By Patti Podnar There are tons of books about content marketing. Heck, there are probably books about books about content marketing. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the blogs.
Bottom line…there’s enough content about content out there that it would take a lifetime to read. And a lot of it is really, really good. But not everybody has the time or inclination to spend every spare moment researching content marketing best practices. So for those of us who have businesses to run and lives to live, here are six content marketing hacks you can do right now to make tomorrow’s content better than today’s. And I’ve included resources for those of you who want to dig a little deeper. (Confession: A lot of them are from my own blog, but….hey, this is what I do, and you’re who I write for.) Know your audienceThe PhD-level strategy is to develop one or more customer personae that include everything from where your target customer lives to what kind of car they drive to how many kids they have. But here’s a much more practical hack: Who buys your stuff? And why? A word of caution: A lot of businesses — especially B2Bs — write for people who do what they do rather than the people who buy what they do. I did it myself…when I first started my business, I was writing for writers. Until I realized that other writers weren’t going to hire me. That’s what a former boss of mine would have called a “blinding glimpse of the obvious.” Once you know who your audience is, it’s time to make sure you’re speaking their language. There are a couple of big mistakes a lot of businesses make here:
Recommended for YouWebcast, January 12th: Leveraging Urgency and Scarcity for Increased Sales Remember that you’re writing for people.For B2C businesses, writing engaging content that reaches readers on an emotional level is pretty easy. B2B businesses, on the other hand, tend to struggle with this. After all, they’re writing for a business, not a person…right? Wrong. Every purchasing agent is, above all, a person, fully equipped with the hopes, fears, goals, and dreams that the rest of us have. Maybe he’s in the running for a promotion, and buying and implementing your product or service could make him look like such a genius that nobody else would stand a chance. Maybe he has to stay late twice a month to run payroll, and by the time he gets home, his wife is mad, his kids are cranky, and the dog just threw up on the carpet…again! And if he could just find a way to outsource payroll without creating more problems than he solves…well, life would be dang near perfect. Or maybe the last vendor he picked didn’t work out so well, and he’s worried that, if he makes a bad choice again, his boss will conclude that he’s useless. Stop thinking of your customers as logos and letterheads, and start thinking of them as people — people who want to look smart, make their job easier, scratch an item off of their to-do list, etc. For most people you write for, their job is not their life. The trick is to find out how the job affects their “real” life and address that with your content. They want a reason to say “yes” to your offer, so publish content that gives it to them. Do your homeworkIt’s critical that your content is based on what you know rather than what you think you know. Base your writing on facts, not assumptions. Or, if you are writing from your own experience, say so. What you don’t want to do is present something as fact that can be easily disputed. If that’s not reason enough, Google gives you brownie points for including outgoing links to your sources. They like it when writers do their research instead of just making stuff up. Don’t talk about yourself too much.Even if you have an audience of raving fans waiting breathlessly for your next post — yeah, they still don’t want to read about you all the time. You’ve got to give them a “what’s in it for me” goodie. Source:http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/6-content-marketing-hacks-people-need-get-done-01726396#rbJTI88gd2OxUDUR.97 By Juan Martinez www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/12/14/11-best-free-mobile-apps-for-startups-2016.htmlStartups have a unique technological challenge: they've got to run their businesses by using enterprise-level tools without being able to spend enterprise-level budget. Unfortunately, they've also got to make sure they're capable of enabling on-the-go productivity without the oversight of a large IT department and expensive mobile device managementOpens a New Window. (MDM) software.
