The Right and Wrong Way to Use Social Media for Your Business

Social media has a massive reach. Billions of people, two billion to be exact, are on Facebook alone. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and many others exist, too, extending this reach even further. Businesses must use social media to boost their brands.

Using social media for business

It’s estimated that 22% of the population uses Facebook – that’s 22% of the world.

Businesses targeting millennials will want to grow on Twitter, on which 81% of millennials check daily.

The number of businesses doing social media the right way is much lower. I come across businesses that aren’t up-to-par with their social media game.

What Businesses Are Doing Wrong on Social Media

You can write a book on what businesses are doing wrong on social media, and by understanding what they’re doing wrong, you can correct these wrongs in your own business.…

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Efficiently Running a One-man Service Business

Running a service-based business has a lot of advantages. You can help customers in your community, offer residential or commercial services, and you can choose to specialize in a certain area of business.

Plumbers can choose to offer sewer repairs, electricians can choose to work just on new homes being built.

One-man plumbing service

Trades are in high-demand, and the growth in these fields continues to grow as the population continues to grow. The environment is perfect to start a service business, but running that business efficiently is difficult.

A major downfall in many businesses is efficiency.

How does a service business stay efficient in the early stages of business?…

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Why Every Service Business Should Offer an Unconditional Guarantee

Trust is the most important thing when trying to bring in new customers, especially in the services industry. Customers have already heard nightmare stories about fly-by-night contractors, plumbers who never show and HVAC technicians who make the problem worse.

How can you win over customers when they view you as untrustworthy before they even use your service?

Offer them a guarantee.

Guarantee

Many service providers never think to offer a guarantee. They assume that services cannot be guaranteed. After all, you can’t send back bad catering or a bad haircut for repair.

When we say “guarantee,” we’re not talking about the service itself, but rather, customer satisfaction.…

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5 Ways to Woo New Customers

Attracting – and keeping – new customers is no easy task for any business. But if you’re not expanding your customer base, you’re not growing or increasing your profits. Use these five methods to woo new customers and keep them around.

Attracting new customers

1. Be Responsive. Be Human

The quickest way to turn customers off is to provide poor customer support. Ignoring messages and feedback gives the impression that you don’t value your customers – the lifeblood of your business.

A colleague once contacted several companies when he was looking to have his new home built. Some he called; some he contacted through email.…

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3 Fatal Conference Booth Mistakes that Small Business Owners Make – and How to Avoid Them

There are plenty of good reasons why small business owners should consider presenting at — rather than just attending — conferences. For one, it’s an opportunity to showcase their products and services to a high volume of prospective customers and to attract interest from potential suppliers, vendors, influencers, and other strategic partners.

Tradeshow booth at a tech event

However, some small business owners fail to achieve significant — or in some cases any — return on investment from their conference-booth spend. And while each story has its unique variables and nuances, typically it’s the unfortunate result of making one, some, or all of the following fatal mistakes:

1.

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Why The Construction Industry Needs Superior Suppliers

Multiple sectors of the Canadian construction industry are seeing incredible growth in a difficult economy — the estimated statistics are positive, the number of job openings is rising, and the list of future projects is getting longer. This means that the construction industry has to be prepared for the increasing demands, especially when it comes to their chemical supplies.

Construction business

The growing construction industry in Canada

Construction is a powerful industry that manages to stay steady and even grow when other industries are going through economic troubles. According to data from the National Research Council of Canada, the Canadian construction industry employs over one million people—considering how the country’s entire population is estimated to be over thirty-six million people, this is an impressive percentage.…

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Get The Most Value for Each Dollar You Spend: Here’s How (Infographic)

Think of the ways you spend your money! Be specific, be controlled and affording luxurious things will no longer be a dream. The infographic drawn by Oliver’s Travels gives us a clear comparison between what we buy and what we could buy for a certain amount of money.

Piggy bank

What if you were told that instead of spending money on 12 nights out in NYC, you can book a 5-Day tour to visit Canada and view the Northern Lights? What if you do not spend $906 on Christmas this year and instead rent out a villa in the Caribbean! The infographic has an advice for Formula 1 fans too.…

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Beyond Office Hours: How a Virtual Receptionist can Help You Win More Business

A receptionist is essential to any growing business. The more time you and your front line staff spend talking on the phone when you could be working for your clients, the less money you’re making at the end of every month. This is a big problem considering there are only so many hours in the day to get everything done, and still ensure 100% customer satisfaction.

Calling customer service beyond office hour

A virtual receptionist adds a level of flexibility to your customer service plan, enabling you to take only the most important calls, and even allowing you to keep your phone lines open for calls long after the business closes for the day.…

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3 Tips for Allowing Employees to Use The Company Car

Depending on the type of business you’re running, you may be considering allowing your employees to either use their own personal vehicles for company activities and then reimbursing them or buying a car for the company that employees can use.

Driving company car

Whichever way you decide to go, it’s important that you plan appropriately and set up the right system so everything runs smoothly, both for your company and for your employees. To help with this, here are three tips for allowing employees to use the company car.

Pick The Right Vehicle

Just like with all other decisions about your company, the type of car you choose to associate with your business can have a big impact on your brand or reputation.…

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How To Dig Yourself Out Of A Bad Financial Situation

Have you recently found your company in a bad situation financially? The good news is that you’re not the only one. The bad news is that you need to fix the situation as quickly as possible before it ruins your company’s credit and reputation. Thankfully, there are plenty of things that you can do to right the ship.

Get out of bad financial situation

Within this guide, you will discover ways to correct your company’s business finances and get out of debt.

Cut Expenses Immediately

If you’ve gotten your company into a bad situation, you need to take action immediately. It is absolutely pertinent to balance out your expenses and your revenue.…

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