Category Archive

“Have you ever felt so overwhelmed at work that you thought you might completely flip out, if you took one more phone call?” You are not alone. The American Psychological Association found, in their annual Stress in America Survey, that 65 percent of Americans say work is “a top source of stress.” That was in 2012; we can surmise that this number has only gotten worse. The APA reminds us, however, that though we cannot avoid at least some work-related stress—it is manageable. Don’t stress yourself out about being stressed out because there are simple measures you can take every day to keep calm and carry on. 1. Create a Relaxed Work Environment One of the first things you can address is your work environment. Take a look around and check it out. Look at the atmosphere of your office, the people around you at work, and even the neighborhood …

“A negative review from a Yelp user can certainly impact your business, but if you prepare yourself and respond well to it, you can get past a bad review, unscathed.”   Even if you have the perfect business with outstanding customer service, you will encounter less-than-complimentary reviews from time to time. Sometimes you deserve the negative feedback; other times, you don’t. The fact is that some people just want to complain. There is no reason why you cannot maintain a good attitude, while saving face at the same time—even in the face of a bad review. The key is to handle it productively and constructively.   Since its inception in 2004, Yelp has grown from a simple platform—not unlike the Yellow Pages we used to see in old-school, ink-and-paper phone books—to one of the top websites of all time, said to have the ability to “make or break” a small …

“The path to success can feel like a labyrinth for a small business owner, but with some good direction, your choices become a lot clearer.” While the avenues, strategies, and tools will be different for every business, you can put yourself ahead of the game by making use of simple, useful methods. The following are some great topics that we have covered in the past few months, which are imminently relevant and applicable to the efforts of every entrepreneur. 1. Running an Efficient Home Business Too many new business owners stepped out a little too early, being overzealous and eager to slap their name on a new building. Don’t be a casualty. —-from, “5 Ways to Efficiently Run Your Business Out of Your Home” 2. Startup Funding and Working Capital There is one persistent question on the mind of any small business owner: Where is the money coming from? Whether …

“There are plenty of ways to motivate people to use your product or service, but there are few that work as powerfully or consistently as content marketing.”   Content marketing. What is this growing trend, and what does it mean for you, the business owner? The idea behind web searching is actually older than Google, itself; however, businesses can now use content marketing to adapt and utilize web searching and bring in new business through channels which would otherwise be left undiscovered.     They Are Already Looking For You Imagine, for a moment, millions of people sitting at their computers and typing a few words into that little white search box, attempting to find information about every subject under the sun. Now, imagine the staggering number of these who search for information related to business. You can tap into this massive collection of potential clients by using content marketing. …

“This single practice could mean the difference between gaining one new client, and gaining a hundred.” The short answer is yes—A/B testing is absolutely essential if you want to gain more conversions. By calling every element of your website design into question through these tests, you can know exactly what visitors respond to positively, and which parts they do not. As we have stressed in previous articles of this series, the goal is to make informed decisions concerning every detail of your design. You cannot optimize the function of your site by guessing your way through it. The Test: Revelation Over Intuition The jargon associated with A/B testing (also called split testing) sound like sports metaphors, which is appropriate because it is basically a competition between the two or more designs to be considered for your final version; there will be 1 winner. It may sound like some complicated operation …

“You can make your visitors feel excited, engaged, and even inspired by the visual design of your website, which is the key to turning visitors into customers.” There is one thing that everyone designing a website needs to have a firm grasp on–the use of color and the response that it provokes in the viewer. Once you know the function of each color, you can deliberately design your website around the responses you want your visitors to have. Using Color Deliberately Firstly, you have to appreciate something that artists and designers have known for a long time: The use of colors in art, as well as practical design for things such as a business website, is not based on arbitrary choices. If one does choose colors for specific functions on a website based subjectively on what seems to look best, then the result will be aesthetically pleasing (at least to …