How to Start a Blog for Your Small Business

Starting a blog for your business takes a slightly different approach than starting a personal blog. Your business blog can be a marketing vehicle, but rather than a constant sales pitch, it should be a source of credible information for your customers. Done right, it can showcase your brand and increase customer engagement.

Establish Your Goals

Before you start blogging, establish your goals. What is it you hope to accomplish? Some common goals include:

  • Increasing sales
  • Increasing customer engagement
  • Building your email list
  • Distinguishing your company from the competition

Simply having goals isn’t enough. Use the SMART goal approach to make sure you’re setting achievable targets.…

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Dan Anton: SEO CEO Birthed in the Fires of Iraq

The transition from employee to CEO is typically engineered out of mental necessity, protection of the ego; whether it’s being disrespected, unappreciated, underpaid, the gamut of reasons is extensive and certainly valid in the eyes of the employee, turned would-be CEO. What if you loved your current role, and never had plans on leaving? This was the mindset Dan Anton embodied when he, serendipitously was confronted with a decision to become a small business owner.

Dan Anton joined the military because of the September 11, 2001 attacks on The World Trade Centers. He ascended to the rank of Major, where on his second tour, was injured in combat by an IED, medically retiring.…

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5 Unusual Business Funding Sources to Tap

When your back is against the wall and you find you need some significant cashflow, which you don’t have, for your business to make it in the next 30 days or so, often times conventional funding sources just aren’t an option.

Business funding

When the wolf’s at the door and/or you need money to launch/expand quickly, there’s simply no time to seek out bank loans, commercial mortgages, venture capitalists, angel funding, family loans, etc.

If that’s the position you find your business in currently, you might just want to give one of the following 5 unusual funding sources a shot:

1. Invoice Factoring

Invoice factoring is perhaps the most popular among the unusual methods for financing a business.…

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When You Focus on Building Customer Relationships, the Rest is Just Business

As the owner of a self-storage business, I serve people who are undergoing life changes every day. Relocations, divorce, college, and military deployment are just a few reasons someone might benefit from self-storage. Whatever the case, they’re likely tired, stressed, and generally unsettled. The last thing they want to do is slog through a long, confusing sales experience.

Helpful sales person

These days, the lines are blurred between “our business” and “your problems” in all industries. But what many business owners don’t realize is how easily they can soothe someone’s worries with good customer service — even if they have nothing to do with your business transaction.…

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3 Top Tips to Help Contractors and Freelancers Succeed

By 2020 it’s expected that one in two UK and US citizens will be working on a freelance basis. The competition for work among freelancers and startups is increasing by the day.

Freelancer working with laptop

And if trends during the last economic downturn are anything to go by and the UK’s exit from the EU does bring about an economic lull, it is likely that we’ll see an even more rapid increase in freelancers.

Now more than ever the solopreneur and independent contractor has to have an edge. Part of this will come from doing grinding administrative work as efficiently as possible.

Here are three top tips to ensure you succeed:

1.

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6 Ways to Grow Your Business and Not Break Your Bank Account

There are a number of ways to market your business. But they can cost a great deal of money that you don’t have yet. If you’re looking for a way to grow your business and get your name out there inexpensively, you need some skill and effort. The following are tips on how to grow your business without breaking the bank.

Growing your business

Free Publishing

You don’t need to spend a penny to give customers what they want. Publishing content that pertains to your business and entices customers can be done without shelling out any money through newsletters, blogs and emails. But in order to do this wisely, you need to come out with current material that is useful to the consumer.…

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7 Essential Elements of a Successful Company

It’s not easy building a business, but it is one of the most rewarding things you can do. You need more than a good idea, more than a good product or service, and more than a receptive marketplace. You also need to figure out the essential elements necessary to build a sustainable business.

Building a successful business

You have to choose the right business model, understand your buyers, and develop efficient processes. You also have to use the best resources and source the right business partners. Finally, you have to be a student of your craft, and never stop researching and developing your business. Without consistent innovation, you will miss many opportunities to grow your company.…

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XTrade and Online Trading – What You Should Know

XTrade is just one of the many trading brokers out there, but unlike most other brokers, it offers you to trade in CFDs instead of trading directly with the underlying asset. What is CFD? It stands for Contracts For Differences.

CFD - Contract For Difference

Like binary options, it is a derivative instrument, however, unlike binary options, you do not win all or lose all. Instead, a losing scenario could see you either losing all of your money or losing only a part of it. This is because CFDs gives you the opportunity to earn money from the difference in the asking and closing price.

Leverage And Ratio

So, if the price of a certain asset like USD/EUR opens at 1.6 and closes at 1.8, you earn 0.2.…

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Commercial Leasing vs. Buying: The Key Considerations

Being a business-owner is all about decision making, from large-scale considerations to the small but often significant details that can drive commercial growth. Your ability to make informed and time-sensitive decisions will therefore have a definitive impact on your success as an entrepreneur, while it will also be the determining factor in minimising costs, optimising efficiency and maximising profits.

Commercial fleet

Commercial Leasing vs. Buying: The Key Considerations for your Fleet

One of the biggest decisions you will make as a business-owner (or at least one who delivers goods and services to the general public) is whether or not to lease your buy your commercial fleet.…

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Social Commerce: How Social Media Can Have A Major Impact On your Business

These days, social media is everywhere. It’s hard to think of a brand or a business that doesn’t have a presence on social media that they’re using to their advantage.

Social commerce concept

We all understand the dangers of using social media as part of your marketing plan – bad reviews, tasteless tweeting, and of course, the trolls – but what about all the positive impact it can bring?

Communicate directly with your customers

Have you just received a new shipment of a highly sought after product? Or are you having a huge sale? Social media is the fastest way to ensure this information reaches your customer base.…

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