. Suddenly employers can’t find high calibre candidates quickly enough. Wages are rising and there are murmurs of discontent amongst existing staff.…

Continue reading →

Don’t Give Them All the Answers: Putting Autonomy to Work

If you’re a business leader who feels more like a schoolteacher, you’re doing something wrong.

When an employee comes to you with a question, it may seem counterproductive to tell him to figure it out on his own, but sometimes that’s the best thing a leader can do.

It might be easier and make you feel more comfortable to give them all the answers, but by allowing employees to find the answers themselves, you’re empowering them to be resourceful and learn from their mistakes, which is more beneficial in the long run.

Leader assigning responsibilities

The Benefits of Withholding Answers

Having all the answers is great, but that doesn’t mean you have to share them.…

Continue reading →

Don’t Let Pirated Software Sink Your Business

If you download pirated software from Pirate Bay or another torrent website on a computer you use in the workplace, then you’re placing your entire business network at risk. A person downloading pirated software has a one-in-three chance of encountering malware. However, the risk isn’t just in downloading the latest version of “Modern Warfare” before it comes to the U.S. Businesses that purchase refurbished computers containing pirated software have a 61-percent chance of encountering malware.

Pirate girl

Recent research released by IDC and the National University of Singapore predicts that pirated software will costs businesses approximately $491 billion in 2014. The majority of the cost, $364 billion, comes from lost data, damage repair and identity theft expenses.…

Continue reading →

5 Tax Pitfalls to Avoid This Year

Most entrepreneurs shudder at the thought of dealing with their taxes. With their eye firmly on growing their business and forging ahead the idea of meticulously tracking and recording every aspect of their business is at the very back of their minds. But if anything is going to take the wind out of a business’ sails it’s not keeping everything in order.

Business taxes

Here are five of the most common things that tend to trip up entrepreneurs. Make sure you avoid them this year.

1. Claim Your Legitimate Expenses

Make sure that you claim for every item to which you are entitled.…

Continue reading →

How Text Message Marketing Can Spike Traffic During Slow Times

Sometimes business is booming, and other times things are a little dead and it seems that attracting a crowd is something beyond impossible. Seasons change, and with them maybe your business traffic takes a dip. From landscaping companies and snow plowers to restaurants and movie theaters, there are just times of the year, month, and day that your business slows down considerably.

Text marketing

These slow time periods are definitely not desired and can put a major crunch on your cash flow. But, there are ways that you can help combat those slow times. One great way is through the use of text marketing.…

Continue reading →

Survey: Most Business Owners Remain Optimistic in California

Most California-based entrepreneurs want to invest more resources to grow their company, according to a recent survey by California Bank & Trust (CB&T). About 60 percent use social media and Web marketing to promote their business, and many business owners believe their products and services will see growing demand.

Downtown San Francisco

photo credit: Adam Kuban

Nearly 38 percent of small business owners want to conduct international sales efforts, while 53 percent want to hire new employees in 2014.

These plans reflect optimism among entrepreneurs: Over 86 percent say their business is heading in the right direction, while 63 percent expect their company’s growth rate to increase in 2014.…

Continue reading →

How Much Internet Does Your Business Need?

No matter how many apps and tools you have to help you run your business, the key to a successful business is making sure that you have enough internet for your needs. The last thing you need is to be in the middle of a video conference, or just trying to upload a send a large file to a client, and discover that your current speeds aren’t enough to handle the task. On the other hand, if all you do is occasionally access the internet and check email, you don’t want to spend a lot of money on bandwidth you don’t need.…

Continue reading →

Dear SMB Owner: Think You Don’t Need CRM Software to Maximize Sales?

This post isn’t a promotional for any single type or brand of “Customer Relationship Management” software. I just want to outline some of the benefits of using one for those of you who’re starting a business soon, or who may be on track to expand your new or established SMB in the near future.

Zoho CRM

I’m not going to recommend any specific software in this post. If you’ve tried CRM’s that are great – or ones that are garbage for that matter – please leave a comment after this article so everyone can benefit from your knowledge.

Benefits of Using a CRM for Your SMB:

Team compliance

How often do you find yourself in a situation where a team member is giving you the “I forgot excuse” when it comes to your sales or customer service process?…

Continue reading →

5 Ways Hiring a Chartered Accountant Can Improve Your Profit

Sometimes in the rush to get a small business up and running entrepreneurs overlook critical areas that vastly improve their chances of success. These oversights can be just down to focussing on the grand vision too much without considering the finer details, or it can be a desire to minimise expenditure because most small businesses aren’t flush with capital in the early days. One of the most common, and potentially damaging, is not hiring an accountant from the off.

Hiring a chartered accountant

With the amount of off-the-peg accounting software available it’s understandable that new business owners will consider running their books themselves, but very few entrepreneurs have the time to dedicate to doing a good job of the business accounting and even fewer are genuinely accounts literate.…

Continue reading →