Operations
This Caught Our Eye: Nine Simple Ways to Write Product Descriptions That Sell
You’ve probably heard the maxim, “Benefits, not Features” applied to ad copy or product descriptions. Meaning always tell your potential buyer what’s in it for them. How you identify those benefits, convey them to your buyer, and solidify your brand…
This Caught Our Eye: 7 Tips for Effective Invoicing
In any small business, getting paid in full and on time is absolutely essential for survival. Ironically, many small business owners don’t pay enough attention to their invoicing and collection processes and find themselves in a constant cash-flow bind. (We’ve…
This Caught Our Eye: 85 Essential Start-up Resources You Should Know About
The title may say “start-up”, but there’s something for businesses of every age in this fantastic list of online business helpers and guides. From apps that help you choose a business name to software that tracks your work flow to…
Loose Lips Sink Small Businesses: Protecting Your Trade Secrets
Think you don’t have trade secrets? Anything that gives you a competitive advantage and you wouldn’t want a competitor to know is a trade secret, so you must have at least one! For a restaurant or bakery, that might…
Is It Time to Offer an Internship?
Student internships can help small businesses thrive in so many ways that you might be missing out by not offering one at yours. Regardless of your size, your years in operation, or what you do, prospective interns are looking for…
Why You Should Pay Attention to Apple Pay
With next month’s launch of Apple Pay, Apple’s new mobile-payment system, industry analysts predict we’re at a turning point when it comes to how customers pay for purchases. Technology that enables customers to make purchases with a swipe of their…
This Caught Our Eye: Running a Small Business from a Smart Phone
No surprise here: according to Desk.com, a customer-support application developer, 85% of American small business owners are running their business from their smartphones. For some, that just means checking email and synching calendars, but for the more tech savvy entrepreneurs,…
Customer Rewards Programs: are they right for your business?
If you’re considering launching a customer rewards program, remember, you can’t “buy” loyalty. No rewards program can compensate for shortcomings in the fundamentals: service, quality, reliability, and value. It can, however, build on the satisfaction you’ve already earned. It’s a…
You and Your Business Could Use a Vacation
If you care about the health of your business, not to mention your own well-being, you’ll take a vacation! Eighty-two percent of small-business owners who took a vacation reported an increase in job performance upon their return to work, according to…
This Caught Our Eye: A Small Business Guide to Intellectual Property
No matter what field you may be in, your intellectual property – business idea, name, logo, aesthestic design, etc – is the foundation of your enterprise. It tells the ‘story’ of your business and differentiates you from your competitors. Intellectual…