This week in small business: Getting ready for the economic apocalypse and the holiday shopping season!
As rosy as most people think things are today, this week we have advice from 11 entrepreneurs on how they’re prepping for when the S#%! inevitably hits the proverbial fan. But, in the meantime, we have a lot of tips on branding, productivity, and even how to protect yourself from credit card chargebacks. Politics, government, and the economy The next economic collapse isn’t a question of “if,” but “when,” so you might want to know how these 11 entrepreneurs are hedging their bets for when the S#%! inevitably hits the proverbial fan. Leadership, management, and productivity Tech guru wages and fees can break a small business owner, that’s why I wrote this sponsored post for MasterCard Biz that helps you be your on CTO (chief technology officer). Trust is the foundation of long-term success online. Thammy Marcato lays out the critical fundamentals of understanding and establishing online trust. Everything in an upheaval? Then check out Beth Kowitt’s Fortune article: Top Tips from the Most Powerful Women in Business on Leading through Turmoil. Are you guilty of any of the seven ways managers degrade employee productivity as described by Varika Kashyap? Allie Briggs captures the wisdom of cancer survivor Angela Benton on the truth about work-life balance. Go through Janet Mesh’s list and see how many of these seven overlooked biases are creeping into your work and holding you back. You might be surprised by what Jay Kim says is the #1 productivity hack of high achievers. If you want some practical advice, check out Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead’s 10 Tips to Avoid Fraudulent Chargebacks from Online Sales. Marketing and sales I know that many of you are going to relate to this Forbes article written by Justin Christianson on three reasons your marketing is not getting the results you want. Alignable CMO Dan Slagen outlines three ways to get more word-of-mouth referrals and even gives us a four-week schedule of action items! Want some last-minute ideas to make the most out of the holiday shopping season? Read Michael Della Penn’s Marketing Land article on three ways to combine online and offline insights this holiday season. Brand signals. They are the unmeasurable but extremely important SEO metric, explains Tyler McConville. And, speaking of brands, Mike Kappel has solid advice on brand protection for small business owners. Not all innovation is purely digital. Andrew Fegley talks about how CMOs can innovate with direct mail. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation I love the title of Tim Denning’s piece, Get To The Point! What Does Your Business Do? He makes it clear that to be successful, you need to be succinct. To quote the song, “Money, money, money, money!” And considering the primacy of money to a startup, Adam Rowe’s article on questions to ask when monetizing your startup is a worthy read. Nina Zipkin talks to entrepreneur Tracy DiNunzio and shares the trick that helps Tracy discern the difference between being busy and being productive....
read moreThis week in small business: Talk to yourself, stop driving customers away, and price things right
One writer this week thinks digital marketing has flat-lined. I don’t entirely agree, I do know that digital marketing requires more thoughtful planning than it did a few years ago. And, that’s exactly why you need to check out the marketing tips in this batch of curated content. Marketing and sales Uh oh. Andrew Medal says that digital marketing channels are flat-lining, but fortunately he has some advice on what to do about it. But if digital marketing is flat-lining because of you, you’ll want to make sure you aren’t doing things that are driving customers away. Heather Turner has the insights. Jim David goes into great detail in his article on how to use Google Search Console to boost your SEO. Take the time to read it. Leadership, management, and productivity Writing for OnDeck, Ty Kiisel outlines six ways to help maximize small business efficiency. I especially like number two, borrowed from the software development world. Do you talk to yourself? Great, then you already are doing one of the six daily habits of extremely successful people as relayed to us by Paul Schrodt. The topic of pricing never goes out of style and I think you’ll get a lot from Raluca Popeschu’s 4+1 E-commerce Pricing Strategy Tactics. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation Hannah Williams gives us five tips to prevent a social media nightmare along with strategies to use when something goes wrong despite following those five...
read moreThis week in small business: How to beat your fear and cash in on a 1-start review
Get your productivity boosted, your hiring strategies improved, and your fear beaten into submission with this week’s collection of excellent business articles from around cyberspace. Leadership, management, and productivity Lauren Liss, who spearheads digital partnerships with companies like U.S. Card, Capital One, Uber, Netflix and others is the subject of this entry in Laura Emily Dunn’s Women in Business Q&A series. In this post sponsored by MasterCard Biz I explain how understanding five crucial financial ratios will give you a good understanding of the health of your company and what management moves you need to make. Here are Alan Taylor’s mind-opening (and maybe mind-blowing) tips on how to boost motivation and productivity. Never trying because you are afraid is the only failure you can’t learn from, says Jyoti Agrawal in his article outlining the five actions you need to take to beat the fear blocking your success. You don’t have to be able to computer coding guru to be your own chief technology officer (CTO), as I explain in this sponsored post. Jonathan Wu, partner at Tomo Ventures, outlines hiring strategies for a growing e-commerce business. Marketing and sales If you can’t measure it, you can’t control it. That holds true for everything, including your social media channels. That’s why Mindi Rosser’s piece on how to audit your channels is quite timely. Anyone engaged in influencer marketing should read what Kristina Libby has to say about how much you should spend. Are you sitting down? You might want to before you check out Pia Silva’s Forbes article, What No One Wants To Tell You About Marketing A Small Business. Think you can’t feature a one-star review in an ad for your business? Luke Trayser gives us a brilliant example and it should help you get your creative juices flowing. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation Five top e-commerce experts give their best advice for future entrepreneurs in this piece by Lucas Miller. Time to branch out? Matthew McCreary identifies the five best retail franchises to buy right...
read moreThis week in small business: So many productivity tips you’ll be finished yesterday!
