The Main Benefits of a Virtual Office for a Homeworker

Starting a new business requires preparation and planning. Financially, if you have no other income, you should make sure that you have enough put by to keep you going for three to six months, or at least until your new business starts bringing in money. Research is needed not only for the product, but also to ascertain if the market has potential and to check on all competitors who are already in business.

Workstations in a virtual office

When you start, you’ll need to be ready to test your resilience, as the first year of any business is always a difficult time. When you reach the first anniversary and it is still a concern, you may want to take a deep breath before building your strength to begin in the second year.…

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What Sets Performance-Driven Businesses Apart?

Every smart company knows that it’s not the data itself that’s important — it’s how you bring structure and meaning to those numbers.

Performance-driven business

With today’s seemingly endless bank of knowledge and tools, accessing and collecting data about a company’s visitors, leads, and customers is easier than ever. Yet many companies aren’t optimizing their marketing and sales based on that data. According to Adobe’s Digital Distress study, while 76 percent of marketers believe that data measurement is important, only 29 percent of them feel that they use the data effectively.

This is where performance-driven companies come into play. They excel at connecting actions to outcomes — ready to pivot at any moment, rather than operating with a rearview-mirror perspective.…

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How to Create a Professional Image for Your Small Business

Small businesses often struggle with their image. After all, you’re trying to captivate customers and earn business while maintaining a very small budget and competing against big businesses with a plethora of resources.

In some cases, small businesses struggle with creating a professional image. They often need to opt for DIY, and if they’re not skilled in that aspect of the business, it can make them appear unprofessional.

Thankfully, your small business no longer has to suffer. Instead, you can create a professional image for your small business by implementing the following tips and tactics.

Business identity

Get a website

In today’s digital world, if you’re not found online, you may look unprofessional.…

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Email: The Tool No Successful Marketer Can Be Without

The invention of email has undoubtedly changed the way we interact as a society. It makes for far more efficient and consistent communication. “Today, email remains one of the most effective and widely used marketing channels, and it continues to evolve. According to Direct Line Blog, “Like the telephone, email has undergone radical transformations since its inception.”

Checking emails

According to a recent study by email services company SendGrid, people open emails on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers more than 36 million times per day. This study collected data on approximately 8 billion emails sent by more than 125,000 companies over two 10-day periods in 2013 and 2014.…

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Best Practices to Avoid a Data Breach This Winter

The expected rise in holiday sales this year is good news for small businesses— and for hackers attempting to steal sensitive customer information. While headlines have focused on security breaches at big corporations like Target, Neiman Marcus and most recently, Home Depot, small businesses are not immune to such attacks; in fact, an alarming 71 percent of all security breaches target small businesses.

Cyber security

Cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and frequent each year. A 2013 technology survey of small business owners conducted by the National Small Business Association (NSBA) shows that 44 percent of respondents have been victim to cyber-attacks. While respondents said “security issues” was the second biggest technological challenge in their businesses, almost 30 percent had little to no understanding of cyber security.…

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How to Make Cold Calls with Confidence

Do you hate making cold calls? Is it the fear of the unknown or rejection that gets to you? Maybe it’s just that you feel like you’re interrupting people in the middle of their busy days.

Whatever is at the root of your fear, would you like to find a way to overcome it? If so, here are some tips.

Cold calling with confidence

Reflections on Rejections – Stay Positive

It’s only natural to reflect on rejections, but you don’t have to do so in a negative way. Don’t chide yourself for doing something wrong. Instead, think about what you could have done better. Perhaps you got off to a good start and then lost the customer’s interest somewhere in the conversation.…

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The CEO’s Guide to Open Enrollment: 5 Things You Need to Know

Business leaders across the country are preparing for the next phase of the Affordable Care Act that’s set to roll out in 2015: the employer mandate.

The new law stipulates that employers with 50 or more full-time employees must provide affordable health insurance coverage for their staff or face fines and penalties. For businesses that don’t already offer employer-sponsored insurance coverage, this year’s open enrollment period will be vital to their companies’ financial planning and stability.

Affordable Care Act and Small Business

CEOs of companies offering healthcare coverage need to be educated about the open enrollment period and process and become aware of how this transition can affect their businesses in the long run.…

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Server Security: Why to Consider Colocation Over Managed Hosting

The popularity of cloud computing has led to increasing demands on servers and networks around the globe. As more people and businesses migrate to the cloud, servers face greater stresses. Companies are expected to provide tight security for cloud services, constant uptime, and reliable performance. Investing in the full IT infrastructure needed to support your business’s online activity can be prohibitively expensive, especially for small businesses.

Server security

If you want to create or expand your company’s online presence without breaking the bank, server colocation is the best option. Never heard of server colocation? You aren’t alone. The concept of server colocation is still relatively new to most companies, so we’ll explore the concept a little to offer you some peace of mind about the process.…

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5 Top Tips To Make Your Business Stand Out

Make the effort and step up your game in business. This is what gets you ahead and turns a startup with a good idea into a household brand.

Everyone can push their concept in creative ways and that’s a huge part of grabbing your potential client’s attention. Your billboard ads and website design will all garner clicks and calls.

Interesting cancer centre billboard

But going the extra mile in the five key areas, listed below, will help your business to stand out from your competitors while helping improve your business.

1. Be available at Accessible Locations

You cannot afford to underestimate the power of being accessible to your clients.…

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Startup Success: A Formula for Effective Digital Marketing

As anyone with even a little business experience knows, getting a startup off the ground almost always takes more money than is available. One of the most important talents that startup entrepreneurs bring to the job, then, is an ability to make each dollar go as far as possible.

Digital marketing

Twenty years ago, before the Internet, startups had a hard time managing their marketing on their limited budgets. Television, radio, direct mail, location advertising and other traditional marketing methods were all unaffordable. Many businesses disappeared simply because they didn’t have a way to get their message across. With online digital marketing now, though, everything has changed for startups.…

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