Green Home Initiatives and Cutting Expenses: What to Know

One of the most popular recent trends in housing and real estate has been rise of energy-efficient homes. Home builders and buyers alike have started to consider implementing these “green initiatives” due to the environmental and financial benefits they hold.

Rooftop solar panel

Energy-efficient changes in the home have not only decreased the carbon footprint of the homes themselves, but also proven to save households a great deal of money on their monthly bills over the long run. As the popularity steadily increases, homeowners would be prudent to look into the ways these green homes save them money, and apply the most effective and efficient ideas for themselves.…

Continue reading →

Evergreen Content Marketing Strategies That Still Work in 2017

A lot of posts online define evergreen content marketing, but they don’t really offer any real strategies to use. Evergreen marketing at its core simply means using strategies that won’t go stale quickly.

Evergreen content marketing strategies 2017

This excludes pretty much all forms of popular marketing methods such as email blasts, social media posts, trending topics, news, PPC, and promotions/sales gimmicks where prices/products can change or an influencer may lose their relevance with the market (ie., “You Can Get This Right Now For Just $19.97!” or “Kanye West Says Our Vodka is the Best!”).

Evergreen, just like the type of tree, lasts through the ages.…

Continue reading →

Cyber Security Threats and Your IT Team: Are They Ready to Protect Your Business?

Cyber criminal

Cybercrime is a serious problem that costs billions of dollars every year. Not only is it continuing to increase, cyber attacks are becoming more customized and sophisticated. Not only that, the list of computer crimes is growing. It currently includes:

  • Intellectual property theft: this includes theft of any copyrighted material, trademark violations and theft of trade secrets.
  • Phishing scams: hacking a computer and sending multiple emails with the intent to deceive recipients, often into sending money or giving out personal information.
  • Circumvention of security systems: interference with security cameras and alarm systems in order to gain illegal entry.
  • Spreading viruses: worms and viruses can have a devastating effect on your business’s continuity and cost you monetarily and in lost data.
…Continue reading →

How to Buy a Franchise Restaurant

The restaurant industry has attracted entrepreneurs from all walks of life to try their hand at restaurant management and ownership. While this business endeavor can be attractive, it’s also a challenging venture that has a variety of hidden obstacles.

McDonalds

Research shows that one in every three restaurants closes its doors for good within the first three years of business. Because crafting a successful restaurant from the ground up can be an extremely difficult endeavor, many would-be restaurateurs are turning to franchise purchases.

With so many franchises around now you would be a fool not to invest, there are tonnes of franchises for sale take a look and find the perfect one for yourself.…

Continue reading →

How Modern Tech Innovations Reduce Operational Time Losses

Increasing Your Research Palette

Oftentimes it can be difficult to find information about a given organization or corporation. You do a Google search, but everything you find is sanitized. When you need information from an unbiased source on a corporation, finding that data will usually take a lot of time and energy. That time represents a diminished opportunity cost.

Time

When you’ve got to spend hours getting the measure of an organization, those hours can’t be devoted to more fruitful, productive activities. When it comes to business, curtailing opportunity cost wherever possible is a very wise strategy. So if you can consolidate your research parameters such that they deliver more information at less time expense, it’s like making money.…

Continue reading →

Choosing The Right Outsourcing Partner

As businesses look to scale their efficiency the global market for nearshore and offshore outsourcing continues to grow. While many people link India and Asia as the main outsourcing hubs there is a real momentum shift happening in Central America particularly in Nicaragua as a new outsourcing marketplace that offers many benefits.

However, choosing the right outsourcing partner is always the same process – whether it’s China, Nicaragua or India as the main labor target.

Outsourcing office

Today, we are talking with Matt Reeser, a thought leader in the outsourcing industry in Nicaragua – who is helping us pinpoint the main qualities of a great outsourcing partner.…

Continue reading →

Business Blogging: Why Should You Narrow Your Blog Niche

In business niche, most people when starting a blog write about lots of stuff. And it’s normal for this to happen if you have a great imagination and are inspired by many things around you. Moreover, it’s not bad to vary your business-related topics and to read about various things, but at the same time, it would be a very good idea to narrow your business blog niche. Here is a couple of reasons why.

Business blogger

It’s Easier to Write

Having a particular niche in mind makes it easier for you to focus and to gather information. Ideally, you should choose a topic you are really passionate about, so the articles will just flow.…

Continue reading →

11 Tasks You Can Outsource as a Small Business Owner

With the rise of the new gig economy, more and more people are leaving their traditional workplaces to go into business for themselves. These include entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners.

While this means that the job market is robust, always changing and therefore steadily growing, it also means that there is now also an increase in independent professionals with a wide range of skills.

Outsourcing

For small business owners, this means that you can get someone short-term to do tasks that would usually require a full-time employee.

More and more business owners are outsourcing their work nowadays. However, it doesn’t have to be just limited to website or logo or graphic design.…

Continue reading →

3 Simple Ways to End Internal Communication Woes

In military forces around the world, top-notch communication skills, or a lack thereof, are considered a life and death issue. After all, any slip in the communication lines can result in catastrophe – soldiers can lose their lives, innocent civilians can be killed or harmed, wars can be lost. Big communication blunders are rarely forgiven, those who make the small ones are often subjected to the “three strikes and you’re out” rule.

Internal communication woes

In business, some workplaces have their communication down pat. Others are terrible, yet refuse to learn their lesson when blunders happen time and again. A study from a few years ago labeled “The Cost of Poor Communication” made it abundantly clear that communication woes cannot be treated as a casual issue.…

Continue reading →

Local SEO: Does Where You Host Your Website Really Matter?

While it’s still open to debate on any given day, up to a third of Google searches are for local businesses. The search engine provider has also stated that local searches on mobile devices are growing fifty-percent faster than other types of queries.

Local SEO

If you own a local small or medium size business, you could be losing hundreds, even thousands of potential customers if your web hosting isn’t up-to-par. Considering we’re in the middle of yet another online boom period (ie., local search), you need to make sure your SEO plan is leaving nothing to chance.

What’s up-to-par mean when considering hosting providers?

…Continue reading →