Business Posts

As you wrap up the year, it’s the perfect time to celebrate your wins and learn from the challenges your business has faced. By setting empowering resolutions now, you can position your organization for greater success in the coming year. Here’s a simp …

As the year draws to a close, it’s crucial to take stock of your business’s strengths and prepare for the challenges ahead. Resilience isn’t just about weathering the storm but thriving amid change. This year-end checklist will help you build a resilie …

Sales are the lifeblood of your business. Despite news of a strong economy, many companies are grappling with declining sales. You’re not alone if you ask, “Why are my sales down?”. It’s time to stop worrying and start diagnosing. This article will gui …

How do you create a business plan? As a business owner or entrepreneur, knowing how to create a business plan is essential for success. A solid business plan serves as a roadmap for your venture and helps attract investors and secure funding. Unfortuna …

Whether you run a small startup or a large corporation, your business probably needs diverse support services such as administrative assistance, marketing support, and call management. In this article, we’ll show you how virtual teams can meet these ne …

Starting and managing a business is an adventure full of exciting opportunities and challenges. However, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that about 20% of new businesses fail within the first two years, 45% within the first five years, and …

Starting a business can be an exhilarating yet daunting endeavor. As a business owner, setting goals to grow and succeed is essential. Goal setting requires thought, planning, and organization; however, when you are just starting out, this process can …

The customer journey is a map of all interactions a customer has with your brand, including using your website, talking to your staff, and receiving the products or services they ordered. Customer experience refers to a customer’s overall perception of …

This is the second half of our two-part series on developing a brand. Part 1 of this series covered the steps involved in developing a brand, as well as its components and best practices. Read part 1 of this series here if you missed it. Now that we ha …

There are over 500,000 brands worldwide, covering more than 2,000 product categories. So how do you create a brand that is unique to you? How do you build a successful brand that sets you apart? A brand that positively impacts the lives of those who ex …

When you are a business owner, you are responsible for overseeing every part of your operation. While the workload can be overwhelming at times, one of the keys to business success is simply staying organized. Use this weekly check list to analyze your …

Brands employ affiliate marketing programs to gain exposure, awareness, and revenue. They use this performance-driven tool to connect with influencers, paying only when the consumer follows through on the desired action, typically a sale. Affiliate mar …

You are well into a marketing campaign. Your team is frantically writing content and posting it on social channels, and you’ve even taken out a few ads. All hands are on deck, chasing after the latest hot marketing trend. However, you don’t see results …

What is a Marketing Campaign? Every successful marketing campaign has one thing in common – extensive planning. Just as your marketing strategy and plan require detailed planning and documentation, so does each marketing campaign. Before we dive into t …

In the current marketing landscape, many executives and professionals seek to establish their influence on social media. Why? According to Global WebIndex, 57.6% of the world’s population uses social media and the average daily usage is 2 hours and 27 …

Throughout 2021, our virtual marketing assistants helped businesses and organizations adapt their SEO strategies to over a dozen updates that Google rolled out throughout the year. Two of these updates, MUM and Page Experience/Core Web Vitals, are expe …

When we think of online search, most of us reflexively think of Google, and when we think of online advertising, we automatically think of Google Ads. But have you considered Microsoft Ads? It might surprise you to find out that when it comes to flexib …

Online learning and training have become not just a critical marketing channel for executives and professionals, but another avenue for generating revenue that compliments core service offerings. The e-learning market is expected to exceed $300 billion …

The best PowerPoint presentations shouldn’t be remembered. Instead, they should fall into the background to support you and the message you’re trying to get across. What does stand out is a bad PowerPoint presentation. Whether it’s too many lines of te …

With more people working remotely, either temporarily or for the long-term, more businesses are considering outsourcing operations and bringing on a virtual assistant. When exploring options, most businesses are immediately confronted with the question …

In an increasingly digital world, one way to distinguish yourself is refreshingly old-school:  publishing your own book.  A book is an instant reputation-builder:  It conveys expertise in a subject matter, provides a platform for your ideas, and serves …

From a business perspective, coronavirus has rendered the future almost impossible to predict.  The plan was that shutdowns in March would be followed by a gradual relaxation of restrictions and the ramp up of businesses.  It hasn’t turned out that way …

It all started on May 4, 2020, and according to Google, its new Core Update completed about two weeks later. Shortly thereafter businesses began raising concerns over this so-called “pandemic update” and how it impacted their customers’ ability to find …

The lending process involved in getting a small business loan can often be frustrating and complicated for those who aren’t experienced in the realm of finances. The stress associated with finding a small business loan is particularly acute in light of …