Fortunately, there are a host of excellent, free mobile applications available that can help startups compete against bigger and richer competitors, regardless of industry. In this article, we've listed 11 free mobile apps your startup should deploy immediately. The apps focus on everything from communications and recruitment to storage and customer relationship managementOpens a New Window. (CRM). This list is by no means complete as new free mobile apps are launched every day that are designed to serve this exact purpose. If you think we've missed one or if you hear of a new one after you read this, let us know in the comments section at the end of the article. If you're not a startup but you're still interested in free mobile apps, then check out this listOpens a New Window.. 1. Microsoft Power BI0,1740,iid=478720,00.asp', '740', '417')Opens a New Window. More From PCmag
2. X-Cart0,1740,iid=514721,00.asp', '810', '456')Opens a New Window. If you plan on selling any of your products online, then you'll need a solid e-commerce tool. X-CartOpens a New Window.offers a free plan that lets you build a website with responsive design, a search engine optimization (SEO)-friendly catalog, and a host of add-on modules that you can pay for a la carte. With X-Cart's iOS app, you can check your dashboard for sales stats and current orders, send messages to customers, and more. Unfortunately, X-Cart is not available on Android devices. 3. Evernote Scannable0,1740,iid=514729,00.asp', '810', '455')Opens a New Window. As much as most of us would love to live in a paper-free world, not all of us have gotten the email memo. Evernote Scannable lets you quickly scan business cards, documents, meeting notes, and any other paper-based file via your smartphone camera. You'll be able to share the file, upload it to LinkedIn, upload to the cloud, and upload it anywhere else your smartphone can access. The tool is completely free and available on Android and iOS. 4. Zoho CRM0,1740,iid=498920,00.asp', '740', '416')Opens a New Window. Keeping track of your sales leads and your sales staff can be tricky. Thankfully, customer relationship management (CRM) tools exist to help you manage all of the sales and service data your business produces. Unfortunately, these databases can be quite expensive. Zoho CRM aims to solve that problem. This free CRM tool isn't robust by any means, but it offers your startup access for 10 users, basic sales lead, marketing, and customer-support automation as well as limited reporting and forecasting tools. 5. LinkedIn0,1740,iid=498928,00.asp', '810', '456')Opens a New Window. If your startup isn't using LinkedIn to search for new talent, then you're seriously remiss. You might be one salesperson, one developer, or one business partner away from conquering your vertical. The iOSOpens a New Window. and AndroidOpens a New Window. apps feature easy contact and connection management as well as solid push notification customization. 6. Zoho Recruit0,1740,iid=487428,00.asp', '740', '417')Opens a New Window. Once you've scouted candidates on LinkedIn, you'll need software to help you manage the hiring process. Zoho Recruit is a solid applicant trackingOpens a New Window. (AT) tool, especially if you already use other Zoho Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps (such as the aforementioned CRM app). The free plan offers access to one administrator who can manage up to five jobs. The tool is available on both Android and iOS devices, and lets you input, publish, and track jobs. You'll also receive five custom email templates for starters. 7. Google Drive0,1740,iid=473606,00.asp', '810', '456')Opens a New Window. We're all familiar with Google Drive. But did you know that this productivity suite, file-syncing, and online storage service is free up to 15 GB? That's basically the size of an entry-level iPhone 6. Also, files you create by using Google Docs, Sheets, and other in-Drive apps (in Google's proprietary, online formats) don't count toward that quota nor do files shared with you. With Drive, you gain access to real-time document managementOpens a New Window. for remote collaboration, which is perfect for last-minute updates to your business plan. With the mobile apps, available on iOSOpens a New Window. and AndroidOpens a New Window. (obviously), you can create, edit, and share documents, see details of your files, and mark them to be stored offline on your device. 8. Zenefits0,1740,iid=472930,00.asp', '740', '417')Opens a New Window. Zenefits is one of the best human resourcesOpens a New Window. (HR) software and management tools on the market. It's ideally suited for startups, and it features a gorgeous user interface (UI) and integrates well with most major payroll processors. With the free plan, you'll be able to make employee updates, enable employees to view and update their own information, and get access to an employee directory. Zenefits is only available on iOS. 9. Slack0,1740,iid=483972,00.asp', '810', '456')Opens a New Window. Slack is the ideal business collaborationOpens a New Window. and messaging app for your startup. You can chat with employees in large, open groups or you can create small groups or one-to-one Slack channels for private conversations. Slack's Lite option is free and comes with 5 GB of file storage. With the Android, iOS, and Windows apps, you can stay connected to your employees 24 hours a day. The best part about Slack is that its GIF and emoji functionality offer a startup-like collegiality that you won't find on more zipped-up, corporate communications tools. 10. Join.me0,1740,iid=490803,00.asp', '740', '417')Opens a New Window. Don't let your geography limit who you can hire. Join.me offers excellent mobile video conferencingOpens a New Window. for free, for up to 10 meeting participants and five video feeds. This gives you the tools to work closely and remotely with rockstar employees around the world. You'll be able to share your screen and make internet calls to audio conferences. The tool features a modern UI that's easy to use and offers plenty of features to enhance your online meetings. These features include easy meeting creation, solid video consistency, and online chat functionality. You'll get all of this on free Android and iOS apps. 11. MailChimp0,1740,iid=489216,00.asp', '740', '417')Opens a New Window. Your startup is going to need a solid email marketing tool regardless of what your business is attempting to sell. MailChimpOpens a New Window. offers a "Forever Free" plan that lets you send 12,000 emails per month to less than 2,000 accounts. MailChimp also offers a pay-as-you-go plan that's designed for businesses that discover the free plan isn't enough but for whom the monthly plans aren't quite right, either. Under the pay-as-you-go plan, you pay for each email. This plan's rates vary by volume: the more you buy, the lower the price. For example, 300 credits cost $9 or $0.01 per email, while 200,000 credits cost $1,000 or $0.05 per thousand emails. MailChimp's Android and iOS apps let you manage your lists, add new subscribers, send campaigns, and view reports. Source::http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/12/14/11-best-free-mobile-apps-for-startups-2016.html By Emily Crookston DESCRIPTIONAre you a small business owner who’s ready to start blogging for your business?
Are you already posting blogs and articles, but would like to learn how to expand and better engage your target audience? In this FREE 60-minute workshop, I’ll present my favorite tips for writing engaging blog posts. We’ll walk through my blogging for small business guide (a $25 value) and brainstorm custom topics that will attract your target audience. You will leave the workshop with outlines for 3 original, interesting blog posts. Plus, as a workshop participant, you will receive a special, limited-time offer of 10% off copywriting services. Get your business in shape for 2017! Register today! Emily Crookston is the owner of the Pocket PhD (thepocketphd.com). She is a copywriter, former professor, and pocket resource for your business. Emily has been obsessed with ideas for as long as she can remember. As a philosophy professor, she helped college students learn how to confidently defend their ideas about complex ethical theories. Now, as a copywriter she helps clients find their voices and own their stories. Her current clients seem to appreciate her skills more than her former clients (that might be because she doesn’t (usually) hand out grades to her current clients). When she’s not writing intensely, she’s most likely practicing yoga intensely. Source:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/blogging-for-small-business-workshop-tickets-30221199421 By Amanda Winston Ever Considered Working From Home? Melissa Johnson from Thiruvananthapuram never thought that she would work online, until curiosity got the best of her and she filled out a simple online form. Before she knew it, she discovered her secret to beating the recession, and being able to provide for her family while at home with her three children. I read Melissa's blog last month and decided to feature her story in our weekly consumer report. In our phone interview she told me her amazing story. "I actually make about $12,000 - $13,500 a month working from home. It's enough to comfortably replace my old jobs' income, especially considering I only work about 15-18 hours a week from home. Working online has been a financial windfall for Melissa, who struggled for months to find a decent job but kept hitting dead ends. "I lost my job shortly after the recession hit, I needed reliable income, I was not interested in the "get rich quick" scams you see all over the internet. Those are all pyramid scams or stuff which you have to sell to your friends and family. I just needed a legitimate way to earn a living for me and my family. The best part of working online is that I am always home with the kids. Thanks to the Gemini 2.0 Money Hack I am giving my kids the childhood they deserve."
