Archives for September 2013

5 Simple Techniques to Keep Your Employees Stress Free

5 simple techniques to keep your employees stress free
According to NHS, an estimated 10 million days are lost each year as a result of work related stress, depression and anxiety. This is despite businesses spending enormous amount of money on employee health care. Many small business owners feel like there is no end in sight to this vicious cycle of rising healthcare cost for their businesses, increasing stress for their employees and reducing productivity and profit resulting from both.

While the situation may appear dire at times, there are some simple and effective ways by which businesses can help their employees reduce daily stress, and in turn reduce their health care cost and improve business productivity. The key is to take these steps before the situation warrants immediate attention and make them part of your and employees’ daily routine. Below we provide some tips to do just that.

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From Seating to Heating: 5 Factors to Consider for Effective Business Meetings

5 factors to consider for effective business meetings
Having an effective meeting is as much dependent on people participating in it as it does on the surrounding environment in which the meeting is held. Proper environment can foster healthy dialog and quick decision making. It may sound trivial, but having the right room temperature or proper seating arrangement can sometimes be the difference between having a fruitful meeting versus the one where everyone departs thinking why they had the meeting in the first place and what they accomplished.

So, what factors do you need to take into account when arranging business meetings that are highly effective? Here are 5 important ones we have come across in no particular order:

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5 Questions You Must Answer before Selling Overseas

5 questions you must answer before selling overseas
Globalization has made the world smaller than ever. Even small businesses are looking into exports and international trade to increase their customer base and sales. Technological advances have made it easier to find and serve global customers even for small business owners. This traditionally used to be the purview of large, multinational companies.

While it is easy to set up online shop, deliver orders via UPS and collect money via Paypal there are more nuances to exporting and selling to international customers. You need to answer number of questions before you can embark on that journey. Will your product be subject to special regulation? How will you handle warranty and product returns? Who will collect and pay taxes to foreign countries? Failing to answer these and many other questions can put you in the hot water and impact your business.

Here are 5 questions you can begin with to understand export and international trade:

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Preparation is Key to Managing Crisis for Small Business Owners

Preparation is key to managing crisis
Wikipedia defines crisis as any event that is, or is expected to lead to, an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community, or whole society. For small businesses a crisis can wreak havoc if they are have not made adequate preparation in advance. Most small business owners do not really think about or planned for crisis until it is too late. This is unfortunate because with just little advanced planning and preparation they can not only withstand crisis, but come out much stronger from it.

Here are some basic rules of crisis management to consider and to familiarise yourself with in the event that your company is faced with such a situation. The key to managing any crisis situation is advanced planning.

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Will your Startup Succeed? Find out with the Investor Test

Will your startup succeed
Every new business owner launches his company with the hopes of making it into next Amazon.com.  But how many can tell whether it will even be a fraction of that successful. Knowing ahead of time whether your company will be a grand success or a big bust can save business owner lot of anxious moments in life.

While there is no crystal ball that can provide foolproof prediction concerning your company’s fate, there exists a fairly reliable predictor. It is called the Investor Test, and when properly applied, it can provide an excellent gauge that tells you whether your business model will ultimately succeed. The Investor Test can also provide valuable insight into how to address potential problems or challenges that are likely to arise in the course of launching and establishing your new business.

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Reputation is Everything in the Online World

Reputation is everything in the online world
It is said that it takes a long time to build trust and reputation for an individual or a business, but it takes only minutes to destroy it. The advent of Internet and social media has only reinforced this. Trust and reputation are the only things customers go by when doing business online with the ones they have never met in person. That is why your online reputation matters more than ever to your business’ success. Learning how to manage and fix your reputation can go a long way in getting and retaining customers.

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Launch Your Own Janitorial Supply Business with These Tips

Launch your own janitorial supplies business
If you are looking for a good business idea that you could set up with reasonably little time and effort, a janitorial supply business could be a great option. Janitorial supplies will always be in demand, no matter what happens to the economy. People will need to clean their homes and offices whether they like it or not.

So how could you go about setting up your own janitorial supply business? Here are a few things to consider.

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3 Tips to Make Your Meetings More Productive

3 Tips to Make Your Meetings More Productive
“It is time for a business-related meeting.”  How do those words make you feel?  Do you feel like something productive will come out of the congregation, or think that it is going to be waste of time and productivity at hand?

So, how can you ensure you always host the former feeling?  Consider ways to host productive meetings at your place of business.

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Yes, You CAN Compete with Amazon Selling Online

how to sell online
Ecommerce sales have been growing by leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, driven by maturing of Internet technology and changing consumer behavior. Amazon has solidified its position as the behemoth of online sales, just like Wal-Mart did with brick and mortar retail few decades ago. Even traditional brick and mortar retailers, such as Staples, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart itself, have established online operations and are working hard to increase their online sales.

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