Modern technology has made life easier in many ways. However, it can also introduce new threats. Cybercrime is an excellent example. As a small business owner or entrepreneur, it's critical to educate yourself about cybersecurity threats that could derail your business operations or put sensitive data at risk. TechRadar reveals that attacks against small businesses have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Educate yourself to stay safe. You can begin with these suggestions:

Use strong passwords for all of your business accounts and devices.

Your business devices, software accounts, and email should all be password protected to prevent potentially malicious third parties from gaining access to your data. Consumer Reports offers actionable tips for creating strong passwords, like including upper and lower-case letters along with numbers and symbols. Also, they advise against "recycling" passwords. You should further change passwords if you suspect a breach of any kind.

Keep...

A Friendly Note on Taking Notes

A friend of mine is a talented salesperson (especially repeat sales). In fact, he often has other sales people shadow him in order to improve their own sales skills. Some of the things these observers commonly notice are how well organized he is, as well as how friendly, at ease, and knowledgeable he comes across. But each person also walks away with a few unique takeaways.

When a recent visitor who was watching my friend call clients was asked what he noticed, he said, “Every person who answered knew who he was, and every conversation picked up where it had left off…from years before, in some cases!”

What would it do for your business if you could pick up every conversation where it left off no matter how long it’s been since you last spoke? It’s a surprisingly easy thing to do when you have a good system, and it makes an incredibly positive impression on the person with whom you’re communicating.

My friend uses a web-based CRM (it just ...

End-user focused industries (such as travel, home products and services, and healthcare) should be focused on client satisfaction. If you run a business in such fields, streamlined operations are essential. Interruptions can leave customers stranded, annoyed, and looking to your competitors to get their needs met. Luckily, technology can help you solve problems quickly to keep your business going without a hitch. It can also make day-to-day operations easier, simplifying life for your employees and your clients. Here's a peek at how tech can help.

Streamline your payment processes

No matter what you provide, your business runs on customer payments. Technology allows you to make life more convenient for your customers by offering a greater diversity of payments. Business.com recommends cutting-edge payment methods for businesses, like mobile point of sales (mPOS). Contactless payments have also seen a surge in popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Forbes. This desir...

Your small business is a living entity. It requires sustenance, attention, and health maintenance. Best practice is a collective of wisdom and sage advice for improving the quality of life for small businesses. Following these practices can make your company thrive.

An important aspect of a thriving small business is collaboration with other local entities. Collaboration offers mutual benefits and credibility within the community. Establishing a reputation in your community as a reliable business resource can positively impact longevity. Being credible and trustworthy is a best practice that small business owners can aspire to in the long term, and it starts with a daily commitment to excellence.

Credibility Through Connection

Collaboration can be as simple as two neighboring businesses offering expanded hours and complementary goods, or as complex as planning a fundraiser with a local non-profit to support community needs. If you are interested in a more widespread collabo...

As businesses in various industries are slowly permitted to reopen throughout the country, many entrepreneurs are wondering how they can adapt their marketing strategies for this current phase of the pandemic recovery. Naturally, you want to let people know that you’re open for business again, but you don’t want to overspend on marketing, especially if your profits will be lower than usual this year.

These tips will guide you through the process of outlining a cost-effective marketing plan that can reach new customers and clients without going over your budget.

Revise Your Business Budget

Before you start brainstorming, you’ll need to revise your business budget to determine how much you can invest in marketing over the next few months. Re-opening your business and making changes to your marketing strategy will definitely require some up-front investment, even if your aim is to develop a budget-friendly advertising plan. That’s why it’s important to seek out potential fundi...

There are very few things in life that we have full control over. Even with the best-laid plans and hard work, you may still find yourself without a job and struggling to make ends meet, all because of circumstances that are often beyond your control. It’s never a pleasant situation to be in, and you may find yourself mired in grief and despair.

But of course, if there’s one thing that you can control, it’s how you approach the hand that life dealt you, and no doubt, you are going to want to find ways to continue earning an income while in between jobs—and maybe even find a worthwhile career while you’re at it. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of ways you can do exactly that, thanks to modern technology. Needless to say, it will serve you very well, indeed, to make use of the tools and resources that are, more often than not, literally at your fingertips. Here’s how.

Choose flexibility.

A job lost, regardless if it’s by force or by choice, is always a lost opportunity. Howev...

A sizable piece of running an effective and cohesive team relies on a leader’s ability to influence the behavior of the whole team.  We’re going to outline some of the key steps you can take toward being this kind of influencer.

1 - Setting clear expectations

2 - Encouraging an atmosphere of respect in your office

3 - Emphasizing the process over the result

4 - Being the example

Communicate clear expectations and give context for those expectations

If your team members know precisely what you expect, and why it matters, they’re better able to hold themselves accountable for meeting those expectations. If each person is aware of those 2 things – the desired outcome and why it’s important - they can discern for themselves the “how.” This both aligns your employees with your business goals and gets them engaged in achieving them.  

A simple activity to do is to get your team together and have them all share with you what they think makes for a great team member. Ask them what c...

This is a guest post by certified life coach, Elena Stewart

It’s no surprise that the coronavirus lockdown is having a major impact on small businesses. As many retailers have been forced to close and consumers are hesitant to spend on non-essentials during this period of financial uncertainty, small businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Despite these setbacks, there’s a lot business owners can do to drive sales and prepare for reopening. From short-term cash flow strategies to in-store improvements, here are some effective ways to keep your business going during the pandemic.

Learn from Your Competition

Look for businesses that are managing to get by during the pandemic to find out which strategies might work for you.

• Small business retailers are driving immediate revenue by promoting gift cards, offering pre-orders, and discounting underperforming products.
• Restaurants have shifted their focus to take-out and delivery services.
• Service-based businesses are pivoti
...

PsycologyToday.com says RESILIENCE is the process of being able to adapt well and bounce back quickly in times of stress. It involves developing thoughts, behaviors, and actions that allow you to recover from traumatic or stressful events in life.

In our most recent blog post, I covered the qualities of businesses that are resilient - that survive and grow - even in the event of an economic recession. One thing is clear... part of what makes a company resilient is having a leader that is resilient, and in this post I'm going to cover resilience as a personal skill, what it is and how to build it up.

Heroes would never be heroes if they weren’t given a challenge to rise to!

Psychologist Susan Kobasa says resilient people:

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With the various components affecting our modern business environment, such as geopolitics, economic cycles, globalization of the workforce and supply chains, and fast-changing technology... a higher volatility in our business environment IS the new NORM.  

Building resilience skills will help you when the economy is on shaky ground AND will also serve you when the economy is back to something closer to "normal."  In this blog post, I'm going to cover what resilience looks like for businesses, and I'll follow it up with a second post on building your own personal resilience.

Resilience in Business 

2 Comprehensive Studies (and what they found)

Both studied how major economic downturns affected companies and what those companies did to get through recessions successfully, and in some cases, came out the other side of it in better standing than they were when the economic downturn began.

*Study 1: 1100 companies, range of industries and geographies, one recession time period

*St...