In today’s competitive business environment, often it can be difficult for small businesses to get started. More often than not, they will need to hit the ground running to catch up with local competitors, and make a name for themselves in a very fast-paced market. Every little bit can help you get an edge on the competition, and one of the most valuable things that you can do is hire interns to boost your small business’ productivity.
Interns let you focus on running your business
One of the biggest ways in which interns can help better your business is by handling the minor tasks that would have otherwise required your attention and additional micromanagement.…
While the widespread use of the internet has inspired us to meet new people and share different types of information and ideas, it has also broadened criminal elements that can threaten your well being, as well as the security of your company and its finances. Small businesses in particular are targeted by these criminals because they usually do not have the expertise or the resources to protect themselves from these very real threats. Fortunately, there are ways that these cyber threats can be combated, each of which can be easily integrated into your regular business routine.…
Growing a small company today is not hard because the economy has improved significantly since the housing crisis. According to the US Commerce Department, the American economy grew by 2.8% in the third quarter of 2013 spurred by businesses restocking shelves as well as increased demand for new homes. For small business owners, this is a great time to expand to new markets. Here are some great tips that you can use to achieve this goal:
Employ The Right Staff
Expanding your company to a new location means that you require new employees.…
Despite dire economic situations blossoming in markets around the globe the export sector in the US is one of the few areas of growth. The other, e-commerce, has some significant links to the export industry. Perhaps the most significant development that has resulted from rapid changes in technology is the ease in which small firms can enter the arena of international trade.
In many overseas markets US products and services remain highly sought after and by accessing this demand firms can make themselves less vulnerable to down-turns at home, and also to seasonal variations in demand for their products.…
As is usually the case, the announcement of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm update prompted a collective profanity from the world’s online marketing contingency. The thought that everything already in place in an SEO sense could be reduced to ashes in the space of a day or two is indeed enough to drive any professional to distraction.
And when you consider that this is the biggest change to Google in the history of history, you can pretty much understand the blind panic it triggered.…
Shortly after its inception, the cloud was the recipient of major dismissal by the critics as they termed it as a technology which would not last, a fad. However, the cloud soon proved the skeptics wrong and emerged as a revolutionary change of how IT is done nowadays.
The cloud was able to achieve the game changing status with its economical solutions and managing IT issues for the organizations completely, thus relieving them so they can focus on their core business.…
A large part of success in business is about being able to think ahead and anticipate what’s around the corner. The companies that are best able to think ahead are the ones that will spot opportunities before other people and be able to capitalise on them, and they’re the people who will stay one step ahead in terms of their tools and their methodologies.
But perhaps the most important way that a business should think ahead, is by thinking about potential disasters and pitfalls so that they can avoid being caught out by any unwanted surprises.…
With mobile devices being so ubiquitous these days, shoowrooming–the consumer practice of price-checking on their phones or viewing products in-store only to purchase them online–is more prevalent than ever. According to a survey by Vibes, 44% of consumers say that “they frequently use their smartphone in-store to comparison shop/buy from a competitor.”
As a result, some retailers have resorted to slashing their prices to match whatever’s the lowest price online. This isn’t an ideal strategy, though, because it would likely kill your profits and attract not-so-loyal customers.…
We’ve already talked before about basic things you can do to save money in your household living budget (here for example). So now let’s cover a similar idea that you can also apply to your business while at the same time doing your bit to save the environment.
The following are several very easy to implement and low cost green office tips that you can start practicing right now.
1. Go Paperless (Or get as close as you can)
Creating a paperless office is not only an excellent green solution for nearly any business, it’s also a great money saver, and especially with the kinds of low technologies now available to just about anybody.…
Marketing is a sneaky business. It involves tapping into people’s primal urges and making them want products or services that they don’t need. It’s manipulative. But it’s also clever. We look at five marketing tricks that we know shouldn’t work, yet they always do.
1. Scarcity
This really taps into two basic needs: our need for something we can’t have – if something is scarce there is the chance that we might not be able to get it; and our need to belong to the elite – if only a limited number of special editions are available, then how super awesome are we that we got one (or two or three)?…
