Slack: Behind the Business Communication Giant’s Rise - Slack Business Communication

Slack: Behind the Business Communication Giant’s Rise

  Slack is currently one of the most popular business communication platforms. It launched in 2013 and went public in 2019 with a market value of $19.5 billion. Slack is a lightweight communication tool that helps teams stay organized. Users can easily share documents, images, and messages in the workplace or across remote distances. With Evernote, Trello, Dropbox, and dozens of other business tools as competition, how did Slack manage to succeed? The success of Slack is a unique story that includes the rise and fall of two separate video game companies and the sale of one of the most popular photo-sharing tools. Here’s a closer look at how Stewart Butterfield & Cal Henderson built Slack.     Video Game Project Leads to Surprisingly Useful Tool     Slack was not the first successful platform developed by Stewart Butterfield. It’s also not the first platform that he originally designed as …

New Trends in Marketing and How to Apply Them to Your Business - New Marketing Trends

New Trends in Marketing & How to Apply Them to Your Business

  Keeping up with the competition requires businesses to pay attention to the latest business trends, including new marketing techniques. Marketing strategies are constantly evolving as businesses and entrepreneurs take advantage of the latest technologies. From the rise of the internet to the massive reach of social media, the way consumers shop continues to change. So, what are the latest trends in marketing and how do you apply them to your business? Customer advocacy, micro-influencers, transparency, and chatbots are just a few examples of new marketing trends. Here’s a closer look at these trends and others to help your business stay relevant.     Why Follow Marketing Trends?     What works today may not work tomorrow. Successful businesses understand that they need to stay one step ahead. Paying attention to the latest marketing trends allows you to: Monitor changes in consumer behavior Stay relevant to your target audience Grow …

How to Learn from Your Competitors to Grow Your Business - Winning the Competition

How to Learn from Your Competitors to Grow Your Business

  There is an unfortunate trait that most small businesses have, and that is the mentality of being afraid of their competitors or seeing them as their enemy. It’s true that they are competing for the same customers that you are, but even so, they can help you far more than they can hurt you. The first basic principle to understand about competing businesses is that, if there are multiple businesses who are offering the same product or service within the same general area, then that means there is a large enough market to support them all. If the market for that product turns out to be not large enough, then there is a kind of natural selection that comes into play. The market has a way of correcting itself wherein the finite number of customers who are interested in a particular product will gravitate towards the businesses that are …

blavity tech company

Blavity: The Tech Company Helping Black Millennials Thrive

  Blavity aims to empower Black millennials and the proceeding generations by giving them a platform where they can share authentic stories. Launching a successful tech company is not an easy feat. More than one in five startups fail during their first year. 90% fail within a decade. Millennials lag previous generations in amassing wealth. A lack of funds creates more challenges for entrepreneurs with original ideas. The US tech industry is also disproportionately white, which often leads to additional barriers for people of color. Morgan DeBaun is helping to break down those barriers and give Black millennials an online platform where they can thrive. DeBaun launched Blavity in 2014 to allow underrepresented voices to share stories and news not covered by mainstream media. Four years later, the company secured $6.5 million in its latest round of funding. Blavity is now a massive online ecosystem that reaches over 100 million …

cut employee turnover rate

How to Cut Your Turnover Rate and Retain Employees

  It can be difficult to find great people to work for your company, and it’s hard to hold on to them. It’s not even the fault of the person hiring an employee. Many times, it just can’t be helped for a variety of reasons that we’ll touch on here.. Though it’s not all that complicated to create a satisfying work environment, it can be tough to know what you can do on your end so that the people working on your team are happy with their jobs. As a business owner, you want to hang on to the team members you’ve got because replacing them is obviously time-consuming, costly, and stressful. Here are a few pointers you can use to make sure your people stay with you, practicing good strategy from the moment you hire them & even before then.   Sometimes People Just Don’t Work Out   No …

summer vacation from business

Reasons to Take a Vacation from Your Business This Summer

  Attention Business Owners: You have to take a vacation sometime. The unfortunate truth is that business owners work too hard, rarely even having the thought that they will get to take a vacation. Running a business is difficult. It’s truthfully one of the most stressful jobs in existence, automatically requiring you to handle a wide variety of responsibilities. You have to do all those things very well, too, because the consequences of an error on any front can be much greater than those of a typical job. Making a mistake could mean an employee doesn’t get the correct pay, or a marketing decision results in the loss of hundreds of new sales, or the new person you just hired never even shows up for work. While everyone thinks that business owners have the greatest dream job ever, you’re toiling away every day just hoping that the company doesn’t go …

why customers text

Reasons Why Your Customers Want to Text You

Did you know that over 6 billion texts are sent every day?! Like most new technology, texting did take time to take hold with the public. In 1995, the average American sent just 0.4 text messages per month, according to Mobivity, and by 2000, the number still stood at just 35 a month– or about one text a day. The average American sends about 94 of them per day. Of course, many of these texts come from businesses or bots, not real people. Still, Americans are defaulting to text as their preferred communication medium more & more often. Texting is not a uniquely American habit, either. About five billion people, or 65% of the world’s population, enjoy access to texting. Why do people everywhere love to communicate by text message? And why would a customer want to text your small business instead of calling, emailing, or contacting you through social …

Prevent Overwhelmed Business Owner

How to Prevent Feeling Overwhelmed as a Business Owner

  Starting your own business is incredibly exciting. When it begins, you’re likely riding the high that comes with quitting the 9-5-grind to go your own way. Then things start picking up. Where before it wasn’t hard to stay on top of your daily routine & separate the professional from the personal, now you’ve got more work than you can deal with, and things are beginning to blend together. Your work days might be bleeding into your personal time, and you catch yourself answering emails when you know you should be sleeping. While too much work as a business owner or a freelancer is a “good problem” to have, it can still add up to more than you can handle. Taking on every project that comes your way is a common mistake most business owners make when first starting out. More work is always better than less, right? Plus, what …

virtual phone number small business

Why You Need a Virtual Phone Number for Your Small Business

  Switching to a virtual phone system may help your business become more efficient while presenting a more professional appearance. Staying competitive requires your business to remain connected. Employees need to remain connected to clients, vendors, and each other. A dedicated phone system allows you to assign numbers to specific departments or staff and route calls or texts to different employees. Unfortunately, many small business owners lack the budget for an expensive phone system, which is one of many reasons why a virtual phone system is a smarter choice.   What is a Virtual Phone?   Virtual phone systems are cloud-based systems that allow users to make and receive calls from any Internet-connected device. Calls and texts are sent and received through the cloud instead of a landline. You gain access to a wide range of features and functionalities designed to support your business operations because the virtual phone number …

Comprehensive Guide of Resources to Help Real Estate Agents Thrive

Comprehensive Guide of Resources to Help Real Estate Agents Thrive

Real estate agents looking to attract more clients or sell properties faster have endless resources at their disposal. However, those who are new to real estate may not know where to start. It can all be extremely overwhelming when first getting things going. To save you the hassle of scouring the Internet, we’ve compiled a list of the best tools. From digital marketing platforms to 3D virtual tours, the Internet has everything needed to move real estate quickly. With the following online resources, you’ll have no problem thriving in the most competitive real estate markets. 1. Join the Leading Real Estate Marketing Platforms Every real estate agent should obviously take advantage of marketing platforms to reach a larger audience. The top real estate marketing platforms include: Zillow Realtor.com Homes.com Adwerx Zillow and Realtor.com give agents access to an online toolkit with helpful resources, including templates for emails and newsletters. However, …