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Understanding How CEOs Become CEOs

Chief executive officers (CEOs) of companies seem larger than life. They’re giants that have learned how to manage their finances, how to create wealth, and, arguably most importantly, how to deal with people.

The path to becoming a CEO has just as many rewards as it does challenges, but it’s the weight of those rewards that makes the journey worth traveling.

CEO

To understand why becoming a CEO of a major company is so rewarding, you first need to understand what it takes to become a CEO.

What Does a CEO Need?

The formula for becoming a CEO can be simplified into just three things that each require a respectable amount of hard work, dedication and skills that can only be acquired from perseverance.…

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How to Take Your Finances from Receipts to Balance Sheets

Many people assume that finances can be a confusing and stressful thing to manage, especially if you’re not prepared or educated in how to manage finances successfully.

Doing business finances

Many people just throw their receipts in a box and then decide to organize these receipts when it’s necessary, such as when tax season is approaching. But this is not an effective financial method, whether for a business or for your personal finances. Having organized financial records is essential, especially when it comes to managing cash flow for business or for personal use.

Luckily, you don’t have to be a tax expert in order to manage finances.…

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Currency Trading: Simplifying the Challenges of Entering the Forex Market

If you are just starting out in the forex markets or want to broaden your horizons and look at other potential trading opportunities, it is important that you have a basic understanding of how these markets work.

Forex trading may potentially seem daunting and challenging but with the help of a forex broker who provides you with the right tools and trading platform to invest with as much ease as possible, you can soon be up and running.

Forex trading

Forex trading simplified

Foreign exchange markets, which are more commonly referred to as Forex or FX, is in a nutshell, the exchange of one currency for another at an agreed exchange price via the over-the-counter (OTC) market.…

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Why a Simple POS System Means More Customer Confidence

Customer confidence is all over the map these days. With worries about identify theft and security breaches constantly the news, it takes something to convince customers that your store is the place where they should drop those dollars and scan that card.

If you want to get ahead in this market you have to beat out the competition not just in prices or incentives, but in confidence. One security breach can set a company back a dangerous amount, forcing them to rebuild or try to woo back their customer base when they’re under the pressure of a lot of stress.

Point of sale

With that in mind, the answer is not a complicated point of sale machine or bristling firewalls and security.…

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Taking your Brand on The Road: Making The Most of Trade Shows

Trade shows are one of the best places to advertise your business. When you attend a show, you can show off your brand and products. But, it’s not a risk-free proposition. If you’re not careful, you can also lose more than the cost of the booth.

Trade show

Decide What Your Goals Are Before You Go

Before you rush out and set up your booth, decide on what you want out of the trade show. For example, some businesses go to collect leads. Others go to showcase their wares for other businesses, but not to collect sales leads directly. Still others go to network or even sell directly at the show.…

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The Main Benefits of a Virtual Office for a Homeworker

Starting a new business requires preparation and planning. Financially, if you have no other income, you should make sure that you have enough put by to keep you going for three to six months, or at least until your new business starts bringing in money. Research is needed not only for the product, but also to ascertain if the market has potential and to check on all competitors who are already in business.

Workstations in a virtual office

When you start, you’ll need to be ready to test your resilience, as the first year of any business is always a difficult time. When you reach the first anniversary and it is still a concern, you may want to take a deep breath before building your strength to begin in the second year.…

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How to Create a Professional Image for Your Small Business

Small businesses often struggle with their image. After all, you’re trying to captivate customers and earn business while maintaining a very small budget and competing against big businesses with a plethora of resources.

In some cases, small businesses struggle with creating a professional image. They often need to opt for DIY, and if they’re not skilled in that aspect of the business, it can make them appear unprofessional.

Thankfully, your small business no longer has to suffer. Instead, you can create a professional image for your small business by implementing the following tips and tactics.

Business identity

Get a website

In today’s digital world, if you’re not found online, you may look unprofessional.…

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Email: The Tool No Successful Marketer Can Be Without

The invention of email has undoubtedly changed the way we interact as a society. It makes for far more efficient and consistent communication. “Today, email remains one of the most effective and widely used marketing channels, and it continues to evolve. According to Direct Line Blog, “Like the telephone, email has undergone radical transformations since its inception.”

Checking emails

According to a recent study by email services company SendGrid, people open emails on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers more than 36 million times per day. This study collected data on approximately 8 billion emails sent by more than 125,000 companies over two 10-day periods in 2013 and 2014.…

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Best Practices to Avoid a Data Breach This Winter

The expected rise in holiday sales this year is good news for small businesses— and for hackers attempting to steal sensitive customer information. While headlines have focused on security breaches at big corporations like Target, Neiman Marcus and most recently, Home Depot, small businesses are not immune to such attacks; in fact, an alarming 71 percent of all security breaches target small businesses.

Cyber security

Cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and frequent each year. A 2013 technology survey of small business owners conducted by the National Small Business Association (NSBA) shows that 44 percent of respondents have been victim to cyber-attacks. While respondents said “security issues” was the second biggest technological challenge in their businesses, almost 30 percent had little to no understanding of cyber security.…

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Server Security: Why to Consider Colocation Over Managed Hosting

The popularity of cloud computing has led to increasing demands on servers and networks around the globe. As more people and businesses migrate to the cloud, servers face greater stresses. Companies are expected to provide tight security for cloud services, constant uptime, and reliable performance. Investing in the full IT infrastructure needed to support your business’s online activity can be prohibitively expensive, especially for small businesses.

Server security

If you want to create or expand your company’s online presence without breaking the bank, server colocation is the best option. Never heard of server colocation? You aren’t alone. The concept of server colocation is still relatively new to most companies, so we’ll explore the concept a little to offer you some peace of mind about the process.…

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