20 Work-life Balance Hacks for Small Business Owners

December 3, 2013

20 work life hacks for small business owners
Work-life balance is not something that is on top of mind for many entrepreneurs and small business owners. After all, when you have customers expecting immediate response, employees asking for help, vendors waiting for payments, all at the same time how can you even think about taking time off from work. Life can wait until you have established your business. Once you have put the business on the right path you can go back to enjoying the life, right? Wrong. Let’s face it. When you are running a small business will there ever be time when you will not need to take care of this?

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Filed Under: Management Tagged With: , ,

How to Grow Your Business with eCommerce

December 3, 2013

How to grow your business with ecommerce
Small business owners are missing out on significant sales opportunity if you do not have ecommerce presence. Online sales continue to grow at double digit rate and are expected to do so for many years to come. Amazon and eBay reported solid online sales for the Black Friday last week. More and more customers are now comfortable buying online, which is why every retailer in the world is trying to set up online presence.

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Filed Under: Strategy, Technology Tagged With: ,

How to Pick Conflict Resolution Style to Your Advantage

December 2, 2013

How to Use Your Conflict Style Strategically to Gain Results
When you sense a conflict brewing in the business situation what do you do? Do you put your head down and focus on your own work to stay out of it? Do you play peacekeeper and attempt to help everyone just get along? Or do you add fuel to the fire?

According to the leading theories of conflict, there are five major “conflict styles,” or approaches we take to handling disagreements. Everyone uses one of these styles at one point or another, but most of us tend to stick to one or two styles in most situations. The style you are most comfortable with and use majority of time can have a big impact on the outcome. It can help you arrive at a solution to your advantage or make you suffer with unfavorable outcome. It is crucial to understand what style you are most comfortable with and develop alternate styles so you can respond appropriately in a given situation.

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Filed Under: Management Tagged With:

How to Navigate Small Business during Financial Crisis

December 2, 2013

How to navigate during crisis
Warning to all budding entrepreneurs!! Almost 75% of small businesses fail during their first year. This number goes even higher during financial or environmental crisis. During Great Recession of 2008-2009 number of businesses, large and small, failed because they were not in the best position to manage during the time of crisis. They either did not have sufficient financial cushion or failed to generate enough sales to meet their expenses. The key to succeed in the crisis is to prepare for it ahead of time and take decisive actions once the crisis does hit. This is the time not to panic, and you will not, if you have planned ahead. If you do run into financial turbulence here are 3 important steps you can take to navigate through the crisis.

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Safety First! How to Safeguard Your Building against Fire

December 1, 2013

Fire Safety
Fire safety is usually not on top of mind for many business owners. After all, they have business to run and fire safety does not help them improve their sales or customer service. Most business owners probably include fire safety equipments as part of building construction and pretty much forget about it as they go about running their daily business. There is nothing wrong with focusing on your business first, however it should not be done at the expense of safety of your employees and yourself. There is a good reason why fire safety is taught to us from a very young age.

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Filed Under: Management Tagged With: ,

5 Must Have Project Management Skills for Every Business Leader

November 30, 2013

5 must have project management skills
Project management is a must have skill for small business owners as well as managers and executives of large companies. Anyone can dream up new projects without much effort. Only those who can execute those projects stand to succeed in their endeavor. History is rife with examples of projects, large and small, that have either failed or overrun their time and budget because they were not managed well. The managers in charge of these projects did not possess and exhibit necessary skills required to take them to the finish line.

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Do Coupons Still Bring Customers for Small Businesses?

November 27, 2013

Do Coupons Still Bring Customers for Small Businesses
Coupons are dead! Long live the coupons! Some people have argued for some time that coupons have gone out of fashion with today’s customers. No one has time to clip coupons anymore. With the advent of internet and Smartphone customers can just pop up digital discounts at the time of purchase rather than looking for and clipping coupons before hitting the mall. The arrival of Groupon and LivingSocial, where customers can buy great deals (sometimes as much as 50-60% off the price) has dented  the use of coupons.

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Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With:

Can Bundling Save Money for Small Business Customers?

November 26, 2013

Can Bundling Save Money for Small Business Customers
Bundling products and services is a time honored technique used by businesses of all types. Walk into a McDonald’s and you will see bundling in the form of Value Meal where you can buy burger, fries and drink for the price that is lower than if they were bought separately. When you book your vacation package that includes airfare, hotel and car rental for one low price you are buying a bundle. In customers’ mind bundling saves them money by paying less than what they would have to pay otherwise. Businesses also benefit from bundling because they are able to sell more even if they sell at a discount. It appears that bundling is a win-win for both customers and businesses.

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How can Direct Marketing Help you Improve Sales

November 25, 2013

How can Direct Marketing Help you Improve Sales
In this internet age when all customer interactions are moving online and businesses can always stay in contact with customers some wonder if there is any value left in direct marketing. Direct marketing was popular before the arrival of internet when customers used to get number of mailings every day in the form of postcards, catalogs, and personal letters. However, the volume of such mailings has recently gone down. Even postal service is feeling the impact of this reduction posting huge losses for several years. While there is no denying that internet has made it easier to interact with customers using Smartphone and other electronic devices direct marketing can still provide value to business owners if it is done right. Customers still love to see their name on emails and printed postcards. Before we go into the benefits of direct marketing let’s answer the question –what is direct marketing?

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Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: ,

How to Choose the Best Option to Train Employees in Small Business

November 25, 2013

How to Choose the Best Option to Train Employees in Small Business
Many small business owners treat training as something that should be avoided unless it was absolutely mandated by law. They consider it a necessary evil that just wastes their time and money. After all, who has time to train their employees when there are thousands of tasks to take care of. Many of them also work on tight budget, which limits the amount of money they can spend on “unnecessary” expenses such as training. This myopic thinking on training is wrong. By not providing training to their employees small business owners limit the potential of their employees and the contribution they can make to grow your business.

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Filed Under: Employees Tagged With: