How to Take Your Finances from Receipts to Balance Sheets

Many people assume that finances can be a confusing and stressful thing to manage, especially if you’re not prepared or educated in how to manage finances successfully.

Doing business finances

Many people just throw their receipts in a box and then decide to organize these receipts when it’s necessary, such as when tax season is approaching. But this is not an effective financial method, whether for a business or for your personal finances. Having organized financial records is essential, especially when it comes to managing cash flow for business or for personal use.

Luckily, you don’t have to be a tax expert in order to manage finances.…

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How to Maximize the Benefits of Your CRM Software

Investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) software package can be one of the best ways to enhance your business relationships and boost profitability. CRM software is a powerful application that, when used to its full potential, can not only mean better customer relationships, but also more streamlined processes, increased sales, and happier employees.

CRM software

However, many companies miss out on these benefits by not using the software to its full potential. Here is a start-to-finish guide for how to maximize the benefits of your CRM software.

Choose the right software package

Getting the most out of CRM software starts by picking the right application to meet the needs of your business and of your employees.…

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Currency Trading: Simplifying the Challenges of Entering the Forex Market

If you are just starting out in the forex markets or want to broaden your horizons and look at other potential trading opportunities, it is important that you have a basic understanding of how these markets work.

Forex trading may potentially seem daunting and challenging but with the help of a forex broker who provides you with the right tools and trading platform to invest with as much ease as possible, you can soon be up and running.

Forex trading

Forex trading simplified

Foreign exchange markets, which are more commonly referred to as Forex or FX, is in a nutshell, the exchange of one currency for another at an agreed exchange price via the over-the-counter (OTC) market.…

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Why a Simple POS System Means More Customer Confidence

Customer confidence is all over the map these days. With worries about identify theft and security breaches constantly the news, it takes something to convince customers that your store is the place where they should drop those dollars and scan that card.

If you want to get ahead in this market you have to beat out the competition not just in prices or incentives, but in confidence. One security breach can set a company back a dangerous amount, forcing them to rebuild or try to woo back their customer base when they’re under the pressure of a lot of stress.

Point of sale

With that in mind, the answer is not a complicated point of sale machine or bristling firewalls and security.…

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Taking your Brand on The Road: Making The Most of Trade Shows

Trade shows are one of the best places to advertise your business. When you attend a show, you can show off your brand and products. But, it’s not a risk-free proposition. If you’re not careful, you can also lose more than the cost of the booth.

Trade show

Decide What Your Goals Are Before You Go

Before you rush out and set up your booth, decide on what you want out of the trade show. For example, some businesses go to collect leads. Others go to showcase their wares for other businesses, but not to collect sales leads directly. Still others go to network or even sell directly at the show.…

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Moving a Business Overseas: What You Need to Know

It’s the dream of all small business owners to extend their reach well beyond their local marketplace because it opens the opportunities to grow a larger brand (and higher profits).

Doing business overseas

The web has facilitated much of small business growth because it demolished the physical borders and barriers, but there is still something to say about having a real presence in a foreign marketplace that cannot be replicated through online commerce alone.

Moving a business (or parts of it) overseas brings with it a wide range of benefits:

  • There are, at times, very little competition within the marketplace for experienced businesses
  • Foreign workers are plentiful
  • Many financial benefits are to be had when moving to certain regions
  • A physical presence allows the business to become one with the community
  • It progresses the brand and opportunities to franchise the business within the new marketplace

The benefits of moving a business (or part) overseas is stacked in the good category but it is important to know some of the issues and “snags” one may face when making the transition.…

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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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