Love, Marriage and Future Business Partner?

Marriage is a partnership that needs solid boundaries in order to succeed. The same goes for a business. It is a partnership, but in a different context. Before starting a business with your spouse, consider asking each other some very important questions. What value do you see in this endeavor? What is more important; your marriage or this business? Read more here from Lolly Daskal, a leadership coach and CEO from Lead from Within. She has great tips on what to do before you jump into a business venture with your spouse. … [Read more...]

10 Easy Solutions to Business Writing Problems

Never underestimate the importance of good writing. Especially in the world of digital business, it is often your only “voice.” If your first email to a potential customer is dull, confusing, and riddled with grammatical errors, you will likely lose the customer. If a memo to employees is unclear, you may end up with confused workers and incorrectly done work. 10 Easy Solutions to Business Writing Problems out of Entrepreneur Magazine gives some simple tips, tricks, and troubleshooting solutions to help you in your writing. I’ve given you the top three here: Use strong verbs- weak verbs make writing look dull Avoid pretentious or confusing words- keep the words short and … [Read more...]

4 Questions to Ask Before Taking the Entrepreneurial Plunge

According to Bloomberg, 80% of new businesses fail. This is certainly something to ponder.  You need to know if you’re prepared for what you’re getting into before you considering jumping off as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur magazine suggests you ask yourself these four essential questions so you can set yourself up for success: Are you comfortable with absolutely zero structure? Entrepreneurship is chaotic! Do you have financial stability? It can take a long time for your new business to start making you money. Are you entering new territory? Don’t get in over your head! Start in a field in which you’re familiar. Do you change jobs every two … [Read more...]

The Top 10 Benefits of Social Media Marketing

There’s no doubt about it, social media marketing is a key part of business success. As a small business owner, you are probably already aware of how important it is, but might not know how to best utilize it. Being great at social media marketing is essential to making your business a success! If you want to learn all about the hows and whys of tapping into this huge marketing platform, check out this super useful article from Small Biz Ahead: The Top 10 Benefits of Social Media Marketing These are three of my favorites: Improved brand loyalty More involvement in social media outlets equals more brand loyalty from your customers. Decreased marketing costs Spending … [Read more...]

How to Create Your First Marketing Plan

Starting up a business is a big challenge.  You can easily get wrapped up in the day-to-day frenzy.  Don’t forget, long-term success requires a long-term plan. How do you make sure you’re staying focused on long-term goals, as well as short-term work? First step, create a marketing plan. This great article from Business Owner's Playbook gives you a roadmap to follow as you take this important step in your journey to small business success: How to Create Your First Marketing Plan   … [Read more...]

Mobile Apps That Can Help You Be A Better Business Owner

As the owner of a company, you know how important (and challenging!) it is to keep up with the daily merry-go-round of running a business: overseeing projects, managing budgets, and communicating with employees. Often you find yourself having to do all this while on the go, so what better way to organize and streamline the process than with a mobile app? Here’s an excellent article from Entrepreneur Magazine with some great app suggestions! These 8 Mobile Apps Multiply How Much You Can Get Done Every Day   … [Read more...]

Beyond Banks: Alternative Funding for Startups

Recently, I read the article “Beyond Banks: Alternative Funding for Startups” in the Business Owner's Playbook. I love this piece! It is a valuable resource and primer on source financing when banks are not the way to go. If you’re looking to start a new business or expand the small business you already own, read this, then read it again, then bookmark it for future reference! Here are just a few alternative funding options covered by the article: Crowdfunding: raising small amounts of startup money from a very large number of people (the “crowd”) Peer-to-Peer Lending: (a.k.a. P2P) borrowing money from unrelated individuals (“peers”) without having to go through a … [Read more...]

3 Steps to Happier Customers

As a small business owner, you already know that keeping your customers happy is key to your success. The thing is, it’s not always straightforward how to do this, and can get confusing and frustrating. It can be particularly tricky when you own a digital company because there are few face-to-face interactions. So what do you do? There’s a great article in Entrepreneur Magazine that outlines 3 steps to happier customers. Don’t just be friendly, be a friend. There’s nothing worse than a stiff, “reading off the script” tone when it comes to customer service responses. Have a personality and keep it light. Think about how you’d approach helping a friend, and apply that to how you … [Read more...]