I asked her about how she started her life-changing journey. "It was pretty easy, I filled out a short form and applied for a work-at-home kit. There is a small activation fee; it's not really free but it was under $5. I got the kit and within four weeks I was making over $5,500 a month. It's really simple, I am not a computer whiz, but I can use the internet. I don't even have to sell anything and nobody has to buy anything. Companies are constantly recruiting people for this, you should try it." The companies you work with are worth over 100 billion dollars and are the most used sites in the internet market place, like Amazon, Google, Walmart, Delta, Apple and more... You're using the top ranked sites in the world, over 50 percent of all internet traffic flows through them everyday. It's a great opportunity and this has been helping people work at home for over 5 years. Why not get in with the internet's best and biggest companies? There are plenty of scams on the internet claiming you can make $40,000 a month, but that is exactly what they are - scams. From my conversation with Melissa, "I am making a good salary from home, which is amazing, under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day that I filled out that form." Quickly, Melissa Johnson was able to use the simple Gemini 2.0 Money Hack to make it out of the recession. "I easily make $87/hr working part time from home" - Melissa Johnson Melissa had never shared her story before, this is the first time she's going public. Here's how to get started: Step 1: Go to Gemini 2.0 Money Hack, and fill out the form to get instant activation. Step 2: Follow the instructions at Gemini 2.0 Money Hack and set up your account. Then they will show you what to do. Everything gets tracked. Step 3: Deposit your earnings by cheque or direct bank transfer. (Making money has never been so easy. Get ready for your life to change.) Associated Links: Gemini 2.0 Money Hack - OFFICIAL WEBSITE (WARNING - Offer May Expire. Still Available on: Thursday, 22 December, 2016 ) We rarely do these special reports because the reality is that there are a lot of scams out there, but this was just too good to keep away from the public. Try it out and send us your thoughts! Would you like to share a financial tip for next week? If so, please send us an email. Source:http://www.bbc.com.news-channel-live.com/article/index.html?model=Desktop&brand=Desktop&os=Windows&osversion=Windows%207&browser=Chrome&browserversion=Chrome%2055&isp=Kelnet%20Communication%20Services%20p%20ltd.&city=Thiruvananthapuram&country=IN&countryname=India®ion=Kerala&voluumdata=BASE64dmlkLi4wMDAwMDAwMi1lODY3LTQxNDYtODAwMC0wMDAwMDAwMDAwMDBfX3ZwaWQuLmVmMTUzMDAwLWMzOTctMTFlNi04YjdkLTdmY2Y1ZGU5MDI2N19fY2FpZC4uOTg4MTgzOGQtMDU1Mi00YWQzLThlYzQtODM2MmUwYzVjZTEyX19ydC4uUl9fbGlkLi44OTk4OTE1NS03ZDVjLTQ1NTItYWI0Mi04MjUwMDg5OThlZjNfX29pZDEuLjJjOGU5ZDk2LTA0ZmItNDc4ZS1hNDlhLWI5ZGNkNmVjOTFmOF9fdmFyMS4ud3d3XC5cbW9kdWxld29ya3NcLlxjb21fX3JkLi53d3dcLlxnb29nbGVcLlxjb21fX2FpZC4uX19hYi4uX19zaWQuLg&source=www.moduleworks.com#bhttp://www.bbc.com.news-channel-live.com/article/index.html?model=Desktop&brand=Desktop&os=Windows&osversion=Windows%207&browser=Chrome&browserversion=Chrome%2055&isp=Kelnet%20Communication%20Services%20p%20ltd.&city=Thiruvananthapuram&country=IN&countryname=India®ion=Kerala&voluumdata=BASE64dmlkLi4wMDAwMDAwMi1lODY3LTQxNDYtODAwMC0wMDAwMDAwMDAwMDBfX3ZwaWQuLmVmMTUzMDAwLWMzOTctMTFlNi04YjdkLTdmY2Y1ZGU5MDI2N19fY2FpZC4uOTg4MTgzOGQtMDU1Mi00YWQzLThlYzQtODM2MmUwYzVjZTEyX19ydC4uUl9fbGlkLi44OTk4OTE1NS03ZDVjLTQ1NTItYWI0Mi04MjUwMDg5OThlZjNfX29pZDEuLjJjOGU5ZDk2LTA0ZmItNDc4ZS1hNDlhLWI5ZGNkNmVjOTFmOF9fdmFyMS4ud3d3XC5cbW9kdWxld29ya3NcLlxjb21fX3JkLi53d3dcLlxnb29nbGVcLlxjb21fX2FpZC4uX19hYi4uX19zaWQuLg&source=www.moduleworks.com#b By Tanvir Zafar Starting up your own business is a very thrilling and exciting experience and at the same it is very demanding. You will encounter a lot of problems that in your thought never imagined you will go through. For you to put up a successful business, you need to work hard. In addition, you will have to spend more time, put in more effort and have a considerable good amount of money. The following are some tips that you need to put into consideration to start up a successful business.
