POST CATEGORY : Economy & Environment

POS System Trend to Watch: Online Ordering

Point of sale is no longer the same as what it was several years ago. Point of sale – or POS – was referring to retail transaction only – customers bring goods, retail staff calculate the amount, issue a receipt and get paid for the amount. It was a terminal, rather than a system.

online ordering

Today, POS has transformed; as a small business owner, you need to be aware of the transformation and when you see fit, adopt the changes to give your business an edge over your competition.

POS today is all about integration, and it’s no longer taking care of transactions only.…

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How to Create Balance in Your Home Office

Working at home doesn’t mean that you need to work in a “homely” office. As home-based businesses become more and more popular, the home office environment becomes more important. Because you’re working from home, you need to make sure that the workspace is conducive to you getting work done. If your home office is set up like your living room or is actually located in the living room, forget about it.

work from home

Add An L-Shaped Desk

Using L-shaped desks is one way to organize your work space so that you have plenty of room to work, yet you aren’t taking up a lot of space.…

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Crowdsourcing: The Latest BIG Advantage for Small Businesses

You’ve heard of it.

You like the idea.

Maybe you’ve tried it.

Crowdsourcing, though simple to define, can have a very broad range of uses for your small business and for all of humanity in general.

Let’s kick this post off by taking a quick look at what it is and how it got started.

crowd sourcing

How crowdsourcing started and its impact on modern society

The term crowdsourcing is often used to describe the practise of outsourcing tasks on the Internet that you either can’t do, or simply don’t wanna do. In the hum-drum of of our current technological global society, it isn’t hard to see how this very classic term has evolved into what it is today.…

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5 Reasons To Migrate To A Paperless Office

Have you ever waded through stacks of files only to discover what you’re looking for is in another filing cabinet? It’s times like these you wish you had a paperless office. You’re not too sure about the hype though.

5 Reasons To Migrate To A Paperless Office

Surely, you must be giving up something when you make the switch, right? Maybe, but probably not. Here are five reasons why you should migrate to a paperless office:

Your Costs Go Down

Paper costs money. It costs money to make, ship, store, print, mail, and it even costs money to throw it away. When you go paperless, you eliminate all of those costs.…

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Is Freelancing The Answer To Today’s Unstable Economy?

The recent economic depression in the United States alerted many working professionals to just how delicate their employment situation is. Many people lost jobs and others lived with the fear of joining former co-workers in the unemployment line. Inevitably, some turned to freelancing as a way to curb their financial losses.

Is Freelancing The Answer To Today's Unstable Economy?

But for some, those freelancing efforts became not just a part-time source of income, but a full-time gig. Laid off professionals found so much success in their freelancing efforts that, in some cases, they stopped looking for new work and stuck with their new source of income.

Of course, that’s not the case for everyone who ventures into the world of freelancing.…

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Is Your Business Aware of Carbon Accounting?

Carbon accounting is the accepted method for calculating how much, or little, your business contributes towards global warming. The concept of carbon accounting has been around for a while now and ERP software developer Epicor has conducted a global survey of businesses, ranging from start-ups to multi-national corporations, on the topic.

They have presented their findings in the above infographic.

Some of the results are astounding:

The fact that 58% of all businesses surveyed were not even aware of carbon accounting is the first shocking statistic, especially from the perspective of green campaigners, but it is maybe even more shocking that of the 48% who were aware of the process, less than 25% understood it correctly.…

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How Could Going Green Benefit Your Small Business?

The reasons to go green are often pitched as necessary changes for the continued existence of the world with growing populations and pollution. While not wrong, going green often comes with a stigma of raising costs of business, and in an unstable economy it can seem dangerous to go through any dramatic change in doing business.

How Going Green Could Benefit Your Small Business

Here are some examples of ways going green can save you money and be good for business, all while helping the environment.

Any PR is Good PR, but Positive PR is Better PR

While it may seem like a bad way to think about going green, the fact is that it can easily turn into a great marketing campaign.…

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6 Simple Ways To A Greener Business

6 ways to a green business

Start-ups to large enterprises are looking for ways to be greener businesses. Aside from the fact that your company does its share to preserve and nurture the environment, it is also good for business since it would allow you to conserve resources which means, more savings.

We cannot control underlying forces which are responsible for price hikes of almost everything from gas prices to energy costs. However, what we can control is our usage. I am not a full-blown nature advocate. What I am an advocate of is sustainable and growing businesses.

Without further ado, here are 6 simple ways you can increase your business’ bottom line by running a greener business:

  1. Turn off all your equipment when not in use.
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25 Million Small Businesses May Have Zero Employees, But They Contribute to Our Economy

In a recent interview on Barbara Weltman’s “Build Your Business” Radio Show, Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends shared some interesting statistics about small businesses.

She mentioned that roughly 79% of US companies have no employees. Yet, these same businesses, over 25 million, provide full or part time employment for their owners.   So, why does “everyone insist that these types of small businesses don’t contribute to jobs?”   Campbell says that they should be counted. After all, that’s 25 million people NOT in the unemployment line.

25 million small businesses have zero employees

She adds that jobs aren’t everything-when measuring the impact of the smallest, small businesses.   Regardless of what you think of their impact, single employee companies contribute to our economy as they buy products and purchase services.  …

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Five Ways to Tell the Recession is Over

recession recovery0

One of the largest recessions in recent history has been plaguing our economy and impacting the worldwide market for over four years. With unemployment rates still high, market shares making vague, inconsistent progress, and a record number of homes in foreclosure, the question on everyone’s mind is: when will this recession end?

Unfortunately, as people with online finance degrees will tell you, the only way to determine the exact point at which the economy starts its recovery is by living through the tough times and studying the records once it’s over. However, in the meantime there are a few indicators you can use to figure out when the economy is starting to recover and the recession has an end in sight.…

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