Any small business owner knows how important it is to stay flexible, especially in an economic downturn, and yet many organizations are plagued with a surprising lack of elasticity. Inflexibility...
Video used to be a nice add-on for an e-commerce site, a frill that companies could feature or not without obvious repercussions. That is no longer the case. Today, video...
The U.S. economy may be showing signs of recovery, but for many small business owners, pressure is still intense to keep operating expenses low while driving as much revenue growth...
These days, a growing number of small businesses translate material into other languages for global consumers. New technologies streamline the process in many ways. Still, it seems to me that...
Marketers know that testing and tracking different elements of their campaigns is the best way to understand what works with their intended audience. Common methods for running controlled experiments range...
Smart companies, large and small, should continually seek ways to drive quality improvements in both product development and customer support processes to keep customer satisfaction high. From the customer's perspective,...
Customer support differentiates your organization, whether your company is a vendor to thousands of businesses or an IT organization with hundreds of users. Customer support accelerates success, or failure, for...
The notion that you can manage your brand by simply crafting messages onto print and digital materials and then handing them down from headquarters is becoming more outdated every day....
I'm often called to do crisis communications work for major corporations that find themselves in a bind or damaged by an event in their industry. Unfortunately, by the time I...
Developing a strong brand is critical for long-term growth and success. However, building a brand isn't easy and maintaining its consistency is even harder, especially when implementing new marketing channels,...
Daily deal sites provide small businesses with an opportunity to attract new customers. The real value in making such deals is in gaining returning customers. Here are five tips that...
For small businesses owners, sites such as Groupon.com and Coupons.com provide an effective advertising platform to reach new local customers. Such sites work by offering would-be customers the opportunity to...
Spotting occupational fraud can be difficult, but knowing what to watch for is the first step toward eliminating and preventing deceit in your business. According to the Association of Certified...
The recent meltdown of the euro, which was sparked by economic woes in Greece, alerted many business owners of the importance of developing solid foreign exchange strategies. You, too, can...
You have a small business. You don't have deep resources for marketing research, but you do have good ideas, an eagerness to experiment, and a website. That means you have...
Social media are not intended for you to syndicate your corporate message. Social media are here to facilitate open and honest dialogue with other individuals. If you are not open...
There comes a special moment in every entrepreneur's career when the "who" in the business counts more than the "what." As a business grows in employee size, the importance of...
You can figure out who moved your cheese. You can become a one-minute manager while you go from good to great. You can even apply the art of war to...
Chance are that you started your business because you love to do the work. Whether it's massage therapy, yoga instruction, or business consulting, you were taken with the idea of...
Backing up your valuable data may be the most important thing you can do. Without it, your productivity stops. Having quick access to the most current information, as well as...
Interviewing potential employees is an important part of owning and operating a business. Every organization has to interview people and each interviewer has his or her own way of conducting...
Innovation can be daunting. What I find interesting is that even among some of the most enlightened entrepreneurs who understand the need to continually innovate, there is a tendency to...
Want to improve the way you run your business? Entrepreneurs, academics, and consultants from diverse industries offer practical advice on a variety of topics each business day.
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