How to Use Charity to Develop Your Brand

Americans are the most charitable people in the world. Private philanthropy in the US has the size of around 1.4% of the country’s GDP, which is almost twice as much as the next most charitable country in the world, Canada. 67% of American households donate an average of 4% of their incomes to charity.

With 71% of total charitable donations, individuals are the biggest charity donors in the country. That is surprising for many reasons, including the fact that charitable giving can come with significant benefits to businesses. If you are a business owner, a CEO, or someone in charge of the development of a brand, here’s how you can leverage charitable activities to further develop your brand.…

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How Do We Adopt ITIL Outside IT?

“Can you adopt ITIL outside of IT” was the first question when I interviewed for a service desk job 4 years ago. “No, ITIL is specifically designed for IT”, was my innocent answer back then. It sounded like a crazy idea, then, when I didn’t have a clear understanding of how businesses run.

ITIL

My bookish knowledge told me that ITIL was meant only for IT, and other departments probably had their own best practice framework.

How very wrong I was…

I failed to see the similarity between an IT Team and other support functions that provide services to employees. I’ve since learned, the nature of work they do might differ, but the relationship with internal customers is the same.…

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4 Steps To Supercharge Your Business Focus

Sometimes the best thing that you can do for your business is learning how to focus. Focus on the little things that matter.

Focus on your broader picture in context. Focus on your target audience. Focus on your budget. All of these things can be made better by analytically figuring out what parts are the most important, and then aiming your business trajectory squarely in the middle.

Discussing business focus

A few examples of things that you can do to supercharge your business focus, regardless of industry, is to get into growth hacking, pay close attention to your budget, narrow down your target audience as tightly as possible, and use specific corporate strategies to gain industry leverage.…

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4 Ways to Transform Your Small Retail Space to Increase Footfall & Sales

A small retail space is an ideal choice for budget-constrained business owners as they don’t require a significant investment. However, making the most out of the area can be challenging, from making checkout convenient for shoppers to having enough ample space for your items.

Surfboard store owner

The good news is, with some creative hacks, you can make your small retail space look bigger and create unique experiences for the visitors. Below are some ideas.

1. Consider Tablet-Equipped POS

Retail store owners can replace bulky checkout stations with tablet-based POS (point-of-sale) systems to maximize floor space. Freeing up space means shoppers have more inventory to look at, and you have a more significant area to showcase that inventory.…

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What Does Web Application Penetration Mean

Web Application Penetration Testing is the procedure which uses penetration testing methods on a web app to find vulnerabilities. The process uses either manual or automated tests to spot any vulnerability, security issues, or threats to web applications. Using any of the known malicious attacks, the tester mimics attacks from the attacker’s point of view — such as using SQL injection testing.

Web application penetration testing

The main result identifies security weaknesses across the entire app and components, including source code and back-end network. The testing assists in prioritizing known vulnerabilities and threats, as well as searches for a way to mitigate gaps in security.…

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Lawsuits For or Against You and Your Business

Even though you would probably prefer that your business never gets involved in any lawsuit, there are lots of different instances where it can happen. Sometimes they’re your fault. Sometimes they are not. But, at least having a basic set of information about what lawsuits mean coming from you or going away from you as a business entity makes sense on a practical level.

Small business lawsuits

You need to know about lawsuits on defense and offense. You need to understand how to legally protect your money and assets in the event of issues. And it’s not a bad idea to do a risk assessment if you might end up losing more money than you gain even if your lawsuit is successful.…

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FHA Loans for Small Business Owners

When you own a small business, the phrase “home sweet home” can also mean “business sweet business” as everything overlaps. If you have a home-based business or have money tied up in developing your startup, it can be challenging to get a mortgage.

FHA loans for small business

For small business owners, a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan is an alternative option to conventional mortgage plans. Those who don’t qualify for a mortgage may qualify for an fha loan. Here’s what you need to know about this option to determine if it’s the path for you as a small business owner.

What is an FHA Loan?

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Incentives and Workplace Strategies to Motivate Your Staff

The average employee spends more time in the office than they do sleeping or enjoying time with their friends and family. When they spend that much time in the workplace, it is only natural that it is going to impact their mood and willingness to perform efficiently. As a productive worker is the biggest asset you can have as a business owner, finding ways to keep them motivated is a must.

Highly motivated employees

There are plenty of tried and true methods to draw inspiration from, however, these listed below seem to result in the best outcome.

Comfortable Office Setting

The space provided to your employees to work plays a major role in their ability to be productive.…

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Top 5 Payment Methods One Can Use For Buying Traffic

Traffic providing to the website has become a serious business. A mix of paid and organic traffic is required for promoting the website to achieve the desired results. Page views buying is a common phenomenon followed by the content driven web properties to attract the customers in large numbers. Too many people looking at the same poster is one of the drivers that encourage any random passer-by to stop and take a look at the poster, the same principle is applied to make any concept a success in the online world too.

Buying traffic

Traffic buying, therefore, is a marketing approach that helps businesses make impression (a positive one, obviously!)…

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Does a Virtual Office Address Help Your Branding?

A Virtual Address definitely helps you to improve your branding efforts. The toughest part of running a lean SME is that you just can’t budget for an office in a prestigious area of the city. Also, when a business does have a great office location and it comes time to expand into new areas; lease expenses, among other things can become a huge hurdle.

Financial district in London UK

The big issue with leasing costs overall, is that money is robbed from other critical areas of the business that are most hungry for cash, like marketing and recruiting. I haven’t even mentioned the need for office equipment, furniture, utilities and maintenance yet.…

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