How Your Small Businesses Can Compete With Big Companies

A few years ago, small businesses that tried to compete with big brands found it difficult to keep up. For those business owners, it was an uphill battle they could not win. But today, your business can co-exist profitably with big box stores using these tried and tested approaches:

Customer service is your competitive advantage

Take Your Business Online

If you haven’t done so yet, it’s time that you do. Having a strong online presence is key to your success. Why? Because everyone is online nowadays! Build a professional website and use professional SEO services to help get your website as high up as possible in Google searches.…

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Your Business Automobile – What You Need To Know

Even your personal vehicle can be considered your work vehicle, part of the time, especially if you’re self-employed. Whether you already have a vehicle and want to know more about what it can do for your business, or you’re now in the market for a business vehicle, there are some things you want to keep in mind.

Business car and stylish businessman

When it comes to your work vehicle, especially if you also use it for personal means, you want to keep track of a lot of things, from repairs to where you’re driving it to and from. Here are some things you need to know if you want to get the most out of your business automobile.…

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3 Signs Your Business Is Starting To Take Off

Starting your own business can be a tumultuous road which requires a lot of patience and tenacity. Often when a woman starts her first business she has high hopes of it taking off the first year and becoming a millionaire right away.

Business launch

Unfortunately the reality is that it takes years to get to a point of really reeling in the success. However, when success finally does hit you there is a huge wave of satisfaction knowing that your hard work has finally paid off.

Your Income Is Greater Than Your Debt

Getting your business going can often mean a lot more going out of your pocket than going into it in the beginning.…

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3 Time Management Tips for Small Business Owners

One of the toughest parts of owning and managing a small business is the feeling of never having enough time to accomplish everything. To reduce some of your workload, you add a few employees. But, having employees brings a new set of small business owner responsibilities, such as employee hour tracking.

Time management

There never seems to be enough time in the day to complete all your small business tasks.

Do these statistics resonate with you?

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Top 4 Tips For Making Your Customers Happy

When it comes to running a business any business owner will tell you that it is easy to make customers dissatisfied. Making customers satisfied, on the other hand, is a little bit more of a process which requires effort and attention.

Serving a happy customer

In order to keep customers coming back, the formula is usually the same regardless of your line of work. Here are some of the most foolproof ways to make and keep your customers coming back.

Be Responsive

When a customer reaches out for services or information, it is crucial to be available to answer their queries and requests. When you are not available or it is out of business hours it is important to have a reliable and organized messaging service where they can leave their details and receive a call back at your earliest convenience.…

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Money for Nothing? The Value of Consultants

They get a bad press, consultants. They’re sometimes thought of as being people who charge a lot of money to tell you what you already know. People worry if they’re getting any value from consultants.

Consultants

However, genuinely qualified and talented consultants can bring real value to your business. If you’ve wondered how, there are a number of ways they do it, and a number of benefits they bring.

1. Expertise

Typically, consultants have trained extensively in their chosen specialism. This means that they should have a level of expertise greater than is available to you in-house. For example, these days creating your own website is pretty easy using free and easily available software.…

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Structure Your Business With Kanban

Starting a new business?

Want to increase your chances for success?

Every company, regardless of its size, needs to plan and establish an internal processes. Not only does a well-ordered set of core processes allow your business to consistently improve and streamline its operations, it also makes the sustainable expansion of those operations more likely.

Kanban

Many new entrepreneurs are so eager to get going that they often haven’t given much thought to how they should design and build the operational systems that define their business.…

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Habits Of Highly Effective Small Business Owners

It is easy to see that some people in the world of business stand out among all the others. A successful small business owner requires a particular skill set and disposition. People often wonder what makes those “high rollers” so successful in business.

Success habit

It does not take much to understand that success is earned, and those who are successful in small business instill a certain set of behaviors that allow them to be focused and purposeful in life and work. Take a look at a few winning habits of highly effective small business owners.

Effective leaders take care of themselves

Effective leadership takes focus and consistency.…

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How 2 Kids And Working From Home Taught Me To Become A More Efficient Business Owner

At first, I felt euphoric.

It was 2012. I had ditched the 9-5 and I was my own boss. I no longer had to ask permission to leave work early and I could pick the kids up from school whenever I wanted.

But it didn’t take long for things to change.

Work from home issue

Sometimes I wasn’t putting the hours in when I should be. Other times I found myself pulling all-nighters and getting grumpy from the lack of sleep.

Something needed to change.

Pretty quickly, I realized that I needed to be more disciplined.

Here are 3 tips that taught me to become a more efficient business owner:

Tip 1: Set yourself a routine and stick to it

Most businesses have a normal working day, so why should I be any different?…

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Management Tips For a Staff That Works Remotely

In this digital era with the internet making communication and productivity so much easier, it is becoming more and more common for entire staffs to all live in different locations working remotely.

Remote employee

Telecommuting is something that is made possible not only to one specific type of career or only a few. Recent research shows that over half of Americans have a job that has potential to be done remotely.

While the convenience of working from home and running a business or working for a business in your pajamas is undeniable, it does have its challenges. Having your employees spread out instead of all together under the same roof can be a bit like herding cats.…

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