3 Critical Financial Steps to Starting a Local Business

3 steps to starting a successful local business Starting a business is an exhilarating time. It can also be a very stressful and busy time. As a local business owner, you often end up wearing all of the hats (CEO, Accounting, HR, Marketing, etc.) in the beginning due to lack of funding early on.

In all honestly, this isn’t such a bad thing because it’s nice to know how things work and how all the pieces fit together if you’re the one running the business. At the same time, the goal is to be able to hire experts to handle other departments at some point in the future so you can focus on building and growing the business.…

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College To Work – Building The Leader In You

preparing for job interviews after college

I was recently asked to help a college student prepare for interviewing, and it reminded me of how important it is to be well-prepared when looking for a job, especially transitioning out of college. In this blog post I provide several tips for the earliest leaders – those entering the professional workforce for the first time. This is your first shot at presenting yourself as a leader to your desired place of work.

Make your resume “pop” with accomplishments and leadership.

It’s very important to show all of your work experience that includes summer and seasonal jobs and internships. Organizations look for good work experience.…

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Lead Nurturing to Maintain Contractor Leads for Local Business

When trying to increase contractor leads for a local business, it’s important to do whatever it takes to not lose them once you get them. If you did, then your efforts would be in vain! Once you’ve already intrigued them enough to visit your site, it’s important to consider how to keep those visitors coming back over and over again. Lead nurturing will allow you to do just that.

lead nurturing tips for local businesses

As we all know, many people like to look around, consider their options, and make sure they are making the right decision before finalizing any purchase transaction. Because of this, it takes a little time to gain a new lead.…

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Why Private Companies Need to Act Like Public Companies

Here’s a good tip for all private middle market business owners looking to improve the value of their business: Act like a public company.

Why Private Companies Need to Act Like Public Companies

According to Robert Slee, author of Private Capital Markets: Valuation, Capitalization and Transfer of Private Business Interests, private companies that structure themselves and act like public companies reap tremendous advantages regardless of whether they ever become a public company:

Here’s why: When performing a market valuation of a private company for new financing or other reasons, analysts tend to use public “comps” of like public company transactions. In most cases this is the only available data in the market.…

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Is 2012 The Year You Propose A Business Offer?

things to consider when composing a business proposal

As the clock winds down on 2011, you may be considering the idea of crafting a business proposal going into the New Year. If that is the case, there are a number of matters that will come into play.

In the event that the coming year is the time for you to throw a business proposal or two out there on a regular basis, keep several factors in mind.

Among them are:

When writing a business proposal, make sure that the documentation answers any and all questions that the client may have. Before you write the proposal, run through your head any and all questions you believe the client may come at you with, including funding, customer service, and quality of work and so on.

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Five Questions To Answer Before Marketing Your Business

5 questions to answer before marketing your business Are you clueless when it comes to marketing? Lost in the sea of click-through rates, impressions, search engine bid/ask arbitrage, social media, QR codes and more? You’re not alone.

Here are a few concrete ways to develop – and evaluate – effective online marketing campaigns that can jumpstart small company business revenue without breaking the bank.

CEOs are busy, so I recommend using a checklist to focus your effort, and ensure repeatability. At a minimum, you should be able to answer the following questions before embarking on any marketing campaign:

1. What do I want this campaign to accomplish? This is the most fundamental of all questions.…

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How to Pick the Right CRM Software for Your Business

Running a business seems glamorous and exciting – you are not told what to do; you get to pick who you work with; you get to pick out the look of the office; you get paid the most money; get the best office; get to connect with powerful people. The list of exciting decisions truly never seems to stop; however there are plenty of boring and mundane decisions a business owner has to take into consideration – which HR software to choose; which email marketing software to choose; employee background check hassles, and finally, choosing customer relationship management (CRM) software.

hot to pick crm software for your business

For those who are unfamiliar, CRM software helps a company manage their interactions with customers and clients.…

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