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5 Ways You Are Wasting Your Time – and How to Stop

If you are like many small-business owners, “busy” doesn’t even begin to describe your typical day. It seems like you are always on the go, with a never-ending to-do list and never enough time to do it all.

Bored staff in a boring meeting

But have you ever stopped to consider how you are actually spending your time? How much of each day do you spend actually doing things that help grow your business? How often do you climb into bed exhausted, lamenting the fact that you didn’t get nearly as much accomplished as you had hoped? If that sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. According to one survey, small-business owners cumulatively waste more than 4 billion hours every year on tasks that aren’t vital to business growth, such as administrative and supervisory tasks.…

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The Need for Data Protection in an Increasingly Paperless World

While we are undoubtedly fortunate to live in technologically advanced times, this also brings challenges in terms of online security and safety. To understand these further, we need only look at the publication of recent data breaches involving the Office of Personnel Management and the Internal Revenue Service, which highlighted exactly how vulnerable organisations become when they share data either externally or internally.

Data protection

For firms that are required to share or store data, it is therefore imperative that there is a clear focus on creating secure, online network.

How to Prevent Data Loss and Secure your network in 3 easy steps

With this in mind, what practical steps can be taken to safeguard your network and prevent data loss?…

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Loan or Line of Credit? 7 Key Differences you Need to Know

There are several key differences between a loan and a line of credit (LOC). Differences you need to go before putting yourself at the mercy of a bank loan manager or outside lender.

Business loans

1. A loan is a one time deal

Once a loan is paid off, you have to reapply again if you need a cash-infusion in the future. A line of credit is always there to be drawn upon as needed, provided you keep it in good standing.

2. Loans are largely based on needs

When you need cash, you head to the bank or other creditor and apply.…

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Lights, Camera, Action: Set Up a Home Video Studio on a Shoestring

If you want to get into shooting YouTube videos, one problem you might run into is the perfect setting. Professionals have a studio, but you can’t afford that. Some YouTube content creators set up and tear down sets every day. You don’t want to do that. Here’s a compromise: why not dedicate a spare room in your home or apartment for video shoots? Here’s how to pull it off.

Home video recording

Get a Good Set Of Lights

A 3-point lighting system is pretty much standard. That’s the minimum you want to use. Ideally, you’ll go with four-point lighting, which gives you an extra back light and better control over shadows.…

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Investing your Capital for Maximum Business Growth

Growth should be a core part of the business plan of any organization serious about success. Whatever its size, a business should always be thinking about the future in order to stay relevant and competitive, and the future should always include a vision of growth.

Small business investing

This is a particular challenge for small businesses, which always run the risk of not growing beyond the size they were when they started up, and stagnating as a result. There are many examples however, of small businesses that bucked this trend and achieved remarkable growth against the odds.

Investment is critical to growth and small business owners must understand how various aspects of investment work.…

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3 Tips for Marketing to Low-Income Audiences

Depending on the type of product or service you sell as a business, you likely have at least a small portion of your target audience that falls under the category of “low-income”, whether this is due to being unemployed, underemployed, or suffering an illness or injury that hinders work. However, just because your product or service is best suited for people in a lower income bracket doesn’t mean that you will have less success than those with products or services targeted at a higher income bracket.

Walmart Ad Match and Coupons at Checkout

It does mean, however, that you may have to market yourself differently in order to find the success you need with a low-income audience.…

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Choosing the Right Hosting for Your SME

Having an online presence is vital in the digital age, and with the advent of content management systems such as WordPress getting your company’s website up and running is easier than ever before. There is, however, one part of the process that can leave business owners frustrated and confused – hosting.

Web servers

So, what is hosting?

Hosting is the process needed to get your beautiful new website out to a wider audience. Without a hosting account your site simply would not have a place on the web. In theory you could host your website from your own computer, but in reality this isn’t at all practical.…

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5 Do’s and Don’ts of Professional Office Etiquette (Hopefully you’re Not a Number 5!)

Though most of us are adults, it’s sometimes easy to forget the basics of establishing and maintaining good relationships with the people we work with.

Annoying businessman

Following are 5 do’s and don’ts of inter-office etiquette that everyone should know already, but which are often neglected:

1. Do: Show appreciation to coworkers and management.

Naturally, when someone does something kind for you, you need to say thank you. Failure to do so will result in you looking unappreciative, arrogant, narcissistic, or all the above!

For instance, if someone drops some documents you printed off on their way by your desk, make sure to thank them.…

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Intelligent Insights to Ignite Positive Change for Your Business

Brought to you by Spark Business® from Capital One®

Whether you’re breaking into new industries, creating services within a community, or carving a niche out of an existing market, as a modern entrepreneur, you’re set on exceeding expectations on all fronts. Part of getting to that place is sourcing helpful insights that work to demystify small business, and in turn, lead to positive change.

Spark Business IQ by Spark Business® from Capital One® aims to keep business owners inspired and on the path towards growth and improved financial management through news, tips, tools, and business stories.

Visit Spark Business IQ to help ignite positive change for your business today.

For more information on the Spark Business credit cards, visit www.CapitalOne.com/smallbusiness.

Architect

This editorial is sponsored by Spark Business® from Capital One®

5 Challenges Faced by Small Businesses in 2015

Companies face difficult challenges in today’s competitive business world. Some researchers estimate that about 50 percent of companies only last four or five years before going out of business. To avoid failure, entrepreneurs need to know how they can face these five common challenges in 2015.

Freerider

1. Keeping Up with Regulations

Large companies hire lawyers to make sure they follow the latest regulations for their industries. Small businesses rarely have enough money to keep lawyers on retainer. This can make it difficult for them to keep up with evolving regulations.

There are several ways to lower the costs of regulatory compliance.…

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