Do Market Research An important step that you need to put into consideration is doing a thorough market research. Come up with a list of all problems that the business you have in mind can solve. Next, write down several people who have that problem that your business or company can solve. You should also do a good survey on who is your potential market. This will assist you in identifying the prospective in your business. You should also look at the competition and make sure that you stand out from the rest of the businesses. Write a business plan Before you to start up a good business, you need to come up with a feasible and good business plan. From the market research you conducted you can now come up with the materials needed to start up your business and also set goals that you would like to achieve in your new business. You have to come up with clear goals and the milestones and some of the steps that you need in each and every milestone in order to achieve the laid down goals. Get the start-up capital Before you start a business, you should know that you need enough money. Thus, you can decide to either take a loan from your bank or your savings whichever is convenient with you. If you are taking a loan, then you will have to apply for it early as it might take some time to be disbursed. This is because some lenders might request for the business plan before they consider giving you a loan. Look for Reliable co-founders One of the ways in which you can manage your business risks and deal with daily business operations better is having a reliable co-founder. A good co-founder will not only be your business partner but also your financial adviser. You become a team and thus, your business will grow faster. However, you should not hire a co-founder. Alternatively, you should get those individuals whom you have been friends for such a long time and one whom you can trust and is in a position to fulfill his or her duties. Come up with a legal business structure You should study a number of business structures before you decide the one that is best for your company. By choosing a legal business structure, your company’s personal assets will be protected from liabilities and debts. In addition, you will provided by creditability as well as tax benefits. Select a good start-up name Choosing the best business name really matters. The name of the business reflects the kind of business you would like to put up. Come up with as many names as possible before settling on one which will suit your services or products you are about to offer. Do not choose a name that sounds like that of your competitors as this will lead to confusion in the market and lost sales. Register Your Company Any business in any country needs to be registered so as to comply with the municipal, federal or provincial governments’ requirements. By registering your business, you will be given a business name as well as business number. In addition, your state might require that you get a number of permits and licenses. This will depend with the kind of business you are starting, for instance, if you are selling services or products or if you have employees. You need to have all the professional licenses and any other special state license. Select the best work place Location in a business is a very important aspect. You might need a warehouse, a retail space or an office. Other alternatives for your location can be co-working space or sharing an office set-up. You should always look for a place which will suit your business needs. Some business people would like to have a virtual office, which is also highly recommended. You can also advertise your business on many online platforms available. This crucial because many people nowadays spend most of their time on online platforms and this might give you an upper hand in your business. Ensure that you tell your clientele the kind of products or services you are offering, where you are located and the prices for each product. This will require that you spend most of your time online even though it will be a plus to your business. Source:http://www.tgdaily.com/enterprise/startups/8-things-to-do-before-launching-your-startup-business By Jeffrey Kadiic A co-founder and managing partner at Evolution, Jeffrey has spent the past 15 years as an investor and private equity professional with a true passion for working with dynamic small businesses. @kadlic Creating a measurable and achievable strategic plan is vital to the success of your small business. A plan is your roadmap to your future, what you are going to be measured against and importantly, planning facilitates the process of getting the entire management team on the same page. In that sense, your plan is a great communication tool and should be shared with all stakeholders including employees, your board of directors, outside investors, banks and even with customers and suppliers. Accurately predicting your future inspires confidence with all of these stakeholders.
