How 5 Big Moves Kept a Small Manufacturing Business Alive
Phil VanderKraats is an artist, first and foremost. His milieu is crafting intricate, custom signs for businesses. For many years after starting Signs by Van in Prunedale, CA, Phil experienced success and supported his family with his passion-meets-means occupation. But when 2008’s Great Recession hit, his small manufacturing business—which served businesses and municipalities since 1981—took a hard…
Read More4 Strategic Hiring Tips for SMEs to Beat the Tight Global Labor Market
Right now, economies all around the world are still performing reasonably well. At the same time, though, recession fears have started to ripple across the world, fed by an unstable global political climate. All the while though, businesses have to go on working, trying their best to account for the uncertainty. That’s no easy task.…
Read MoreIs Logistics Management Important to eCommerce?
ECommerce is typically seen as a technology business. In reality though, online commerce involves as much physical world logistics management as its offline counterparts. Managing operations is one of the key KPIs that govern the success of eCommerce businesses. This is especially true in modern times where market leaders like Amazon pride themselves on same…
Read MoreDoes Your Board Give You Good Advice?
This may be news, but boards of directors can offer bad advice. Having served on more than forty boards, I’ve seen such a variety of good and bad advice that my stories could fill a book. (oh, wait. They have…) So, lets delve into board composition, risk of an unbalanced board, and one of those…
Read More“What Could Go Wrong?”
It seems to be human nature that we don’t want to think about what could go wrong. Particularly in sales, we are continually optimistic, we want to be positive, particularly with our customers. So why would we ever want to talk about what could go wrong? Particularly when we are in the middle of the…
Read MoreThe Power of Personas
Previously, we noted that content marketing is hardly a new methodology. Its origins trace back to the late 1800s, but it certainly has evolved as technology and access have made it possible for just about anyone to claim and prove authority and expertise. But it takes well-researched personas to create successful content. In looking at…
Read More9 Ways to Use Pull Marketing When Push Doesn’t Work
More and more customers these days are doing their own marketing research, scanning internet reviews and feedback from friends, rather than trusting messages that you push out through advertising. This is called inbound marketing, where customers are pulled to you, rather than feeling accosted at every turn by your brand messages via email, newspapers and…
Read MoreWhat Effect Does Bankruptcy Have on Your Bank Account and Other Assets?
One of the most terrible things to happen to anyone is bankruptcy. If you find yourself in such a situation and are wondering what will happen to your bank accounts, and retirement accounts, on filing for bankruptcy, this article will throw some light on it. Type of bankruptcy and its effect on financial accounts Basically,…
Read MoreGoogle Ads Budget: How Much Should You Spend?
How to Manage Google Ads Budget for Small Businesses Starting a business can be a bit tricky. At this particular stage, you are not quite sure of where to begin and what ways to generate traffic. A simple way to find customers for your startup is by using Google Ads or hiring a Google Ads…
Read MoreCEOs Change the Deeper Meaning of the Ultimate Bottom Line
As I read this morning about the Business Roundtable changing this fundamental principle, I was really glad to see it. It’s about time. Several hundred influential CEOs got together and agreed to revise priorities. The next quarter’s profits—which maximizes short-term share price—are no longer the supreme goal and top priority. Here’s the story: AMERICA’S CEOS JUST…
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