16 Drop-Out Billionaire Entrepreneurs Every Business Owner Should Know

Have you been told that you cannot become someone in life?   Do you feel sad or dejected because you don’t have a college degree?   Or are you in the group that thinks education is the yardstick for success? If any of the above describes you, read on…

Education isn’t the yardstick for success, but hard work and determination is.   How does it sound that some of the world’s influential men and women today never saw the four walls of a school?

16 Drop-Out Billionaire Entrepreneurs

In this article, I’ll be sharing briefly, some of the world’s richest billionaires who never saw the four walls of school.…

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3 Reasons Channel Sales Are Sexy for Certain Start-ups

channel sales for startups

CEOs of innovative tech companies that are ready to bring their product to market can travel down two paths: direct sales reps or channel partners.   While both alternatives provide unique advantages, channel sales have become increasingly appealing for many a Silicon Valley and venture-backed start-up.

Improved Credibility

The most overt benefit of an entrepreneurial firm opting for the channel is the instant access they gain to partners’ existing customer relationships.   For a product that isn’t fully established in the market, consumers likely won’t know to look for your specific offering or brand.

Productive channel partners are in tune with their customers’ wants, so if your product fills a demand gap while also making the partner money, they’ll be willing and able to push it all day long.…

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Safeguarding Against Natural Disasters with Cloud Computing

When Hurricane Sandy hit in late October, it wasn’t only the people along the East Coast who felt her wrath. As New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were darkened by power outages, computer users and businesses everywhere also suffered a blackout of sorts.  Data centers were knocked off-line, taking popular websites down with them. The outages also meant that some remote employees didn’t have access to their company network.

Cloud computing has benefits in a number of situations, but it is especially during a natural disaster that its value really shines through. The cloud can be advantageous in protecting data loss during a disaster by allowing organizations to perform offsite data replication to a cloud storage provider, Chris Trautwein, chief information security officer with  (ISC)2  pointed out.…

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Evaluating Benefits 101 – Comparing Premium Costs is Just Not Enough

The current business environment is a difficult one. While businesses are still seeking to expand, prudent business executives and owners are also looking to economize in every way possible. These cost-cutting efforts will affect every department in a company, especially HR, as most companies spend the largest part of their revenue on salaries and wages.

Evaluating Employee Benefits

Not only will salaries and wages be tightly controlled but the depth and range of benefits packages will also be reconsidered every year. Lessening benefits and thus lowering premiums may seem the most obvious way to achieve savings but there are hidden costs that should also be considered before reducing a company’s benefits package.…

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Back It Up: Choosing The Right Storage Solution For Your Business

Choosing The Right Storage Solution For Your Business

Regardless of the size of your business, you need to have a data storage solution that protects your data and acts as a backup in case your primary storage fails. Just take a minute to imagine how you would go about trying to recover if you suddenly lost all of the information stored on your business computer, and you’ll quickly realize the necessity of data storage. Consider a wide range of options, including both on-site and remote storage, and pick the one that best meets your small business’ needs.

Pros and Cons of On-Site Storage

Keeping your data on-site may seem like the smart choice, given that you feel like you have the most control over data there.…

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Laptop pregame: What to do to your company laptops before you give them to employees

Giving employees company laptops is a great way to allow for maximum productivity both in and out of the office. You don’t have to worry about software incompatibility issues – everyone will have the same make and model of computer. Employees who couldn’t work out of the office will now have the ability, regardless of whether they owned a computer in the past.

What to do to your company laptops before you give them to employees

There are a few things that you have to do to your company laptops, however, before you can hand them over to your employees. By taking a few precautions now you can help avoid massive headaches and potentially expensive issues later on.…

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9 Useful Tools for a Small Business to Manage Work Better

A small business requires a lot of work in order to prove successful. You can use all the help you can get in order to manage the work and the employees better. Luckily for you, there are many useful tools available that will make your job much easier.

PandaForm

PandaForm is a great tool which can help you centralize all of your business data into one single database. You can also use it to create many different kinds of forms such as for orders, meetings and customer surveys. The program is also able to export and import the data it gathers and even share it with clients.…

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How to Get Paid What You’re Worth

getting paid what your services are worthFew moments are as energizing in your business as sitting across from a potential client in a meeting that is going well. Your presentation came across smoothly, the client is engaged, they’re ready to buy”¦the only thing left is the price.

You quickly calculate a reasonable price in your head. You know that your competition couldn’t come close to your level of quality – and still you keep your prices in par with theirs.

You tell your prospect your price”¦and the conversation chills. They tell you that they were expecting to pay half of that. What should you do?

Discuss your competition

If what you are offering is genuinely better than the competition, don’t be afraid to highlight your competitors’ weaknesses.…

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Why Shoppers Choose to Use Chat Features

why shoppers use chat features onlineLauren Freeman, President of the e-tailing group (a niche e-commerce consultancy), published a white paper to share the findings of consumer rationale for using chat. Studies were undertaken to determine the “who, what, where and why” behind consumers’ choosing to use an online chat feature.

Online retailers have much to be gained by implementing the best of the live chat experience into their business.   It can be concluded that the six core reasons online shoppers choose to use live chat are multi-faceted:

Shoppers feel special and empowered when they use live chat

Strong expressed strong feelings of appreciation for chat’s availability to solve a problem when sought on their own terms.…

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11 Steps To Give New Angle To Your Old Content

tips for engaging online readers

When you’re an online marketer, it becomes a necessity to keep adding new angles when it comes to engaging your readers with content. This keeps your readers happy and looking forward to more. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel – just a few imaginative twists and angles now and then are enough to keep the blood flowing.

1. Highlight Words And Phrases

When you want your readers to pay special attention to funny bits, informative bits and quotes, make sure you highlight them. If possible, use a different font for quotes – perhaps even a slightly larger font size. Try to present your top keywords in italics or in bold, to let your reader know that the content is relevant to their search.…

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