Should Small Business Owners Test Their Employees for Drugs and Alcohol?

In the corporate world, a drug test is essentially a cornerstone to the hiring process. Anyone beginning a job at a large corporation knows that they will invariably be drug tested before their hiring is official. It makes sense, if you think about it. Corporations can have hundreds of employees working for them. Drug testing ensures that no one with problematic habits will slip through the cracks and cause issues within the organization.

Doctor examining test tube

While it might be customary and make sense at a large corporation, things get a bit more nuanced when we’re discussing drug and alcohol testing for small businesses.…

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Which Marketing Automation Tool For Your Small Business: GetResponse vs. InfusionSoft

Businesses that use marketing automation tools, see 53% higher conversion rates than companies who don’t, and an annual revenue growth rate that’s 3.1% higher than those who don’t.

Enough said.

This post compares two of the best marketing automation tools available, to find out which one is most suited for the needs of your small business.

Marketing automation tool: GetResponse vs. Infusionsoft

The marketing needs of small businesses vs. large businesses

Small businesses follow the same marketing strategy as a large business, but the implementation of the strategy would be completely different, because a large corporation has teams of people and a much bigger budget, whereas the marketing of many small businesses is left to the owner who also needs to perform the businesses’ core tasks.…

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Loan Officers: Advocates to Small Business

Working as a mortgage loan officer can sound like a fairly straightforward job. People apply, you evaluate, you notify, you close. It doesn’t sound too complex.

Loan officer counselling client

But of course, nothing is as simple as it seems at first look. The reality is that mortgage loan officers do far more than that. For example, the staff at Eagle Home Mortgage provides an important source of information to applicants, giving them information that can help them succeed.

This is true for more than just homeowners. It applies to businesses too. Because so many small businesses are sole proprietorships or partnerships, their owners don’t have the resources to research a lot of very important information.…

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10 Types of Link Building Habits you Should Prune Before Penguin 3 Hits

The contest for ranking on the first page of Google has never been more fierce. Bids for keywords on Adwords have reached astronomical heights, traffic from social media is proving to be difficult to convert and the SEO landscape has changed so much that it is becoming more difficult to rank successfully for a desired keyword. However, the sites that rank on the first page of Google reap the rewards of getting free traffic leads.

Google Penguin 3 update

Because webmasters know how lucrative it is to appear on the first page of Google, there’s a strong temptation to manipulate the organic search results with web and link spam, which is breaking Google’s Terms of Service.…

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How to Rescue Your Business from the Brink of Insolvency

There’s no denying that approaching insolvency is a problem that requires immediate attention. While it can feel a little scary, the best way to fix it quickly and simply is with a targeted, focused response. In other words, don’t push it to the back of your mind and hope that it handles itself. With just a few small changes to the way that you do business, you can put your affairs in order and start to better protect your investments.

Business owner dealing with business insolvency

Whether you’re struggling to meet monthly bills, being buried by an unsuitable administrative process, or desperately lacking in credit, there are steps that you can take to turn the situation around.…

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You Have 3 Seconds to Save your Online Business!

Speed optimization and converting users to customers in the next digital era

Speed optimization

The internet age brings with it one absolute guarantee: file sizes are increasing, and content quality is improving. The result is that page load-time is under threat, and your online shop or startup faces real risk.

The Aberdeen Group reports that a 1-second delay in page load-time leads to:

  • 11% fewer page views
  • 16% decrease in customer satisfaction
  • 7% loss in conversions

Amazon agrees. They report that a 100-millisecond improvement to their site speed resulted in a 1% revenue increase, while Walmart produced a 2% increase in conversions for every 1 second of improvement.…

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Improve Employee Wellbeing at your Warehouse with These Handy Tips!

Warehouse management is a tricky area for small business managers. It’s critical to the business’s supply chain and it is even more important to have a strong support network that will allow the warehouse to operate efficiently.

Warehouse employee

Warehouse employees are the heart and soul of warehouse operations. Their productivity depends on their wellbeing and ability to implement efficient processes in the supply chain. The more they improve, the more profitable the warehouse will be.

Here are some handy ways to improve employees’ wellbeing at your warehouse.

Leverage the power of solar

Natural sunlight positively impacts the moods, behaviours and health of employees.…

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How to Cut your Business’ Carbon Footprint by 30% in 60 Days

Your business has a responsibility to tackle carbon emissions. A consensus by NASA concluded that over 97% of climate scientists agreed that the Earth’s climate has increased and that urgent action is needed. The Paris Agreement on climate change is a step in the right direction with over 190 countries agreeing to implement eco-friendly changes in their economy in a bid to combat climate change.

Although it’s good that several of the world’s governments have agreed to take action, it needs to be implemented at the domestic level. Business owners need to improve the sustainability practices of their business. What most business owners fail to realise is that their stores typically account for 5% of carbon emissions, whereas the supply chain accounts for up to 65% and consumers 35%.…

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Business Tips for Doctors in Private Practice

Of all the complaints coming from med students just finishing up their degrees and getting ready to make their mark on the world of medicine, the one thing you hear over and over again is the fact that they learned little or nothing about medicine as a business. In fact, medicine is one of the leading industries in this country as well as in most other developed nations and that’s why it is imperative to teach our doctors how to run a business efficiently so as to realize a bigger profit without draining patients (and insurance providers) of their last proverbial penny.…

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Important Things to Consider Before Building a Business from Home

There are so many things to consider before building a business from home. From where in your home you’re planning to establish your business to, how you’re going to spread the word and be able to keep your work/life balance, the thought of establishing your business from home can be tricky.

Programmer working at home

Here’s a few important things to consider before you take the plunge and build yours:

The Space

First things first, establishing an area where you plan to set up your business is vital. Whether this is a home office space, converting an existing room in to an office space or a summer house in the garden, it’s important to think about where this room is in location to your family, whether you’ll be able to spend hours in there doing work without being distracted by other household tasks and whether or not the space is appropriate for the type of business you’re trying to build.…

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