POST CATEGORY : CEO Leadership

How to Turn 2015 into Your Breakout Year in Business Success

2014 was a good year for your business, but not a great one. It is not that you did anything particularly wrong. You considered the size of your business, and made decisions based on that. If things keep progressing in this manner, you are going to have a perfectly acceptable small business one day.

Climbing the success ladder

There is a good chance that if you stay the course, 2015 will also be just fine. But if you are wondering when you are going to have that breakout year, the answer is, never. At least, it is never as long as you keep thinking like a small fish in a big pond.…

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The Pros and Cons of Taking Your Business International

Taking your business international opens up a huge number of markets, but also invites some risks. According to Shahram Shirkhani, your small business can have greater success if you adapt to the global marketplace. Even if your local markets fail, your business can prosper in the international market.

International business growth

Advantages of International Business

You can offer a wider range of products globally than you may be able to offer locally. Even if one or more of your products fail to sell well locally, you can look for new markets where it is in demand. When you are open globally, you won’t need to dump unsold inventory for a loss.…

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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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Moving a Business Overseas: What You Need to Know

It’s the dream of all small business owners to extend their reach well beyond their local marketplace because it opens the opportunities to grow a larger brand (and higher profits).

Doing business overseas

The web has facilitated much of small business growth because it demolished the physical borders and barriers, but there is still something to say about having a real presence in a foreign marketplace that cannot be replicated through online commerce alone.

Moving a business (or parts of it) overseas brings with it a wide range of benefits:

  • There are, at times, very little competition within the marketplace for experienced businesses
  • Foreign workers are plentiful
  • Many financial benefits are to be had when moving to certain regions
  • A physical presence allows the business to become one with the community
  • It progresses the brand and opportunities to franchise the business within the new marketplace

The benefits of moving a business (or part) overseas is stacked in the good category but it is important to know some of the issues and “snags” one may face when making the transition.…

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What Sets Performance-Driven Businesses Apart?

Every smart company knows that it’s not the data itself that’s important — it’s how you bring structure and meaning to those numbers.

Performance-driven business

With today’s seemingly endless bank of knowledge and tools, accessing and collecting data about a company’s visitors, leads, and customers is easier than ever. Yet many companies aren’t optimizing their marketing and sales based on that data. According to Adobe’s Digital Distress study, while 76 percent of marketers believe that data measurement is important, only 29 percent of them feel that they use the data effectively.

This is where performance-driven companies come into play. They excel at connecting actions to outcomes — ready to pivot at any moment, rather than operating with a rearview-mirror perspective.…

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The CEO’s Guide to Open Enrollment: 5 Things You Need to Know

Business leaders across the country are preparing for the next phase of the Affordable Care Act that’s set to roll out in 2015: the employer mandate.

The new law stipulates that employers with 50 or more full-time employees must provide affordable health insurance coverage for their staff or face fines and penalties. For businesses that don’t already offer employer-sponsored insurance coverage, this year’s open enrollment period will be vital to their companies’ financial planning and stability.

Affordable Care Act and Small Business

CEOs of companies offering healthcare coverage need to be educated about the open enrollment period and process and become aware of how this transition can affect their businesses in the long run.…

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5 Top Tips To Make Your Business Stand Out

Make the effort and step up your game in business. This is what gets you ahead and turns a startup with a good idea into a household brand.

Everyone can push their concept in creative ways and that’s a huge part of grabbing your potential client’s attention. Your billboard ads and website design will all garner clicks and calls.

Interesting cancer centre billboard

But going the extra mile in the five key areas, listed below, will help your business to stand out from your competitors while helping improve your business.

1. Be available at Accessible Locations

You cannot afford to underestimate the power of being accessible to your clients.…

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Powerful Ways Retailers Can Remain Competitive in Tough Markets

Retailing has significantly changed since the Internet came into the picture. There are new challenges encountered but at the same time new opportunities are cropping up. Also, as more retailers compete for customers, there is an undeniable need to step up strategies and methods to remain competitive.

About.com’s “3 Ways to Thrive in a Retail Slowdown” offer great insights on how to remain competitive, but there are many other useful strategies you can use as discussed below:

Know and Understand Your Competition

It is essential to analyze the competition. Venturing into any business without knowing anything about the competitors is like entering a vast maze without a map or without having a bird’s eye view of the maze.…

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7 Strategies for Coming Up With Your Best Ideas Yet

With so much emphasis being placed on new technology, it’s easy to forget about the one thing that got you where you are today – and I’m not talking about your innovation, willpower, or proven track record. I’m talking about your brain.

Finding business ideas

Your ability to think on your feet and make informed decisions has helped you become a true expert in your field. But as you move up the corporate ladder, you can become further and further removed from the heart of your business – so much so that it can affect the way you think about it.

In my industry, for example, conventional wisdom told us that people wanted to see a storage unit before renting it.…

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The Greatest Leadership Trait? Being Authentic

Do you remember how leaders used to be? They were patriarchal, unquestioned and respected (or feared) by their workforce merely because of their position. As time passed and society changed, the most admired leaders were those deemed to be charismatic. Great leaders needed strong personalities.

More recently, there has been another shift. These days, there’s a call for leaders with strong emotional intelligence. Leaders now need also to be genuine. They need to be authentic. But what does this mean? And how can you, as a leader, be authentic?

Authentic business leader

Listen

If you genuinely listen to your people, three things happen. Firstly, you get important insight into what the key issues (and best ideas) for your business are.…

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