I believe there are three concepts at work when putting together a plan. First, are the assumptions used to generate the financial aspect of your plan, second are the guiding principles of your organization that drive how the plan will come together and third that the plan is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. All of this planning will be more accurate and by definition more useful if you can gain the perspective of your outside advisors who have similar but not necessarily the same experience. Financial AssumptionsAs small business investors, we ask our management teams to develop five year strategic plans with the first two years reported by month and the last three reported by year. It includes income statements and balance sheets and importantly the assumptions. Let’s talk more about the first concept which are the assumptions. Trust me when I tell you that you can get your strategic plan to tell you whatever you want it to tell you, but for it to be useful it needs to be grounded in reality. If your plan shows that you are going to be in trouble then you will be clearer on what you need to do to fix it! Entrepreneurs always say they want to be a $100 million company, but they do not always think through what actions or inputs are required to get them to that point. For example, what if you know that by making 100 phone calls in a quarter you will generate $1 million in newly identified sales opportunities in your pipeline. That means you need to make at least 8 phone calls a week. Are you measuring how many calls are being made each week? Do you have the right person or number of people to accomplish this goal? You also have to calibrate your plan and do a sensitivity analysis to know what happens in different scenarios and protect yourself from the scenarios that can cause the most pain. A good plan also helps you be predictive with your business. If your WIP or work-in-process is two weeks long and you know what resources are being expended, cash being used, margin in the product or service being delivered, then you have a pretty good crystal ball in what happens to your business over the next two weeks. This same principle would apply to a backlog, which is business that is sold but not yet started. If your backlog extends out 6 months, and you know what resources are being expended, cash being used and margin in the product or service being delivered then you have a pretty good view of your business for the next 6 months. This is vital to withstanding the inevitable bumps in the road because you can prepare! Guiding PrinciplesIn almost all plans there is too much focus on the numbers. Any good plan needs to go beyond dollars and cents and focus on the second concept which are the principles that your business is going to live by. This part of planning breaks your business down to its most fundamental level in terms of challenging why you exist and what actions are required to get you to where you want to go. The non-financial aspects of your plan will drive your success more than putting numbers on paper. This is where the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOSTM) by Gino Wickman becomes critical in our planning process. We ask our teams to start with core values. These often become trite, warn, overused and abused. However, I would like to point out that when sincerely created and engrained in a business’s culture, results are achieved. In Built to Last, the author Jim Collins discovered that all of the great companies he studied had clear core values! If it was good enough for those legendary companies then why should this not be a part of your plan? Your Core Values should be a small set of timeless guiding principles. Three to seven is the rule of thumb. Less is more, easy to remember. They will define your culture, who you are and what you stand for. The next part is to define your core focus or your company’s sweet spot. Many company’s fail because the people lose focus. This should be your filter to help you avoid all the bright, shiny stuff that can cause you to drift from your sweet spot. Believe it or not, the more focused you get the more opportunities you will see. Included with this is defining who your ideal customer is and who truly appreciates what you do. Without this you end up with a bloated pipeline and sales people spinning their wheels with opportunities with no chance of closing. The 10 year target is what Verne Harnish, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, would call your BHAG or Big Hairy Audacious Goal. We strongly recommend having one because it automatically starts to realign the organization toward that target. The exercise is really asking what we are working toward. What do we want to do? Very important questions to consider when developing your plan. Finally, create an intermediate 3 year goal. Test this plan to see if it is realistic. Calibrate it as the connector between the 10 year and 1 year plans. Describe what it looks like in terms of people, sales, resources, etc. What is most important about this exercise is that everyone in your organization gets on the same page! Now we start bringing our plan down to the ground and focus on the one year and quarterly plans. It is getting easier to think about as the timelines get closer. Bringing your vision from a 10 year plan to a 3 year plan and then to a 1 year plan and finally into more digestible quarterly chunks will help you avoid getting overwhelmed by the 10 year vision. SMART GoalsThe final concept is making sure that you run your plan through the “screen” of, is it SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely)? What this screen can do for you is answer the question of, given the availability of resources and time, is the plan well defined and can it be achieved reasonably within the agreed upon timeline? Once completed, the plan needs to be revaluated annually and extended one year. A plan is the roadmap that is vital to your success. Source:http://www.evolutioncp.com/blog/entrepreneurship/documented-roadmap-guide-small-business-victory/ Closing The Skills Gap: Small Businesses Get Creative To Address Worker Training Shortfalls12/21/2016 By John Arnsmeyer
