7 (Not so) Secret Ways to Save on Electric Bills for Small Business

7 secret ways to save on eletric bills for small business
Many small business owners consider the cost of electricity as fixed and do not pay much attention to it. They receive a monthly bill in the mail, make a payment and move on with their daily business. For some, even if they want to do something about it, they feel helpless thinking that they do not have many options to save on electricity, other than to cut the usage.

While this may have been true in the past, many options have opened up recently that can help small business owners save money on their electric bills. Some of the options are driven by the elimination of monopoly and rise of competitors. Companies such as commercial electricity suppliers British Gas have been very proactive in helping business owners with ideas and presenting them with alternatives that can be tailored for specific situations.

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Impact of Mobile Credit Card Processing on Small Business

Impact of mobile credit card processing on small business
Mobile credit card processing is all the rage these days. It is one of the hottest topics of discussion for small business owners, and for the right reason. After a long time traditional credit card processors, such as Visa and Master Card, have found their business model undergoing dramatic change. Many companies have introduced mobile credit card processors aimed at helping small business owners. Small businesses have plenty of choices to satisfy the growing demand for mobile credit card processing services, which can make choosing the best mobile credit card processing company a daunting task.

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Best Practices in Small Business Website Design

Best practices in small business website design
Most website visitors take two-tenths of a second to decide whether they are going to stay on the website or not. This is a very narrow window of opportunity for small business owners to impress visitors and encourage a sale, which is why the design of a business website is very important. Pop Creative, a Miami web design company, encourages following best practices that will help your business website stand out amidst thousands of others just like yours.

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How Small Businesses can Meet Emergency Cash Needs

How small businesses can meet emergency cash needs
For small business owners, cash flow is equivalent to blood flow. When it is flowing well without hiccups the system (business) works just fine. You spend cash buying inventory, leasing equipment, making repairs or doing anything else that will help produce goods and services that you can sell to customers and receive cash in return. This cash can then be deployed again for the abovementioned purpose and the cycle continues. Hopefully, you are receiving more cash than spending it, resulting in positive cash flow.

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Small Business Dilemma – How to Select Job Applicants for Interview

How to select job applicants for interview
So you’ve put out a job advert and ended up with a pile of CVs on your desk. Great, but now you face the daunting task of whittling down the candidates to three or four to call in for an interview.

A standard CV is maximum two pages long and only provides an outline of the candidate’s skills, experience and qualifications. Although this is useful when you have a lot to get through, it also makes it difficult to gauge person’s ability, personality and suitability for the role. So how do you decide who to invite for a job interview?

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3 Must Read Financial Tips for New Business Owners

Financial tips for new business owners
It is said that more than 60% of new businesses fail within 2 years of operation. Majority of these businesses fail because they run into financial trouble – they cannot generate sufficient cash flow to keep with the expenses, they have not saved enough to survive the first year when revenue are still being generated or they simply go on a spending binge and run out of cash in a short time. While you can always seek investors or business loans to get funding in the initial stage of your business, those who have done it will tell you that it is not as easy as it sounds. Successful entrepreneurs and business owners know that having a financial savvy, especially for new business owners, is one of the most important requirements to succeed at business. So, here are the 3 most important tips to keep in mind as you are working on building the next Starbucks or Google.

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Is Social Media Use Killing Productivity at Small Businesses?

Is social media killing productivity at work
Social media access at work can be a great way to break up the day for employees. In a pressure-driven environment a little Facebook or Twitter distraction can be a quick, free and easy escape from intense routine that some employees experience in their daily 9-to-5 roles.

However, social media can also end up as a significant company expense, costing significant amount in lost productivity. The average staff member can spend up to 12% of a given day on social media sites when they should be doing what they’re paid to do.

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How Social Media Changes Everything You Know about Marketing

How Social Media Changes Everything You Know about Marketing
The times when the Internet was just a haunt for geeks are over. It’s not even a novelty that in today’s world, everything is now online. The World Wide Web is now such an essential and integral part of our world that if the Internet ceased to exist tomorrow, the economy would be brought to a standstill.  However, what is (relatively) new is that people are no longer limiting themselves to just passively reading and searching the web. Nowadays, anyone can actively contribute to the Internet and almost everyone does: Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Google Plus – these are just the most obvious examples. Online, the possibilities are endless and if you want your business to stand out in today’s market, you simply can’t ignore this trend.

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How to Sell Excess Inventory Quickly without Marking it Down

How to sell excess inventory without marking it down
Every business finds a need to get rid of excess inventory quickly at some point. You may end up with excess inventory for number of reasons. Clothing retailers need to sell remaining winter jackets at the end of winter. You may misjudge consumer preference and buy too much of pink trousers that are no longer trendy. You might even find a need to free up some cash and one way to do it is to sell excess inventory.

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How Professional Signage can Benefit Small Businesses

How can professional signs benefit small business
These days you are bound to encounter signs advertising products or business no matter where you go. They have taken over the shops, roads, clothing and even toilets. Some people even had crazy idea of putting tattoos on their body advertising a product and getting paid for it. While the last one may be extreme there is no argument that your business sign is one of the most important marketing elements that needs careful attention and planning.

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