Coronavirus has turned many people into telecommuters.  Adapting to working from home, however, isn’t easy, particularly if you have a spouse who is also working from home and children who are transitioning to a remote learning environment. Everybody w …

Dreams of founding the next multi-million dollar company have gripped the imagination of entrepreneurs around the world. However, building a profitable business from the ground up requires much more than a good idea, catchy name, and some sweat eq …

Whether you are an established business advertising a new service or product, or a startup that has yet to go live, developing a pre-launch marketing strategy can help effectively spread the word and draw in new customers. But why is pre-launch marketi …

Video, video, video. Wherever you look on the internet, the message is the same. Video is where it’s at in 2019. And that’s true — to an extent. Though video may have killed the radio star, podcasting has brought audio-only content back with a vengean …

Artificial Intelligence (or AI) is a buzzword that gets thrown around in many different fields. Marketing and advertising are two of the latest to be innovated with new AI technology, and much of it is reshaping the way marketers examine and reach ever …

It’s no surprise that coworking spaces are on the rise. With high-speed wifi, free coffee, cleaning and more taken care of for one monthly rate, more and more businesses are recognizing the benefits and joining spaces in every city across the globe. Co …

Recruiting quality employees is a big win, bigger still is retaining them for the long haul. Studies have shown that a significant number of employees put a high importance on being respected, and having their voices heard. Updating your performance ma …

As a small business owner or entrepreneur in 2018, you understand that we live in a different world than what existed thirty years ago. Large corporations and startups are offering their employees innovative (but costly) perks to attract employees. In …

Staying relevant in today’s market is a tough job for any employer, and now that employees are being offered flexible and remote work options, gym memberships, snack machines and yoga classes on-site, how do small business owners keep up? How can you a …

Stress management is probably one of the most important yet least discussed topics of being a small business owner. It often feels like stress is an unavoidable part of being an entrepreneur. If business is booming, you experience stress taking orders, …

There are few rewards to be reaped without taking risks, and building a startup or small business is no different. Starting a small business is scary, nerve-wracking, and uncertain. While being an entrepreneur is never a cakewalk, it gets easier once y …

Work-life balance is a hot topic these days. Many working individuals claim it is one of their highest motivating factors for choosing a profession or a company to work for; other hard working professionals claim it is a myth and we shouldn’t be adding …

Small businesses do not have the same resources to invest in technology as large enterprises. Often, there are higher priorities for spending resources than upgrading legacy accounting systems or deploying state-of-the-art servers to host your data. So …

One of the most challenging hurdles for many small businesses and startups is increasing visibility and getting found by new customers. Being present and prolific on social media is a smart placeto start, but won’t necessarily guarantee potential clien …

Moms—whether they are stay-at-home parents, self-employed, business owners, or corporate executives—are entrepreneurs by nature. From chef to chauffer and storyteller to nurse, moms must wear many hats and fill many roles on a daily basis. Mompreneurs, …

Even though entrepreneurs and small business owners are their own bosses, the jobs rarely come without their fair share of stress and hard work. As any startup or small business owner can tell you, working hard, staying motivated, and succeeding in you …

In the 2008 film “Yes Man,” Jim Carrey’s character finds himself withdrawn and cynical after a recent divorce. Eventually, he is convinced to attend a motivational seminar where he agrees to seize every opportunity presented to him by responding with “ …

Conventional lines of thought often declare that the best entrepreneurs are highly extroverted, social people. Not all successful entrepreneurs, however, are big and commanding personalities. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs are, in fact, introverts …

Just about every employer wants workers who take initiative, responsibility, and can do their job without constant supervision. Very few employers, however, actually employ workforces where these types of workers predominate. What is the cause of the d …

Over the past several years, coworking spaces have exploded in popularity, peppering cities like New York, Detroit, London, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Berlin, Cleveland, and more. Their increasing popularity is due to their ability to help people save m …

We’ve all heard the saying, “I survived another meeting that should have been an email.” While not all meetings are unnecessary, many of them suck up participants‘ time that could have been better spent elsewhere. In particular, as organizations increa …

We all have hacks or shortcuts we use to make our lives easier, both professionally and personally. Quickly looking for a quality olive oil to include in a dinner you’re planning on cooking to impress your mother-in-law? You grab the expensive stuff. L …

You have a presentation to give at work tomorrow morning, an important meeting to set up with a client at the end of the week, and your son needs help building a diorama for his Monday science class on top of a number of other deadlines you have to jug …

While cooking offers opportunities for experimentation and leeway for correcting slightly disappointing dishes, (Chili too watery? Add a teaspoon of flour. Chicken slightly undercooked? Throw it back on the grill for a few minutes.) baking requires str …

Every episode of a police procedural features a scene in which detectives look into an interrogation room at a suspect through a one-way mirror. The suspect knows that he is being watched, but he can’t see what the police are doing. The one-way mirror …

What is your business’ value proposition? Why do your customers buy what you sell? What can your clients get from your business that they can get nowhere else? These seemingly simple questions are devilishly hard to answer and, as your business grows, …

“Only connect.”– E.M. Forster, Howard’s End We live in the most connected of times and yet our ability to communicate meaningful ideas seems to be at an all-time low. Nowhere is this truer than the workplace. There exist a plethora of media to communi …

Do you ever get that sinking feeling when you open your email application on Monday morning after a weekend away from your computer, or when you return after an extended vacation? There’s nothing that causes such a strong desire to trash your laptop an …

“Management” – a word often used and a skill rarely taught. In so many organizations, management positions are doled out to those that perform well in their company or department’s specialty. A sales team is led by the best salesman, a litigation depar …

Ugh, another business trip. Waking up before dawn to go to the airport, squeezing into a coach seat, running into a business meeting, going back to the hotel, grabbing a quick bite of bad food, working until midnight to prepare for the next day’s meeti …

Paul Ryan, recently elected Speaker of the House, unexpectedly turned media attention to the issue of balancing work and family life. Reluctant to take the post due to the fundraising and travel time associated with the position, Ryan insisted on being …

We already know this much about this year’s World Series champion – it will be an underdog. The American League Championship Series features the Toronto Blue Jays, whose appearance in the post-season ended a 20+ year drought, and the Kansas City Royals …

Technology does not impact our lives immediately, but in stages. The internal combustion engine-powered automobile was invented in the late 19th Century, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the proliferation of automobile ownership resulted in droves of …

By now it is commonly known that people learn and understand information in different ways. Many people identify with the “visual learner” category (including this author) and according to research 65% of the population are visual learners. Fortunately …

Anybody that has participated in job interviews, either as the interviewer or the interviewee, knows that they are of limited utility. From the perspective of the interviewer, job interviews can certainly raise red flags that warn you off hiring somebo …

Much has been written about the benefits of telecommuting for both employers and employees. Allowing employees to work remotely helps recruit and retain top talent, increases productivity for those that work better alone, and helps efforts to combat gl …

Old habits die hard. While we live in the Internet Age, many businesses continue to operate as they did in past decades. Employees commute into work, handouts are distributed at meetings in a conference room, workstations are installed with software an …

Here in San Francisco, Earth Day comes at a particularly sensitive time. California is enduring a multi-year drought and the typical winter rainy season has brought virtually no snow to the Sierras or water to reservoirs. The state is drafting water re …

It’s a great job market out there in many industries, particularly the tech industry, and with that comes the fierce race to attract and retain employees with competitive benefits packages and perks. Not since the dot com era have we seen companies off …

Technology is finally dragging the legal world into the 21st Century. Despite some courts’ continued insistence on receiving paper, you can e-file most of your briefs. Slowly, a jurisprudence of electronic discovery is starting to solidify through amen …

Your friends had told you about the restaurant. “Try the pan-seared, macadamia-encrusted tuna,” they said. “It’s to die for.” Well, it looks like you may die before ever tasting that tuna. You and your date have just ordered two more glasses of white w …

Fred Snodgrass was a success. He was born in Ventura, California in 1887 and attended college in Los Angeles. He became a successful banker and served for three terms on the city council for Oxnard, California, then served as mayor for a little less th …

When we think of disasters that could interrupt the day-to-day function of business, earthquakes, floods, pandemics and cyber attacks commonly come to mind. However there is one business risk that is often overlooked, the Zombie Apocalypse. The risk th …

Imagine that you are Director of Human Resources at a small cupcake baking company, Volcano Cupcakes. The company specializes in molten cupcakes – flourless cupcakes that have a reservoir of molten chocolate inside along with a rich topping of icing. Y …

The ugly necktie. The stereotype of awful Father’s Day gifts. In this case, the stereotype contains a hidden truth: it’s really hard to buy gifts for men with children. Sure, there’s the odd piece of electronics and I suppose some fathers who are actua …

I’m going to let my dork flag fly. I have been waiting for this weekend to come for months now. As the date gets closer, I hear the theme music in my head, increasing in urgency and volume. I troll the internet searching for newly released trailers lik …

More than ever before, baseball and business are intertwined, and fans are acutely aware of the economics of the game. They debate the merits of locking up a young player with a long-term contract, worry about whether the unbundling of cable subscripti …

You had a great idea, you took the leap, and now you’re ready to start your own business. The prospect of starting a business from scratch can be both exciting and overwhelming. Take a deep breath, get organized, and relax –there are lots of great tool …