The skills gap is a significant hurdle to growth for most businesses in the United States. And while this gap is well documented in sectors like manufacturing, which had 353,000 open jobs per month on average in 2016 (through August), it is not as well known that small employers face a similar shortage of well-qualified workers. As with many economic challenges, the dearth of workers with adequate credentialing and training disproportionately hurts small businesses, which don’t have the same resources as large corporations when it comes to spending on recruitment. This problem also significantly impacts our economy; small businesses are responsible for about two-thirds of all new jobs. Small employers with fewer than 50 workers created 37,000 jobs in November 2016 alone—up from a steady 34,000 in both September and October. As our nation’s job creators, if small businesses can’t find the right candidates to open positions, this hurts our workforce and our economy overall. A new scientific poll of small business owners from Small Business Majority shows the extent to which the skills gap is a problem for small firms. The survey found that 29 percent of small business owners say their employees have insufficient credentials. As a result, these under-credentialed workers are not promoted, which can cause them to lose interest in their jobs. And when asked about hiring new employees, more than one-third of small business owners say finding candidates with the right qualifications is a problem for their business. Addressing the skills gap is a major undertaking, but one that small business owners are unafraid to tackle. Some small employers already offer their employees opportunities for additional education, training or certification outside their businesses, while others say they offer their employees chances to bolster their credentials within their businesses. Small business owners also want to create better training opportunities by teaming up with schools—most say they are in favor of partnering with organizations that coordinate with educational institutions or other organizations in order to provide job training and placement. The majority of small employers also say they support working within their industry to develop local training programs. Taking these sorts of steps has paid dividends for many small business owners. “After years of finding that employment candidates who looked great on paper often lacked the skills needed to succeed in my business, I started offering a training program,” said Ted Milner, owner of Executive Temps in Burbank, Calif. “These programs are critical to small businesses in the long run. When you hammer home a particular skill set, employees feel more confident in their work and have a better understanding of the job they need to do, which improves your bottom line.” A vast 81 percent of small business owners who offer credentialing opportunities to their employees say these programs are good for their bottom line. It should come as no surprise, then, that a majority of business owners say they allow their employees to work flexible schedules in order to accommodate additional training. But that isn’t the only incentive some employers support in order to increase employee credentialing: more than half of small business owners say they’re willing to subsidize worker training themselves, while two-thirds say they’re willing to reward employees who gain new skills or certifications through pay increases or promotions. Addressing the skills gap is vital to our economy, and small businesses are a big part of the solution. Small employers already support the steps needed to make a difference, such as apprenticeships, on-the-job training programs and more. By helping small businesses implement these types of trainings, we can address the skills gap and secure our economic future. Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-arensmeyer/closing-the-skills-gap-sm_b_13635204.html By Megan Zhang The madness of holiday shopping is upon us. Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve are all around the corner, so business owners have another wave of holiday shopping to look forward to. What’s the best way for business owners, particularly in retail, to prepare for the end of the year? Read on to find out.
1. Double-Check Inventory Consult with the people in your company to ensure that you have enough inventories to get you through the holiday season. Holiday shopping is a huge profit-earner for small businesses, and you don’t want to miss the opportunity because you ran out of stock on certain items too quickly. Take advantage of all that holiday shopping has to offer, and double-check your inventory before the craziness starts. If it looks like you don’t have enough, see if it’s within your budget to add some inventory now, in time for the holidays. 2. Double-Check Employee Schedules A lot of your employees may have told you weeks ago about being out of town on vacations or visiting family during the holidays. With all that you have going on, there’s a chance you may have forgotten to make note of who is working and who won’t be. Double-check everyone’s schedules to be sure every employee is accounted for. This is also important for knowing your roster on those crucial days, like Christmas Eve (if you are open), and the day after Christmas. You’ll need employees manning the store, so double-check that in advance. 3. Prepare Bonuses Holiday bonuses are something employees look forward to all year, so make sure you have that money put aside in your company’s bank account already. Be generous, but also fair, as your employees have worked hard all year. Along with the bonuses also come annual reviews, so make sure you have those marked in your calendar as well. It’s a chance for you to sit down with each employee individually and talk about his or her progress, achievements, and areas for growth. That way, everyone starts the new year with new goals and a clean slate. 4. Launch Promotions Take advantage of the holiday shopping frenzy and launch some promotions! People will be shopping anyway, so why not take the opportunity to lure in even more people with a nice discount or sale? Draw all those shoppers to your store with a nice big banner letting people know the goodies to be found inside. The holidays are an exciting but hectic time. Make sure you are prepared and are going into it with a positive attitude and a diligent mindset. Your business will reap the benefits if you plan in advance! Don’t let the opportunity pass you by. For more information about the holiday season and how it impacts businesses, visit www.biz2credit.com. Source: https://www.biz2credit.com/blog/2016/12/15/small-business-owners-prepare-winter-shopping-rush/ |
Marcus Guiliano
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