11 Perfect Gifts from Your Business for Under $20

We all want our gifts to be unique; we want them to be interesting, and hopefully the recipient actually enjoys their present. The same goes for choosing something to give from your business, and this can take a lot of time, energy, and money. In the spirit of the season, we have done some of the legwork to hopefully give some of your time and money back to you. Here are 11 great items for your clients and staff on a modest budget, for under $20. 1. Staple-Less Stapler, $16 Compact and functional, comes in different colors—what’s not to like? It has a mechanism that folds the paper in on itself to create a solid binding; no metal staples to get caught in the carpet, and no refills necessary. 2. Tracking Tile, $25 There isn’t a person on earth who doesn’t need this. It’s just above the $20 mark, but …

Grasshopper Phone System Alternatives – 4 Reasons Talkroute is Better

Here are 4 Reasons Why Talkroute is the Preferred Grasshopper Alternative:       1. Unlimited Minutes: Who wants to pay per minute for a business phone system? Nobody… But that’s exactly how you will be paying for service with Grasshopper. In a perfect world, you would know exactly how many minutes of phone service your business will need each month. But the reality for most businesses is that some months are busier than others. This means that a service like Grasshopper will hit you with expensive overages if you happen to have a busy month or charge you for service you don’t need during the quieter season. Unlimited flat rate pricing is the #1 reason customers decide to switch from Grasshopper to Talkroute. Talkroute provides you with unlimited usage at an affordable monthly rate. Customers that switch from Grasshopper to Talkroute boast an average savings of $70 per month. …

Remote Employees: Are They Right for My Business?

Have you ever taken an online course for college? It can be a tough environment to work in, and as instructors routinely warn people who take such a course, it’s not for everyone. All of a student’s assignments, deadlines, and discussions are completely up to that individual to monitor and complete. When you employ a remote team, you are sort of a moderator of a big “online course”. There are many benefits to utilizing a remote team, including a larger pool of applicants to choose from, a potentially more efficient workforce, and an excuse to use some really fun telecommunication tools. There is definitely a learning curve if you’re new to it, though, so it’s good to be honest with yourself in deciding whether you can adjust to this kind of working environment. Can You Manage a Remote Team? There are benefits and disadvantages to having either type of team, …

6 Ways to Increase Revenue from Black Friday

  Black Friday is beginning to lose its salt—that is, this one day is becoming a whole season under the monikers, “Black Friday Season”, “Black November”, and others. A few years ago, maybe a decade, retailers began to institute a new holiday, a buying holiday that inspired shoppers to become professional deal-hunters, even to the point of craziness. This unofficial holiday has been going strong for a while now, but with early preparations by retailers to take advantage of their willing patrons and the onset of mass online shopping, the day after Thanksgiving has started to blur into a month or more of dedicated bargain-hunting.   1. Start Your Promotions Early If your business is to remain competitive this season, then you may have to consider offering special promotions and deals reserved for Black Friday, a little early. The online retail giant Amazon has already launched its preemptive strike to …

8 Ideas to Make Your Promotion Special During the Holiday Season

  Fall is a great time to put a little extra effort into promotion and make good use of hyper-stimulated consumers who are on the hunt for every deal they can find. November and December are the top months for holiday shopping, and not only can your business rise to the occasion, you can meet consumers where they are with a few targeted promotional strategies. Included in this article are just a few ideas to give you an edge in reaching your customers during the early holiday season, and as always, there are many more ways to go about it—all you have to do is use your imagination.   1. Mobile Optimization A survey conducted in October of this year by the National Retail Federation revealed that 21.4 percent of smartphone owners will use their device to make holiday purchases, and 47.5 percent will use smartphones to research products. This …

Marketing So Bad, That it’s Good

  Some of the best marketing was either purposely, or accidentally made to be ridiculous or just awful—and they made those businesses rich. Marketing doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to strike a chord with people and grab their attention. Of course, this doesn’t always work. Surely, there have been innumerable companies who tried this tactic (or didn’t know what they were doing) and failed, but when it comes out just right, you might hit on that special something that makes people react. Here are a few instances of terrible marketing, which will go do in history as some of the best ideas every conceived.   Eagle Insurance Growing up with the Eagle Man commercials, most of us thought it was just another really bad, low-budget commercial (we had a lot of those in Chicago). But even now, we still remember the name and joke about it all …

5 Reasons Your Online Business Doesn’t Need an Office

  The need for a brick-and-mortar office is far less than it used to be, with the advent of online business. Many businesses still need an office to operate, but the nature of ecommerce affords you certain advantages, including the opportunity to avoid the cost of maintaining a free-standing office. And that’s the bottom line—keeping it open costs money, which a lot of small businesses simply cannot afford to needlessly spend.   1. Product Presentation If you’re running a web-based business, then your customers can easily view all products, or information about your service, online. In fact, that’s how most consumers prefer to look at a product, especially in the case of a company that mainly processes its transactions online. Have you ever visited an office for Amazon? They are doing very well without any walk-in traffic, whatsoever, and if you have an e-business, then you probably don’t need it, …

Do You Need Luck to Be Successful in Business?

  Many successful business owners, when asked how they managed to work through the trials of entrepreneurship, will tell you that they were “just lucky”. Others will say that luck played no part whatsoever in the success of their business, but the consensus seems to be that the phenomenon exists, nonetheless.   The Fickle Nature of the Market Luck, in the mind of an entrepreneur, revolves around the market; how well the market responds to a product or service can be pretty volatile. Though research and thoughtful planning is the key to ensuring that you’ve got a product that will perform well, sometimes you can do all the homework, positive that you have found a niche product that is irresistible to consumers, and for one reason or another, the bottom drops out. The best course of action during those times is to assess the damage, find out where you may …

How to Handle Difficult Customers: Know When to Hang Up

Can I really hang up? The first question on everyone’s mind, who has ever dealt with a difficult caller is probably: Can I hang up on this person? There comes a point when all your efforts seem to be pointless, and you have no choice but to disconnect. You are running a business—not a call center. Even call centers have their limits, which we’ll get into later. Time is money, and when you recognize that the person you are speaking with is not listening to reason or simply using up your time needlessly, it’s time to hang up the phone. Before it comes to that, these rules-of-thumb may help to bring resolution before you cut the cord. Maintain Control Rule number one when dealing with a difficult, long-winded, or even hostile customer is to never react emotionally. You’re bound to get upset or frustrated when you’ve exhausted yourself, and your …

Learn to Attract Your Ideal Customers

  Who is an Ideal Customer? When you are trying to find the right customers for your business, it’s important to concentrate on a couple of things. Firstly, be sure to establish who your core customer is by finding out who you are best equipped to serve and will consistently bring in the greatest revenue, without putting extra strain on your business. Additionally, you will make life far easier if you seek to attract serious customers, as opposed to those who may only end up wasting their time, and yours.   Communicate Directly to Your Primary Customers Beating around the bush is generally not a good way to handle things, in any area of business. Especially concerning an area as important as finding the right customers, there is no reason why you can’t just come right out and say it. For example, your mission statement can include a description of …