Thursday, June 13, 2013

Why Your Small Business Needs a Content Strategy

Why Your Small Business Needs a Content Strategy (via Intuit Small Business Blog)

You’ve no doubt heard the internet adage “content is king,” but have you really taken it to heart? If your online marketing efforts are limited to a static website and a Facebook page, you may as well be advertising your business on a sandwich board for all the good it’s doing you. Here are…

Giving Equity to Recruits and Employees

Giving Equity to Recruits and Employees (via Intuit Small Business Blog)

It’s nearly every small-business owner’s nightmare and dream: to provide key employees with equity. The idea of diluting your ownership may feel somewhat like giving away your firstborn. But when your company’s future prospects look better than its current bank balance, offering a piece of…

How to Balance Creative With Practical Advertising

How to Balance Creative With Practical Advertising (via Intuit Small Business Blog)

The best way to get results from advertising, experts say, is to balance out-of-the-box creativity with practical media buys. Yet many small-business owners rely heavily on one strategy or the other. Sound familiar? You can improve your advertising results by emphasizing what you’ve been neglecting…

Boost Your Email Open Rate With Strong Subject Lines

Boost Your Email Open Rate With Strong Subject Lines (via Intuit Small Business Blog)

If you rely on email to market your business (and, honestly, who doesn’t these days?), here’s what you’re up against: The average email user receives more than 70 messages per day, according to technology market research firm Radicati Group. In other words, people’s in-boxes are overflowing…

How to Say No Without Killing Morale

How to Say “No” Without Killing Morale (via Intuit Small Business Blog)

You may be the nicest boss on the planet, but you will still say “no” to your employees from time to time. If you are understaffed, you will turn down a vacation request. If money is tight, you will decline a request for a raise. For any number of other reasons, you will reject employees’ ideas…

How to Accelerate Cash Inflows and Delay Outflows

How to Accelerate Cash Inflows and Delay Outflows (via Intuit Small Business Blog)

With lesser reserves and fewer financial alternatives than  corporate competitors, small businesses should prepare for the kinds of fluctuations in revenue that could prompt cash crises. It’s wise to put together a set of policies that can help you cope with any cash shortages and keep your company…

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

5 Tips for Improving Your Negotiations

5 Tips for Improving Your Negotiations (via Intuit Small Business Blog)

Negotiation is at the heart of doing business, yet the business world is full of people who are pitifully bad negotiators. Fortunately, you don’t have to be one of them. Here are five tips for getting good results when you’re at the bargaining table. 1. Set your minimum before you begin. Negotiation…