Specialized Crowdfunding to Meet Any Need

    Most of us are familiar with the concept of crowdfunding to promote a creative project or other pursuits, as it has become woven into the fabric of commerce. As you start to look into different crowdfunding platforms, you will quickly find numerous types of these platforms, for just about anything under the sun that needs to be funded. Kickstarter is the most well-known, but there are many others that may be a better fit for you to raise funds for your small business or startup.             Kickstarter Though ArtistShare is generally credited with being the first crowdfunding platform to emerge in the U.S., Kickstarter followed a few years later and gained the most traction of the preceding platforms. It pioneered the concept of sourcing funds from the public for just about any project, including startups that were not able to secure traditional funding …

How to Keep Your Head with a Struggling Startup

When you hear about startups, they are usually success stories of thriving businesses, but this isn’t a perfectly accurate reflection of reality. Many startups are wildly profitable at first but can’t be sustained for the long haul, and many never quite get off the ground. You may be one of the lot who had a rough go of it, doing everything you can to keep your new business afloat. It is a scary and incredibly stressful position to be in. It only takes some altered thinking to turn difficult circumstances into potential for an upside. Peace of Mind Comes from Preparedness If you’re running a business, then you probably have your ducks in a row, for the most part. But there are a vast number of business owners who really don’t plan for the worst, and this is key. Let’s be honest, though; sometimes you just don’t have the resources …

5 Ideas for Side Businesses that You Can Use Today

    Everybody would like to find a way to make more money, something that they can realistically execute without making an extreme career shift. Entrepreneurs, especially, are always looking for another venture on the side that is worthwhile for them to pursue. Maybe you want to try your hand at another field of business, simply to challenge yourself and broaden your vocational horizons. Whatever the reason, it’s always a good idea to put your eggs in different baskets because one of those baskets might end up yielding a lot more eggs. The following are a few extracurricular ventures that might be the perfect supplemental revenue-generator that you’re looking for.   1. Rent out your space. In the same way that land always has intrinsic value, the same can be said of space in a building. If you are fortunate enough to have some unused space in your home, garage, …

4 Basic Steps to Stop Unwanted Calls

You would think that we would all respect each other’s space, not to mention time, and refrain from calling other people when the call is not welcome. Sadly, though, we all get those unwanted calls from telemarketers, identity thieves, scam artists, and even unruly customers, leaving us desperate for a way to stop them. Fortunately, there are systems in place, and measures you can take to stop these disturbances to yourself and your business. Take advantage of these 4 solutions to prevent those irritating calls from disrupting your day from now, on. 1. Block the phone number. The first and most obvious solution, simply blocking a phone number may take care of the problem; however, due to the multiple phone numbers that they tend to use, you may end up constantly blocking numbers. Most cell phones have an internal blocking function on the device, and if yours doesn’t have this …

3 Techniques for Defining Your Brand Identity

Brand identity is a little easier to pin down than your brand, in general, for which there are varying definitions due to its tendency towards the abstract. Jeremiah Gardner puts it simply in his article, “The difference between brand and identity,” defining a brand as “the relationship between an organization and an audience”. The assertion that it is a relationship is the key distinction, as a company or individual’s brand revolves around how its customers or patrons relate to it. “Brand” and “brand identity” can almost be used interchangeably, but not quite. If your brand is a collection of all kinds of expressions that are associated with your company, then your brand identity is basically the sum of all the parts. Brand identity is the clear manifestation that defines to customers, or to any outsiders, who you are and what your specialty is. The following three exercises will help you …

giving customers too many options

Are You Giving Your Customers Too Many Options?

    Although it wasn’t always the case, the general idea for businesses today is to give customers as many options as possible because that’s what they demand. Is that what they actually want, though? It’s exciting to have a variety of options to choose from (like forty different kinds of pasta sauce), but there is something to be said for simplicity. Here we will consider both sides: Should you offer fewer options for your customers, or as many as possible?   Letting Them Decide There is actually more to this than it seems at first glance. It’s one thing to have a store, online or otherwise, that sells a wide variety of products which are not of the same type; but it’s something else to specialize in one type of product and offering many different versions of it. For instance, you might have a website that sells iPhone cases …

Right Signature: Get Documents Signed Efficiently

Getting documents signed isn’t a sexy occupation, but Right Signature gives businesses the tools to get the task done quickly and easily. Get your contracts, NDAs, and really, any document you need, filled-out and signed much faster, with a legally binding e-signature. Take care of all your paperwork, “without the paper—or the work.” Getting Started You can start using Right Signature in about 60 seconds. Start with a free 14-day trial, and you don’t even have to provide a credit card for the trial. Try it out for a while and see how it works, but you will have a hard time finding any other provider that is as simple or user-friendly. Ease of Use FOR YOU: Compose any agreement, contract, release form, or otherwise, and store your documents in your account so that you can send them instantly and get them signed in minutes. Drag and drop fields to …

How to Port a Number from RingCentral to Talkroute

Looking to transfer your existing phone number out of RingCentral? Then you’ve come to the right place because this is the complete guide for porting your RingCentral number to Talkroute. The porting process can be lengthy and frustrating in some cases; however, it usually goes pretty smoothly as long as you complete the necessary steps, and RingCentral is one of the services that makes it relatively painless to port-out your number. Here is how to port your RingCentral number to Talkroute. 1. Prepare yourself beforehand by gathering your information. Before you get started, it’s good to put together all the information you have that is associated with your phone number. Start with your most recent phone bill, which you will need to send to your Talkroute porting agent for verification. (See #3 of this article) Then, call RingCentral, and ask them if they will send you a Customer Service Report …

Make Your Website Secure with Trust Guard

To make your website secure, there are three main problems to solve: Protecting your website against cyber attacks, making your customers comfortable enough to make an online purchase from your site, and complying with mandatory PCI standards. With 10 years of experience in web security, Trust Guard solves these problems for your site, and then some. Here’s what Trust Guard brings to the table: Cyber Attack Protection It’s estimated that roughly 37,000 websites are attacked every single day. This includes not only human hackers, but also automated hacking bots that are crawling the web 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, looking for weak points to gain entry into all kinds of sites. To fight back against cyber attacks, you need someone on your side who is equally relentless, which is why Trust Guard continually scans your website for malicious software, identifies them, and wipes them out. The result …

Pay Yourself While Growing Business

How to Pay Yourself While Growing Your Business

Business ownership is a hectic occupation. On top of all the expenses of daily operations, there is always something else that needs to be paid off or financed, such as a new business opportunity that, if you play your cards right, could end up bringing in more revenue, which you will use to fund your next venture, and so on… So what’s wrong with this picture? You’re bringing in money but not really keeping any of it, which kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? This doesn’t mean that you should stop putting money into your business; that’s not the point. The point is that it is possible to keep feeding your business while giving back to yourself. It just takes a conscious, deliberate effort to pull it off. This article offers a couple of suggestions that can not only promote the advancement of your business, but pay yourself at …