We binge on productivity tips and habits in this week’s collection of curated content. Check out our lineup of recommended articles, identify where you’re weak, and find out how to get back in high gear. Leadership, management, and productivity Shana Lebowitz at Business Insider asked nine New York City CEOs to share the morning routines that have set them up for success. If those nine routines don’t do it for you, you might need to start saying “no” to these six things, like Kimanzi Constable did. Could how you’re using one word be causing you your productivity to be going down? Science says there is, according to Peter Gasca and after reading his article, I can appreciate his point. And as if those aren’t enough tips, how about checking out Michael Guta’s infographic: 9 Habits of Millionaires Any Entrepreneur Can Adopt. In this MasterCard Biz sponsored post, I cover five vital financial ratios that will make you a Genius small business owner. Does your operation pass the “acid test”? Continuing on the financial theme, if you’re in a bit of hot water (or red ink), you need to review the advice from Serenity Gibbons on digging your small business out of serious debt. Jennifer Eden, founder of Tampon Tribe, is the subject of this edition of Laura Emily Dunn’s Women in Business Q&A. Marketing and sales Disha Dinesh outlines seven affordable social media tools. We all like “affordable,” don’t we? If seven tools aren’t enough for you, Alexander Tereshenko includes 10 free online marketing tools in his Helpware blog article. We officially have our first article looking at 2018 digital marketing trends, so if you want to keep pace, check out Amahl William’s Forbes article. For anyone selling handmade items, Donna Maria Coles Johnson’s three tips for effectively competing in a crowded market is must reading. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation Is success all in your mind? If it is, you need to check out Jeff Boss’ article, How to Build the Right Mindset for Startup Success. Politics, government, and the economy In his Fortune commentary, Sean Severe outlines what he believes would happen to the economy if undocumented immigrants were to be...
read moreOnline health insurance tool eliminates ‘pain points’ and improves cost control, employee loyalty
By Susan Solovic, THE Small Business Expert We continue to read about the wrangling over healthcare legislation in Washington D.C. with politicians on both sides of the aisle claiming their ideas will make things better for U.S. workers. I’m reminded of the funny one-liner President Reagan used to deliver, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” The fact is that while members of the public sector continue to argue among themselves and repeat their “talking points,” folks in the private sector continue to work to meet the demands of the consumers. After all, politicians are out to win votes, while leaders in the private sector are out to earn your business. That’s why I’m always heartened to see companies making huge inroads to solve the common problems we face – and certainly getting easy access to “properly fitting” health insurance plans is one of those common problems. Choosing health care plans is one of the most difficult things employers say they face as it is often time consuming and confusing. Today, I want to talk about what UnitedHealthcare’s online tool is doing to improve, streamline, and control health insurance costs for small business owners. The company’s online shopping process only takes around 20 minutes and has coverage advisors to help you in addition to being simple and easy to understand. Healthcare insurance ‘pain points’ Let me put this in simple terms: Insurance companies of all types have been very reluctant to modernize. While companies like Amazon constantly leverage new technological developments to tailor the buying experience to current and evolving consumer preferences, many insurance companies are still conducting business much like Lloyds of London did when it started insuring ships in the 17th century. In the health insurance world today, small business owners find themselves dealing with hassles in areas like these: Ease of understanding. The language is specialized, often combining the worst of both medical and legal jargon. Modern buying experience. Consumers today buy $30,000 vehicles online with a few clicks of their mouse, yet the health insurance market generally requires a series of yearly meetings with agents and reps to get the process moving. Small business teams are more varied today than ever before, so employers need greater flexibility when providing coverage. There are startups where the CEO and every employee is under 30 years old, while millions of Baby Boomers are staying active in their companies well beyond the traditional retirement age. Cost control. Employers must be able to customize coverage not only to provide the right level of benefits, but provide the best benefits package at the right cost level. The right coverage to attract best employees These are the issues that plague small business leadership when they strive to best manage their companies. However, there’s another important dimension to the small business health insurance picture: The importance of providing good coverage to attract and retain talent. Attracting good talent has been a problem for small business owners for at least the last five years; it consistently ranks at the top of small business surveys. And if you want to have any success getting the right people into the right positions in your company, you must offer competitive health insurance. This is simply a “given”...
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