How Jeni Britton Bauer Turned Ice Cream into a Business Empire - Ice Cream Business Beginnings

How Jeni Britton Bauer Turned Ice Cream into a Business Empire

  Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream is one of the fastest-growing ice cream brands in recent history. The Columbus-based company has amassed a large following, including many celebs and politicians. From Lebron James to President Joe Biden, everyone seems to love the creative & original ice cream flavors. Popular options include almond milk cortado, pistachio and honey, and salty caramel (but can you really go wrong with any of the flavors?). The company was founded by Jeni Britton Bauer in 2002 & now Jeni’s has 47 branded stores and nationwide distribution at over 3000 retailers. You can find glorious pints of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream at stores like Target & Whole Foods in addition to their scoop shops. So, how did Jeni Britton Bauer turn ice cream into a business empire? Let’s find out.     Making and Selling Perfume Leads to a Discovery The story of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams …

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Still Teleworking? 7 Tips to Help Avoid Burnout While Remote - Working From Home

Still Teleworking? 7 Tips to Help Avoid Burnout While Remote

More than a year after the start of the pandemic, millions of people are still teleworking. Remote work offers a variety of advantages. It allows people to avoid close contact. It also tends to boost productivity. Unfortunately, telework also comes with a few challenges, including burnout. Depending on the type of job, working from home can provide more freedom. You may get to set your hours or enjoy a little more schedule flexibility. This is great for some people, but it tends to blur the lines between work and home life. When you struggle to separate work from your personal life, anxiety and stress creep in. In April, about 45% of US workers reported feeling “burnt out.” By July, close to 69% of employees were experiencing symptoms of burnout while working from home. So, how can you maintain a work/life balance when the two are intertwined? Here are seven of …

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11 Reasons You Need a Separate Work Phone Number for Your Business - Having Work Number is Important

11 Reasons You Need a Separate Work Phone Number for Your Business

  Forbes estimates that nearly 600,000 people start new businesses every month, yet none of them obviously start out expecting to fail. Many startups unfortunately do not build from a solid foundation when trying to grow their business. They forget about the level of competition that exists today, for customers, investors, and loans. They fail to realize that effective communication is central to the success of any business. Crucial, really. Setting up a work phone number shows your customers & clients that you are serious about this venture & it can also open the door to a lot of future opportunities. Which I’m pretty sure none of us want to miss out on, amiright?   Here Are 11 More Reasons Why Maintaining a Separate Work Phone Number Is Important:   1. Keep your personal calls, well, personal! Handing out business cards with your private number on them, plastering the same …

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What Keeps Your Employees Happy & High-Functioning - Value Your Employees

What Keeps Your Employees Happy & High-Functioning

  Keeping employees happy has to be one of the most misunderstood elements of running a business. Every business owner thinks they know how to do it, and most have employees who wish they found themselves anywhere but at work. Of course, it’s a given that most of us would prefer to be sipping a cocktail in a hammock somewhere instead of sifting through work emails. That doesn’t mean that work has to be miserable or consistently difficult to get through, which responsibility falls on the owners of a business. You can make it either acceptable (and even enjoyable) for your employees to work at your company, or you can make it a place where everyone hates to be. Though it’s not all that complicated to create a satisfying work environment, it can be tough to know what moves you need to make so that the people working on your …

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19 Great Ways to Advertise Your Business with No Money

Right after starting a new small business, funds can be tight. Payroll, office space, taxes, and production can eat into capital. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to have a capital investment. If you are like many entrepreneurs, you’re not worried about investors; you’re bootstrapping your business on a shoe string. There’s no way you have $100,000 lying around to conduct a direct mail campaign (and that’s what it often costs, by the way). Newspaper ads, telemarketing, billboards, and television commercials can also run six figures each. And what’s worse is that newspapers, landlines, and traditional TV are all being replaced by websites, cell phones, and streaming video. Even low-cost awareness-building activities can eat up between $15,000 and $75,000 of your annual budget. For a small business, that’s a lot of money. In this context, marketing or advertising can get short shrift. So what’s a small business owner to do? …

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How to Use Social Media as a Tool for Customer Service - Social Media Bait

How to Use Social Media as a Tool for Customer Service

Social media platforms are among the best sources for lead generation and brand awareness. Yet, businesses and entrepreneurs often overlook the value of using them for customer service. Connecting with customers through their preferred communication methods tends to result in greater satisfaction. Most consumers are already using social media to reach out to companies so it’s a no brainer that you should be as well! One study found that about half of all social media users have used these platforms to contact businesses. Whether you are already active & knowledgeable with social media, or you have no idea whatsoever how to navigate it, this article will break down the key things you need to know. So let’s find out how to leverage the power of social media to gain and retain more customers.. Why Use Social Media for Customer Service? Many businesses use email, phone, and online chat to communicate …

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11 Sure Ways to Keep Your Customers Coming Back - Attract More Customers

11 Sure Ways to Keep Your Customers Coming Back

  Although getting return customers isn’t rocket science, there is definitely more to it than hanging a sign on the door that says, “Please Come Again!”. We all wish it was obviously that easy, but there are plenty of things you can do to make sure customers happily come back to your business. Here are 11 effective ways to earn repeat business and keep your customers coming back.   1. Earn Repeat Business with a Habit Forming Product   Having an “addictive” product doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be something that people physically crave, or something upon which they are emotionally dependent, like Instagram or Twitter.   It may just be something that is so much fun, that they can’t go a day without it. Maybe you are an online service provider with a user interface that is really simple and fun to use, or maybe your packaging …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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