Why Small Business CEOs Need to Keep Learning

Do you allocate a certain amount of your time each week to learning something new about your industry or niche? If not, you may need to change this situation and consider spending more time educating yourself. The world’s leading business people are always inquisitive individuals and they want to continually keep learning for the following reasons.

Learning CEO

Learning Promotes New Ways of Thinking

The more you learn, the more dynamic you become as the leader of your business. If you don’t learn new business strategies or methods from experts like the business consultant Sam Ovens, there’s a good chance you and your business will be left behind.…

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How to Advertise on Facebook Profitably for Small Businesses? (Infographic)

As a small business, you want to generate leads and sales quickly but you don’t have a hefty marketing budget set aside every year to ‘build your brand’. Traditionally, advertising has been correlated with spending large amount of money for brand awareness, especially when TV and radio are the only broadcast mediums available. With the advent of social media, we have at our disposal, a direct marketing tool for growing our business predictably without exhausting huge budget. And that is Facebook.

Facebook app

Facebook is ideal for small businesses because its granular targeting options allows you to focus your limited budget on where it matters.…

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Studies Show Businesses with More Females in Management Do Better. Here’s Why.

Not to play the gender card, statistics actually show that companies with females on their board of directors do better than those with no women. A study of Fortune 500 companies demonstrated that those with the highest number of women in management, recorded higher financial performance on the average. The study was based on three financial measures: return on equity, return on sales and return on invested capital.

Female managers

There have been a number of other studies that show a link between a balanced gender distribution in a company’s management and its profitability. These studies have been carried out in different countries, at different times, and across a variety of sectors.…

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Why Email Marketing Tools Are Costing You More Than You Think

As technology and consumer expectations evolve at dizzying rates, now is the time to reboot (or at least re-think) the way you approach your marketing. The email marketing software that may have once worked for you has become yesterday’s legacy tool for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Today’s SMBs can no longer effectively and efficiently grow the way they once did.

Email marketing tool

Here’s why:

The Price of Limited Reach

Cheap and easy. That’s how email marketing tools promote their value. Dig deeper though, and you’ll quickly find that what you don’t get from them is costing you far more than the monthly subscription fee.…

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How to Spot a Truly Exceptional Employee

In a desperate attempt to occupy my exhausted mind with more or less entertaining content a few days ago, I stumbled over an article in the Inc. Magazine that was going on and on about how to spot an exceptional employee whenever you see one. The ultimately goal was, presumably, either to reward such people for their or to lure them into an employment contract (if we are talking about candidates).

Hardworking employee

As far as I can tell, the article is not spanking new and has been published on LinkedIn more than a year ago where it earned no less than 6,333 likes, 1,073 comments and 28 shares.…

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Content Marketing SEO Strategies For Service-Based Businesses

Many service-based small businesses gain traction due to word-of-mouth referrals and community presence, but lack when it comes to content marketing for SEO. Unfortunately, small businesses are much slower to adopt marketing strategies than newer startups or corporate companies. However, small businesses need to compete to get their services to a wider audience, too. And according to several studies, the foundation is there. Most Americans would prefer smaller businesses in order to support local economy and receive more personal service. With 543,000 new small businesses sprouting each month, pressure to compete is fierce.

Content marketing

Some treat SEO and content marketing as if they’re two separate entities, but the truth is, they overlap and blend together to make a perfect pair.…

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The Importance of Worker Engagement

No doubt, you are sitting there right now scratching your head wondering what we mean by worker engagement. Do not worry because you are not alone. The term is one that has gradually fallen out of use over the years.

Happy and engaged employees

Simply put worker engagement is the way in which firms interface with their workforce. How they manage their relationship with their employees.

Sadly, the reason the term is no longer in common use is because few firms think much about worker engagement. This partly explains why the relationship many companies have with their workers is no longer healthy and mutually beneficial.…

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Why It Is Important to Use Architecture and Design to Build Your Brand

We are currently living in hyper-visual age. For modern businesses, everything from the furniture to the décor in the break room has to be aesthetically satisfying. This is because brands and their corporate environments are becoming increasingly intertwined.

Architectural design for branding

Your workspace is an extension of your brand narrative. Since social media has made it easier than ever to share this narrative, the details must be used for maximum value and exposure. While commercial architecture is a relatively new discipline, it is growing in significance for startup companies and non-traditional ventures.

This guide to the benefits of commercial architecture and design will explain why it is essential for the strength of your brand.…

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Q&A with Darren Cassidy, President of Xerox USCG, on Digitization Trends for 2017

Digitization is unavoidable.  Small business owners need to respond to the trend – or die.  However, not many are ready for the changes due to one reason or another.

Accessing digital documents

To help you in your decision making process for determining whether digitization is the way to go for your company or not, we have a great Q&A session with Darren Cassidy, the President of United States Channels Group (USCG) at Xerox, on Xerox’ latest research on the evolution of document workflow processes and business priorities in 2017.

SMBCEO: Hello – please kindly introduce yourself to our readers

Darren Cassidy: On January 1, 2016, I stepped into a new role as President, United States Channels Group (USCG) at Xerox.…

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3 Tips for Picking a Theme For Your Ecommerce Website

For an ecommerce website, there are a lot more moving pieces to worry about logistically than with just a basic website. One of these components is that of the functionality of the business-end of your site. Without properly promoting your business and allowing for products or services to be purchased, your ecommerce website really isn’t fulfilling its purpose.

Fashion ecommerce site design

So to help you ensure that your ecommerce website can do exactly what your business needs, here are three tips for picking the right theme for your website to prosper.

Choose Functionality Over Flash

Although having a good looking website is important for marketing and branding purposes, if your visitors can’t use your website for their desired purpose, the look and feel of the site is really a moot point.…

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